Kitchen Tap – half decent one?

Our kitchen tap rusted through the base last night and I need to replace today from something I can get in Stirling.

We have the usual Wickes, Toolstation, B&Q, Screwfix and Wolsey Plumbers merchants. I see Toolstation have Franke ones – are they beter?

It is a style like this we need:

Our kitchen tap rusted through the base last night and I need to replace today

Careful removing it. Try not to faucet.

Careful removing it. Try not to faucet.

You’ve plumbed new depths with that one…

I’m a fan of Grohe;

https://www.screwfix.com/p/grohe-ambi-dual-lever-mono-mixer-kitchen-tap-chrome/317JJ

EDIT: Toolstation have the same one, but a few quid more

https://www.toolstation.com/grohe-ambi-mono-mixer-kitchen-tap/p94722

Tap into your local plumbers knowledge.

You could go full middle class and get a boiling water tap. Spendy but one of the best purchases we ever made. It is a solution to a problem you didn’t realise you had.

Our Qettle tap looks identical to the one in your picture, but lots of gubbins going on under the sink

The tap I always recommend is the Bluci Lambro from Sinks-taps.com. £146.12 delivered.

Like the one pictured but with single lever and a splendid pull-out rinser without all the fancy crap that sometimes goes with them.
We had one in the old house and couldn’t find anything that matched it so bought one for the new house too.

I highly recommend taking the sink out to fit it though. And there needs to be a bit of room underneath for the loop of pipe to fall freely. You could fit it in situ if you had a really long box spanner (17 or 19mm, can’t remember).

Edit – but if you have to have one today, and don’t want to take the sink out, I find most taps come with a ridiculously long threaded bolt. My tip is to cut it down to the minimum so an ordinary socket spanner will tighten it.

https://www.toolstation.com/deva-pendle-pull-out-mono-mixer-kitchen-tap/p30006

We got this one for our kitchen earlier this year. The pull out bit is brilliant. I use it all the time and little switch to flip between normal flow and a more powerful pattern to blast away stubborn bits.

Only downside is the built in aerator to reduce water usage. I get the need for them in a general water conservation sense, but it takes twice as long to pull the hot water though as it still needs the same volume of water to come through the pipes. Guess that’ll be the same for all modern kitchen taps though.

http://3 Way Water Filter Taps Swivel Spout Pure Drinking Water Kitchen Sink Mixer Tap Polished Chrome https://amzn.eu/d/cTnUcalNot very useful as currently out of stock + includes a water filter tap too, but we took a massive punt on this as was about £35 and the quality is brilliant, better than  £200-£300 taps we have had in the past

3 Way Water Filter Taps Swivel Spout Pure Drinking Water Kitchen Sink Mixer Tap Polished Chrome https://amzn.eu/d/cTnUcal

we got a franke one to go with our sink and it does feel better quality than the wickes/howdens/b&q ones weve had previously

while were on boring middleclass sink discusions, the composite granite franke sink we got is much better than any of the stainless ones we’ve had before

(got them both heavily discounted)

Grohe tap picked up this morning….Now to hope I can fit it without installing a new kitchen….

fitting kitchen taps is easy

……. as long as your arm can bend in5 places and you have 20cm long fingers

We have a franke 3 lever tap, about 10 yrs old now.  Looks as good as new.  But when it drips you need to replace a cartridge at something like £20 (or maybe it is £50).  Might have gone through a cold one and a hot one in that time.  I would buy another.

Bought a Grohe tap for the bathroom, was cheaper and it feels it.  Note that it a different sized connector, which I did not anticipate (only obviously stocked by screwfix – but I am plumbing ignorant).  Only a few months old.  Would not rush to buy another (at that price point – would consider a higher end Grohe one maybe).

We had a Franke mixer tap in the kitchen. Must be about 10 years old and looks as good as new. Was an Ascona, same as the one below. The only issue is that it’s been through about 3 sets of catridges, but you can get them fairly cheap.

https://www.screwfix.com/p/franke-ascona-sink-mounted-mono-mixer-kitchen-tap-silk-steel/91171

One of the reasons sinks and taps are fitted before some of the carcase ‘gubbins’. Come time to change, it’s swear o’clock.

Changed our sink and tap to similar to OP, but my wife wanted quarter turn levers – easy to turn if you’ve got wrist problems. Just had to change (or butcher) the cartridges as it started dripping recently.

Next job is new sink in downstairs loo. Like many others have found, we had a company come round for either a new sink and vanity unit, or converting to a shower room. Visited, then haven’t bothered to provide a quote. Looks like I’m ripping it out then – sink only.

Well it went it surprisingly easily, particularly so with the really shonky plumbing that’s in the cupboard and considering it’s half hidden behind the bowl.
No leaks so far.

Tap feels better than the last one (of no name), so fingers crossed we’re all good.