Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)This is a fine looking unit with that nice cast brass feel, chrome plated of course. The pull out nozzle is plastic and lightweight, but due to the nature of its location at the end of the faucet arm, it only make sense. Also flash plated. Water delivery seems OK, I have not the greatest water pressure, and it still delivers adequate flow for most chores.
I installed this in my laundry room sink, as the existing 15 year old Delta had finally began to leak a little, and it would be a good place to evaluate the piece. Plus, it is an extra large basin, compared to the kitchen sink, a double bowl affair that seems too small for this type of faucet.
I have used the pull-out nozzle and must admit I have never really been sold on the concept. It's difficult to explain, exactly, but perhaps because I am a loyal fan of the old Deltas I am slightly prejudiced. In my adventures as a home repair specialist and commercial plumber, I have installed and repaired many, many Deltas. Frequently replacing the pull out nozzle type, as a matter of fact. But, this one seems of slightly higher quality than most I have used, and if you are able to find someone to install it for you who has superior plumbing skills, owes you a favor, and does not own a watch, go for it.
I suspect most users of this product would not subject it to the type of first test as we did, which involved washing out two cats. One is amenable to the procedure, the other not so. So we really put it to the test by having him go first. I am sure holding down a little brown mass of muscle, teeth and claws it not within the job description of this faucet, nor should it be expected to be considered anything other than an extreme test, pushing the envelope and like that.
Two things became immediately apparent, one, the selector between spray and stream seems to be rather easy to turn itself off. This may be due to low water pressure, that requires further testing. The spray setting is activated by pushing in on the backside of the nozzle, and returned to stream by flicking a little lever on the edge. It's likely that in maneuvering around 10 pounds of unhappy energy, it was easy to unintentionally flip the valve.
The second item was the tendency of the hose to kink rather easily as one works the head around- shutting off the flow and also causing the selector to drop out. But all in all, and despite a small amount of blood loss, the cats came out clean and shiny, and it was lots easier than the old rubber push-on hose formerly used. I am pretty sure not much of this would be apparent by merely washing dishes.
I was most intrigued by the claim in advertising, the press on Amazon, and even the box, that it was a "5-minute install". Get this: nothing in plumbing takes five minutes. Except maybe handing the client their bill. But I was willing to try.
I know the "five minute" claim could not be expected include the inevitable first part of a job like this. Unless you have a truly great client or helper- and that is cleaning out the cabinet and removing the old faucet. And no matter what, unless you are thinking of putting this in a new sink, you can skip up a few paragraphs. If you are not interested in the minutiae of plumbing, you could just probably bail now. Thanks for reading.
Needless to say, from the time I opened the cabinet, cleaned out all the accumulation of 15 years and removed the Delta, it was then I made my first, slightly expected setback, which took about 30 minutes.
What setback, you ask? The Tosca comes with permanently crimped on supply lines terminating in a 3/8" female compression nut. My supply source are the low-rent contractors special- corrugated plated brass lines permanently attached to the cheapest angle stops made. It has long been my goal to replace them in the house whenever possible, now was my chance. Willingly or not. As it happens, I has two stops of somewhat higher quality left over from a previous job that were the exact right size, or close enough. Since there are at least a dozen combinations of supply fitting sizes, inlet size and style and valve orientation, it was a pretty lucky break. But it also added at least another half hour.
And also now, instead of merely turning off the stops, I had to shut down the whole house. While the wife was doing laundry; not a happy moment. But by cutting a few corners I would never have used on the job, I had them on and not leaking in less time than expected.
Pulling out a Delta, as long as the bolts are not too corroded, takes about 2 minutes. Contrary to the list of tools required by the Tosca instructions, I reached for the first of many, a basin wrench, a specialized tool that makes working up under a sink a lot less unpleasant. Apart from breaking out long hardened rubber washers, the unit popped right out.
I cleaned the sink where it used to live and unboxed the Tosca. The instructions were on the back of the box: three simple steps. I set the base plate as needed, then the main mounting ring. It has a drilled boss along the inside of the bottom mount ring, through which dangles what can best be described as a toggle bolt- only one bar that hangs straight down, then upon tightening snugs up to the bottom of the sink.
What is utterly lacking in the instructions is the advice that the location of this mount is critical- with 4 lines to pass though a hole that is just big enough for them, and then have this additional obstacle took a great bit of trial and error to finally allow the body of the faucet to sit flush and allow all the hoses to pass unimpeded. I hate to say, but at that moment I gave up on the "above-the-sink" installation as promised, and found, naturally, getting under made it a lot easier to see how to clear the obstructions.
After aligning the base and tightening it, then passing through the hoses and setting it on the base, a tiny Allen setscrew secures the whole thing. The instructions point out that wrenches were included in the package, and still insisted all you would need to install was Teflon tape and a pipe wrench. I used neither, and cannot understand what they had in mind.
The next roadblock was immediately realized when I discovered the permanently attached supply lines fell about 3 inches short of the angle stops. As they were crimped on, merely switching to a longer hose was not an option. (I must add, though they were inadequate, they were color coded red and blue, so at least there was no doubt where they went.)
The correct way to deal this would be to shut off water to the house again, remove the stops, and as it was copper out of the wall, sweat a 90 fitting onto the stub and add 3 inches of copper pipe, then a straight stop, and then connect the lines.
Even though I was pretty sure I had blown the five minutes by now, I was still trying to save time. Not to mention I had no straight stops in inventory. And it's New Years Day and even if open, it's raining and a run to the local Big Box was not on the agenda. Remember, this installation can be done by anyone in five minutes.
So my solution, and one taxing a lot of skills long unused, was to create a small "jumper" to extend the lines- using 4- 3/8" compression fittings, a coupla 1/4" brass nipples and two short lengths of 3/8 soft copper tube, I made some extremely cobbled looking parts that actually did the job just fine. But as any pipefitter will tell you, every additional joint is just that one more to be a future leak, and I had just added six. And while they work fine for now, my old OCD plumb-and-level boss would have referred to it as "hokified."
And OK, so I had to use Teflon tape here. But fabricating adapters so the hoses will reach was definitely not listed in the instructions.
The last step is to attach the supply line to the nozzle end and add the counterweight to the hose. It has been my experience that these counterweights cause more trouble than they save- so I removed it.
It all held tight, and I could finally crack open the stops and see what this faucet was all about. As I mentioned above, it could use a few minor improvements- perhaps a more reinforced nozzle hose and a swivel, but this adds cost and complexity, and would probably not be appreciated by the customer, and would no doubt drive the price up even further.
All in all, it's a pretty OK faucet, even though I do not enjoy the design and will continue to spec and install Delta. And we have not even discussed how easy this unit is to service and repair, but I have a feeling this unit will be sitting on the shelf long before that becomes necessary.
Total time to install? 3 hours.
Click Here to see more reviews about: TOSCA 54-K8DCCH-S 5-Minute Faucet with Pull-Out Spray Head and Deck Plate for 1 or 3 Hole Install, Chrome
Chrome 1-Handle Pull-Out Kitchen Faucet
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