Most of us have experienced touchless plumbing products at a restaurant or commercial office building. Touchless fixtures do not require the user to manually turn on a faucet or flush a toilet. It is one of the most recent developments in plumbing. The hands-free faucets and flushometers have built-in sensors that detect when a user is near and automatically turn the water on and off or flush a toilet.
Why Go Touchless
The benefits of touchless plumbing are:
- Contamination – Germs are everywhere, especially in kitchens and bathrooms. They are easily transmitted on faucets and toilet handles. The germs remain there waiting to be transmitted until the next detailed cleaning. The same contamination holds true when washing your hands in the kitchen sink after working in the yard, cleaning up after pets, handling garbage, and a variety of other household and outdoor tasks that leave your hands covered in germs.
- Convenience – There is no need to turn the faucet on and off or worry about running faucets. Children are prime candidates for the easy use of a touchless system because they don’t have to reach the handles.
- Environmentally & Budget-Friendly – It conserves water. There is no possibility of leaving the water running while washing hands, shaving, or brushing your teeth. The sensor will automatically shut off the water. A touchless system also causes less wear on the fixture and its components.
- Modern – You will enjoy having a futuristic, eye-catching touchless faucet or toilet in your home. With a wide selection of new technology, colors, and materials, you can find plumbing fixtures and faucets that complement your bathroom and kitchen aesthetic.
- Less Maintenance – Cleaning the handles, replacing worn or damaged moving pieces, and even replacing the entire fixture can be much simpler. One single unit instead of three separate fixture elements (two handles and a spout) makes maintenance much easier.
- Safety – Fixed temperature settings on hands-free faucets protect you and your loved ones from mistakes that cause burns to more sensitive hands. Touchless fixtures also allow you to do the other things necessary while the water is running – like holding the pan under the faucet or collecting your belongings when you finish in the bathroom. Oh, and have you ever left the water running until it overflows the sink?
Touchless Plumbing Options
The Touchless Kitchen Faucets that receive the best consumer reviews are Moen, Delta, and Kohler. The better faucets have multiple sensors, increasing accuracy. The best touchless faucet features two sensors over the spout – one on top of the arc (activated by a wave of your hand) and the second right beneath which is triggered when you place your hand under the faucet. The sensors require a power supply to function. There are two options when it comes to the power supply: the battery or an alternating current (AC) transformer or one that plugs into an outlet under the sink.
The Touchless Bathroom Faucets receiving the best consumer reviews are CharmingWater, Delta, and Hoommee. The touchless faucets allow you to adjust the water temperature on the temperature mixing valve according to your preference (The mixing valve is placed under the sink). The hot and cold hose and temperature mixer are included. Typically, the device is powered by either 4 AA batteries or 4 C batteries depending on the brand but can also be plugged into an outlet under the sink.
The Touchless Toilet receiving the most positive consumer feedback is the Kohler Cimarron, The American Standard Round, and the American Standard Elongated. All are two-piece and use 1.28 GPF (gallons per flush). The touchless kit includes a motion sensor that prompts the toilet to flush when a body moves away from the fixture. The sensor kit is battery operated, but the batteries last for up to 300,000 flushes.
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