Kitchen Remodeling: The thing about faucets

For some, faucets are merely a hose from which water comes. For others, they are metal masterpieces whose lines define the space. I'm somewhere in between; I definitely cared about looks when weighing in on the faucet decision.

We wanted something modern in stainless steel, and ended up with the Kohler Purist 7505 VS. This particular model uses a single-hole installation, meaning there is a total of 1 hole that all of it goes through. Faucets can use anywhere from 1 to 4 holes, depending on the combination of handles going through the countertop vs being on the faucet, whether the sprayer is integrated into the faucet itself ("pull-down" or "pull-out") or is a standalone item, and if there's a matching soap dispenser. Knowing which faucet you want factors into the overall planning because not all styles are available in all holenesses. If you are mounting the faucet to the sink, the sink will need to match in available holes.

Assuming you went with the integrated sprayer, there are the above-mentioned two options. As the names suggest, a pull-down faucet lets you grab the tip and pull it down, while the pull-out option detaches a larger upper section which acts as a handle and also typically has a bend in it. In either case the pieces are attached to the base via a flexible hose, allowing you to spray to your delight in every conceivable direction.

While it the difference between the two styles seems minor, there's a rather tangible difference between them. The flexible inside hose is not THAT flexible, thus it's hard to bend it significantly. As a result, the pull-down variety of faucets are essentially limited to spraying along a radius starting at the faucet tip. In practice, this means that you can easily get closer to things (for concentrated spraying), however, it's hard to maneuver it around to spray something from a different angle, or to extend your faucet to the edge of the sink and spray down. The pull-out model, in contrast, excels tat these maneuvers.

There's likely a reason that most faucets have a nice rounded shape: the sprayer return mechanism (which is actually just a large weight attached to the hose under the base of the faucet) doesn't work as well when sharp corners are involved. For example, our faucet's end is harder to pull out than others I've worked with in the past.

And that's the thing about faucets: there are a bunch of options and they all have an impact.