Savvy shoppers know the best way to update last year’s dress is with a funky new necklace in this year’s hottest style or colour. Many designers advise homeowners to apply the same principle when they’re updating a kitchen, only in this case, the faucet is the jewelry.
The kitchen faucet is, arguably, the most essential tool in the room. You can always find another knife if the one you’re using is dull. If the stove goes on the blink you’ve still got the microwave and vice-versa. But if you don’t have running water, you can’t boil up a batch for tea and you’ve got everything from sticky hands to potentially health-harming messes. But faucets aren’t only functional, they’re fashion for the sink. Designs range from plain Jane to truly beautiful, with price ranges to match.
“Seventy percent of people who renovate a kitchen will change the faucet”, says Garry Scott, Moen Canada’s Vice President, Wholesale Marketing & Brand Development. “We’re always researching what customers want and they told us, ‘give me convenience’ and ‘make my life easier’, so that’s what we’ve done with MotionSense.”
MotionSense is Moen’s technology behind its series of hands-free faucets. Explains Scott, “There are other systems where you have to touch the faucet to activate it or you turn it on manually and then use a sensor to turn it off. Ours is the only one that is truly touch-free. Just leave it alone and it’s always ready for you.”
Every cook has had a moment when their hands are covered in sticky dough or filled with a stack of dishes and they struggle to operate a lever with their elbow. Moen’s MotionSense family of pull-down faucets aims to provide you with that needed third hand to turn on the faucet and turn it off again.
The MotionSense line launched late last year and they’ve just added a new style, for a total of four. They come in chrome, bronze and stainless steel finishes and work three ways. The water flow will start and stop when you wave your hand past the sensor above the faucet. You can also put your hand or a dish under the spout to start it and it will stop automatically when the object is removed. Or you can take it old school and use the handle on the side, convenient for a house guest who hasn’t been schooled in the ways of your advanced water delivery system.
Manual operation is also handy in the event of a power loss. The battery pack uses 6 AA batteries and an optional power adapter is available for about $40.. Moen predicts you’ll get about a year of use before you need to change batteries.
Scott says there are other benefits to a hands-free system.
“We reduce the spread of germs because you don’t have to touch the faucet to turn it on or off. It saves on water too, because it shuts off automatically there’s no chance you can leave the faucet running. But the most important aspect is the convenience. It’s one less step you have to do.”
MotionSense models are in the higher price bracket of all faucet offerings but within the range for a pull-down faucet. As a higher-end product you might say it’s the bling of the kitchen jewelry collection. So when you’re creating your kitchen renovation budget, you need to decide how much you’ll devote to the jewelry. Will you go with dainty or flashy, costume or genuine, diamond or cubic zirconia and manual or hands-free?