Choosing the right bathroom taps
Choosing the correct bathroom taps can be very difficult as there are so many different types to choose from. One thing that is often overlooked and can cause major problems is choosing the incorrect type of tap for your system. If you have a high pressure system, such as mains supply water and a combi to supply the hot water then you can use virtually any kind of tap, but if you have a low pressure system and you fit taps that are designed to be fitted on a high pressure system the taps will not function correctly and you would have to replace them.
Taps also fix to the basin differently as there are basins with two holes and basins with just a single hole and so you need to get the correct type of tap. Traditional taps that use a head gear are normally sold in pairs as you need a seperate tap for each water supply. Mixer taps often only require a single hole and are connected to the water supply via flexible tap tails. Traditional taps normally require a few turns before the tap is open fully, but modern taps which use cartridges instead of a head gear are often fully open with just a quarter of one turn.
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| This tap would require a basin with two holes |
This tap could be fitted to a single hole basin |
The majority of taps are made out of brass because it can easily be machined and can easily be plated with other more attractive metals. Gold plated taps and chrome plated taps are amongst the most common types. Chrome plated taps are my preferred choice as they withstand attacks from the chemicals that are found in bathroom products such as shampoo,shaving foam and soaps.Most Gold plated taps often start to loose their gold plating after just a few months and the exposed brass can often be seen, this is less of a problem with high end gold plated taps that cost hundreds of pounds, but for a large amount of the cheaper ones the gold plating will eventually deteriorate. If you have gold plated taps in your bathroom now and you wish to change them for chrome ones it can be a bigger job than expected as often the basin plug hole will also require replacing to match.
