Tuesday, July 25, 2006

How To Install an IKEA Faucet




Okay... since I am getting an awful lot of hits regarding this, I might as well write a post on it. I have been getting like 40-50 hits a day from some frustrated IKEA consumer who has bought this nice looking, cheap, High Quality faucet for their new bathroom sink and then they find nothing at the local hardware store or from some racist Home Depot representative in the plumbing aisle who frowns at you because you bought something Swiss. (Note: IKEA is Swedish, not Swiss)

Assemble and install your sink, cabinet as instructed including the faucet. Stop before you install drain pipe. Then begin here:

  1. Don't panic. I spent a few hours and a few gallons of gas driving back and forth to different hardware store to buy the right fittings to make this thing works.
  2. You will be able to adapt your existing water with ease and little cost
  3. Tools needed: Crecent wrench, 5/16" Nut Driver, Wire Snips, Pliers
  4. Materials needed: (2) 3/8" Male Flare fitting to 3/8"MPT, (2) 3/8" FPT to 5/16" Hose Barb Fitting. (4) Hose Clamps and 6 to 10 feet of 5/16" ID Braided Tubing.
  5. DO NOT EVEN TRY TO TAKE THOSE METAL STAINLESS TUBES OFF THE IKEA FAUCET TO PUT YOUR OWN FITTING ON THE BOTTOM OF THE FAUCET. IT'S METRIC!!! AMERICAN HARDWARE STORE FITTINGS DON'T WORK. DO NOT TRY, IT WILL ONLY PISS YOU OFF FURTHER.
So this is what you do. Attach the flare 3/8" fitting to your existing water lines you pulled from your old faucet. Attach the second 3/8" to Hose Barb to your new flare fitting. Hose clamp about 2-3 feet of braided hose and clamp it to the barb using one of the hose clamps and your 5/16" Nut Driver. Make sure these fittings are as tight as you can get them. Be sure you use Teflon Tape for the threads. (See photo below)


Next take the braided hose and some WD40 and using your pliers, insert one of the pipes coming out of the IKEA faucet into the braided hose. Guide it up as far as it goes, probably 3 to 4 inches. Hose clamp the braided hose to the pipe tight about 1/2 from the end of the hose up the pipe. Note: this is tedious and you may have to bend the IKEA pipes slightly to accompish this. They will not break but can pinch if bent too far. IF you struggle getting this to not leak use a second clamp a 1/2" below the other.

Here's what it should look like:



This has and will not leak the way I have set this up. You'll notice my hoses are long and this is because I may have to move sink away from the wall from time to time to clean the drain pipe. My house is a hundred years old so you can make this work. You just have to really get the hose clamps tight. The PSI in my house is just around 100. There are no leaks doing this this way.

I have had the sink and faucet installed for 4 months now and we have been VERY HAPPY!! So much so, that I will buy another one soon for the upstairs bathroom. I hope this helps those of you who get here via Google looking for help installing your faucet.






15 comments:

Jermdemo said...

thanks for the tip - I thought i was going insane

Monti said...

Thanks for the post. I'm going to try and pick up the stuff today.

Janey said...

I got the link to your blog on ikea fans. Thank you so much for this

hose adapters said...

Cool! I think this IKEA faucet is perfect for my bathroom. Thanks for guiding me through this. Keep posting!

-seff-

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When there occur a leakage in a tap or if the drain system is blocked you can get the help of a direct plumbing service in order to overcome those problems with quite simply and at a reliable rate.

b said...

This was hugely helpful. Until I saw your blog, I'd just been staring at all the fittings for an hour.

Plumbing said...

I can say that this can make every plumbing material functional and this is very ideal. The instructions are precise and probably this will result into an effective plumbing.

Anonymous said...

this is way too complicated dude. all you need is a pipe fitting for toilet tank ( 3/8" to 1/2").. and 1/2" to 1/2" brass coupling. connect your toilet hose to the shut-off valve (3/8" end) put 1/2" brass coupleing on the other end and connect your ikea faucet ... you will be golden.. would take about 15 minutes...

Amanda said...

HOw do you get the drain plug out of an ikea bathroom sink??? We had ours installed by someone and now are trying to take the plug out to clean and it won't come out by pulling or by unscrewing?? Do you know how to get it out?

Anonymous said...

There are flexible hoses that have a compression fitting on one end (to attach to the stainless steel tubing from the faucet) and the standard 3/8 nut on the other end. Works fine, and not as sketchy as using hose clamps.

Found these at home depot.

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Matthew said...

This is possibly the most rube-goldbergesque setup I've ever seen. Seriously, ten feet of supply line? That's absolutely ridiculous... And you didn't even bother replacing the crappy shutoff valve with a quarter turn?

Please don't post any further advice, it's pretty obvious that you have absolutely no idea what you're doing when it comes to plumbing.