Price Pfister kitchen faucet problem

[PandaBear]

This faucet came with the house and it is probably from 94. It looks like what they are selling as the PFirst series single handle. It was leaking and I was trying to replace the cartridge, but once I cracked open the cap that seal the screw hole on the handle, and unscrew the handle from the cartridge, I see a dome cap with six notches and am not able to open the dome cap to proceed.

This is what they send me.

I called Price Pfister and ask them to send me a tool to open it, and they twice they send me a small plastic tool that is about 5mm too small. I'm wondering if any of you professional out there have seen this and know what should I use to open it? We would prefer not to buy a new faucet just because we cannot open it, and the paint on the faucet (white now turning ivory / bisque) is probably too fragile that I would rather not use a big wrench to open it and chip the paint.

Thanks.

 

[Eddie]

My experiemce with modern Pfister Fisher (China) is to replace it with a cartridge type from Morn or Delta.

 

[PandaBear]

Originally Posted By: Eddie
My experiemce with modern Price Fisher (China) is to replace it with a cartridge type from Morn or Delta.


Do you mean replace the faucet with Moen or Delta? or do you mean replace the cartridge from Moen and Delta?

The problem I have is I cannot take the faucet apart.

 

[andyd]

One sink has a chintzy I dont know what, the other has a Hansa set from Germany, The Hansa is a really nice piece of plumbing. It is obsolete , but I found parts for it in town. My Moen tub/ shower valves are 25 yrs old The cartridge fails about every 5 yrs. Its a snap to change. I had a Delta kitchen faucet and I was forever fixing it.

 

[Smoky14]

I finally removed my PF faucet. They would promptly send me replacement parts for the $5 fee BUT I had to do it at the minimum of once a year. The brass parts were replaced by plastic, not what I'd paid for, and the ceramic cartridges would leak internally and ruined the cabinet making the free parts very expensive.
Just a really bad design and inferior parts.
By the way PF is really Black& Decker now thus the loss of quality