It's true that loctite thread lock might be an effective solution, but thinking back to their promotional video with Roger Bisby, if Bristan's design engineers were really so smart when they came up with the Easyfit design, they might have thought about including a tube of that in the box of every Easyfit tap. And Bristan must surely have been aware of this thread since it started back in October last year. So why has nearly a year gone by and they haven't thought to send out one of their engineers to check each registered product and apply a touch of thread lock for safety's sake? Or even to contact the installers and ask them to do so. What amazes me is that Bristan are still sailing full steam ahead with the Good Ship Easyfit, while it is sinking beneath them. The Easyfit concept is flawed for several reasons. Firstly, the initial install of an Easyfit tap is not really any easier than installing a normal tap with horse-shoe and backnut. It is only on the subsequent replacement of the Easyfit tap, 5 to 10 years down the line, that the Easyfit design is a real timesaver. Secondly, the benefit is a 10 minute replacement in several years' time install of a 1 hour job. A 50 minute saving every 5 to 10 years is an almost negligible benefit. Thirdly, the Easyfit concept adds an additional element of risk that wasn't there before, and the risk of a blow off is so serious that it isn't worth the added risk, however much they try to tinker with their design. Fourthly, if you replace the tap in 5 years' time but retain the existing base, the base may by then have deteriorated in various ways, such as the rubber o-rings perishing, the isolating valves dripping if you turn them, or the flexible pipe tails may have rusted due to condensation and eventually burst if they get too old and rusty. It would be better to have a new base at the same time as the new tap. But in that case, the Easyfit concept is redundant because you then need to access under the sink to change the flexis and isolators.
As a plumber, the last thing you want is to flood a customer's house. At this point, I don't care what modifications they make to the Easyfit design - I wouldn't touch another Easyfit tap with a barge pole.
If you are concerned about Easyfit taps that you have already installed, call Bristan's customer services and discuss my YouTube video and this thread with them. Ask them to provide you with a case reference number that you can use when you write to your customers and alert them to the problem and the risk that their homes may be flooded. If your customers then call Bristan and quote your case reference number, they will be immediately identified as your customer. They can request that Bristan replace their tap under guarantee because the design is faulty. If your customers receive an unsatisfactory response, the ball is then back in your court to contact Bristan and get on their case.
Bristan have been behaving as though they can deny there is a problem and hoping that by doing so the problem will just go away. It's your job to remind them the problem won't go away as long as you have customers out there whose homes are at risk of flooding from an Easyfit tap.
It won't be long before they have no choice but to issue a product recall. But for the sake of your customers and your reputation, I don't suggest you sit back and wait for that to happen.
Unless you want to go round all your Easyfit customers with a tube of loctite...
