Hope you had a great long weekend!  Our kitchen faucet has been leaking for a few weeks now and we finally decided on the weekend that it was time to do something about it.  We went to Costco and Home Depot to check out what they had and there are SO many options that it is hard to decide what to do!

Here’s some thoughts and what I learned today in my crash course on faucet buying 🙂

Design

• We currently have a faucet with the handle that is top mounted but I think we want to switch to an arc faucet with a side mounted handle.  It just seems more modern, and while the side mounted handles confuse me, I am sure I’ll get used to it after living with it.
• We definitely want to be able to pull out a head so that we can easily wash the sink.

Materials & Build Quality

• I noticed that many of the faucets in HomeDepot are now made in China and feature plastic pull down heads.  I think we want something a little higher quality. The MOEN Indi faucet is made in the USA, though the few Kohler ones I looked at were made in China.
• Costco’s Hansgrohe faucets are advertised as solid brass construction.  Initially, I thought this was great, since my parents faucets are all brass and have lasted 40 years!  However, I’ve been doing some research on brass and it seems like all brass has some lead in it that may leech out.  All faucets sold after January 2014 must conform to a new Safe Drinking Water Act which limits the amount of lead leeched into drinking water from the faucet.
• Stainless steel is another option.  According to this website, it shouldn’t have any lead.  It also says that not all stainless steel is created equal and that we should look for 304 stainless which is 18% chromium and 8% nickel.

Flow

• We definitely want to have the option to switch between spray and shower on the flow.  However, one thing I didn’t realize was that some faucets won’t let you switch mid-stream and some force you to hold down a button for shower.
• According to reviews, Hansgrohe Talis C requires you to turn off the water to switch it from spray to shower and back.  The Hansgrohe Metro requires you to hold down a button for the shower.  I think that might be a deal breaker for me.
• Another consideration is the flow rate.  I read on the HomeDepot reviews that the MOEN Indi that I liked has a water saving feature, meaning the flow rate is really slow.  The specs say 1.5 gallons per minute, though I can’t really picture how slow that is.  Perhaps I’ll measure my current one, as I’m pretty happy with it.  I’ve seen other faucet spec sheets that say they do 2.2 gpm so there is definitely a range.

After all of that, I think I’ll have to check out a specialty plumbing supply store this week to see what is available at the higher end since I’m not really happy with any of the choices I saw on the weekend.