Home Tips : Kitchen Faucet Buying Guide

You’re almost finished with your kitchen remodel, but you still haven’t found the right faucet for your new sink. Then it happens: During one Saturday-afternoon foray through a kitchen showroom, you spot the perfect polished-brass beauty. Should you buy it? Maybe. But before you plunk down your hard-earned cash, it’s a good idea to make sure you know what you’re buying.

Most faucets are turned off and on repeatedly, day in and day out, for many years. For that reason, you’ll want to choose one that not only looks great but is also convenient, safe, and will provide durable service for a long time.

Though price is usually a pretty good measure of quality, it isn’t necessarily the best measure—nor does it determine whether or not a certain faucet will best serve your needs. To make a wise choice, you need a clear understanding of typical faucet construction and inner workings.

With a good valve, water temperature shouldn’t change abruptly as you adjust from cold to hot. In addition, to prevent burns, a scald-guard or temperature-limit feature is offered by several makers for single-control faucets. With these, you can remove the handle and adjust the maximum water temperature the faucet will deliver—a wise feature if you have small children (most plumbing codes now require these types of valves in new construction).

For water conservation, all new faucets are now mandated to deliver no more than 2.5 gallons per minute; some provide additional adjustable flow rate restrictors.

Warranties vary. The best ones offer lifetime protection against leaks and drips, ensuring that your faucet will provide years of trouble-free service.

Faucets are manufactured in three basic styles. With a two-handle center-set style, more common in the bathroom, the spout and both valves are combined on a single base unit. Single-handle faucets, common in both baths and kitchens, are center sets where hot and cold are controlled by one lever or knob that’s often part of the spout. The third type is called a widespread faucet—with this, the hot-water valve, cold-water valve, and spout are all mounted separately.

Though antique-style faucets—where hot and cold each have their own valve, handle, and spout—are still made, nearly all present-day faucets have mixing valves, where hot and cold are mixed and delivered through a single spout.

The right type to choose depends on your preference, your budget, and the sink (or counter area) where the faucet will be mounted. Kitchen sinks generally have holes drilled for 8-inch centers or a single hole for single-handle faucets (escutcheons are made for converting multiple-hole sinks to receive single-hole faucets). Bathroom vanity and pedestal sinks are designed for widespread, single-lever, and center-set faucets.

Before you buy a faucet, it’s essential to know the sink or countertop’s hole configuration unless you’re drilling the countertop to suit a particular faucet. If you’re going to want an instant hot-water spout, a soap dispenser, a sprayer, or the like, be sure to get a sink that has holes to accommodate these.

For kitchens, a single control is, by far, the most popular type and suits a very contemporary style; widespread sets offer more-flexible placement. But you pay a premium for widespread styling—as much as twice the price as the same faucet would cost in a center set.

Though faucets appear to be made from different materials, most are made from brass and are given any of several finishes, from powder-coated enamel to gold plating. Parts may be fabricated—machine stamped or pressed—or cast in molds, the better of the two methods.

Because brass is composed of copper, zinc, and lead, brass faucets can leach tiny amounts of lead into drinking water, creating a health risk. To minimize this risk, the Safe Drinking Water Act requires faucet manufacturers to use no more than 8% lead in brass faucets. Manufacturers are working on techniques to further reduce the amount of lead in their brass.

Typical faucet finishes include polished and brushed chrome; high-gloss, satin, and antique brass; gold-plating; and powder-coated decorator colors such as white, black, red, and gray.

Many companies combine colors, giving the faucet body one color and accenting with another. Powder-coated colors are electrostatically applied and baked on, providing a durable finish that should last as long as the life of the faucet.

Brass faucets are actually nickel-plated before a layer of brass plating is applied. If you choose a high-gloss brass finish, a factory-applied clear coat will save you from bi-monthly cleaning and polishing. Chrome faucets are also nickel-plated before the chrome is applied, but, because chrome doesn’t tarnish like brass, it’s left uncoated.

You can also buy brass faucets that retain their brass shine and are virtually unscratchable— Delta’s Brilliance brass finish is a great example of this recent technology.

Some companies offer better finishes in their higher-priced models. For example, Kohler applies the same special-finish processes and performance requirements to all of its faucets, from its premier Cirrus Gold Stripe to the competitively priced Coralais.