How a Sink Faucet Works

Every time you wash your hands, the dishes, or your precious knickknacks, you are using the power and mechanisms of your sink faucet.

When you are giving your newborn a bath in the sink, you may not be thinking about how the faucet works. However, it’s usually when something in there breaks that we wonder how it does its job. We all take many modern technologies for granted, but we certainly take an interest in something when it no longer functions properly. Have you ever wondered how your sink faucet works? How does it produce the water pressure needed to get the water through the pipes and into your hands? It can seem complicated, or intimidating, but it’s really not that complicated. Let’s break it down.

This is what happens when you turn your faucet on –

Water pours through two chambers, which are divided by a hole. Usually faucets today have a screw mechanism that regulates the flow of your water. When you turn your faucet off that device pushes a washer down into the hole between the two chambers. The washer seals the opening so the water flow slows until it finally stops.

All of the action going on inside those pipes that you can’t see from your sink is what makes it work the way we need it to. When you turn the faucet on, the opposite happens. The washer releases from the gap, providing water to flow through your faucet and into your sink. When you turn it off the water ceases, but not instantly.

Glossary (definitions from answers.com):

Chambers – An enclosed space or compartment: the chamber of a pump; a compression chamber.

Washer – A flat disk, as of metal, plastic, rubber, or leather, placed beneath a nut or at an axle bearing or a joint to relieve friction, prevent leakage, or distribute pressure.

Water Pressure – Fluid pressure is the pressure on an object submerged in a fluid, such as water. The pressure can be provided from a number of sources:

The sheer weight of the fluid, such as in scuba diving, when the diver goes deeper into the water, the water pressure increases; or in the earth's atmosphere, as a plane goes higher, the air pressure decreases;
A pump, such as when water "pumped" into a water tower; or
A compressor, such as in a small water supply system in a rural well for a house connected to an air compressor. Water pressure is used in our daily lives to control the flow of water coming from any mechanical water source.

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