ITT people are so clever in creating a workaround but are unable to perform basic maintenance. Replacing washers is a fundamental skill
And of course you can shut down the water to the faucet at a moments notice, without disturbing anyone.
And the replacements never fail, so it's perfectly fine to start such a project during non business hours, because you'll never have to keep the water off for hours or a weekend waiting for stores to open so you can get the parts you need.
And obviously everyone has time to do such a project the moment the drips start, because that's the highest priority.
I was taught that you should always have a set in the toolbox...
> And of course you can shut down the water to the faucet at a moments notice
I was under the impression that even apartment/units have a separate water main valve to isolate the individual unit? My previous places did, although I more frequently rent houses.
> And the replacements never fail
They honestly rarely do fail when you put a fresh washer in.
> And obviously everyone has time to do such a project the moment the drips start
It honestly takes so little time to change a washer, I'm surprised that you've made such a long post about it, haha. A tap is a machine with one moving part... It's pretty straight forward and you can change a washer in like a minute.
I've changed washers before, the things I posted are from experience not theory.
"According to the researchers, while the study was purely curiosity-driven, the results could be used to develop more efficient ways to measure rainfall or to develop a convincing synthesised sound for water droplets in gaming or movies, which has not yet been achieved."
Cartridges (ceramic or otherwise) fail for a variety of reason. Gaskets come in some fairly standard sizes and cost a few pennies to replace. Cartridges typically cost $20-$40 each, are quite non-standard even from a single manufacturer, and some manufacturers will require special tools to remove/install their cartridges. Plus a cartridge will still typically have gaskets that can fail (e.g. I recently had a diverter valve that was part of a cartridge leak and flood the under-sink area).