How much should I spend on bathroom taps?

[Celia1978]

About to put in a new bathroom and confused about taps, especially how much they vary in price. As long as they turn on and off surely that's all you need? And surely even cheap taps do that? But I'm worried about making a false economy. What should I be looking out for? Is there a price threshold below which they're bound to be rubbish?

We had no taps on the bath and love it so easy to keep clean. Nothing for the kids to bang. The shower knob is a two way mixer with shower or bath, and the bathwater comes out by the overflow.www.victoriaplumb.com/Taps/Bath-Taps/Bath-Filler-Valve-Outlets/Bath-Filler-Waste-Overflow_912.html. Cheaper option too to spend elsewhere... Sinks taps maybe!

Don't know what the price threshold would be for getting good ones, but don't buy cheap (bitter voice of experience with no funds to upgrade right now).

your link shows a pop-up waste. This will leak under the bath.

The taps on the page are mostly square and angular. If you like that, and don't mind banging your head or hands on the corners, that's fine.

It looks like they all have quarter-turn knobs and handles, which means they have ceramic cartridges inside. When these wear and start to drip, then depending on brand, and country of manufacture, new ceramic cartridges may be expensive or impossible to obtain Taps with heads that screw up and down with several turns are easier to look after.

if you have a combi or an unvented cylinder, you can use imported taps and mixers. If you have a cold water tank in the loft, you will get better flow with British taps designed for low pressure (the specification will say) as they have bigger internal waterways. If you have high-pressure cold and low-pressure hot, you should avoid ceramic mixers, especially those with a single lever like a joystick, as they eventually wear and leak cold water into the hot pipes.

My favourite brand of tap is Bristan.

Blimey, PigletJohn, you have a favourite brand of tap?

Men and women really are different!

My plumber recommended Bristan too, so that's what I chose to replace my kitchen tap recently.

Do you have kids? I ask because DH insisted on us spending £200 on a fancy mixer tap for the bathroom sink. Then the kids (and their friends) came along and fucked it up by literally hanging off the lever. So now we are replacing it with a £40 one.

somebody mentioned on another thread that if you have a basin mixer, you are more likely to bang your face on it than if you have a pillar tap on each side. I had something similar in mind with spiky angular taps.

Thank you everyone.

Adsss, our builder has recommended one of those overflow fillers too, for the reason that there's nothing to bang your head on, but PigletJohn, you don't think they're a good idea?

And overall, PigletJohn, I should be avoiding anything with ceramic plates? I take it anything 'fancy', with levers you lift up and down rather than handles you turn, would be ceramic plates? (We have a combi boiler.)

And yes theconstantvacuumer we have one toddler and another one on the way. I'm really not fussed about having anything fancy or designer-y, just want something that will work and not fall apart in six months...

it's not the filler that leaks, it's the pop-up waste. It has a lever going into a hole in the waste pipe to push the "plug" up, so no surprise really. The hole wears loose. Who wants a hole in a waste anyway?

I'm not a ceramic fan.

Have a look at the price difference between the ceramic cartridge and the screw-down cartridge. Unless you have old people or nutters in the house who grew up with worn-out taps and screw them down with great force, tap washers last 30 years or more. My taps screw down with one finger and do not drip.

Another Bristan fan here.

having shocked yourself with the price of replacement ceramic cartridges, above, click "spares" and see how modest is the price for a screw-down Bristan.

but you probably only need to change the washer after 30 years, the cartridge will last longer than you do.

PigletJohn are there any particular Bristan taps you have used and would recommend?

it depends what you like the look of. I like Regency, it has soft rounded shapes and is easy to operate with soapy hands, and can't have your eye out when you bend over the basin.

If you look at the 1901 tap you will se it has exposed nuts, so is harder to keep clean. About 50 years ago the "easyclean shroud" was introduced which covers up the nuts and most of the spindle. The Colonial tap has a shroud but the 102-'s style spout which I don't like.

I don't like any of the Contemporary taps, but anyone else might. I especially dislike taps with spiky levers and sharp corners.

They are all very smart.
I need a modern-ish tap but agree that spiky levers aren't very friendly in a family bathroom....

Please bear in mind that cutting corners now will / could cost you thousands when you come to sell your home. Personally, i wouldn't spend any less than £100 on each tap. That should add several tens of thousands to the value of your house since buyers want top notch.