Tap smarter not harder with innovative kitchen taps

In the minimalist modern kitchen, every worktop appliance is a sacrifice of design. Every kitchen redesign, from simple clear-outs to full renovations, is a cull of barely-used and out-of-date equipment, from which only the most functional products survive. There’s one fixture above all others, however, that even the flattest of kitchen surfaces daren’t attempt life without. The kitchen tap. These nine innovative kitchen taps not only outperform their forgotten ancestors but also boost their continued necessity by eating up functionalities from other soon-to-be-obsolete appliances.

Whether you find controlling water temperature and pressure easier with a traditional dual-dial tap, or a sleeker asymmetric mixer, finding the sweet spot between melting skin from bone and freezing it solid is like tuning a manual radio in a moving vehicle. KWC’s ONO range brings to the tap industry what radio users have enjoyed for decades: the ability to save and switch to preset combinations at the flick of a switch.

The smart-product revolution is well-and-truly underway in the kitchen, but sometimes there’s nothing more satisfying than simple engineering ingenuity. Steinberg’s 100 1490 sink mixer is the perfect out-of-the-way solution for wall-facing kitchen sinks. The mixer’s double-point swivelling spout allows it to quickly reposition above any point of the sink, before folding neatly away for freedom of hand use, once the water has been served.

Flexible pull-out taps are another way to easily reach any point of the sink area, from any angle, too. But the large contraptions can tend to dominate the kitchen landscape. GROHE’s Zedra tap instead hides its flexible pull-out spray tube inside the tap’s original housing, while the SmartControl push-button dial at the end of the spout allows users to control the water’s flow rate and direction with one hand.

Separate filtered water taps encourage users to drink more water while at home and reduce plastic waste by filling reusable water bottles when out of the house. While usable, however, additional sink-serving filtered taps are extra sink-top obstructions that ruin the look and hygiene of the worktop. Quadrodesign’s Idealaqua series instead combines the two entirely separate water flows into the same tap structure, streamlining the service.

If water’s your drink of choice, there are more tap options that increase the function of a single tap even further. GROHE’s Blue mixer tap serves the home with three options for chilled and filtered water, producing up to three litres of still, sparkling or somewhere-in-the-middle water every hour. Despite the extra functionality, the tap is the same size as a standard mixer.

Using up to 50% less energy than a kettle, while also dramatically cutting water waste, there’s environmental goodwill in throwing away clunky kettles in favour of boiling water taps. Using the same sleek design as Grohe Blue, Grohe Red uses a child-lock-protected push button to pour instant boiling water for drinks, pans and more. And combining the tap with an additional Coldfill mixing valve adds boiling water to cold for instant warm water, too.

Instant chilled, filtered sparkling water sounds great. But then so does instant boiling water without a kettle. Not to mention the environmental benefits of reduced energy and water use. So why choose between the two? Fohen’s Futura Fizz range of 5-in-1 taps, available in chrome or trending matt black, are the Swiss Army knives of kitchen faucets, with instant mains hot, mains cold, filtered chilled, filtered sparkling or boiling hot water all within easy reach from a simple dial.

If you like your drink with more flavour than just sparkling water, however, the option of just cooling and carbonating water may not quite do it for you. Instead, Scanomat manufactures a series of taps targeted at workplaces and hospitality environments, which deliver a selection of app-controlled brewed coffee drinks – in TopBrewer – or still or sparkling fruit juice drinks – in TopJuicer – on demand.

They may not strictly be taps, but glass rinsers have the ability to perform in areas that taps cannot. Rather than struggling to get into the end of a narrow-spouted bottle with a Frankenstein dishcloth-on-the-end-of-a-fork contraption, glass rinsers quickly and effortlessly rinse out interior edges and angles even dishwashers miss, using numerous multi-directional jets of high-pressurised water.

© Architonic

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