Stuck replacing a kitchen faucet for 5 hours because of one weird part

I tried swapping out an old faucet last Saturday and figured it'd be a quick 45 minute job. Turned out the supply lines had some odd fitting I'd never seen before, and none of my standard tools fit. I wasted like 3 hours driving to two different hardware stores trying to match it up. Finally found the right adapter at a third place 20 minutes away. Has anyone else run into some random plumbing part that completely stalled a simple project?

3 comments

3 Comments

faith_shah881mo ago

OH FOR REAL though, that TikTok guy is just fear mongering. Most of the time those "weird" fittings are just a standard 3/8 compression fitting and people grab the wrong size at the store cause they don't actually LOOK at what they have. You probably coulda saved all that driving if you just brought the old part with you to the first store and asked someone behind the counter instead of guessing.

susansingh1mo ago

Ever figure out if it was a manufacturer trick or just bad luck with the old fitting?

the_piper1mo ago

Actually saw a TikTok from some plumber guy where he explained that manufacturers started using different thread sizes on supply lines a few years back to push their own brand of fittings. It's not an accident, they do that intentionally to make people buy their specific adapters. You got lucky finding that third store, I've heard stories of people having to order those weird parts online and waiting a week. Old houses are the worst for that stuff too, you never know what weird cobbled-together thing some previous owner did. Glad you got it sorted eventually though, those 45 minute jobs turning into all-day projects are the worst.