How to replace a faucet cartridge

There are a few reasons for this, and your water bill is only one of them.  First of all, if your sink faucet is leaking, then there will be extra water just sitting around in your room.  Depending on the nature of the leak and where it leaks to, this extra water can cause water damage in your walls or floor.  Another reason is that if you allow the sink to leak, you are most likely continuing to use broken or damaged parts - which could cause extra strain, breaking more of the sink as time goes on.

Most likely, if you have a leaky faucet, it is because the faucet cartridge is broken.  This cartridge is located inside of the faucet itself, and surrounds all the moving parts.  Luckily, you should be able to find a replacement faucet cartridge for your sink at any hardware store.  Then, you just have to replace the cartridge and you're on your way!

This probably does not need to be said, but the first thing that you should do is to turn off the water to your sink.  Then, you'll need to take the faucet apart in order to get to the cartridge.  Make sure that you're careful, if you scratch up the outside of the faucet itself, then you might need to replace it as well.

Open the faucets to let out any water that might be trapped in them.  There should only be a little bit of water, since you turned of the main water supply.  Then, you should unscrew and lift off the faucet itself.  This will allow you to work on the faucet directly, and is necessary to get at the inside of it.

You will probably need pliers for the next part.  You should be able to see the cartridge inside of the faucet.  Just reach in with the pliers and pull it out!  After you get that part out, putting the new cartridge in is easy.

Faucet cartridges should not cost too much, so this is a quick, cheap, and easy home improvement task.