Kitchen faucets are the most beneficial fixtures that help us in cleaning utensils at great ease. How many times do you use a kitchen faucet? Have you ever keep a count on it? Mostly, you keep on using the faucet for copious times. Sometimes, the faucet might become loose due to constant usage. Different types of faucets are available in the market. In most homes, you find touchless faucets. There are touch faucets that most people may not use in their houses. Still, they serve the best purposes especially while carrying out kitchen chores. With a simple touch, one can easily operate the touch faucets to either turn on or off. Many of them may not be aware of the touch faucets. If you are one among them then, this guide is exclusively for you, people. This post explains how do touch faucets work with in-depth information. Have a look!
What is a Touch Faucet?
Touch faucets are the high-end devices that are manufactured for carrying out the kitchen work in a comfortable way. It’s slightly different from the traditional kitchen faucets. Touch faucets have been available in the market for a long time. However, with the rapid advancement in technology, the use of touch faucets have been increasing. With a smooth touch anywhere on the faucet, it either turns on or off. Besides this simplified feature, one can witness copious beneficial features on a variety of touch faucets.
Usually, touch faucets function through a unique type of sensor. This sensor detects whenever a hand moves against the faucet. This type of faucet augments your convenience level while cleaning dishes and washing things. If both hands aren’t free to operate the kitchen sink faucet, you can simply touch it to switch on. It’s one of the primary benefits of a touch faucet. Wondering how do the touch faucets work? If you are seeking to get precise knowledge on the functioning of touch faucets, just read on.
Significant Parts of a Touch Faucet
Touch Faucets are extremely simple to use. By touching the handle or the spout of the faucet, you can turn on or off the water flow. To understand how do touch faucets work, you need to be aware of the key parts of the faucet. One must start with the basics before jumping into the actual working procedure of a touch faucet. Let’s go through the working procedure of a touch faucet’s internal parts in this post.
1. Sensor
Touch faucets usually come with a built-in sensor. A specific sensor is arranged either in the spout of the faucet or in the rim of the spout. The functionality of a sensor is to detect the hand motion when it gets closer to the faucet. Two sensors are usually present in touch faucets. One sensor will be placed in the handle and the other sensor in the spout of it. As it is a touch-specific faucet, it turns off automatically when you remove your hand from the faucet. Moreover, the sensors are designed in a highly sophisticated manner. You don’t need to grab it hard. Instead, just place your hand gently on it. It recognizes your touch and starts flowing the water. This way, the sensor works with a simple touch.
2. Spout
A spout works as a shelter for the functioning parts of your faucet. The spout must be of high quality and sturdy. This ensures the long-term functioning of the sensor, batteries, and valve within the spout. Mostly, touch faucets are made of various materials such as copper, zinc, brass, and others. The costly touch faucet models are made of brass material quite often. Moreover, to remain conductive, these touch faucets are usually made of brass material. Besides the material, the touch faucet finish will be done through chrome or nickel. Such faucet finishes ensure the longevity of the faucet. Moreover, it renders an elegant look to the faucet and gains the attention of your guests.
3. Electricity
You don’t need to set up an external power source for operating the touch faucets. They usually work on battery power. To be precise, a touch faucet requires electrical energy which is essential to make the sensor work accurately. An integrated battery in a touch faucet must be adequate power to operate the faucet regularly. These types of faucets depend on DC power source and it uses 1.5 Volts batteries. Some other touch faucet models may need about 9 volts of DC.
4. Touch Technology
The touch faucets are designed based on ‘capacitive sensing’ technology. It’s nothing but detecting the normal capacitance of a body. The sensors present in the faucet will have the ability to detect the capacitance of the body when it gets closer. Eventually, once we touch it, the sensors detect through capacitive sensing technology.
In short, capacitance is the device’s ability to catch an electrical charge. Similarly, the human body also acts as a capacitor and has the ability to store some amount of electric charge. As a result, the electric charge present in our body will be reacted whenever a faucet is touched. The human body’s capacitance is enough to make your sensor recognize the touch and operate accordingly. By the way, similar capacitive sensing technology is witnessed on touchscreen smartphones.
5. Solenoid Valve
Most touch faucets comprise a solenoid valve that operates alongside the sensors. This valve works based on the signals given by the sensor present in the faucet. As mentioned earlier, the sensor acts as an electromagnet that regulates the water flow based on capacitive sensing. The solenoid valve opens soon after receiving a signal from the sensor. For instance, you placed your hand on the faucet’s handle. Immediately, the valve gets opened allowing the water to flow through the faucet. If you remove your hand, the valve gets closed stopping the water flow.
By now, you might have understood the significance of every part of a touch faucet. Now, you can read further to know how do touch faucets work. Get to know the complete working mechanism of a touch faucet in this guide.
How Do The Touch Faucets Work?
To help our readers understand the working mechanism of a touch faucet, we try to explain it in a simplified form.
- Touch faucets usually run based on capacitive sensing technology. It’s a fact that the human body has a slight electrical charge. The human body that holds this sort of electrical charge is known as capacitance.
- The capacitance of a human body is measured in Farads. In general, a human body’s capacitance ranges between 100 and 200 picofarads.
- In this technology, the sensor translates the abrupt changes that occur in the capacitance.
- To make it simple, whenever you touch the faucet, the sensor present in it immediately detects the capacitive charge produced from your body. This charge triggers the solenoid valve in the faucet. It eventually turns the faucet on or off. It, in turn, triggers the water flow through the faucet.
- The sensor plays a vital role in the working mechanism of a touch faucet. The role of a sensor is to measure the capacitance that’s usually generated from the human body. Its capacitance range rises whenever you touch the handle of your faucet to activate the flow of water. The capacitance will then reduce when you touch the faucet once again to stop the water flow.
- As mentioned, the touch faucets come with two integrated sensors. One sensor is placed in the handle and the other in the spout. These sensors are attached to any conductive material i.e., brass or other material of the faucet. Hence, the sensor gets triggered when your hand or body contacts with the faucet.
- Most of the touch faucets switch on by touching it once. To stop the flow of water, just touch it the second time.
Note: Make sure that no metal comes in contact with the touch faucet as it works on a sensor. Otherwise, the sensor may not work properly.
Benefits of Touch Faucets
There are a few advantages of accessing a touch faucet for your kitchen sink. In the current busy schedule for most people, convenience is what matters. Moreover, people prefer to get their things done in a jiffy. In such an era, the touch faucets serve copious purposes. We listed some of the noteworthy benefits of touch faucets below.
1. Easy Cleaning
- The primary benefit of a touch faucet is that one can simply turn on or off despite your hands are occupied.
- For instance, you are cleaning utensils and your hands are frothy.
- In that case, you can wash them just by touching the faucet using your wrist which is dry.
- This evades your clean faucet becoming foamy due to your soapy hands.
2. Maintains Hygiene
- The maintenance of touch faucets is easy. Moreover, your faucets will always remain shiny and glossy every time.
- The reason is that you won’t touch the faucets with your messy hands to switch the water flow.
- If you use touch faucets, you don’t have to place your greasy hands to turn it on. This keeps your faucets clean and neat every time.
3. Water Conservation
- It is one of the biggest advantages of the current era. One must understand the significance of water and try to use it in limited quantities.
- In several metropolitan locations, there is a rapid scarcity of water. As a result, the availability has reduced and cost has been increasing.
- Especially, when it comes to cleaning and washing, one shouldn’t waste more water.
- In the case of touch faucets, it gets turned off automatically when you don’t use water for some time.
- This way, you can evade wastage of more water just by leaving the running water from the faucet.
4. Minimize your Water Bills
- As you reduce the usage of water with these touch faucets, you can eventually lessen your monthly water bill charges.
- One will understand this in the long run.
Downsides of Touch Faucets
You may not find more number of drawbacks to touch faucets. There could be only one or two. Just check it out!
1. Expensive
- Compared to the traditional faucet models, the touch faucets are pretty expensive.
- It’s because of the top-notch specifications and features offered by these touch faucets.
2. Installation
- Unlike the traditional kitchen faucets, the touch faucets’ installation is tricky.
- It requires an experienced plumber to make the complete setup. In that case, you need to spend additional bucks for installation.
3. Changing Battery
- Touch faucets work through battery power. Hence, you need to change the batteries every so often.
- However, it may not be the same case for all touch faucet models. Some of them come with an LED indicator that reminds you of the right time to change the battery.
These are some of the potential drawbacks of a touch faucet. Keep these points in mind before setting up a touch faucet in your kitchen.
Tips to Maintain a Touch Faucet
Some of them may not be completely aware of touch faucet maintenance. One must be utmost careful especially at the time of cleaning a touch faucet.
- As it is a sensor-specific faucet, try to evade using stringent chemicals on its surface.
- Alter the battery whenever required. Otherwise, it could damage the sensor within the faucet.
- Once the battery expires, don’t throw it in the fire.
The Bottom Line
That’s all! We hope this guide on how do touch faucets work has given an adequate piece of knowledge. As we included in this post, these touch faucets have notable practical benefits that ease your work. For hassle-free kitchen work, just install a touch faucet that meets all your needs. If you are highly specific about the look of your kitchen rather than the price, just go with it. If you are looking for a touch faucet that’s contemporary and practical, touch faucets perfectly match your style. If you have any doubts regarding the touch faucets working mechanism, drop them in the comments section. For more kitchen faucet related posts, just stay tuned to our website.