Are you looking to swap out your old sink fixture with an updated one? Lets review nine tips for choosing the best kitchen faucet for your home.
Whether you plan on renovating your home or building your dream house, ensuring you have good appliances and styles matters. From choosing your refrigerator to the colors of your walls, you’ll want to ensure everything remains cohesive yet practical. This will help you get years of performance without spending thousands on repairs or replacements too soon.
To help with one aspect of this, here are nine tips for finding the best kitchen faucet for your home that fits your style. From choosing your basin and spout design to considering faucet add-ons and technological features, you’ll want the best kitchen faucet that operates smoothly while looking eye-catching and beautiful.
Tips for Choosing the Best Kitchen Faucet
Choosing the best kitchen faucet for your home comes down to various factors. From valuable additions to the style of the faucet, you want to make the best choice possible for a long-lasting, high-performing sink.
Basin
When choosing your faucet, consider the height, width, and depth of your sink’s basin, along with the average size of your pots and pans. These factors will affect how long or extended your faucet can be.
Furthermore, if you have more than one basin, you will need to consider the range of motion for your faucet. You want to ensure the maximum movement for your faucet to reach all the basins comfortably.
Spouts
Check if the spout of the faucet you want has proportionate sizing to your sink while reaching as close to the sink’s center as possible. For instance, if you have a too-long gooseneck faucet, it can lead to splashes in shallow sinks. Additionally, low-arc faucets might not provide enough clearance for large cooking tools.
Valves
The faucet’s valves control temperature and water flow. Located inside the faucet’s body, they have capabilities and maintenance that differ by model. The different faucet valve types include ball valves, cartridge-style valves, ceramic-disk valves, and compression valves. These valve types are among the most common types to use in homes, and the distinctions among them are their construction and overall reliability.
Faucets with ball valves have a single handle rotating on a ball, moving across inlet holes to regulate water flow. Cartridge-style faucets usually come outfitted with a replaceable cartridge housing a flow mechanism and are either single- or double-handled. Ceramic-disk faucets offer trouble-free, durable functionality, sporting a single handle controlling two ceramic disks that slide over one another to regulate water flow and temperature. Lastly, compression valves boast compression systems with washers that open and close as users turn the handles, primarily residing in older two-handled faucets to separate hot and cold water.
Depending on your existing pipework or previous faucet installation, you’ll need to ensure the faucet valve accommodates your kitchen.
Holes
Most faucets are attachable through holes cut in the sink. While deck-plate faucet components mount on a single plate, other faucet components individually install through up to five holes, such as undermount sinks and apron-style sinks.
When replacing a faucet, choose a model compatible with your sink’s existing cutouts, such as hole diameters and space between them. Alternatively, if your sink setup is brand new, you choose whether to choose your faucet based on compatibility with your desired sink or vice versa.
Finishes
There are many faucet finishes to choose from, including stainless steel, chrome, brass, nickel, and copper. Stainless steel and chrome make for easy cleaning while offering polished, brushed, or matte finishes that perfectly complement a modern kitchen. Faucets can also come in nickel with brushed or satin finishes that are extra durable with a titanium topcoat. However, fingerprints and water spots show up easily on nickel. With copper finishes, they provide rich tones to your kitchen while holding up to daily wear and tear. Lastly, brass comes in high-gloss, satin, brushed, antique, and oil-rubbed finishes; however, though versatile, brass faucets can chip and scratch over time.
Design Styles
Before choosing your faucet, matching it to your current or planned kitchen design matters. Thankfully, most faucets fit transitional, classical, and contemporary styles.
For instance, traditional faucets offer detailed ornamentation and curved lines, while contemporary styles are sleeker and more streamlined. Once you’ve chosen your faucet design, select the appropriate finish that matches your cabinetry and decor.
Tech Features
Did you know that many kitchen faucets come with high-tech features? Today, you can find kitchen faucets with motion-activated tech that can turn the flow of water on and off with a wave of your hand. Other features for your kitchen faucet include voice-activated technology and mobile apps to control smart faucets.
However, remember that there are possible failures that can occur in connectivity or device failure. Thankfully, you can usually access manual overrides to reset your faucet to factory settings if it shows signs of malfunctioning.
Useful Add-Ons
When installing a new faucet, there are a few add-ons you don’t want to miss. Firstly, sprayers offer a fuller range of cleaning while saving on water. However, while pull-down sprayers mount in the spout, side sprayers exit through a separate hole and tend to leak more.
Furthermore, you want a proper filtration system to keep your water quality pure. Luckily, many faucet models come with built-in filtration systems. If the one you want does not, then consider purchasing a filter add-on.
Location
When you plan on installing a new kitchen faucet, location matters. While faucets commonly attach through the counter or sink, there are other places for installation.
For instance, a wall-mount faucet is an option. If you install a wall-mounted faucet over the stove, it allows direct water flow to that area. This will save you the distance and strain of carrying heavy pots full of water from the sink to the stove. Also referred to as a pot filler, pasta arm, or kettle faucet, you will need proper plumbing access for this feature.
Also, homeowners can install faucets on their kitchen islands. This area of installation offers additional counter space and visual aesthetics for a beautiful, functional kitchen. You can designate your island faucet for rinsing produce, cleaning dishes, and allowing for easy food preparation.
George’s Showroom provides customers with high-quality fixtures for bathrooms and kitchens at competitive prices. Our modern kitchen sinks and faucets will perfectly fit your aesthetic. With us, you can find complementary faucet styles for your kitchen and faucet accessories, including water filters, pot fillers, air gaps, garbage disposals, and more. Contact us today for more information on our modern kitchen and bathroom fixtures!
Faucets make for the perfect centerpiece in your kitchen or bathroom. When creating your ideal aesthetic, faucets are a fantastic place to start. At George”s Showroom, we offer beautiful high-end faucets with matching suites so everything can fit and look seamless in your home. With numerous finishes to choose from, you”ll have a one-of-a-kind look from our “living metal” products. If you have inquiries regarding our beautiful luxury faucets, our dedicated staff will help you today.
