The Complete Handbook of Faucets

Chapter 1: Understanding Faucets

A faucet is a valve. That is its first and most important truth. It is not primarily a decoration or a status symbol, though it can be both. It is a mechanism designed to control the flow of water at a specific point—a kitchen sink, a bathroom vanity, a shower, a commercial dishwashing station, an outdoor hose connection—by opening and closing a passage through which pressurized water travels from the supply line to the outlet where you use it.

If you have never thought about a faucet as a valve, you may have been making decisions about them based on incomplete information. A valve's job is threefold: to allow water to flow, to stop water from flowing, and to regulate how much water flows when it is open. The quality and durability of a faucet depends almost entirely on how well its internal valve mechanism performs these tasks over years of use, often thousands of open-and-close cycles per year in a busy kitchen or bathroom.

How Water Reaches Your Faucet

To understand why a faucet matters, you need to understand the pressure behind it. Water enters a building through a main supply line, usually 3/4 inch or 1 inch in diameter, at a pressure typically between 40 and 80 pounds per square inch (PSI). This pressure is provided by the municipal water system (or a well pump) and is constant throughout the day. That pressure is what forces water out when you open a faucet; without