That's a great question. I've wondered that myself. But I think it usually ends up being more of a fixture than an appliance. On the other hand, an insta-hot that feeds a faucet does get a look-see as an appliance.

I think you would get more activity in the kitchen forum.

I don't have the same faucet that you are looking at, but I do have two high end franke's. One is the bridge faucet (with side spray) that you see in all vintage kitchens in the magazines and the matching series with the 3 paddle handles with the middle paddle being for filterered water which is used in my prep sink.

The bridge faucet I have had a few issues with. First of all the water volume that comes out of the cold is way less than that out of the hot. I would say by less than half. And no it isn't a supply line issue. The other problem I have is when the side spray is used it will drip a significant amount of water out of the spout well after you take your hand off of the button. This is a $1200 dollar faucet and I don't expect that. I can excuse a slip in quality control as it happens to the best of them, but if these are design flaws then I don't think they are worth $1200. I have not contacted franke about a fix yet, so I can not comment on customer service, but plan on doing so. The side spray is also a nice solid feeling piece of metal which I do like. The button is a bit on the stiff side to push in.

The 3 handle faucet (also $1200) has been better. I have modified the filtered water lines to be plumbed in with my reverse osmosis filter (instead of the franke filter) which resides downstairs.

TVGuy: interesting. There has been some conversation before about the relative quality of the internal parts not really trending with manufacturer - that is most if not all have high and low end lines branded the same, plus within, say, high end lines sometimes the quality is poor.

Very hard to be a consumer of faucets I think!

Truthfully, the hardest decision I made in the entire kitchen-house thing to date has been over those stupid faucets. And I'm not happy with the choice at the end either!

But this question is not for my kitchen. Anyone with this middling Franke? I did actually cross-post in Kitchens. It's just not a darling-fixture around here so I don't really expect to get much.

Thanks, both, for trying.

I think plumbing fixtures are a world unto themselves. Maybe I should try the plumbing forum!

I think you would get more activity in the kitchen forum.

I don't have the same faucet that you are looking at, but I do have two high end franke's. One is the bridge faucet (with side spray) that you see in all vintage kitchens in the magazines and the matching series with the 3 paddle handles with the middle paddle being for filterered water which is used in my prep sink.

The bridge faucet I have had a few issues with. First of all the water volume that comes out of the cold is way less than that out of the hot. I would say by less than half. And no it isn't a supply line issue. The other problem I have is when the side spray is used it will drip a significant amount of water out of the spout well after you take your hand off of the button. This is a $1200 dollar faucet and I don't expect that. I can excuse a slip in quality control as it happens to the best of them, but if these are design flaws then I don't think they are worth $1200. I have not contacted franke about a fix yet, so I can not comment on customer service, but plan on doing so. The side spray is also a nice solid feeling piece of metal which I do like. The button is a bit on the stiff side to push in.

The 3 handle faucet (also $1200) has been better. I have modified the filtered water lines to be plumbed in with my reverse osmosis filter (instead of the franke filter) which resides downstairs.

aliris19 you hit the nail on the head. Faucets ARE appliances, but no one sees that yet. The faucet industry relies on the fact that no one wants to buy them and review them "just for fun", not even CR. The faucet industry is a dinosaur.

Franke buys faucets from other companies that don't export. Franke buys parts too, and and makes a few faucets. Franke is a kitchen systems company, not a plumbing parts company. The faucet industry is such a dinosaur that it allow aggregators like Franke to offer faucets without beating them. I'm sure the faucet will be fine.

I remember seeing a similar looking faucet for $30. I think it was "tosca" faucet (?). I'll remember in a few days and post again then.

Thanks, David, for the information about Franke. I didn't realize they were an aggregator. But going to their website is a most confusing experience; there's no faucets there! Now I see why...

The faucets they aggregate are not exactly cheap! As pointed out, there are just 2 reviews online for the one I'm interested in. And it's available for 40% of retail online resulting in a still not-cheap faucet.

My needs are to replace the faucet with the same version; it is in my mother's kitchen. I never liked the faucet much but wondered what others' experiences were and whether I should try to find something different instead. Perhaps.

As I've posted before, I have found faucet-purchasing to be the hardest part of this entire process. Maybe if I liked our faucets better I'd not be so unhappy with it all. But the prices are so insanely high and quite frankly, I think they're most of them hideous. And/or don't work well. Which is of course most important.

Grump grump grumpgrumpgrump.

I've slowly come to the view that the most expensive faucets (some of which I own) have the worst long term functionality and durability. Even if they were equal in those categories to less expensive units, several of the latter could be bought for the cost of the former.

The Brizo Pascal is incontrovertibly an appliance. In general usage, household appliances, unlike, say, dental appliances, are powered.

kas

Well, it incontrovertibly costs like an appliance, but is it "powered"?

I take it you have this and it doesn't warrant its price tag?

...but I must say, this is the only such faucet-video I've seen that I could even watch through, much less rather enjoy. That was a rather nice (and very European) recipe idea! However it didn't much sell the faucet. She had to do a lot of fiddling with it and it had to be quite velocity-ful in order to be a spray (which I hate) ... whatever.

In my case for my specific Brizo Pascal, it has the following flaws, some of which may be repairable, but are unacceptable at the unit's price point.

o The dual mode faucet will seldom go into spray mode even with considerable button pushing. I assume something in its guts broke early in its life
o Even when it gets into the spray mode, the spray effectiveness and flow rate are marginal
o The flow in either mode is lower than the lower cost Venuto in the same line, which does not have a problem with its spray mode
o The computer routinely goes into a state where it forgets its algorithms for shifting between on and off for the IR sensor while the touch mode is also active, making use awkward. This can be overcome by resetting the unit, but that only lasts for a few days
o Observed alkaline battery corrosion isn't statistically significant yet, but may suggest a design error in the interface with the ac sourced power supply

Overall, I can recommend the Brizo Venuto and counterpart Pot filler in that line, but not the Pascal, except for impressing people who are visiting.

kas