Replacing a kitchen mixer tap - an easy DIY job?

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I have a dripping kitchen tap which, a plumber tells me, is dripping because a ceramic disc inside has eroded. I have no idea if he is right or not had a bad gut feeling about him when he came to quote for some plumbing jobs.

Tap is 7 years old and made by Carron Phoenix. A cursory google suggests parts will not easily be available so it would be easier/quicker to replace the tap?

Is is something I could realistically do myself?

Pics of current dripping tap and pipework underneath the sink attached.

Really easy. You have push fit connectors on the hot and cold water pipes and plastic plumbing, which makes it a doddle. I can't see isolator valves on either hot or cold feeds, though they should be there. Look for something that looks like a flat head screw in a pipe fitting. Half a turn will switch off the water.

Once you are happy that the tap is not being fed water (check by turning on hot and cold water taps and verifying that nothing comes out), pull down the ring on top of the plastic pipe fitting which attaches to the copper pipes on the tap. The plastic pipe and fitting should slide off reasonably easily.

Once the pipes are disconnected, find the nut on the threaded rod behind the copper pipes which tightens the tap onto the sink. Remove it. The tap should lift away from the sink. Do the reverse to fit the new tap.

The nut will be awkward to get to. When you buy the new tap, check the size of the nut, and buy a box spanner of the correct size. This will make your life about a million times easier. A box spanner looks like a long metal tube with one end deformed to fit the nut, and a hole at the other end to ram a screwdriver in for leverage. It'll make sense once you see it.

Easy, though potentially sweary - see last paragraph above :o

If you buy a Bristan tap to replace it, you will easily be able to get any replacement parts in future.

It will also be a better tap.

Excellent advice, thank you all.

PigletJohn - would something like this get your seal of approval?

Sure, if you like it. They also offer a Sentinel which has old-fashioned levers.

The tap you linked comes with "flexi-tails". This will mean you need to attach the tap to your plumbing slightly differently to the current arrangement. I would be inclined to use short sections of copper (or plastic) pipe in your existing push fit connectors to mate with whatever fitting comes on the end of the flexible tube on the tap. You should be able to cut a suitable length of copper out of the pipes on your existing tap to do this.