Chalk Another One Up For This Forum

One of my customers called me to fix a leaky tub faucet. She said a plumber had tried to fix it a few weeks earlier, but could not remove the frozen, stripped bib seat. He put a new washer on and said it wouldn't last long, and that she'll need to replace the whole shower manifold for $500.

Well, the washer lasted a couple of weeks, and hot water was pouring out at about a gallon a minute when I got there. I couldn't get that seat out either, so I sprayed some PB Blaster in there and waited 20 minutes. I tapped on my seat wrench to get a good bite and was surprised to feel the seat turning out.

I never heard of PB Blaster before this website, so I owe it all to you guys.

I would suspect the hot water and your tapping did at least as much as the PB, so be careful about thinking it did/does *all* the loosening!

I did plenty of tapping and turning before I used the PB Blaster, and all I did was further strip the inside of the seat!!

I was thinking about wedging a drill bit in the seat and slowly backing it out with my cordless if that didn't work. Are there any "real" seat extractors on the market? Maybe a small nipple extractor would work if the PB Blaster fails.