Plumbing & Faucet Reviews

Faucet Buying Guide: Factors to consider:

What type of faucet styles are there?

When shopping for faucets consider the style of the environment there’s: contemporary, modern, traditional, antique, victorian, transitional

What type of faucet finishes are there?

The color and shine of faucets are available in a variety of finishes: brush nickel, stainless steel, chrome are all silver metallic finishes. bronze and brass are more gold shades. Then there’s black, white and some off whites to choose from.

What type of handle and sink application? Single or double handle faucets?

Faucets range everywhere from single hole, single handle, to three hole sinks with two handles and a spout. Measure you sink to make sure you get a faucet that matches your application type.

What type of options are available?

Some options include pull out spray spout, different styles of handles, and multi-function sprays.

The Plumbing Basics

Faucets provide us with drinking water, help us clean, and keep us comfortable. In short, faucets help us live. PlumbingDirect.com offers the widest variety of faucets for residential, commercial, and industrial applications.

From bathroom and kitchen faucets for the home to commercial food service faucets and laboratory faucets, this is your source for the right faucet. We also offer metering faucets, hydrant faucets, and bubbler faucets.

Fixtures. Now, that’s a broad topic when you’re talking about plumbing. At home, choose from kitchen and bathroom sinks, tankless water heaters, and garbage disposals, as well as tubs, shower pieces, hand dryers, and toilets. For commercial and industrial applications, we also offer hand washing sinks, scrub sinks, and urinals.

So, whether you’re planning for a home, a business, or an industrial project, PlumbingDirect.com has everything to fill your fixture need.

Your home’s water delivery system depends on valves to help make that system run smoothly. Air and gas valves are also essential to certain parts of your home or job site, so whether it’s residential or commercial, we have the valves you need.

We offer low pressure valves, ball valves, and washing machine valves for residential applications. And choose from specialty valves, butterfly valves, and gate, globe, and check valves for commercial settings. We also carry foot valves and flush-o-meter valves for school and hospital settings, as well as specialty valves and supply stops and connectors.

Valves are designed to help make water, air, and gas systems work properly.

While there are many different brands in plumbing, the main top five most seen in American house are Kohler. As the leader in plumbing from faucet to tubs Kohler has lead innovation for years. Moen Faucets are a favorite for traditional and contemporary faucets. Delta Faucets make there mark with innovative kitchen faucet design. Grohe is a modern style favorite from Germany. Finally American Standard is another favorite in everyday house holds.

Commercial Plumbing Products

The conservation of water has become a requirement for many facilities, cities, states and the federal government. This need is driven by three main reasons: the availability of water, current sewer capacity and rising costs or budget cuts.

Toilets and urinals are still flushed with potable water and it is estimated that up to 20% of the available drinking water in the world is flushed down the drain, wastefully. In addition, leakage of water delivery lines may add an additional 8% to the above. It can be estimated that there are approximately 8 million urinals installed in the US alone with approximately 100 million people using these fixtures. Assuming an average 2 gallon flush, the potable water use of urinals alone, in this country per year, is approximately 160 billion gallons!

How about waterless urinals?

Waterless Urinals Consume No Water

A Waterless urinal saves on average 20,000 to 45,000 gallons of water a year. Twenty-two Waterless urinals can save up to 1,000,000 gallons of water per year.

160 billion gallons of water is equivalent to the water usage of 490,000 homes or 1.9 million people per year. This vast amount of outflow to the sewer and septic systems can be eliminated and will not run into our natural waterways and oceans.

On your local level this could mean: A typical office building rest room with three urinals and 120 men equals a yearly water use of 237,600 gallons of potable water flushed down the drain. This assumes three uses per person per day and only 220 working days. Waterless.com

Commercial and Residential Automatic Touchless Faucets

First off, what why should you even consider getting a touchless faucet?  A number of reasons include:

• Convenient – Good for those times when your hands are dirty, soapy, etc.
• Safe – Handles are one of the dirtiest places in a house.  Helps prevent the spread of germs.
• Automatic temperature and flow control.
• Green – Saves money and water.

• Adjustable Infrared Sensor Range
• 36″ (91″mm) Long Sensor Cable
• 24″ (61″mm) Long Flex Hose
• Filtered Solenoid Valve with serviceable Strainer Filter
• Bak-Chek Tee for Hot/Cold Supply
• 6 VDC Plug-in Transformer (Model SF-2300 only)
• Aerator Spray Head
• Includes Four (4) AA-size Batteries

If you want a cheap touchless faucet, you can get them for around $40.  The iTouchless EZ Faucet Pro is only $39.99 and has a nice look to it.  It has a override button so you can keep the water running which is a must for washing the dishes.  It is also easy to install as it attaches to your current faucet eliminating the need for a plumber.  However, with a low price, you run the risk of the faucet being less reliable.  According to reviews online, this faucet has had problems lasting a long time. http://www.touchlessfaucet.net/