Water coming out of sprayer handle at kitchen faucet

[smittynh]

I have a Delta single handle kitchen faucet w/sprayer, Model 420LF, where the water comes out of the sprayer handle and not the faucet spout when the water is turned on. The water comes out of the sprayer when the button is pushed but otherwise comes out of the sprayer handle around the button when the button is not pushed. Delta told me the water line had to be flushed and the diverter replaced, so they sent me a new diverter. I replaced it but it didn't change anything. I have taken the faucet apart, cleaned everything, and flushed water through it while it was apart. No dirt and nothing is clogged, including the spout. While apart I pulled out the brass plunger in the diverter, put the faucet back together and turned on the water. Water came out of the spout full force for about 2 - 3 seconds, then I heard a noise, and the water stopped coming out of the spout and came out of the sprayer handle. I tried this twice and it happened the same both times. Could the cause be a bad sprayer head?

The faucet was bought in March 2023 and installed in April 2023 in a seasonal camp. The water was turned on to the camp in May 2023 and then turned off in October 2023, so the faucet worked for 5 months. The faucet acted as I stated above when I turned the water on this month for the 2024 season.

 

[Tuttles Revenge]

I've never worked on these before, but thinking logically of the order of operation:

In normal operation the water comes out of the spout when there is no restriction on the diverter.

Diverting happens when flow is stopped by action of the button being pressed at the sprayer.

Then once the flow restriction at the sprayer is stopped, IE the button is let go, water resumes flow at the spout.

Could the spray head have a clog/restriction that is setting off the diverter?

 

[Sponsor]

 

[John Gayewski]

Maybe I didn't read this carefully enough, but it sounds like a washer or o-ring was lost at some point.

 

[Jeff H Young]

spray and hose assembly or diverter assembly. dirty busted , defective or incorrectly assembled . Im not clear presisely your issue but thats it a total of 2 pieces could cause this
maybe condence the issue if water is delayed coming out the sprayer for a number of seconds its the diverter

 

[smittynh]

Thank you all for your comments. There are no missing or damaged parts, except maybe those areas I can't see such as inside the sprayer head. Everything inside the faucet body is clean. I did another test by removing the sprayer head from the hose, turning on the water while blocking the hose with my finger, and the water came out of the faucet spout full force. So it seems to me that my original suspicion is correct that the problem is a bad sprayer head.

I called Delta asking them to send me a new sprayer head and they chose to send me a whole new replacement faucet. I will first replace my existing sprayer head with the new one to see if that resolves things. If not I will have to replace the entire faucet. I'll do it this weekend and post my results.

 

[Jeff H Young]

thats cool of Delta! . Im thinking its the diverter which I dont remember messing with might be able to just gut the new faucet if its tough underneath probebly is easy enough to just replace it all

 

[Tuttles Revenge]

likely they chose to replace the entire faucet because they changed the design of the spray head which in turn is connected to a different style of hose connector so they don't want to send out the old design, or they're no longer available. But this is why we suggest buying from well known manufacturers. They take care of their customers even if it takes a while to get thru the process.

 

[Jeff H Young]

had a a customer with a worn out pfister faucet in the master a very cheap customer I might add she had a plumber come oust to repair it and broke the sink the guy jacked her around for a few monthes (sink was in master and had to match )
Anyway called me out to job I gave a price on swapping out the sink and attempting to use old parts but told her to call pfister explain that the sink was broken in trying to repair the faucet had the faucet not needed repair sink never woulda broke and they sent brand new identical faucet. 10 to 15 year old house.
My kitchen sink and others Ive gotten a lot of those crappy diamond seal cartridges from Delta for free, Actually a bad thing as they really suck

 

[smittynh]

Just as I suspected, I replaced the existing sprayer head with the one that came with the new faucet from Delta and that resolved the problem. I didn't have to replace the entire faucet. The two sprayer hoses were the same even though the faucets were different model numbers. The internals of the new sprayer head are slightly different from the older one but looked like they worked the same way when I pressed the buttons. Evidently the part in the older head that restricts the water flow malfunctioned.