Top mount sinks, which used to be the norm, came with predrilled holes for the faucet and were usually placed into laminate counters. 3 holes was standard. When single hole faucet became more popular the eustacean also covered up the extra holes. I think it has always been to simply cover the holes in a top mount and prevent water from getting down in the hole the faucet sits in. Before granite or quartz became popular almost every one had laminate, and if water got in hole in the counter it would cause the particle board or whatever the underside of laminate is made of, to swell and warp and eventually degrade. Since many faucet manufacturers want everyone to be able to use their faucets, from laminate to granite devotees, they make them with the eustacean as an optional element for when it is needed to cover extra holes in a top mount sink and/or for use with laminte counters. Sue

I can understand the gavavemom's concern about the price of faucets. For the cost of a quality faucet you can buy a pretty good dishwasher or two microwaves, sometimes even a refrigerator. Why are the things so expensive? They're actually not. You can buy a good quality basic faucet that will give many years of excellent service from any number of sources -- and I mean a brass faucet with a good valve for under $50.00. In fact, I just did a search on my usual faucet e-tail sites and found name brand centerset lavatory faucets for under $30.00. The problem with these faucets is that, for the most part, they are not at all stylish. They look like the faucet in your mother's or grandmothers (as the case may be) 1970's bathroom. When you pay $600.00 for a faucet, you are paying about $50.00 for the faucet and $550.00 for the style. Most likely it will not work any better or last any longer than the basic $50.00 faucet. It's very much like buying cabinet hardware. A basic cabinet door or drawer pull or knob cost less than $1.00 -- in fact I have seen them for as little as 29¢ How, then can someone spend $25.00 and more on a cabinet pull? Easy, they're paying the extra for the style. As long as you insist that your faucet have style, you are going to pay more for it. You are paying for short production runs and the cost of designing, prototyping, testing and certifying the faucet -- which can easily exceed $100,000. Spreading this start-up cost across a small number of faucets means that quite a lot is added to the cost of each faucet. Not to mention that the manufacturer's markup on designer faucets is much higher -- they have to make their money from fewer items sold. Plus, as the originator of this thread shows, we don't fix things any more. If it leaks or stops working perfectly, we throw it out and get another one. This makes the lifetime costs of owning faucets much higher. And, it is really dumb because most faucets can be easily fixed. In almost all cases the problem is nothing more than a silicon seal. My grandfather built a bathroom into his Victorian house in 1912 as a Christmas present to his new bride. In 2012 when the city tore it down to build a new library, every faucet in the room was still working perfectly. On the hot water side of the lavatory, the nickel finish was entirely gone and the brass beneath completely exposed -- but it still worked because it had been carefully maintained for 100 years, by my grandfather, my father, and me. If it needed a new washer, it got one. If the riser leaked, it got a new one. It was certainly not a stylish faucet (well, actually, today it is stylish once again), but it worked, and my Grandfather, Irish to his bones, would not replace anything that still worked. It was a Kohler, by the way. Anyway, so long as you require a faucet be stylish, you are going to pay for the style. The more style, the more you are going to pay. If you want the major league bragging rights of owning a Philipp Starck-Designed Axor (Hansgrohe) faucet, you will pay a major league price. Or, for 1/10th the price, you can own a Delta or Moen that will last nearly forever. You are the buyer, and the choice is yours. So, what's it going to be?

The bad news is that you have resin in every pipe, at every faucet, and in the toilets, washing machine, and everything else that is hooked up to the water. Your plumbing will need to be completely flushed. That includes all the pipes, every faucet and aerator, dishwasher, icemaker, clothes washer, shower, bath tubs, hose bibs, toilets, and water heater. You may need a plumber to do it. I don't believe the resin is toxic but you can contact Purolite (the resin manufacturer) at 800-343-1500 and ask them. If the "inny and outy" connections are right (if they weren't you'd have known immediately, not after 3 years) then there is an internal problem in your GE softener. At three years that's when these box store softeners usually begin to have problems. You may want to consider replacing that GE softener with a more reliable and easier to service industry standard model which actually costs about the same thing as your GE or a Sears but will provide better and more reliable service.

On the other hand we could say, "Maybe you have a happy faucett"....LOL Having said that, let us now get down to the buisiness at hand. From your description it is indicating that something is loose and causing a rapid change in the internal working pressure as the water flows through. The most common cause is a small piece of debris inside the faucett that is interfering with flow, or it could be a loose washer or spring.