Choosing the right type of tap for your home is not that easy. Different taps might be required for your kitchen, bathroom, laundry and shower area. You might decide to use a mixer tap in your bathroom or the standard tap in your laundry area. Either way, knowing how to differentiate the kinds of tap to suit the area that you need would mean the difference between having a perfectly working tap or having one that does not do the job that you wanted it to do.
How do we differentiate a mixer tap between a standard tap?
Here is a quick information on how to tell one from the other.
- Mixer taps are the most common tap that you see in Australian homes especially kitchens. These are the taps where you have one handle that controls both hot and cold water and are mixed together and comes out from one single spout.
- Older types of taps have separate spouts for both the cold and hot water these are called pillar taps.
- The third type is the traditional taps with a handle for both hot and cold and a spout.
So what’s better mixer tap, pillar taps or standard taps. It’s all a matter of opinion and completely revolves around the style that you wish to portray within your house.
For example:
- Modern Australian home will have mixer taps throughout the house, giving it the sleek modern user-friendly feel.
- An older style federation house will most likely have traditional taps through keeping with that classic feel.
- And a retro house may choose to use pillar taps, to keep the retro feel and to match its cool pastel coloured basins and toilets.
One tap isn’t necessarily better than the other, however as with most things in life you get what you pay for, and this is definitely the case when it comes to tapware. My advice is don’t skimp on your tapware when choosing to replace it, always go middle or top of the range, this will pay dividends in the long run as the taps will require less maintenance and replacement parts should be readily available when needed. Cheap taps will fail and fast, and as a plumber, I can tell you that some taps are impossible to find spare parts for, so go with the reputable brands and suppliers.
In my own house, I have recently renovated I chose the following styles.
- Wall Mixers in the showers.
- Flick mixers in the kitchen, laundry and basins.
One last tip of the day and this one you will love when your hose taps outside require replacement, please spend the extra money and get ¼ turn lever style taps, they require 0 maintenance and will last forever in a day, no more washers and hard to turn handles.
These save you on the water since the water temperature is optimized much faster. They are might also come with a water-saving function that allows you to minimize your water bill. Mixer taps also come in different types from the monobloc mixer taps to the three-hole mixer ones. They also come in different colours from the standard chrome or stainless steel ones to the gold coloured taps. These kind of taps are especially good for showers and baths.
Standard taps are the ones where you use a single lever in order to control the flow of water. You can either turn the tap to the left in order to get hot water or turn it to the right to get cold water. There is also an option to turn the lever on the side in order to preset it to the desired water temperature. One major advantage of the standard taps is that you can easily control the flow of water by just lifting the lever continuously up to get a much heavy flow.
They are mostly used in bathroom basins since they are very easy to use especially for young kids and the elderly. They also are come in varying designs and colours which is one of their major advantages since they are easy to match with your kitchen and bathroom themes and designs.
Now, you’ll have a general idea of what kind of tap to use in your property. For installation of new taps and repair of leaking taps, call your expert plumbers right away.
Here is another article that you may find interesting in regards to “What to Check if Your Hot Water Service is Not Working Properly”.
If you need your taps serviced or need new taps installed, don’t hesitate to call us at 13 10 91 to fix the problem right away. We service areas in Canberra, Newcastle, Central Coast, Hunter Valley, Lake Macquarie, and Port Stephens.
At The Plumbing and Electrical Doctor, we have made these articles downloadable to PDF for our customer’s convenience.