American kitchen taps...

Right: With you. My parents in law's bath has a similar problem with mains fed cold and tank fed hot. With the hot tap on at full the usable range of the cold tap to go from freezing to scalding is about 1 degree of rotational movement.

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Scott M
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Scott M wrote:

Reading this thread a little amused that anything that may be a little unusual? in the UK i.e. anything someone has seen on this side of the pond is automatically "American"! (OK; with Canada having only a tenth of the US population in a much larger land area, we'll settle for 'North American') ;-). In this part of Canada such 'sprayers' are not uncommon. The kitchen of one of our daughters has one, the other not. In this house the original mixer taps came with a sprayer hose but I never installed it. See b). Speaking as a d-i-yer; there seems to be two main types. a) is a type of shower head that is normally part of the spout over the kitchen sink/s but it is removable and can be moved around in order to rinse/spray off dishes etc. With these you adjust the water to the temperature and flow you want, the usual way, using either the mixer handle or the individual cold/hot taps, pull the 'shower head' off the spout and go to it! b) More common is a type where an extra hose, often about three eighths outside diameter, either rubber/plastic or covered with that chrome 'slinky' material, comes from the bottom of the taps up through an extra aperture, usually to the right of the taps/mixer valve. They seem to work, in most cases, again by setting the water pressure and temp and then operating a trigger handle on the sprayer head/nozzle whereupon the water automatically diverts through an extra (diverter) valve installed in the base of the taps assembly (A divil to get at by the look of it?)! One reason they may be unsuitable, IMHO, is that a third extra 'plumbing' hole is needed through the edge of a typical ss sink unit or it may be an extra hole through counter top itself and thus require a decorative waterproof bushing which sometimes come with the faucet assembly. You may need to cut this extra one yourself; some sinks come with three holes. (Well! Plus the 4th 'drain' hole in the bottom! Just in case someone quicker in mind than I, points that out.)) We have since replaced, twice in about 33 years, our original mixer valve, opting for the simplicity (and lower cost!) of separate taps. Am therefore thankful we did not cut that third hole and install the extra hose. I have seen a 'blank' installed in such a third but now unused hole in the edge of a ss sink; it must have to be a tight fit and be also of non rusting material! Concerning water pressure: Another reason we did not originally install our 'spray hose' was that we then had a well and electric pump pressure system. With such systems the pressure varies from around 20lbs/sq.inch, cut-in to around 40 at cut out. That pressure would probably be too low to get effective spraying? Today we are on a municipal system with estimated pressures of around 30 to 60 lbs/sq.inch. (2 to 4 Bar?) With this our neighbours diverter valves (Venturis?) seem to work OK. From time to time do seem to detect concerns about UK water pressures? Gravity systems; still? I recall a great big *slabs of slate) water tank in the roof of a

100+ year old house in Liverpool where we had a flat up to the late 1950s. I guess it's long gone now? BTW again in our current bath/shower replacement we have opted for individual hot/cold taps rather than a mixer. Hope this is of interest. Our d-i-y motto is KISS. Keep it simple ....... etc. Terry.
Reply to
Terry

Gravity systems are still around in many existing installations. The majority of new installs are mains pressure systems, but gravity systems are still being fitted, either because of poor water connections, or ignorance.

Christian.

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Christian McArdle

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