The Tap Series: Choosing The Right Taps For Your Home

It is not an easy task to choose the most appropriate taps for use in your household. Your bathroom, shower, kitchen, laundry, and vanity taps are all going to have requirements that differ and selecting matching and functional sets could be a daunting task. As you undertake this task of getting the right tap series for your household, being fully conversant with what the Competition and Consumer 2010 Act provides will greatly empower you on your rights a consumer.

Opting to acquire your taps as one complete set may save some valuable time, but when you customize each tap so that suit its specific purpose could work best and also look better. For instance, what works for your shower may look completely misplaced in the kitchen.

Let's look at a number of things you may wish to think about when selecting your taps:

1. Tap Compatibility and Configuration

Under normal conditions, you will buy your household taps and sinks separately, with the sinks coming in first. Therefore, when choosing your taps, ideally the first thing to do will be to get those that match the sinks you already have. Normally, most generic types of sinks and taps are perfectly compatible, although as the design and prices move up the ladder, compatibility becomes an issue.

Some of the sinks and taps in the market will just not match at all, as some have been designed with unusual diameters to exclusively match or fit sinks of a specific style. Besides issues of compatibility, you may also need to take into consider the tap configuration in relation to your sinks.

2. How the Taps Work

Water is regulated differently by different kinds of taps. Nowadays, there are 3 main types of washerless taps: ceramic disc, ball and cartridge taps. All the three varieties will help in cutting down on the level of plumbing required you have to put in as well as your maintenance requirements.

Most people are very familiar with the compression tap type. When tap gets screwed downwards it then compresses a neoprene or rubber washer against some fixed metal hence restricting the flow of the water. Over time, these washers eventually wear out and need replacing. Then there are several washerless taps.

- The ball types of taps operate by pushing a stainless steel ball or hollow plastic over a rounded cover. This then manages the flow and temperature of your water. These are quite complex mechanisms and more than other tap types are prone to leaking.

- Cartridge taps operate through a lever that controls a brass or plastic cartridge that shifts down or up to restrict your water flow. It moves from right to left to modify the water temperature.

- The ceramic type got 2 ceramic plates sliding over each other to control the flow and temperature of your water. Among all types of taps, the ceramic disc requires the least amount of maintenance.

3. Tap Styles

The taps themselves are available in a variety of styles and designs, with the lever and the crosshead taps being most widely used. The tap fitting or mounting method leads to other many diverse styles such as pedestal taps, wall mounted taps, single and double lever taps.

4. Water Efficient Taps

You should whenever possible go for taps that have the highest possible Water Efficiency Labelling (WELs) rating to save on your energy and water bills.

5. How Will the Taps be Used?

As you select your taps, it's very easy to forget some of the other practical issues. Think of little things such as relaxing in your bath without being exposed to injury from the bathtub taps, and relative ease of usage while the hands are not clean or wet.


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Babak Tavakoli has served customers at ACS Designer Bathrooms with great care and success over the years. In his hands, you are sure of getting quality counsel. Visit http://www.acsbathrooms.com.au/taps/tap-series.html and meet Babak Tavakoli and his team for the best bathroom products.