Cleaning Faucet Aerator

I had my house water faucets get plugged up due to debris in the water flowing through them causing limited water flow and basically splattering all over everyone. The purpose of an aerator is to inject air into the water stream to give powerful flow and minimize water usage. Aerated water is shown to clean hands and stuff better than water alone as well. This operation should be performed as needed. The last time I cleaned mine was nearly 5 years ago, so I need to clean mine more often... Most people do not even realize this is something that needs to be done.

The aerator needs to be removed from the faucet as well as cleaning it up. This requires a tool to remove the aerator as well as a brush to clean with in combination with cleaning supplies and chemicals. I suggest cleaning with alcohol if contaminants will not rub off with the toothbruch as alcohol is a cleaning agent. Hydrogen peroxide can soak the components if you worry about hygene of your faucets as H2O2 is a sterilant.

I suggest these items to perform this operation:

• channel plier wrench to turn stuborn aerators
• old toothbrush to scrub aerator parts clean
• alcohol or other cleaning agent to remove stuborn debris
• Hydrogen peroxide if you desire sterilization of the aerator.
• two hands.. LOL

After gathering up all the supplies and tools to do the job, look over the faucet to see how it sprays out.

As you can see it is a weak stream which flys out to the sides and splatters all over. This is unacceptable for cleaning hands and normal functions. There is little or no air being injected into the water stream, so yeah.. that aint good!

Begin by removing the aerator from the faucet. The aerator is the end where the water exits the faucet. It might be tight so a tool might be needed. It is screwed in with an "O" ring holding it in place through friction. If the ring is older or covered with deposits, a tool will most likely be needed...

With the aerator out and in your hand, you can look it over and see how bad it actually is. In most cases the aerator acts as a water filter to capture any particles coming out of the faucet. I replaced my hot water heater this year, so I am axpecting lots of sediment to be caught in the aerator from the bottom of the water heater. Yup, I was right. A large "rock" was in the top of the aerator head and the face is completely black! Yuck!

The aerator is made to disassemble and clean out as a normal function of the faucet maintenance. This aerator has several layers of water processing to give a smooth uniform stream of water delivery. Use your thumb to pop out the aeration stack from the body of the aerator. It should be held in by the sealing "O"ring which also grips it onto the faucet... It should all push out the back of the aerator opposite from the water flow direction (The water pushes the aerator stack onto the front of the body end).

Organization will help keep the parts of the aerator stack in order for putting them back together correctly. This unit has a diversion flow guide as well as a two piece bracket for holding the screens in place. Pop them apart keeping them in order of disassembly so you cand get them back in the same order as removed.

There are two screens in this aerator which filters particles from the water stream as well as busting up the water to allow air to combine into the water. In these pictures you can see the back screen is nearly totally obstructed with little water able to penetrate it. Use the toothbrush to rub on these screens to clean them back up. Clean all the stack components as well so everything is just like brand new. The toothbrush can be either rubbed perpandicular or just straight into the holes on the screens.. just work until they are completely cleaned out.

With everything cleaned up nicely, it is ready to put back together. Put the layers of the aerator pack back together paying attention to the way it came apart. Once it is all together, it is ready to install back on the faucet end. Remember "righty-tighty", but also remember it is upside down to you, so it will seem backward to your intuition. Hand tighten the aerator, allowing the "O"ring to make the friction seal in the end.

Check it out! It flows like a brand new faucet! As you can see, the water is very frothy and flows in a very straight stream with no blockage or diversion. It makes you feel good inside when you can accomplish these kinds of tasks yourself!