DavecUK very interesting. I have not taken the thing apart. If I want to put in some new rod, would this be fairly self evident? What diameter rod?

      dndrich o I have not taken it apart yet

      I’m confused. If you have not taken it apart, how do you know what’s broken? It might be a simple matter to something which got lodged in and just needs cleaning?

          dndrich very interesting. I have not taken the thing apart. If I want to put in some new rod, would this be fairly self evident? What diameter rod?

          I have no idea, take it apart and measure it.

          Contact me

              MediumRoastSteam Since I have a new part coming, I figured I would wait until it came before taking this one apart. For now at least I can function. If I break it, then no lattes for me!

                  DavecUK Sure. I just figured you might know! Once I have it apart, I will report back.

                    dndrich - ha. You needn’t worry about it. It’s very easy to remove the spindle from the tap. You can’t break it. But fair enough, keep us posted. If you could send pictures of them comparing side by side when you do get to it, that would be great, thanks! I’d be interested on the sort of damage (if any) that has been done.

                        MediumRoastSteam Gotcha. It looks straightforward I think. Looks like all I have to do is open the nut on the end close to the stem and I suspect the whole assembly will just come out. We shall see!

                            OK I took it apart, and it was very easy to do. All I had to do was remove that 16 mm brass nut, and the spindle screws right out. Now that I have inspected it I see it is a very simple system. I’m not sure how the little piece of teflon is wedged into the spindle, so it will be interesting to receive the new spindle to compare. Once I see how that works I will repair this one to have a spare. The system is such a simple compression valve, that it should really last just fine once I figure out how to replace the compression piece. So this looks like a very solvable problem.

                            OK, even more interesting. The mere taking it apart and putting it back together seems to perhaps have solved the problem. I have no leakage right now. We shall see what the new part looks like, but I may be back in the saddle here.

                              dndrich The mere taking it apart and putting it back together seems to perhaps have solved the problem. I have no leakage right now. We shall see what the new part looks like, but I may be back in the saddle here.

                              Sometimes a clean can help, especially if something got caught under the seat.

                              Contact me

                                  dndrich OK, even more interesting. The mere taking it apart and putting it back together seems to perhaps have solved the problem

                                  I shall quote my own self 😉:

                                  MediumRoastSteam It might be a simple matter to something which got lodged in and just needs cleaning

                                      7 days later

                                      DavecUK Interesting I will try this next time. I replaced my original valve but that one started dripping also after not very long. Went to buy another one but they had doubled in price which seemed crazy. Instead I tried replacing the Teflon tip with ‘Sugru’. Works really well with no drips at all but only lasts around 3 months before needing re doing. Not sure if it is appropriate stuff to use but guessed it was low risk and probably no worse than Teflon!. Would love to try changing to a non compression (not sure if hat is the right terminology) but haven’t got round to researching if this would be feasible.

                                      And as to the OP finding cleaning helped, my experience was that it did, but not for very long, so my prediction is it will need sorting again pretty soon.

                                          Spookym How did you replace the tip? I looked at mine, and it is hard to tell how that piece of teflon is attached.

                                              dndrich I think I just dug it out with a small screwdriver. It is just pressed in I think and it goes down around 5mm. Once you get it started it comes out pretty easily.

                                                  Spookym OK, interesting. When the old one fails again, I will swap it out with the new one and dig out the piece. I like the notion of that rubber recommended above, and might try to find that to jam in there.

                                                      dndrich definitely worth giving it a try. Even though the stuff I have been using has to be re done, it is much nicer not having any drips and worrying if other family members may be over tightening etc

                                                        2 months later

                                                        Just feeding back on this. I found I had an o ring that was made from 7mm diameter cord so thought would give it a go. Did it 4 weeks ago and it’s been great since, no drips, no worry about over tightening. The internal diameter of the valve tip (after digging out the Teflon) is 6.25mm so 7mm seems good, as easy to get in and stays in (tried 8mm as well but couldn’t squeeze in). The depth of the steam tip recess is only 2.9mm, so you don’t need much cord!. Not sure how long mine will last as probably not high temp material so will get some of the stuff dave linked to sometime. Surprised they use Teflon over this approach as replacing a tip surely better than having to replace the whole valve.