New kitchen faucet ''jerks''

It's neither you nor an unusual problem. It's the faucet. We just installed a similar 2 handle $168 Pfister and had numerous similar and other problems. After 2 hours of expletive laden sweat, bruises, and continuous dumbfoundedness over the incredibly poor design of the cheap plastic pipe fittings and the poor english instructions, we turned it on and immediately had many problems.
1. It jerks the pipes every time you turn it on.
2. It sputters with irregular flow.
3. Pressure is 50% of our corroded 18 year old faucet.
4. When you turn it off, it drips for 10 seconds.
5. The flow out the spout is uneven and dribbles.

These problems are from its chinsy fittings and poor piping design.

1. The fittings are unstable plastic snaps held together only by pressure, O-rings, and cotter pins. No screw fittings at all. This is also dangerous since simply pulling the hoses and pipes such as when stuffing things under the sink could break the seals and cause a flood.

2. The flow diverter block that mixes the hot/cold and side feeds the separate sprayer is nothing more than a small block of plastic with very tiny holes infeeding the hot/cold lines and outfeeding the spout and sprayer. In other wrods, a 2 in, 2 out distributor.

3. The hoses that feed the hot/cold to the diverter take their feed from circular collar that seal the water with plastic-on-plastic pressure, held in place by more cotter pins. The holes in these collars that feed the hoses that lead to the diverter block in the center are also very small so they reduce pressure drastically and cause intermittent and sporatic flow.

4. Due to the very tiny holes in the diverter block, the feed collars, and the spray hose at the diverter block, any sediment or minerals in the water will soon render the faucet completely dysfunctional.

5. The design of the unit makes uninstalling very difficult. The sprayer feeder hose, for example, is made to push in without threads or pins so it has to be ripped out. The large thin ring washers with no gripping edges that hold the hot/cold faucet stems were very difficult to tighten and will be twice as hard to remove. The plain old wind nut style nylon washer-nuts used on l\more utilitarian econoical units are far superior. Shame on Pfister.

Answer: Due to all the above, the answer to your problem, unfortuntely, is the same as for us. To wit: There is no solution other than switching to another brand that doesn't place all its design effort in its looks at the expense of proper function. We feel ripped off. There is nothing uglier than a pig with lipstick.

Bottom line: These Pfister units are all show and no go. Return them if possible and choose another brand whose piping is hopefully more evolved and rugged rather than this plastic toy with only good looks.

I do apartment make ready, I've to install countless faucets, bathroom and kitchen. Only recently have I had the same problem.

After installing your faucet and you turn the water back on under the sink, did you open the lines completely? In my case it was low flowing water.after completely opened up both lines, worked fine, the stuttering quit.

Start simple,

I just fixed my jerking/kicking/sputtering GROHE faucet by increasing the hot water line's pressure.

The installation video appropriate to my faucet helped me understand its inner workings, and enabled me to diagnose the problem and fix it:

http://www.grohe.com/us/21532/services-for-you/installation-videos/

If it's a single handle Delta faucet with sprayer, the diverter can cause this. It's unusual in a new fixture, but it's possible that some debris may have gotten into it during installation. Disassemble and check. Carefully flush the lines with the valve seats and springs and diverter removed.

Delta also makes parts for Peerless and some import brands.