Faucet mysteries

[Nancy]

The faucets in the cabin of our boat are giving me trouble. They seem to be very high quality - Scandvik, I think - but they certainly aren't easy to work on and they don't seem to be interchangeable with anything - not standard plumbing fittings or RV plumbing fittings.

My first priority is the situation in the head. The spout on the sink is more like a shower spout than a sink spout:

faucet-head sink2-07.09.22-2040.jpg

faucet-head sink1-07.09.22-2040.jpg

The water comes out in a spray pattern, and it sprays all over the place. The little lifter tab on top must be in the up position for water to come out. How does the aerator of this thing come apart for cleaning? I can't make it budge.

Now for the shower faucet. It's more like a sink faucet - the water only comes out in a straight stream. It's not at all like a shower. It makes me wonder if someone swapped these two spouts because the the one presently on the sink would be totally unacceptable for use in a shower - it doesn't deliver enough volume and it sprays all over the place. And I must say it's interesting - and a waste of water - to take a shower with a sink aerator. I took the aerator to the hardware store thinking I could find a way to swap it for a basic shower head, but it's not a standard size. ??

Here are some photos of the shower setup including a closeup of the aerator, which I tried to take apart for cleaning and couldn't.

shower faucet-1-07.09.22-2040.jpg

shower faucet-2-07.09.22-2040.jpg

shower aerator-3-07.09.22-2040.jpg

shower aerator-2-07.09.22-2040.jpg

I'd welcome any enlightenment on these over-engineered, non-standard fixtures.

[Nancy]

Hmm , looking at Defender, this shower handle looks like mine except for the color - https://www.defender.com/product3.jsp?p ... id=2554687. The description says: "Push aerator up for center faucet flow or pull it down for shower spray." I wonder what that means. The black plastic part at the bottom? It doesn't move. Maybe it's supposed to.

[Norseman]

I had similar concerns and called Scandvik, the customer service rep was helpful and identified adapters for the Pex plumbing then shipped them promptly.

[Nancy]

Thanks, Dag. Adding Scandvik to the list for tomorrow.

[Pitou]

Push pull on the chrome part of the aerator for spray or straight stream. I had these on my 28 and also have them on my 31. They work well.

I have this type of Skandvik arm aerator on my galley and head sink fixtures as well as the shower. My sink bridge is similar and my shower bridge is identical to yours and with Scandvik you can order the same shower arm with hose to replace those foolish spray arms.

Their customer service is terrific and their website is pretty easy to search for parts before placing a call to customer service. If for any reason your aerator push pull for spray and stream is stuck, Scandvik has replacements.

[Nancy]

Thanks, Kevin. I meant to post last night that I figured out yesterday how the push-pull aerators work. I'm not impressed with the spray for the shower. Had a fantastic shower spray on our 28TE (not Scandvik).

I've been looking at the website and think I've identified the handles we have. It doesn't look promising that there's a real shower head that will swap out.

As for the head faucet, my plan B (after trying to make the existing sprayer work) was to consider changing it to the same faucet as the galley (10277, I think). I hope the handles are interchangeable without changing the hose...the head sink hose is inaccessible without removing the cabinet below the sink.

We have the same white spray arms with the lift-up thingie on the cockpit shower and sink.

I have to ask...what is so great about Scandvik faucets? They do seem well-engineered (with the exception of that all white spray arm), but they're pricey and the non-standard sizing makes me crazy.

[Pitou]

What I really like about Skandvik is that there is always parts availibility and over the years their customer service by phone has been stellar.

The faucet arms are pretty much all a 15/1 metric connection to the hose, so hose replacement is not necessary.

You've got the #10467 Low-profile mixing bridge in your shower and with the hose, sprayer and bulkhead holder making up the complete kit #14091 (with white shower handle) https://www.scandvik.com/index.cfm?meth ... oductID=54 .

I must say that I do like the shower handle/sprayer as it does have a water conservation button on it that slides across from "off" to "on" without needing to adjust the mixing bridge once you've adjusted your hot and cold water desire. It's nice for the process of water on to wet down, water off to soap up and then water on to rinse to conserve water when needed.

Scandvik has other shower head options as well with the conservation feature that should connect to your mixing bridge. These shower heads are more traditional as in your home. Probably better for the ladies with a full head of hair!
Here's the link: https://www.scandvik.com/index.cfm?meth ... &catID=320

I changed out my head and galley sinks to the same elbow sprayer conservation head that I have in my shower / Scandvik 10777. https://www.scandvik.com/index.cfm?meth ... ductID=715

[Nancy]

I agree that it would be nice to have the 10777 with the shutoff button in the galley and head sinks, but not at $187 a pop! I'm going to start with one 10277. I'll install the shiny new one in the galley and move the existing galley handle to the head sink.

That's after I talk to Scandvik about the sub-par 14000 and also discuss shower head possibilities. I might not have enough ceiling height for a conventional shower head without lowering the bracket . . . if the shower head is even interchangeable with the existing 10777. A shower head would also have to have a shutoff button.

[Pitou]

Holy Yhit .. $187 a pop! Yikes! The 10277 will do just fine and is under 50 bucks at Hamilton Marine.
https://shop.hamiltonmarine.com/product ... 28854.html