Dripping tap or leaking valve: washer, cartridge or hard-water scale?

A tap that drips from the spout after you close it has a worn washer or a worn ceramic cartridge, depending on the kind of tap. A tap that weeps from around the handle while it is open has a tired O-ring or gland packing on the spindle. An angle valve under the basin that hisses or drips at the nut is usually a loose or perished joint, sometimes a cracked body. None of these are emergencies, but a steady drip into a bucket is a few hundred litres a month, and in a home on borewell water that is motor running time you are paying for.

Which repair you need depends on which tap you have.

Washer taps and cartridge taps

Washer taps are the older kind: a round or cross handle that turns two or three times to open. Inside is a brass spindle with a rubber washer on the end that presses onto a seat. When the washer hardens or splits, the tap drips. These are the simplest repair in plumbing.

Quarter-turn taps — lever or short handle, open with one flick — use a ceramic disc cartridge. Two polished discs slide across each other; when grit or scale scores a disc, it drips and no washer will fix it. The cartridge is replaced as a unit, and it must be the right one for that tap.

Mixers (basin, shower, kitchen single-lever) use a larger cartridge of the same idea. Same rule: replace the cartridge, not the tap, unless the body is damaged.

Symptom	Washer tap	Quarter-turn / mixer
Drip from spout when closed	Washer	Cartridge
Weep from handle when open	Spindle O-ring or gland	Cartridge seal
Stiff to turn	Scaled spindle thread	Scaled cartridge
Drip returns months after repair	Pitted seat	Wrong or cheap cartridge

What you can safely do

On a washer tap, a washer swap is a ten-minute home job if you are comfortable with a spanner. Close the supply — the angle valve under the fixture, or the overhead tank outlet if there is no local valve — and open the tap to drain it. Undo the head nut, lift out the spindle, prise off the old washer and fit the new one. Take the old one to the shop; sizes vary. Refit, open the supply slowly, check.

On a quarter-turn tap, you can remove the decorative cap and the handle screw and look, but the cartridge itself needs the exact replacement and a careful hand. Forcing one in cross-threaded ruins the tap body. Leave this to the plumber unless you have done it before.

On an angle valve, you can try gently tightening the nut with a spanner a quarter turn. If it still drips, or if the body is wet rather than the joint, do not keep tightening — a cracked brass body will snap and then you have a flood instead of a drip. Close the main and call.

Why Nellore water wears taps faster

Much of the district runs on hard borewell water. The calcium in it leaves scale on the seat a washer presses against, inside cartridge discs, and on spindle threads. Scale makes a seat rough, and a rough seat cuts through a fresh washer in months. That is why the same tap "needs a washer every year" — it needs a seat re-faced or, on a cheap tap, replacing.

Salt air on the coastal side — Muthukur, Krishnapatnam, the eastern edge of the city — pits chrome and corrodes the brass underneath. Outdoor taps there rarely last as long as indoor ones.

Repair or replace the tap?

Repair when the body is sound and the part is available: a washer, an O-ring, a branded cartridge. Replace when the body is cracked, the seat is pitted beyond re-facing, the chrome has gone and the brass is green, or it is a no-name tap for which no cartridge exists. A technician should be able to tell you which in a minute and quote before touching it. Taps are charged at MRP and shown to you first.

What it costs

A tap or valve leak on our rate card is ₹299 for the labour — washer, O-ring, spindle, cartridge or angle valve — with the part at MRP. Several drips in one visit is the cheapest way to do it: list every tap that drips, weeps or is stiff before booking.

When to call

A drip you have re-washered once and that came back; any quarter-turn or mixer tap; a valve body that is wet rather than the joint; a tap that will not close fully however hard you turn it. And anything where you tried a spanner and the fitting moved in the wall — stop there, close the main valve, and get a technician in before it becomes a pipe leak.