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by Rachel Lyon, Editorial Director for The House Designers®
Outfitting the kitchen is one of the most involved parts of building a home—make sure you take the time to design it for your needs and select products that will serve you well into the future! The sink area is a great place to start, because no matter what kind of cook you are, everything begins and ends there. You’ll interact with the faucet most of all, so here’s what to look for when you shop!
Main Sink Faucets
Whether the main sink is the only sink in your kitchen or you plan to have two, expect it to be the workhorse. As such, your main faucet will have to handle everything you throw at it, from simple handwashing, to rinsing produce, to cleaning dishes of all kinds. Today’s modern and contemporary fixtures offer sleek looks and seamless operation, so if practical design and functional features are your primary concerns, you’ll likely find what you want in this category.
Single hole faucets offer uncluttered looks and are also easier to use because they have one handle to control flow and temperature. You don’t even have to grasp the handle in most cases—nudging it with your arm or wrist will do the job and keep the handle clean. Today, you’ll also find plenty of faucets that turn on and off by touching the spout, can be hooked up to a foot pedal, or use a sensor to detect users. These options all answer the same problem: they help keep the faucet clean to reduce the spread of germs. The single hole setup also integrates the sprayer into the faucet spout, which is actually easier to maneuver than a countertop-mounted spray head. You can only use one at a time anyway—might as well consolidate the parts into one super functional fixture!
Be sure to take your sink into account when choosing a faucet. You want to be able to easily rinse the entire bowl, so you have to match the faucet to the sink. A swiveling spout can cover most standard sinks, but you may need a spring spout and/or to use the sprayer head to cover a larger sink. If you can rinse the entire sink, you should be able to clean anything you put into it.
Bar Sink Faucets
Kitchens with two sinks typically use a smaller one known as a bar sink to handle handwashing and prep tasks when the main sink is occupied. Smaller faucets go with smaller sinks, but there are a few other things to keep in mind. Bar sink faucets often hook up only to cold water because they can double as filter faucets. As bar sinks aren’t preferred for doing the dishes anyway, most people don’t miss the hot water. If you think you will, be sure to look for a bar faucet that forgoes the filter for a hot water hookup. Other than that, you’ll find many of the same features in bar faucets these days as main sink faucets—things like pull-down spray heads and single-lever operation. They’re smaller by design, but that doesn’t mean they skimp on features, because bar sinks and faucets also have an important role in the kitchen.
Pot Filler Faucets
Nobody likes hauling water across the kitchen. A pot filler, a specialized articulating faucet that sits above the stovetop and extends out from the backsplash, can reduce the hassle. And when you don’t need it, just fold it up against the wall and it’ll stay out of your way. Depending on the particular pot filler, its placement, and the size of the stove, you can usually reach most if not all of the burners, allowing you to deliver water right where you need it.
The convenience of a pot filler goes beyond location. They are designed with higher flow rates than regular faucets—which cut flow and aerate the water stream to reduce water usage—so they actually fill pots faster and save time. The majority of pot fillers also have two valves, one to initiate flow and another to control output at will. This helps ensure the water is off when you want it off; remember, there’s a stove underneath, not a drain, and a leaky faucet could cause serious damage. You can have a plumber install a shut-off valve that only affects the pot filler as an extra failsafe if you’re concerned, but pot fillers are engineered to reduce the risk in the first place.
Extra Faucet Features
You won’t have trouble finding a faucet that goes above and beyond the norm, but you might have a hard time choosing. For instance, anybody who wants to reduce bottled water consumption should look into filter faucets. Access to cleaner water at the tap will help save money and cut down on plastic waste—something all of us can appreciate. If sparkling water is your thing, there are even faucets with that as an option made to serve the beverage-focused consumer. If you’re more of a maker in the kitchen, consider an intelligent faucet that dispenses as much water as you need on demand so you can spend less time measuring. Technology only continues to come up with more nifty solutions—you never know what you’ll discover until you start exploring!
If you’re in the market for beautiful and highly practical kitchen faucets, check out the collections available from American Standard, GROHE, and DXV. These brands have solutions to suit a range of budgets and a great variety of styles to outfit every kind of design. With residential and professionally inspired faucets boasting plenty of neat features, you’re sure to find something that addresses your wants and needs!