Please Help Me With TapsUK Issue

[grantgibson45]

All,

Please help me with an issue/dilemna I have with TapsUK. I bought a monobloc mixer tap from them 2 years ago, installed it and then 2 weeks ago was sat watching telly when I heard dripping coming from my hallway and water leaking out my RCD unit. I went upstairs to find the braided hose squirting water in my vanity unit.

I isolated the tap and removed it to find the braided hoses all frayed and the tap corroded as well as the o-rings damaged.

After a serious amount of arguing with TapsUK and the parent company Utsumi they are trying to wash their hands of any blame on their part and saying that the hoses must have worn due to rubbing causing fraying and that a leak was due to overtightening of the compression fittings. One of the braided hoses was missing an o-ring.

I have damage to my hallway ceiling and have obivously had to order a new tap from a different supplier.

I am an Aerospace engineer and I believe the braided hoses are of inferior quality. Can you guys have a look at the photos and offer your professional opinion please ?

Based on the way they have treated me I really want to take this further. I installed the tap into a kitchen worktop in my bathroom and I fail to see how else this tap can be installed. Plus the taps are braided stainless steel they should not wear like this.

Plus the base of this tap shows evidence of corrosion

My personal thoughts are that the crap quality hoses have been corroded due to the rubbish o-ring leading to fraying and ultimately then the rubbing has led to the rubber innard splitting


Any help would be much appreciated

Kind Regards

Grant

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• grantgibson45
• 10 Dec 2012
• 1

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• grantgibson45
• 10 Dec 2012
• 1

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• grantgibson45
• 10 Dec 2012
• 1

 

[Charnwood]

Sorry, but you won't like this. If someone brought those to me with a claim after 2 years my response would be:

The installer thinks the hoses are inferior quality.....2 years after fitting them?

The hose braid has failed in the same area on both hoses. Common problem to both hoses, rubbing on the underside of the fixing surface or fitted with too tight bend in hoses.

Corrosion? Looks more like limescale to me.....long-term minor leak.

the crap quality hoses have been corroded due to the rubbish o-ring leading to fraying and ultimately then the rubbing has led to the rubber innard splitting

The 'rubbish' O rings would lead to leaking, not fraying or rubbing.
Was associated pipework fixed correctly, i.e. allowing no movement by way of properly fitted bracketry?

 

[grantgibson45]

Under the Sales of Goods Act products must be fit for purpose and durable up to 6 years from purchase. I'm struggling to understand how a stainless steel braided hose has moved that much in 2 years to cause rubbing to the extent it has.

I do buy into the long term leak but I personally think it is due to the poor quality o-rings

When I installed it there was no apparent leak coming from the hoses surely if it were leaking I would have seen evidence of that?

As an aerospace materials engineer I really can't buy into the wear argument alone. Maybe if it were exacerbated by the leak

Also how else are you supposed to fit these compression hoses through a kitchen worktop then because you have to fit the hoses through the worktop to mount the tap

Regards

Grant

 

[grantgibson45]

Also the pipes leading to the braided hoses are clamped to the wall with plastic pipe clips. The braided hoses which are approximately 12inches long then go from my back wall up to the tap. Unless I build a metal block to hold the braided hoses in place on the underside of the worktop then I just don't know what I can do if this is a wear issue

Regards

Grant

 

[Charnwood]

Without seeing the hoses in situ it is hard to give a properly informed answer.
You say the pipework was clipped to the back wall. Was there enough slack in the hoses for a meandering swan-neck bend or were they tight and kinked just below the crimp?

 

[grantgibson45]

No they had enough slack for a swan neck, not the world's biggest swan neck but there wasn't any bending or force on the braided hoses. I'm just in a difficult position here because the tap was supplied with minimal instructions and all I want really is a refund from the company at the end of the day. It's so frustrating

Cheers

Grant

 

[seco services]

That looks more like damage done when people fit the hoses by twisting them in by the flexi rather than using the hex nut provided on the lower part.

 

[45yearsagasman]

Installation issue for my money. Fitted loads and never had a problem with any. That s/s braid has been mullered. Mullered is a technical term used in the aerospace industry.

 

[Egga]

That looks more like damage done when people fit the hoses by twisting them in by the flexi rather than using the hex nut provided on the lower part.

+1

These hoses look like they've been twisted in by hand in stead of a spanner.
If the o ring was missing it would have leaked from installation.
The staining looks more like limescale or soap scum that has crept under the tap body when in use.

Just my opinion.

 

[skodaman007]

i have seen this damage before,i could tell you why it happened but i will not as you will not want to believe me.

just contact a plumber,get your plumbing/tap repaired and then contact your insurance company to deal with the water damage.

do not tell your insurance company of your diy tap install as they will note it for ever and longer.

good luck.

 

[newbuildinstaller]

i have seen this damage before,i could tell you why it happened but i will not as you will not want to believe me.

Poltergeist?

 

[ebkent99]

I was looking through the web to see if anyone had a similar problem. We had a new toilet sink installed in a flat just over a year ago. All was fine until last Saturday when the hot water hose, a flexible stainless steel braided hose burst, flooding our toilet and bathroom next door and even worse the flat below and the flat below that. We isolated the feed and called the plumber
He showed us the flexible hose had competed ruptured in the middle. There were no sharp bends in the hose. Also all of the hose had sharp bits of metal sticking out as if it were disintegrating. I cannot add a photo. Can someone please advise ?
My-bathroom, an Ebay shop says it is bad installation. We used a Corgi qualified plumber to do all of our work. The bend was no more than a curve.

Any ideas ? Does this happen often ?

 

[ebkent99]

I am now showing the photos. The first one shows the frayed hose, after 1 years use. If you look closed you can see the rest of the hose is not smooth, it has spiky bits on it. The second one shows the shape of the hoses, newly fitted by our plumber today. The original ones would have been in the same shape.

Any ideas ? Really worried in case it happen

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• ebkent99
• 18 Dec 2012
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• ebkent99
• 18 Dec 2012
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s again

 

[Phill Peck]

Those hoses have failed because they were installed badly, over tightened and twisted would be my guess.

I had a speedfit fitting explode and flood a bathroom after less than a month did they care no, they sent the fitting to a lab for testing and concluded it was fitted correctly but it wasn't their fault.

The hoses were probably of poor quality but that will make no difference

You will get nowhere with this situation. Replace the hoses repair the damage and move on, life is too short to worry about such things.

 

[Charnwood]

View media item 53882Look too tightly bent to me. Not good practice fitting those flexis so close to the taps.