With a single lever faucet, both the temperature and flow are controlled by the same stick. If the stick is facing forward like those responding to the thread you referenced, pulling the stick towards you controls flow rate and then adjusting left is hot and right is cold. You get an (almost) infinite number of positions with the stick--in, out, right, left.

With my Euro 1775 tapmaster, you set the flow and temp with the faucet stick like normal and use the foot pedal to turn the water on/off. Stick stays where you left it on the faucet. While pushing the foot pedal, you can then reach the faucet to change the temp or flow if you need to change it during a given activity. For instance, I usually have my prep faucet with tapmaster set to slightly warm water with the flow rate on about medium. I use the sink for a quick finger rinse dozens of times a day so this warmish water not blasting out of the faucet works best for that. If I'm rising berries or something that needs continuous cold water, I turn the water on by foot and adjust the faucet stick to cold by hand. Like I mentioned on the tapmaster thread, I FLOVE mine!

Sounds like you're getting close to a finished kitchen! Post pics when you can!

Library girl: please believe me, there is only curiosity, not malice, in my question. Have you really never encountered a single-handled faucet before? (Al Moen patented this in 1937.) May I ask where you live? Every faucet that I have encountered in, say, a hotel bathroom, or a McDonald's restroom, has been a single-handle faucet. I am just finding it a hard to imagine not having come across one before.

Again, I mean no ill. Best of luck with your remodel!

ditto Angie.

Millions of mixer handles have been moved up down left and right, billions of times, and no one needed to ask how it worked.

Au contraire. When my kitchen faucet was first installed I couldn't figure out how it worked and had to call the plumber. A big duh, but true.

Single-lever faucets with mixing valves work in a variety of ways. For mine, I push to the right to turn water on and swivel down for hot and up for cold. Some faucets turn on by pushing the lever up and moving it right to left for cold or hot. Some swivel back to front to operate and these are the ones that need care -- if the faucet is installed in a tight deck it's important to be sure there's enough space for it to operate properly. Each faucet has it's particularities.

The important point is the single control that allows infinite adjustment cold to hot. That's the convenience.

Some faucets can be installed with controls facing front, essentially over the sink and find it convenient. Other faucets do not have optional ways to install.

The spec (specifications) sheet on pdf on manufacturers and sellers' websites should be printed out and studied so it's clear exactly how it works. There have been instances when levers had to be cut back or faucets switched out -- no one wants that.

I particularly favor pull down faucets -- an expert from Kohler says that it's the best choice all around.

Here is a link that might be useful: Why Kitchen Faucets Splash

My new faucet has a completely different action than I'm used to (on/off is right/left, while hot/cold is up/down). While I'm still retraining my automatic actions, I understand how things work. I can't remember the last time I touched a two-handled faucet.

What helped me adapt from a single lever on top (H/C is left/right, volume is up/down) to a side-mounted lever (H/C is back/forth, volume is left/right) was the realization that the latter is just the former, but rotated 90 deg.

Top lever:

Side lever:

AFAIK, there are only 3 different mixing systems (Moen, Delta, and I can't recall the 3rd), but they all work essentially the same. They all have some part that is round, which defines an axis around with the lever rotates. Due to the way these things work, in all cases, the motion that rotates the lever around that axis (i.e, around the round part) adjusts hot/cold, and the motion that moves the lever to have a different angle with respect to that axis controls volume.

Angie, right you are. Never thought of it that way before. When I look at the faucet and see the blue to red marks for cold to hot, I get it, but my hand is harder to reprogram.

I can remove the red/blue ring from my new faucet if it is reversed or I don't like the ring. T-2 weeks to installation!

Gemini, the red/blue ring isn't a fine design touch, but apparently my brain still needs a simple diagram. :p

Breezy - thank you for the explanation. That makes sense. I'm hoping to have something to post soon. Ended up going with a Bianco Antico for my perimeter (assuming the slab is large enough) - I really, really wanted marble, but someone bought most of the marble (and all of the beautiful marble) in my area back in January (someone's building a huge mansion here) and the soonest anyone is expecting more in is 3-4 weeks.

I feel so foolish. When we started looking at marble, there were gorgeous slabs and I didn't feel a need to reserve anything because we hadn't even selected our cabinet color. I had planned marble and soapstone, but never found soapstone I liked. Then in one week in Feb., all the marble was reserved. Not just one type or another, but just about every piece of marble in Columbus. Waited and waited. Nothing.

Ended up ordering walnut for my island (because yours was so lovely), and hoping for carrara to arrive. Nothing. But was smart enough to hold a lovely BA slab, just in case.

Angie and David - I've seen and used those types of faucets in McDonalds, hotels, etc., but they don't look anything like the slim little stick that I saw on the front of one of the faucets. For single handle faucets in bathrooms, I'm more familiar with those that start out cold and the more you turn it, the hotter it gets. Volume doesn't change. Or, like the one in our current bathroom, you set the temperature separately, independent of the stick that you rotate to control the volume. Unfortunately that took assistance from DS to operate when we moved here. Maybe I'm just faucet-challenged? There's really several ways these faucets could work, I just wanted to clarify.

At work, we have 2 handles for each faucet. It's a 4 story building, houses 1,000 employees and was built 35 years ago. On the first floor, they changed faucets to hands free. No temperature choice.

And, for what it's worth, I did speculate that was how it worked. I am trying, but there's oh so much to learn here :)

Rococo- thanks for the link (and the moral support).

Your marble story--wow! I wanna see that mansion. Must be dripping in marble. Still, if you could hang on a couple more weeks to get what you really want, I'd seriously consider. The weeks might seem like eternity now, but will seem like nothing when you're enjoying your marble for years to come. Not trying to confuse you. :)

Good luck! Walnut island? Yummm.....