How to fix a kitchen tap not swivelling?

HD

I bought a house which has this tap at the sink, and two sides to it (standard). However, the tap doesn’t swivel well, so whenever you try to use it in either sink you have to ‘force’ it and then it ends up lose. Or just seems to have a nut to tighten under sink (hard to get to).

Has it ceased up or did they put in a non-swivel tap in the middle of two sinks? It looks tall enough to swivel so confused.

Any advice welcomed and apologies for messy sink!

JacobZ

Hi @HD,

Please note that plumbing work needs to be completed by a licensed professional for safety and compliance.

Just looking at the seams in the tap and the placement between two sinks, I'd say that it is indeed a swivelling tap, and it seems like the issue is that it has loosened enough that trying to swivel the tap will rotate the whole tap body. This could be because the swivelling motion is failing, or it could be because the retaining nut beneath the tap has loosened.

The first step would be to tighten that retaining nut to see if anchoring the tap better solves the issue. Oftentimes, the retaining nut is tricky to reach. In that situation, you can usually use a tap spanner like this https://www.bunnings.com.au/haron-mixer-tap-spanner-kit_p4900083 to reach up into those tight spots to tighten the retaining nut.

If you find that tightening the nut doesn't solve the issue, then there is a good chance the swivelling mechanism is damaged or broken in which case you would need to speak with a plumber about whether a repair is possible, which in my experience is unlikely, in which case you would need to replace the tap.

If you need to replace the tap, you might like to check out our https://www.bunnings.com.au/services/in-home/tapware-shower-mixer-installation as an option for replacement.

Let me know if you have any further questions.

Jacob