Oh my god, actual dimensions on a drawing, part numbers, AND service instructions!?! I work on industrial equipment with 1/10th the documentation presented here.
No wonder our grandparents generation were good with mechanical things. If they were looking at materials like that all the time - I feel like you'd build an intuitive sense of how common household devices work pretty easily if it were so clear and accessible.
Materials like this are infinitely more accessible to us than our grandparents generation. We all have devices in our pockets that can get to service manuals for our products in minutes. I can have common parts at my door overnight from Amazon with the press of a button on my phone. Every local hardware store carries replacement cartridges and gaskets for common faucet types.
The reason our grandparents generation was good at fixing things is because they had to be. My grandparents lived through the Great Depression and worked difficult manual labor jobs. Contrary to the Reddit memes about how past generations lived like kings on trivial jobs, they worked extremely hard for everything and made it last.
It’s really easy to get service manuals and do basic maintenance on simple things like faucets these days. I think the only reason it’s becoming common for people to not know how to do basic repairs or even find basic service information is that many people grew up never having to think about it. I still have adult friends who went from living with their parents to dorms to rented apartments who never learned the first thing about maintaining or fixing things around the house because they’ve never had to and they don’t want to - and they can keep going that way without really losing anything. It’s a choice at this point, but it works for them.
Literature on doing things was much more practical. There was a culture of things being repairable. There was a pride in one’s work. Check this out if you don’t believe me: http://vintagemachinery.org/pubs/1617/30720.pdf
The rise of the publicly traded corporation run by fiduciary duty has, in my opinion, squeezed out repairability, pride, and workmanship for marginal financial gains.
I fear it won’t have been worth it in the long run. Shame short term incentives run the show.
I paid a little more and waited a couple weeks to receive a Delta single handle faucet for my kitchen back in 2020, rather than just buying what was available on the shelf at Lowe's. Model: #400LF-WF. The reviews at the time said it was basically the same faucet made back in the 60s. I'm glad I did - it has been an excellent faucet.
If you live in an economy where these are uncommon, travelling to one where they are common and especially the equivalent for shower control in hotels.. is a logistical nightmare.
Its the eigenvalue of taps. It's hot, or it's not, and which orifice it's coming out of is completely unclear as well as which motion causes more, or less of water and heat.
Left and right for hot and cold, up and down for more and less flow. Very intuitive.
It sems these days shower valves have all been enshittified to have exactly one dimension, which proceeds from "off" to "small trickle of cold water", then "slow flow of warm water", and finally "slow flow of barely hot water".
Not sure about warranty, but a few years ago my mother's 80s(?) era Delta faucet started leaking. I sent a blurry photo to Delta's service team and a few days later had a link to a replacement part and an old manual scanned as a PDF. For a 40 year old product!
Ultimately we replaced the whole faucet and fixture, but that single reply probably made me a customer for life.
These are still very common in Sweden. I installed one when I renovated my kitchen a couple of years ago for example. Different design of course, but the same mechanism. 2 out of three bathrooms have similar ones too! Iirc the shower in the guest house does as well, but memory is fuzzy and I'm currently too far to check
When shopping for a home in Sweden, seeing a kitchen without single handed faucets is a telltale sign that the whole kitchen was designed with form prioritized over function.
I just changed a valve in one of these shower handles last year. They’re great. The Moen shower handles are pretty good too but the cartridges require a special tool to replace.
I just installed a similar one in my bathroom, except the handle is on the side instead of on top. Also has a pull-down flexible hose that snaps back in with a magnet, very useful for cleaning.
Oh my god, actual dimensions on a drawing, part numbers, AND service instructions!?! I work on industrial equipment with 1/10th the documentation presented here.
Cool find, op!
No wonder our grandparents generation were good with mechanical things. If they were looking at materials like that all the time - I feel like you'd build an intuitive sense of how common household devices work pretty easily if it were so clear and accessible.
Materials like this are infinitely more accessible to us than our grandparents generation. We all have devices in our pockets that can get to service manuals for our products in minutes. I can have common parts at my door overnight from Amazon with the press of a button on my phone. Every local hardware store carries replacement cartridges and gaskets for common faucet types.
The reason our grandparents generation was good at fixing things is because they had to be. My grandparents lived through the Great Depression and worked difficult manual labor jobs. Contrary to the Reddit memes about how past generations lived like kings on trivial jobs, they worked extremely hard for everything and made it last.
It’s really easy to get service manuals and do basic maintenance on simple things like faucets these days. I think the only reason it’s becoming common for people to not know how to do basic repairs or even find basic service information is that many people grew up never having to think about it. I still have adult friends who went from living with their parents to dorms to rented apartments who never learned the first thing about maintaining or fixing things around the house because they’ve never had to and they don’t want to - and they can keep going that way without really losing anything. It’s a choice at this point, but it works for them.
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Literature on doing things was much more practical. There was a culture of things being repairable. There was a pride in one’s work. Check this out if you don’t believe me: http://vintagemachinery.org/pubs/1617/30720.pdf
The rise of the publicly traded corporation run by fiduciary duty has, in my opinion, squeezed out repairability, pride, and workmanship for marginal financial gains.
I fear it won’t have been worth it in the long run. Shame short term incentives run the show.
In the architectural space it’s common to have design files for everything, especially today.
I looked at Delta’s website and sure enough you can even download CAD models and drawings of their faucets: https://www.deltafaucet.com/bim-library
I paid a little more and waited a couple weeks to receive a Delta single handle faucet for my kitchen back in 2020, rather than just buying what was available on the shelf at Lowe's. Model: #400LF-WF. The reviews at the time said it was basically the same faucet made back in the 60s. I'm glad I did - it has been an excellent faucet.
It's interesting to see the prices back then - the model 400 cost $24.95 (see page 15), which would be around $260 today.
Incidentally, the newer variants also have flow restrictors, which aren't hard to remove.
> rather than just buying what was available on the shelf at Lowe's
Funny, that exact model dominates the shelf space at the Lowe's near me. Practically a whole bay for just those, over 50 in stock right now.
Weird. I figured at the time it was due to COVID related supply chain issues, but I just checked and they still don't stock them locally.
These types of faucets are so common where I live that I can’t really imagine what the alternative is. What do you have if you don’t have this?
Separate knobs for hot and cold, like this: https://www.homedepot.com/p/MOEN-Brantford-4-in-Centerset-2-...
Getting ”Access Denied” from that link.
If you live in an economy where these are uncommon, travelling to one where they are common and especially the equivalent for shower control in hotels.. is a logistical nightmare.
Its the eigenvalue of taps. It's hot, or it's not, and which orifice it's coming out of is completely unclear as well as which motion causes more, or less of water and heat.
Left and right for hot and cold, up and down for more and less flow. Very intuitive.
It sems these days shower valves have all been enshittified to have exactly one dimension, which proceeds from "off" to "small trickle of cold water", then "slow flow of warm water", and finally "slow flow of barely hot water".
The terms of sale are so clear and concise. But I don’t see a warranty period. Would they still replace a part on a 1961 sink?
Not sure about warranty, but a few years ago my mother's 80s(?) era Delta faucet started leaking. I sent a blurry photo to Delta's service team and a few days later had a link to a replacement part and an old manual scanned as a PDF. For a 40 year old product!
Ultimately we replaced the whole faucet and fixture, but that single reply probably made me a customer for life.
These are still very common in Sweden. I installed one when I renovated my kitchen a couple of years ago for example. Different design of course, but the same mechanism. 2 out of three bathrooms have similar ones too! Iirc the shower in the guest house does as well, but memory is fuzzy and I'm currently too far to check
When shopping for a home in Sweden, seeing a kitchen without single handed faucets is a telltale sign that the whole kitchen was designed with form prioritized over function.
We had one of these in our kitchen when I was growing up before we renovated in the late 90s. Very cool.
I just changed a valve in one of these shower handles last year. They’re great. The Moen shower handles are pretty good too but the cartridges require a special tool to replace.
> the cartridges require a special tool to replace.
I find foul language to be the most effective tool for this job.
I just installed a similar one in my bathroom, except the handle is on the side instead of on top. Also has a pull-down flexible hose that snaps back in with a magnet, very useful for cleaning.
Wow. This is exactly my kitchen faucet. Which makes sense, because my house was built in 1961.
Works great. Amazing how durable the faucet is!
I've never see the MR-510 dishwashing handle before - that seems so convenient!
Haven't seen one of these in years!
I need a time machine.
My shower and all my sinks have this design.