I am very familiar with this style of kitchen faucet, two of my relatives have similar faucets installed in their kitchens. Faucets like this usually start at about $200 for no-name brands and can go up to about $1200 for the top name brands. So my first thought when I saw the price was that it was a cheap plastic piece of junk. But since I write for a kitchen specialty website where many of our readers are on tight budgets I thought I would keep an open mind. The distributer offered to provide a reduced cost sample for testing and evaluation, but our reviews are completely independent on any manufacturer or organization.My first impression when it arrived is how VERY heavy it is. I’ll warn you right up front that if you have a low-cost stainless steel sink this faucet will likely be too heavy for it. Likewise if your sink is not firmly mounted into your countertop. Fortunately I have a very heavy-duty kitchen sink with a deep bowl that is intended for faucets like this. Unfortunately, when we bought the sink we didn’t plan ahead and we bought a faucet that is the wrong style and the wrong color and we have never really liked it so the unfortunate part is having to uninstall it to put this one in.
If you are considering this faucet, also be aware that it is very tall, it sticks up about 20” above the sink rim. Some kitchens may not be able to handle that height. Again, I was fortunate that our sink is well designed for a “commercial grade” faucet like this.
I inspected the faucet before installing it. Contrary to what I might expect for the price this faucet is mostly metal (the manufacturer states that it is brass). I have looked at similar faucets at the home improvement chain store that cost over $200 and they are made with quite a bit of plastic.
This is a single-hole faucet, ideal for me because my sink is drilled for only one hole. Note that it does NOT come with a trim plate if you have a 3-hole sink so you will have to get that locally. The mounting hole is standard size and it hooked up easily to the existing water feeds. Installation did not take any longer than any other faucet and everything needed was in the box. Kudos to the manufacturer for including two premium-grade metal sheathed feed hoses. I would have only expected cheap plastic hoses at this price.
After installation the faucet operates in a similar way to other commercial-grade (or restaurant grade) faucets. If you are new to this type of faucet here’s what to expect … the on/off/temperature control is to the right and operates by tilting it away from the main stem. The temperature is controlled by moving the lever toward you or away from you. Once you are satisfied with the temperature you can turn the water on and off without changing it. The on/off lever itself is machine-knurled metal and is easy to operate with your wrist, knuckles, etc if your hands are full.
Here’s where it gets tricky if this style of faucet is new to you … you actually have TWO faucets to choose from. One is on a fixed arm like a normal kitchen faucet and it has its own on/off switch. This faucet can be swung a full 360 degrees and has a standard aerator in it, so using it is like what most people are used to. The second faucet is on a spring-loaded flexible gooseneck tube and extends over20” high. It has a clamp to hold it in place or you can unclamp it and use the entire faucet like a sprayer hose. The end of it operates more like a sprayer than an aerator and it has its own on/off switch. This faucet also rotates 360 degrees. So the trick is that you can operate either or BOTH of the faucets at the same time depending on which on/off switch you have turned on.
WARNING
The word “warning” isn’t meant to be a negative but to point out a couple of things you MUST know in using this style of faucet:
1. Most kitchen faucets don’t swivel 360 degrees. If you have either faucet swung far to the side where it is not pointing into the sink and it’s on/off switch is “on”, if you turn the main control “on” you will spray water all over your kitchen counter. That’s just the way commercial faucets work so you are forced to think a bit before absent-mindedly turning the water on.
2. The gooseneck faucet “can” be left hanging without inserting it into the clamp. If you turn the main control on and the gooseneck’s lever is also on you will be faced with the entire assembly wildly flailing around like a goose with its neck cut off (maybe that’s why they call it a gooseneck). TRUST ME!!! I have done this and it is NOT a pretty sight to have water spraying at high pressure all over your kitchen while you desperately try to find the on/off control. It is only funny later when you talk about it. Again, this is not a defect or a negative, it’s just what happens when you choose to have such a fancy faucet in your kitchen.
The bottom line is this faucet is an amazing value at the price. It is mostly solid metal, well made, has ceramic valves and looks like a million dollars. Once you use a faucet like this for everyday kitchen chores you will never go back to a basic faucet again. It is well made and leak-free. In fact it only has one drawback which I consider a minor inconvenience but to some it may be a more significant frustration. With most faucets of this style the gooseneck clamp is longer than the bottom “normal” faucet so it can swivel around it. Inexplicably this manufacturer has designed theirs backwards so the bottom faucet sticks out longer than the gooseneck so when you swivel it from side to side it hits the gooseneck. The solution in everyday use is to always keep the gooseneck positioned to one side or the other while using the lower faucet. But it’s still backwards from what you would expect it to be. I can’t take a full rating point off for that because it doesn’t bother me but I will knock a half point off of an otherwise excellent and affordable product.
