How to choose a sink, tap or food waste disposer?
- Always double-check your measurements! If you choose an undermount sink, the hole in your benchtop must be precisely the same size as the sink
- What is your benchtop made from? Timber and laminate benchtops require additional protection from moisture, making inset sinks a better choice. Meanwhile, stone or marble benchtops are better suited to undermount sinks.
- If you're concerned about the noise of running water on stainless steel, opt for a sink with sound-deadening pads to absorb the noise
- Most sinks are made from stainless steel, and with good reason - it's tough, strong, looks great and cleans easily.
- Look for high-quality stainless steel of 18/10 grade (18 parts chrome to 10 parts nickel), which offers durability, protection, hardness and strength.
- Try to choose a tap that's durable and reliable, and also suits the décor of your kitchen. The design of a tap fitting can make a big impact on a kitchen's overall look and feel.
- Taps with different water flow options, from powerful jets to gentle sprays, can be useful when washing different dishes.
- Consider the tap's height. A high tap head can make it easier to wash larger items.
- A filtered water tap can also be installed alongside your ordinary tap - to provide instant chilled/boiling filtered water.
- Similar to the Energy Star electricity rating found in electrical appliances, the WELS (Water Efficiency Labelling and Standards) water rating provides an indication of how efficiently a tap will use water. The more stars, the more water-efficient.
- Choosing a tap with a decent WELS water rating isn't just good for your home's environmental footprint, it's good for your water bills as well.
- For optimum safety, get a food waste disposer with batch operation. These designs require a cap to be placed over the sinkhole before it can be activated, greatly reducing the risk of accidents.
- If you often need to dispose of a great deal of food scraps, a continuous feed model can process a steady flow of material without stopping.
- To limit kitchen noise, consider a food waste disposal with integrated sound bafflers and top-of-the-line insulation.
- Disposers with an air switch can be switched on and off with the touch of a button built into the sink, while the electric switches used in some models are usually positioned away from the sink.
- Larger households tend to create more food waste, and thus find larger food waste disposers more useful. These often feature 2 or even 3-stage grinding processes, and are able to larger and tougher food scraps such as bones. They also often are better insulated, resulting in lower noise levels.
- Most waste disposers must be installed in a sink with a 90mm drain. If your sink has a smaller drain, it's usually better to replace the sink with a more modern design rather than try to cut a new hole in stainless steel.
- Appliances Online sells only brand new appliances with full manufacturer's warranties - not factory seconds.
- This also applies to the sinks we sell, which often come with a lifetime warranty, or a warranty measured in decades.
- All the taps we stock come with a standard warranty (the length will vary by manufacturer and model).
- All the food waste disposers we stock come with a standard warranty (usually 2 years or more, depending on the model).
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