Temperature
Recall! Light touch for easy adjustment.
I've
been thinking a lot recently about faucets. It's one of the most-used items in
the kitchen. You might have a mediocre fridge, and it won't matter too much. We
have an old, small, even rusty one, but it really doesn't create any problems
except at Thanksgiving. I operate my faucet dozens of times a day, and if it's
annoying or awkward, I'm annoyed dozens of times a day. Perhaps that's why I'm
often so irritable.
When
we started in this business, we didn't think much about this important topic,
and had a good laugh when we heard that some people spent $500 on a faucet. Why
would you do that?
Today,
lots of our customers don't blanch at such a cost, even though the high-end
models aren't necessarily better. It's partly a question of fashion, of what is
in the magazines this year. So what makes a good faucet? It should look nice,
for sure. But it also should be easy to control temperature and pressure.
Single
Lever. We believe in the single lever faucet. If it's working right, it can be
turned off (half of the uses) with a finger, a frying pan, or your fist if you
are holding something. If it's working right, it can be turned on and set with
one hand, hopefully very quickly, with a single motion. I can't think of any
reason to use a two-handled faucet. Almost all of our projects use single lever
faucets. But it has to be the right one.
It
has to fit: There is often a bit of spatial congestion at the back of the sink,
where the faucet usually goes. We often provide storage (photo) above the sink;
a tall faucet can bang on the shelves. In the photo below, most of the nice,
pullout-spray faucets banged on the drainer shelf. The Grohe shown had the
pullout feature, but wasn't too tall.
A
lot of faucets these days have the lever control on the side. This works OK in
an island, but against a wall, the lever sometimes bangs on the backsplash. It
can be quite discouraging to have purchased a nice expensive side handle
faucet, and drilled a 1 3/8” hole in your new soapstone counters, only to find
that the side lever hits the backsplash.
If
you are considering a side-lever model, careful study is crucial. Sometimes
we'll make a mockup of the faucet to make sure it will fit and operate.
I
prefer the front lever anyway, because it's convenient for either hand, or from
any position.
An
ideal faucet: The ideal single lever faucet, in addition to every other virtue,
would have this one: the motion that controls temperature (moving the lever
left-right) would be clearly distinct from the motion that controls rate of
flow (up-down). That way, you could be happily washing dishes, for example,
push down to turn the water off, then lift up to resume, at the same
temperature. As you lifted the lever, the pressure might increase, but the temp
would hold about the same. The slow-flow would be the same as the full flow.
Years
ago, I wrote an article for Fine Homebuilding, in the course of which I was
complaining that the operation of single lever faucets was often vague. Every
time you shut it off, you had to start over, searching, searching for the
pressure and temperature you want; you might find yourself making many minute
movements to get it set. Also, you might move the lever and not be sure what
was going to happen.
Next
month, there was a very stern letter from someone at Moen. This person
explained that my complaint did not apply to their products. The Moen control
separated pressure and temperature adjustment as described above. This function
was called temperature recall. And in fact, this proved to be true, and since then,
we have specified many Moen Faucets. Another interesting dimension of this, was
that it was Al Moen who invented the single lever faucet.
In
my experience, there are still many faucets out there, brand new ones from
major brands, which are vague as I've described above. I find this very
annoying, and wastes time to boot. But there are also several kinds that, like
the Moen, give the user simple, intuitive control of flow and pressure. The
Grohe in the photo above is one such. (Readers who know of other good ones, please
let me know).
We've
also noticed that lever shape can be an issue. A lot of front mounted faucets
have a rather tall arching spout, which can require the lever to become almost
vertical. The more vertical the lever, I find the operation more vague. Even
the best faucets are a little harder to control with a highly angled lever. For
that reason a lever closer to the horizontal has some advantages. Perhaps this
is why many designs with the high arc spout have gone to the side lever. These
have seemed to be easy to operate.
Deck
Plates: The old two-handled double faucets were designed for two holes, 8” on
center, which were bridged with something called a deck plate. When you
replaced your double handle with a single, you only needed one hole in the
center, but your old sink had those other holes. So many single levers come
with a deck plate which serves no purpose but to cover those holes.
When
building new, you can order a sink with a single hole. If you are undermounting
the sink (we almost always do that) it's much tidier to get a faucet without
deck plate. However, many faucets these days can be installed either way.
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Make sure the handle doesn't interfere with shelving or
backsplash. This a Moen Chateau.
It's
one of Moen's less costly faucets but the mechanics inside are the same as in
the expensive ones.
This one has the deckplate because it replaces an older
two-handled faucet.
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