Good Quality High Arc Single Lever Tap?

[Deleted User]

Obviously I am no plumber. Soon to have a partly adapted Kitchen installed in my social housing. Their standard taps are low, I would like a high arc single lever tap, preferably with a pull out (but ok without the pull out as that might effect its longevity) as I have quite bad arthritis.

I've been looking for about ten days, in case I need to pay for it, but even expensive taps seem to have critical reviews on ease of installation, a lot are European models which also seems to cause installation problems.

How do I spot a good reliable single lever high arc tap that the kitchen contractors won't object to? Even looking for taps with ceramic disc cartridges seems to be no guarantee they will be trouble free (in longevity terms).

I don't want to spend more than £200, the less the better, but want a quality tap.

I live in a hard water area. Does that mean I need a filter?

Doozergirl

Ikea. I've bought countless of these and put them in multi-million pound houses

10 year guarantee. Decent in-store customer service.

https://www.ikea.com/gb/en/p/vimmern-kitchen-mixer-tap-handspray-stainless-steel-colour-40307017/

Davesnave

Or there's this:


https://www.screwfix.com/p/grohe-start-loop-mono-mixer-kitchen-tap-silk-steel/6236t

It had a choice of chrome or silk steel finish in B&Q when I bought ours, but I see Scewfix is now doing both and discounting the chrome.Grrr! The control lever might be better than some for arthritic hands.

Being 'foreign,' it will probably need the adapters mentioned in the second user review.

andyhop

Franke, bristan, hansgrohe

All reputable brands

Grohe will need 3/8 adapters but you can get these off the shelf at plumbers merchant and Screwfix

Moss5

The tap at #2 above:-
The kitchen mixer tap can be used in high-pressure systems. Tested to manage a pressure of max. 10 bar (1000 kPa). Recommended working pressure: 1.0 - 5.0 bar (100 kPa - 500 kPa).

You need both hot and cold at mains pressure for this tap.

Davesnave

andyhop wrote: »

Franke, bristan, hansgrohe

All reputable brands

Not the Franke I bought which was dismal....


https://www.sinks.co.uk/franke-zurich-kitchen-tap/


I fixed it with a different aerator, bought for £2.85 from eBay, but it was pants out of the box.

[Deleted User]

Thank you for the suggestions. I went for the Ikea Vimmern tap. It has a 10 year guarantee. Contractor confirmed he will install it. Delivery on Saturday. I think the hot water flow has enough pressure.

[Deleted User]

Ooops hot water pressure IS too low. Comes out at a trickle. Problem is cold water comes out very high pressure, always had problems with splashes.

Now worried I won't be able to find a good quality tap that can cope with high pressure cold water and low pressure hot.

And just learned IKEA won't accept return as its been used. £150 down the drain. I will just have to save up and continue to use it for now. Won't be using IKEA again, that's for sure although I expect most plumbing firms do the same. God knows what I replace it with under those conditions when I finally can.

That's what you get for being clever I suppose, I had a working tap, but it was too low and not 'smart' looking enough for me. I should have read terms and conditions and thought will this apply to me,of course its in 'used' condition. But assumed the pressure was high enough so wouldn't be a problem.

Its a new kitchen in social housing, initially installed their standard low tap.., but I said we agreed I could fit this (the Vimmern tap) - I asked the job supervisor if it was suitable and he said he could fit anything. But no one looked at the specs. Bet they are smirking now at this smart alec tenant.

Oh well, I actually have a sink that takes 10 minutes to fill now. What fun. Will avoid anything involving plumbing for the rest of my life.

Tap looks like the tap of my dreams though (ironic laugh).

[Deleted User]

OK don't know if this helps, hot water tap upstairs flows at 12 litres a minute (1200ml in 6 seconds). The new tap less than 2 litres a minute (200ml in 6 seconds).

I've been told I have a vented hot water cylinder. Its a wierd arrangement (to me, the plumbing ignorant) upstairs the hot water flows faster than the cold, downstairs the mains cold water was very high pressure, the hot a lot slower. Now cold is slower than it was (11 litres a minute, hot as above 2litres a minute.

Sorry i don't know anything about plumbing, I don't know if the above helps me find a solution.

The tap blurb says

'You save water and energy, because the mixer tap has a mechanism that reduces water flow while maintaining pressure.'

Water and energy saving aerator (8 l/min.) for high-pressure systems included.

The kitchen mixer tap can be used in high-pressure systems. Tested to manage a pressure of max. 10 bar (1000 kPa). Recommended working pressure: 1.0 - 5.0 bar (100 kPa - 500 kPa).

The cold water pressure was definitely high, but I am certain the hot water pressure was above 1 bar.

jennifernil

We recently fitted a slightly similar, but less expensive Ikea tap, it had 2 different aerator/filter things with it, did yours? It goes on the end of the spout.

One is for low pressure and one for high pressure, we fitted the low pressure one as we have very low pressure on our hot water. We have good pressure on the cold.

We had great difficulty finding a tap we liked with single lever operation that was suitable for very low pressure.

Despite this one claiming to be suitable, it was not really satisfactory in operation, so we have now fitted a small (shower) pump on the HW pipe under the sink, we have stored HW from a vented cylinder, this gives us a much better amount of water at the tap and we get HW there in half the time we used to.

Would this be an option for you? The pump cost us about £80.

We have an upside down house, the kitchen is upstairs, the water tanks are in the loft above, so the head of water is not great, but our cold in the kitchen comes direct from the mains so has excellent pressure.

Bathroom taps are all fed from stored water so the H&C pressures are equal, downstairs we have excellent pressure, upstairs not quite as good, but still much better than the HW in the kitchen, which is a bit of a mystery!

[Deleted User]

Thank you.

Yes it could be an option. I do like the look of the tap. I can't see that there are two choices of aerators. Unfortunately the xxx plumber seems to have thrown the box/tools etc out but I don't remember seeing aerators, think it all came in the tap.