Sink Now High-Tech Waterworks : Remodel: Elegant, European-style faucets outdo the old-fashioned twist-valve type.
The kitchen sink has progressed from being mere plumbing to becoming a high-tech water processor.
The faucet has come a long way, according to an article in the current issue of Esquire, since the days when it had two star-shaped twist valves containing small washers. The washers regularly started to leak and had to be replaced about once a year.
These gave way to single-lever mixer valves, the automatic transmission of plumbing that mixes hot and cold water and regulates volume by the swing of the lever.
The problem with most of the lever faucets is the crudeness of their touch. One careless tug can send a burst of water spraying everywhere.
The handles--chrome wings or flippers--tend to look like bad airport sculpture of the 1950s.
The latest kitchen faucets have come a long way. The top designs for providing water are European, and they are becoming as popular as imported European water.
The leading edge in faucets belongs to the firms of rival German cousins. Friedrich Grohe’s company, Grohe America, has been on the U.S. scene since 1976. Klaus Grohe’s firm, Hansgrohe, only a fifth as large, is just now arriving on these shores.
Their rivalry has produced excellence in the best capitalist tradition.
First, Grohe America introduced faucets of elegant arc and simple controls that also feature pull-out spray heads, combining the spray guns you used to find on the side of the sink with the faucet itself. This turned the combination into a high-tech, high-power, high-precision instrument.
Now Hansgrohe has topped its rival with the Allegroh and Uno models, also with spray heads, which are close to the ultimate kitchen faucet. One touch of the faucets, now being introduced in the United States, is like steering a fine car.
The top-of-the-line metal Allegroh comes in chrome, “satin” chrome, brown or white. The almost identical Uno is rendered in hard plastic in red, brown, white-gray and yellow.
The Allegroh and Uno were given shape by Frogdesign, the firm behind Sony Trinitron TVs and Apple Macintosh computers.
The turret-shaped top looks strangely animate. Its “eyes” are two dots of color, red for hot and blue for cold. The control piece or lever head is a U-shaped yoke or jaw. You can work it with your pinky while your hands are full of guacamole.
The spout swings a wide 160 degrees and has at its end the glove-like mouth of the sprayer. Pull the sprayer out and you have a power tool for the sink.
The spray gun’s steady controls give you the feel of operating, in its needle-jet mode, some sort of fine electric woodworking device, or in the aerated soft-spray mode, an airbrush in the hands of a master illustrator.
