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STANDARD HANDLE, FAUCET PARTS

Description: This comes in a great variety of sizes, and styles ranging from clear to chrome.

Buying information: As with stems, manufacturers make many different kinds, so handles can be hard to replace unless they are a popular style. Your best bet is to take the old handle to the store.

How-to hints: If you have trouble removing a handle because it's frozen in place by corrosion, try to loosen the screw on the handle two or three threads. Use a small hammer to rap the screw. The resulting vibration often is enough to jar loose the parts held fast by corrosion. A little penetrating oil doesn't hurt, either.

Failing this, you can use a device called, appropriately enough, a "handle puller," which can be bought at hardware stores and home centers. This works like a steering-wheel puller on a car. Hooklike projections on the side grip the handle while a rod presses against the handle screw. As the puller is turned, the screw presses down against the handle screw and the hooks pull the handle gradually up and off.

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