While choosing a kitchen faucet might initially seem like a simple task, ensuring you find one that’s the right style, material and colour to match your sink and kitchen décor is not always as it at first appears.
A kitchen faucet is basically a mixer tap that is designed for attachment to your kitchen sink. Kitchen faucets are in general much more practical that the traditional design of having two separate taps. This is primarily because an ideal water temperature can be attained very quickly, as opposed to having to mix hot and cold water together in a bowl in order to be able to comfortably wash hands or do washing up.
One of the first things to consider is the quality and practicality of available faucets. Manufacturers such as Franke taps are renowned for producing only the highest quality products and offering state of the art technology. The Franke taps range includes single flow spout taps, pull out nozzles and triflow taps to ensure there is something to suit everyone’s needs. High quality products are of particular importance in regards to kitchen faucets due to the regularity of which they are handled and used. Ideally you want to invest in a product that is going to last many, many years only to be replaced should the kitchen itself require renovation.
It’s also important to make sure that there is easy accessibility to replacement parts. An unreliable manufacturer could easily cease trading at any point, thereby ending the production of any replacement parts. Therefore it is usually ideal to purchase kitchen faucets from large, trusted companies, such as Franke taps, so you can be sure that spare parts will also be available.
Size is also important to ensure that the spout is not too long for the size of the sink. A good idea is to consider a kitchen faucet with a high sink clearance to guarantee ease of filling large pots.
If you’re considering fitting a faucet to an existing sink, as opposed to replacing the whole sink area, you will need to find out how many holes the sinks attachment incorporates. Ideally you should choose a kitchen faucet that is designed to fit your sinks existing hole configuration. Reducing the number of holes will incur the job of filling the holes in. Alternatively, should you want to add extra holes there is a very high risk of significant damage to the sink occurring.
The final decision you need to make is what material and finish you would like your kitchen faucet to be in. The most common material is stainless steel, largely because it is easy to care for whilst also looking sleek and modern. Other materials, such as brass, can look fantastic in more traditionally styled kitchens, but they do tend to require a lot of cleaning and are therefore impractical for people who are limited on time. The majority of Franke taps products are produced from solid stainless steel. This is in order to maintain the cutting edge and contemporary image that their products are so well known for.
This post was written by James Harper on behalf of the Kitchen Appliance Centre, experts in kitchen fixtures and fittings including Franke taps. For m9ore information please visit the Kitchen Appliance Centre
