White faucets: how to save and how to restore shining

White mixers (as well as white metal coated mixers) make up the lion’s share of the entire range of sanitary fittings. They look very presentable, but only as long as the surface remains clean and intact.

Below we give some recommendations for the care of such mixers, as well as tell you how to restore the damaged coating.

Appearance of sanitary devices

Typical color solutions

Plumbing fixtures, which are mass produced today, can hardly boast an extensive palette. And yet, if necessary, you can find several color options that are suitable for the overall style decision of your room.

The choice of colors for mixers includes the following positions:

• White washbasin mixer - the most common option. Such products are presented both in the product lines of the budget segment and among premium models. The difference in appearance is largely due to the peculiarity of applying a white coating, which we will discuss in detail later.
• Products in yellow shades are most often made of polished bronze or brass.. They may be darker or lighter, but in any case they compare favorably with the whites with a lower mark and greater resistance to various influences.
• Brick-red models of kitchen faucets are made of copper. It should be noted that copper is a fairly soft metal, because the coating is most often applied to a base of brass or stainless steel. The appearance of such a product is rarely affected, but the high cost significantly reduces the popularity of such mixers.

• Colored constructions are produced by applying enamel or powder paints on a metal base.. Depending on the type of decorative composition used, the surface is glossy or matte. The disadvantages of the budget painted models include the fact that the pigment weakly adheres to the base, but high-quality products lack this disadvantage.

Ways to get a white coating

And yet the subject of consideration of our article is exactly the white sink faucet.

How do you get such coverage?

There are several ways to make a white shiny or matte surface, and to compare them, we have compiled a table:

As you can see, you can make a white mixer using different techniques. In addition, each of them provides a different stability of the coating, but the price of more durable models will be significantly higher than those that were made according to the coloring method.

Coverage Recovery

Care Tips

In order for our white kitchen faucet to retain an attractive appearance for a longer time, it is worthwhile to follow a number of care recommendations. Then both the paint and the chrome-nickel coating will remain intact for several years, which means that the metal base will not corrode.

Tips are not labor intensive, but following these simple rules is highly desirable:

• Firstly, the appearance of the shiny white metal surface spoils the white stains, which remain on it after the water drops dry. To avoid the appearance of such stains, it is worth wiping the mixer dry after each wash using special absorbent microfiber cloths.

• Secondly, polished surfaces are very sensitive to the effects of abrasive particles. That is why the instruction does not recommend using powder detergents with dense granules for cleaning sanitary devices that can damage the outer layer of the material and cause deep scratches on the surface.
• The same is true for repairs: when disassembling the mixer with your own hands, it is worth using a tool with protective pads of plastic. At the contact of the chrome-plated coating and metal on the faucet, scratches are sure to appear, which after some time will give rise to corrosion processes.

Note! If you do not have a wrench with special pads, you can get out of the situation by wrapping the metal parts with PVC tape.

Hardware method

If we did not follow, and there were scratches or peeling on the chrome or nickel coating, the mixer can be restored by repeated galvanic treatment. This service is provided by auto repair shops, but if you have the right equipment, you can handle it yourself.

We perform the work as follows:

• We disassemble the crane, dismantling all parts except metal.
• All surfaces are carefully polished, removing the old layer of chrome / nickel plating.
• We degrease parts by treating them with gasoline or other solvent.

Tip! After degreasing the mixer must be thoroughly dried.

• Then we pre-treat the metal with acid - the so-called decapitating. In this case, the surface becomes porous, which facilitates adhesion to the decorative composition.
• Then we apply a copper plating on the part, treating it in a galvanic bath using acidic solutions. The current density should not exceed 6 A / dm2.
• After copper plating, we perform chromium plating by immersing the part in a solution of chromin with additives (sodium nitrate, chromic anhydride, cryolite). We carry out the treatment for 10 minutes, gradually increasing the current density from 10 to 20 A / dm2.

If you have the appropriate skills, you can get a part that will surpass the new mixer by aesthetic parameters. However, the cost of such processing is quite high, because if you go to the workshop, it will be more profitable to simply replace the crane.

Other means

If you don’t have a galvanic installation, and you don’t want to overpay, you can try to handle in less labor-intensive ways:

• First, the chrome plating can be removed with a solvent. Under it is usually located a copper base, which in itself looks quite attractive. After the removal of chromium, we can only polish the copper layer.

• Secondly, over damaged nickel plating can be applied metallic paint or matte enamel. To do this, carefully degrease the mixer, then spray the pigment either with an airbrush or with an aerosol can. Of course, the coating is less resistant, but the appearance of the product will be quite acceptable.

Note! Airbrushing provides a more uniform styling of paint, but the low cost of cylinders is also an important factor when choosing a technique.

• Thirdly, chrome plating can be restored with the help of special polishing compounds, such as Arexons Chrom Glanz Wax and analogues. Processing the removed crane does not take much time, but the effect will be quite comparable with galvanic restoration. So if the scratches do not differ in depth, then this technique is quite possible to use.

Conclusion

White faucets look very attractive, because they are installed in most kitchens and bathrooms. But the polished coating requires careful treatment, so care for white metal fixtures should be especially careful. For a more detailed study of this issue is worth watching the video in this article.