Master class: do-it-yourself quick cleaning of the aerator in the mixer

Everyone was faced with the fact that the water pressure in the mixer dropped, or, even worse, the flow is splashed, getting anywhere, just not where it needs to be. Unfortunately, this is a fairly common phenomenon associated with the quality of the water flowing through the mixer. How to fix this, you will learn from our master class.

Rust, scale, scale from water heaters, residues of tow – all this, moving through the water supply, settles on the aerator, which is a structure of several successively recruited mesh filters installed at the outlet of the flow from the mixer. Its task is to normalize the flow of water and saturate it with air. Due to this, there is a decrease in water consumption, without losing the efficiency of its use..

More global problems can be the reason for reducing the water pressure from the mixer. But let’s start small, having considered step by step the process of cleaning a standard aerator on your own..

Getting ready for work

I note right away that it will probably take more time to read this article than it will take to complete the work described below, due to its simplicity.

To clean the aerator we need:

• rags;
• old toothbrush;
• knife;
• an adjustable wrench of at least 22 mm or a suitable open-end wrench.

The last position is useful if the aerator was tightly twisted or sour in the body.

Let’s get started

1. Unscrew the aerator from the tap. To do this, grab it with a rag and turn it counterclockwise, if you look at it from below.

If this fails, we try to unscrew it with an adjustable wrench, taking the aerator by the slots in the body.

2. We inspect the aerator for contamination.

3. We wash away the debris by opening the mixer tap. At the same time we check the water pressure.

4. Remove the rubber pad.

5. Pressing with your finger, squeeze the plastic insert out of the metal case.

6. Having poked with a knife, take out the plastic coarse filter from the insert.

7. We take out the mesh. In this case, there are four of them. Remember the order of their arrangement.

8. With an old toothbrush we clean the plaque from the nets and a plastic filter. We do this with pressure so that the bristles penetrate all the holes..

9. We collect the plastic insert, installing in the reverse order the mesh and the coarse filter.

10. Install the plastic insert into the metal case.

11. Install the rubber gasket.

12. Screw the cleaned aerator into the mixer body clockwise.

13. Clamp by hand, without effort!

14. Wash hands with soap and water.!