Replacing exterior spigot parts
What I’m currently learning…
Today we’re focusing on the only plumbing outside my house. Specifically, the faucet/spigot that I attach hoses to in order to water my plants. Why am I doing this? Because my spigot has been leaking. Figuring out the terminology of this has been difficult. So far I’ve identified that my spigot is part of something called a “frost free sillcock” or a “frost proof sillcock”. Basically, it means that when I disassemble the thing, I discovered a long rod with a seal at the end (inside the exterior wall). It looks like this:
Water was leaking from behind the packing nut. Once I disassembled the thing, I noticed:
- bib washer is degraded and needs to be replaced
- stem packing is degraded and needs to be replaced
- handle (green thing on far right in diagram above) is fused onto the entire stem
The bummer here is that because the handle is fused to the rest of the stem, I cannot remove the packing nut to replace the degraded pieces. Since it is also probably not ideal to have a handle fused to the stem for future servicing tasks, and because the replacement part looks to be under $50, I am going to replace the whole stem piece, and the handle. To me, anything under $100 that will make this house easier to work on in the future is worth the extra cost. This component looks to be called the “sillcock stem” and looks like this:
In order to replace it, I need to figure out what size it is, specifically the length and diameter. I don’t know how that measurement is gathered so now will search “how to measure a sillcock stem” and “are all sillcock stems the same diameter”…
OoOoOo I found a super helpful document!
Here is a screenshot of the relevant information for me (link for full document is in caption):
So here is my sillcock stem:
Since the handle “neck” covers part of the end in the reference photo, I think the actual sillcock stem would be somewhere between 15.5 and 14.5" in length. Still not sure about diameter, but since nothing I am researching seems to indicate a diameter, I am guessing all stems of this type are the same diameter.
It looks like Home Depot, Lowes, and Ace all carry sillcock stems, but not over 12" in length :(.
I found this online:
But I was really hoping to bring my original part into a physical location to lay them side by side to compare length, diameter, and threading on the end.
So final resort, I reached out to my Denver plumber connection, and asked if he knows somewhere local I can go to find a part like this. Will update when I know more!
He actually got back to me pretty quickly and told me to check this place out:
I will figure out when I have time to do that and report back.
Other websites that I could buy from in addition to the first listed above:
- https://www.supplyhouse.com/SharkBite-25754-Stem-Repair-Kit-for-15-Sillcock
- https://www.homedepot.com/p/Prier-Products-500-Series-14-in-Mansfield-Style-Replacement-Stem-for-10-in-Hydrants-578-10-579-10-M-123-0094/313868535
- https://www.lowes.com/pd/SharkBite-Multiple-colors-finishes-Multi-turn-valve-stem-replacement-kit/1002345070
