Eventually all taps drip. It's fate, like toast falling butter side down. The traditional style of tap forms a seal using a ring of rubber screwed down onto the end of the metal feed pipe. In time the rubber, either becomes brittle and splits, or just wears through and it will then no longer properly seal. If the washer is not replaced immediately, water seeping through the gap will erode the valve seat. The choice then is to either, replace the tap, or re-grind the valve seat, assuming of course, that you have a valve seat re-grinder handy. Not good either way. But, these days there is now an alternative. Ceramic disc taps.

How They Work
Instead of blocking the pipe by squeezing a piece of rubber onto the end of it, there are two slotted ceramic discs held down over the water supply pipe. The bottom disc doesn't move, while the upper disc is rotated over it by the tap mechanism. When the slots align the the tap is on, and when the slots don't align, the tap is off.

Advantages
This arrangement has numerous benefits. The main one is due to the ceramic discs being very hard and thus highly resistant to the erosion caused by the seepage of water pass the discs. This results in the discs having a greatly extended life before replacement is required. Also, because the flow of water is between the discs, erosion occurs in the discs not in the metal valve seat. Additionally, because of method of operation, the taps are turned on fully by just a one quarter turn and only light pressure is required. This has the benefit of the taps being simple to turn on with the back of the hand if they are dirty and for those people who have restricted hand or finger movement.

Disadvantages
There are a number of disadvantages to this type of tap. They are more expensive and the discs do eventually wear out. However, manufacturers seem to all use standard sizes, so it is usually easy to get replacements. Because basin taps are sometimes handed and sometimes not, it can be annoying to have to find out which way to turn the tap to get the water flowing. They are also not suitable for very low water pressure. The last disadvantage is that if you are used to traditional style taps, which use a number of turns to go fully on, you may accidentally turn on the tap far more than you intended. This can lead to an unexpected full-flow jet of water, going everywhere. Not Good!

Where they are Used
The ease of operation and the long life mean that most good quality sink mixer taps have been made using ceramic discs for a while, but basin taps with ceramic discs are surprisingly less common. The more use a tap gets, the more attractive the use of ceramic disc technology becomes. This is doubly true in hard water areas, which can be murder on traditional taps.

About the Author

Bob Plum is the owner of BuyPlumbing co uk Ltd. If you live in Britain then the link http://www.buyplumbing.co.uk gives you access to a wide range of competitively priced bathroom goods and plumbing fittings.