Are Touchless Faucets Worth The Cost?

If you have the extra money go for it and let us know the results.

In most cases they are just an expensive "gimmick". _ More to go wrong. Wr have them in the one church washroom - for that use they are OK, but there is no temp adjustment (cold only)

I'd be concerned about how long the motion sensing electronics will work, as well as whatever electromechanical device they use to work the valve. It's more complex, costs more, and my guess would be that there is a good chance it will go kaput or need expensive parts before a regular faucet.

The fact that it opens to whatever the previous setting was is a factor too. I guess that's OK, as it's most useful when your hands are dirty from working with raw meat or similar, you just want a little warer and you don't want to touch the handle.

I was looking at faucets recently and from what I've seen so far, even $250 faucets are made with a lot of plastic now, eg the pull down faucet end, usually the part it goes into, etc.

That's my main issue. The older Moen's could be set to warm for the no-touch on. That's what I want when my hands are slimy from beef, etc. Cold water won't break that down as fast, so I'd still need to touch the handle.

The new Moen's don't have that temp control. It looks like a couple of Pfister models do but the Pfister of today isn't the Price-Pfister of old. The reviews are iffy.

Yeah, Black and Decker bought Pfister, so the spiral to the drain has likely begin. Black and Decker + Kiss of Death.

What do hospitals use?

I see enough non-working faucets in public restroom to make me think there can be problems. I can see it being handy at times though.

I looked at one on Amazon and it has 9% 1 star reviews. Reading them was enough to convince me not to get one.

Foot pedals.

Unless you have a circulating hot water system, expecting a specific water temperature for a random activation is optimistic.

But a maximum temperature is not. A thermostatic mix valve will assure the water never gets hotter than so hot, and gets to that temperature as quickly as possible(unlike a fixed mix valve)

Personally you could not GIVE me one of them for FREE.

Everytime I go to a public restroom and *TRY* to wash my hands with one of them #$&^(@#*^ things, I spend more time cussing while waving my arms and hands just to get enough water to rinse the soap off my hands. The last thing I want is on of them F#$%ing things on my house.....

Just my honest opinion of them!!!

Automatic faucets only work in the TV commercials.

My kitchen sink is almost directly above the hot water heater. A long wait for hot water has never been an issue.

There are foot operated kits that make touch faucets, touchless, at least as far as getting the water on.

Can you control the temperature with the foot kits?

That's what the paragraph you quoted was about: The need to touch even the Moen touchless faucet if the handle isn't left where you want it when you you touchlessly turn the water on.

The older Moen's had a control box which allowed you to set a pre-determined temperature whenever the touchless feature was used, regardless of where the handle is set. They removed that feature with the current units.

I can think of 2 reasons:

I'll wait for the Amazon Alexa temperature and flow controlled faucet.

"Alexa, set the kitchen faucet to 105 degrees Fahrenheit and 1/2 gallon per minute flow."

I believe that's a true statement, but does it apply? If the flow required to get some warm water to the tap is more than the total amount of water you need, a thermostat ain't gonna help you.

Low flow faucets make the time to hot worse. I'm finding that if I need a glass of warm water in the bathroom, it's quicker to walk to the kitchen, heat a glass of cold water in the microwave and walk back to the bathroom. Uses a lot less water and probably less electricity and I get some exercise in the process.

Even if you have no circulation system or special valve, a faucet that defaults to a set temp when activated would allow you to avoid having it blast you with full hot if that was what was last used. If you set it to lukewarm, it might be the temp of the water sitting in the pipes, or it might be lukewarm, but it's not going to be 130F. And there is at least some chance that you'd get the desired temp water, as opposed to what temp was last used.

You betcha. It's all about the requirements. If you're the only one using that faucet and you know for sure the last temperature, and that temperature is what you want, you're good to go. Note the word "might" in your response. Maybe it will, maybe it won't. Determine the cost. Determine the benefit. Make the decision if benefit exceeds cost.

I think most people have three requirements.

Attach a percentage number to each representing the number of times the temperature you want is the same as the temperature last used AND the current temperatures in the pipe allow the flow to start at that temperature.

When I do that calculation it comes out near zero benefit. Turning down the water heater temperature fixes the "don't burn me" state.