Kitchen Faucet Features and Buying Guide
The kitchen is one of the most important places in your home. It’s a focal point for activity and a major factor in home appraisals. So it’s no surprise that today’s kitchen faucets include a lot of bells and whistles. Current faucets combine beautiful style with amazing functionality. This post will focus on the great new features available in today’s faucet marketplace.
Quality Faucet Construction
Your kitchen faucet will be used a lot. For that reason, it needs to be made from high quality materials. Lesser faucets include lots of plastic parts that will break from time and/or use. Look for a faucet constructed from solid brass, stainless steel, or zinc die-cast. These materials will ensure your faucet has a long lifespan.
The valve type is another important aspect of kitchen faucet construction. There are four major valve systems – compression, cartridge, ball, and ceramic disk.
- Compression - These faucets control water flow by pressing a rubber or nylon washer against a valve seat. Repairs often include replacing the rubber portions of the valve. This style typically features separate hot and cold water controls and are less expensive than other types.
- Cartridge - Cartridge valves can be found on integrated water controls and separate handle controls. The “cartridge” contains all the working parts to control water flow and are very reliable. Cartridge replacements can be expensive, so keep that in mind for repairs.
- Ball - Ball valves are usually found on single handles faucets. They are another inexpensive option and use a ball to control the temperature and flow of water.
- Ceramic disks – These valves are a recent development and operate similarly to cartridge valves. Ceramic disks valves are very durable. They resist debris and hard water. Most problems can be resolved by cleaning the parts rather than replacing. They carry a higher cost but have very long lifespans and are the preferred valve type.
Pullout or Pull-down Spray Faucet
A popular feature among new faucets is the pull down spout. This option basically integrates the reach of a side sprayer into the faucet itself. This allows you to easily direct the flow of water, and maneuver your faucet as needed. Quality faucets will feature a generous hose length allowing you to reach beyond your sink.
Stream vs. Spray
New faucets allow you to select the type of water flow, switching between an aerated stream, a sprayer, and a hard sprayer. Aerated streams are ideal for reducing splash, while sprayers make dish washing a breeze. Most faucets will include the switch in the faucet head making it easy to cycle between them.
Water Pause
It sounds like a button on your DVD player but faucets can pause too. Another control built into the faucet head, pressing this button will allow you to temporarily stop the flow of water. It’s a great feature when you want to move the sprayhead out of the sink area (to fill a pot for example).
Spray Volume Control
This feature is similar to the Water Pause feature. It makes it easy to quickly change the faucet output. A handy slider built into the faucet head allows you to decrease the water volume to a trickle or increase the volume to a full stream. This feature can save water because you’ll only use as much as you need.
Water Filters
My wife loves water. She drinks it all the time and especially enjoys that our tap has a built-in filter. You can find filters integrated into the sprayhead or hidden discretely in the cabinet below. Under the sink models have great water flow and the filters last about six months.
Touch Sensitive Controls
Hot off the presses are touch-sensitive controls that allow users to start and stop the flow of water by touching anywhere on the spout or handle. This makes it easy to turn on the water when your hands are full or turn the water off in between tasks. These controls do require a battery adding another layer of complexity to the modern kitchen faucet.
What do you think? What faucet features do you enjoy?
Image courtesy of Thewmatt
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August 29th, 2010 4:41 pm
We are buiding and are having a discussion of best finsh to use on the bath and kitchen faucets and cabinets…which are pecan finish ash..floors are red oak. Can you give us a suggestion please?
Joyfce