This is actually the faucet actually IN my kitchen. Truth. (Image: Me)

Recently Delta Faucets sent me one of their new kitchen sink faucets to review. Little did I know I was getting an advanced piece of technology that just like any other piece of technology, has it’s severe ups and just as severe downs. Frankly, I wasn’t sure what to think, but there it was. All nice and pretty in the box. That being said, the new Delta Touch2O® line of faucets are one of the many products on the market now that are bringing technology and ecology to the kitchen. Water conservation is a hot topic item these days, and the Touch2O® faucets claim to do just that. While there are too many pre-teen 30 minute hot showers in my house to do an in-depth analysis of the water bill, there were some other factors that would make a competent review.

Form vs. Function
The specific faucet I was sent, and have since installed, is the Pilar Single Handle Pull-Down Kitchen Faucet with Touch2O Technology® and Soap Dispenser. Ignore the price, that’s not the price.

Honestly, it’s a very nice looking piece of kitchen hardware. Whether you have a nice upper middle class kitchen, or a white trash kitchen like mine – it fits in. That is, it doesn’t look like you stole half your kitchen from some rich people. Unlike my previous faucet, the Delta has smooth lines and a nice curvature that puts it right over the center of the sink. As for install, unless you are a quadriplegic or mentally handicapped you should be able to figure it out. Clearly I’m half mentally handicapped as I installed the hot water and cold water on the wrong sides. Obviously, that’s no big deal unless you spent your whole life turning it one way for cold and another for hot. Eh, I ain’t switching it.

This particular model has a separate soap dispenser. Ok, glad we got that out of the way cause I’m not mentioning it again. The off/on – hot/cold handle also serves as a touch point to the faucet. So you can turn off or turn on the water flow just by gently touching the faucet or the handle. Did I not mention that? I figured you would have gathered that from it being a Delta Touch2O® faucet. Yes, it’s touch technology.

Basically it works like this: the human body conducts electricity of the static variety on a pretty consistent basis. The “skin” of the faucet is set up as a conductor for that electricity activating the solenoid located under the sink (you’ll have to install this too, it’s real easy.) The solenoid (if you don’t know what one of these are, you are men right) is basically an on/off switch activated by an electrical signal. Pretty much every device that turns off and on has some sort of solenoid in it.

Back to touch. Unlike when you touch your wife or girlfriend, this faucet turns on every time you touch it. That means, when you turn it off and brush by it to move a dish – it turns on again. More on that in a minute. To sum up, easy to install, beautiful to look at and works as it should for the most part. It turns on, water comes out. It turns off, water stops coming out. It does have a pull down head with a hose attached so you can get all close up with the dishes, as well as two settings via a large plastic button on the head to switch between shower and regular water flow.

Sustainability
One of the big selling points of the Delta Touch2O® technology is the water conservation. Like I mentioned before, I have no real way of testing this out as I have kids who insist on turning into prunes before leaving the shower. However, I can tell you what I’ve observed in the way the faucet operates compared with my previous one. With the hose and spray ability, it’s easier to spend less time rinsing dishes therefore logically using less water. However, you have to use the handle to control the pressure of the water flow. Since the handle also operates as an on/off touch point this can get kind of tricky and really fucking annoying. Scenario: you are watching your wife wash dishes. The water is on but the pressure isn’t high enough. She gently grabs the handle to adjust. The water goes off. She releases, touches again – water goes back on. She adjusts pressure, lets’ go of the handle, gently brushing it in the process – water turns off. She screams. Dishes don’t get washed. You go back to the football game.

Really though, this is a minor annoyance but you have got to wonder if this constant start/stop actually does help with water conservation. The faucet also has an automatic shut-off after four minutes. The little blue light is still on, but the water has stopped flowing. A quick touch turns it right back on, but perhaps that several second delay saves some of that precious fluid we take for granted every day.

What the Hell?
Just like any piece of technology, the faucet has it’s faults. They are minor, and you have to know what you are dealing with to get past them. As mentioned, you are dealing with a solenoid. Every on and off touch activates it, so eventually it is going to go bad. Aside from that, there are times when it goes absolutely bat shit crazy and starts turning the faucet off and on off and on without you even being in the room. This is caused by built up charges because of some child over touching the damn thing cause they have the patience of a fly taking a shit mid-air. This is easy to resolve, turn it off using the handle.

The handle and the faucet both contain touch points, so sometimes you’ll touch one and the faucet won’t turn off. Simply touch the other and the faucet will turn on. If you touch the same touch point over and over with no result, this is how the solenoid gets all confused like. Again, these are really minor issues and just take some common sense. I’m not going to lie, it frustrated the hell out of the wife, but I think she’s figured it out. There is an option to hook it up as a regular faucet, but then what’s the point? The last thing that annoyed me about it was that it runs off C batteries. Really? It really should have come with an option to plug into the wall if you have a socket under the sink as I do. That’s fine, all that will take is some simple wire stripping and re-wiring to resolve.

Final Assessment

While the Delta website says that I just reviewed a $600 faucet, the truth is that you can get it for around $300 at Amazon.com, which is a whole hell of a lot more reasonable. As nice as the faucet is, and the whole touch technology thing, there is no way I’d ever pay $600 for a faucet unless I was one of those rich dudes. If you are a rich dude, then price probably doesn’t matter. Frankly, as long as I ain’t spitting on my dishes to clean them, I’m happy.

That being said the Delta Touch2O® faucets are pretty damn nice. If you can swallow the price point, then it’s worth it to have a faucet of this caliber in your kitchen. I feel that much less like white trash having it over my sink. The little issues with the touching and the solenoid shouldn’t really detract from the overall function of the faucet. While I can’t track it, I feel like I am using less water so this has got to be a good thing right? Right?