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Fix a Dripping Two-Handle Faucet

About an hour, first time

Stems are brand- and valve-specific. Match before you buy.

The fix

  1. Close the shutoff valves under the fixture (or the main if there are none), then open the faucet to drain it.
  2. Figure out which side drips: feel the water temperature just before you shut it down, or do one side at a time.
  3. Pull the handle and unscrew the stem with a wrench or socket. Keep every part in order.
  4. Look at the washer and the brass seat below it. A chewed washer or a rough seat is your dripper. Replacing the seat along with the stem or washer is the difference between a fix that lasts and one that drips again.
  5. Take the stem to match it exactly, by part number or by measuring length and counting broach splines. Our sister site stemsandcartridges.com exists for exactly this step.
  6. Reassemble, open the shutoffs slowly, and run both sides a minute.

The matching FourHome part

Full disclosure: FourHome is our house brand. This site and FourHome have the same owner, so the Amazon links below are links to our own products. Part numbers and cross-references are published on each listing; identify an unknown part first at our stemsandcartridges.com index.

Call a plumber instead when

The stem is seized, the valve body threads are stripped, or shutoffs don't hold. Forcing a stuck stem in the wall is how a drip becomes the burst pipe page.

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