Delta Sink Faucet with Spray Ball Replacement

[charlesb]

My single-handle Delta faucet with a sprayer was installed in 2003. For years it has had an intermittent leak when either turning it on cold only or when moving the handle from left (hot) to right (cold). This video illustrates the problem:

Note the leak on the first and third tries, but no leak on the second try. On some occasions, the leak would continue for some time. I have searched this forum and other places, but could not find this described. I went to our local plumbing supply (not a box store) and asked my guru about this. He told me that some of the earlier Delta sink faucets with sprayers had an extra weep hole to serve as an anti-siphon and that sometimes they caused such problems. I bought a replacement ball and seals and springs, and sure enough, the new ball had only three round holes, whereas the old one had a fourth.

Three questions: First, have other people experienced this problem. Second, is it OK to switch to the three-hold ball? I did, and the leak was gone. I don't think we have ever left the spray in a sink with water in it, so I am not really worried about siphoning sink water into the supply. Third, do the newer Delta faucets with sprays still have the fourth round hole? Some of the references do still say that models "with spray attachment have an anti-siphon device as an integral part of the faucet." But I have not seen two versions of replacement balls.
Thanks, Charlie

 

[Dj2]

Have you called Delta?
They offer free parts for life.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[charlesb]

Have you called Delta?
They offer free parts for life.

Thanks. I did not know that. But it's not really the money that I was concerned with. I was wondering if it actually is a safety issue, and whether it's a bad idea to replace the original four-hole ball with the three-hole replacement.

 

[charlesb]

Have you called Delta?
They offer free parts for life.

I did contact Delta customer service and received two replies. They just gave me the replacement part number as RP70, but neither one of them addressed my question on whether I needed to use a 4-hole ball to replace the old ball on the faucet with a sink spray. From the RP70 images I have found, I can't tell if it has the fourth hole. Is that 4-hole ball still the way they provide anti-siphon action in their new faucets, or has that just become a non-issue?

BTW: I received a fairly detailed email response to my original post from someone else, but that response does not seem to display on the forum thread. He did say that he had seen the same issue with old Delta and Moen faucets, and he indicated that it was OK to use the three-hole replacement. He also said that some of the newer faucets with sink spray still have the fourth round hole.