Touch Sensitive Faucet

This gadget may not be particularly ground-breaking but it certainly does offer a very valuable benefit to those in the kitchen. We've all been in the scenario of having our hands full, and needing to contort ourselves just to turn on the tap, to wash our hands.

Well, let me introduce to you the touch sensitive faucet. Both the spout and handle are touch sensitive, so one small touch on either part will cause the water to fall. The faucet comes in two different styles, the chrome finished faucet and the stainless steel version, which will cost slightly more. The faucet can clevery differentiate between a touch and a grab, so temeperature levels are not going to constantly fluctuate.

The chrome faucet will cost you $495, whilst the stainless steel version will cost you $547. Both available from Delta Faucet.

The Installation

It's a little bit of a hassle to install, because you actually have to follow a series of instructions that has you removing your old faucet and installing this one (with the electronics that controls the touch-sensitivity). You actually need two people at one point, when you want to make sure you align the faucet correctly above the sink while the person below tightens.

It's not completely undoable if you have a spare hand and you're somewhat knowledgeable with tools, but I had a Delta professional install it to ensure optimum performance, and it didn't take too much longer than an hour.

Performance

The touch sensitivity, if installed correctly, is good, but not overly sensitive. The faucet and water handle, on the right, are both smart enough to detect the difference between a grasp—when you're moving the thing around—and a tap—when you're turning it on and off.

You turn on the faucet like any other faucet, by using the handle and switching it left for hot and right for cold. Once it's "on", you can tap anywhere on the body or the handle to turn it off. Tap it again to turn it back on. When you're completely done with washing, pull the handle down to the off position to ensure that a cat or a jumping baby brushing past it doesn't activate the water flow. It's also got a 4-minute timeout, so even if you do forget to turn the thing off, an accidental activation won't flood your house.

It's pretty great as an actual faucet too. The head has a pull-down for spray flexibility, and you can adjust the type of spray (like a shower) in one of two modes.

Warnings and Usage

If you install it yourself, make sure you install the base plate insulation unit, because if you don't, you're going to get finicky performance from the touch-sensitivity part. I had to have the installer revisit a couple times because it's not so clear in the instructions that many sinks need it, so even if you think you don't, put it in. Not doing so will make the touch only work 1 out of 3 or 4 times, which is a painful grey zone between not working at all, which is fine, and working all the time. If something like this happens to you, you can luckily disable the touch portion and just use it as a regular faucet until you get around to repairing it.

Also, be aware that you're going to get false positives occasionally when you're reaching over and grabbing something off your sink and you brush against the faucet. This is much less frustrating than the alternative of the thing NOT working when you want it to.