If you open the product data sheet for any kitchen faucet, you will see that the nozzle is at the same height whether the body is pulldown or pullout. In both faucet shapes, they manage to get the water to come out of the faucet at the same position in space. So, this destroys the idea that a pullout will splash less, since its nozzle is at the same place as a pulldown.

A pull out is OK.

My friend had a pull down--don't know what brand--but her sister dropped it in the sink and put a big chip in her new Shaw sink.

I installed a KWC pull out faucet years ago and have been very pleased with it. Prior to that I had a standard faucet with side spray. I love it. I would certainly consider a pull down faucet, but the pull out works great. I much prefer the pull out over a standard with a side spray.

They're okay although you can do more with a pulldown. My problem with them is mainly the faucet reach and things that aren't really their fault. The big ones tend to be pulldowns and after years of weird back pain I figured out that I need the spout closer to my short little self which puts me in pulldown or double jointed territory. Due to the spray angle on the pullouts, (usually slightly angled instead of straight down), they don't make them that long-spouted. They do have a nice gun instead of a weird little doohickey to grab onto.

David is probably correct that the spout often ends up at the same height, but doesn't acceleration due to gravity on a high arch begin at the top of the arch? I think it's the angle the water hits that makes splashing more likely with a pulldown though, and I also don't find it to always be a problem. In my previous house I had a giant pulldown that did splash out of my Corian sink. After remodeling and putting in a deep sink (keeping the lovely faucet), no splashing. Currently have a smaller pulldown on an old CI sink. No splashing but I have terrible water pressure. :)

If splashing turns out to be a problem, get a Tapmaster so you can easily avoid full pressure.

It's that magical sink/faucet/water pressure combo that nobody can test head of time. I wouldn't worry about it. A known unknowable and all that.

Davidro 1, you make a very good point about faucet height. For some reason it never occurred to me that faucets are going to disperse the water from the same height. Yet people always mention the splash factor of the tall faucets and say you need a deeper sink.

Trudymom, I think that's why most have a plastic head, which some people think is "cheap", but there's a reason for it. I also read the plastic heads keep the sprayer from getting too hot to handle. I like the pulldowns with the small sprayers that look like they're part of the main faucet.

Pricklypearcactus, I have looked at the KWC pulldowns because of the quality. We have a notoriously leaky Kohler Forte and definitely want better quality this time. I'll look at the KWC pullouts. I think we're getting a KWC soap dispenser.

So the pullouts don't feel awkward?

My friend has a pullout, and I find it extremely awkward. It's hard to describe, but the motion is just really unnatural. I'd much prefer a standard faucet with a side sprayer if I couldn't do a pull down.

Fori, the angled spray of the pullout concerns me too because our Silgranite Vision sink is only 15 inches wide. Even though the cutout is 18 in., the sink has a fancy edge that eats up 3 inches. Maybe it will hit the front of the sink and splash.

The best doohickey spray head I've seen is on the Hansgrohe and a faucet by a Canadian company called Fluid, which I'd never heard of. Both of their doohickeys fit my hand well. But I think the tall faucet and the big spray head might overwhelm the space, so I started looking at little doohickeys after that.

Raenjapan, I think you have to involve your wrist much more on the pullout sprayer. I was hoping we could live with that since we only have to spray a few times a day to rinse the sink.

>the angled spray of the pullout concerns me too because our Silgranite Vision sink is only 15 inches wide.

Well, I currently have a cheap Moen pullout and an old double sink where each bowl is only 15" wide, and I have to say that the angle doesn't even make the water reach the centered drain unless I pull it out a tad. I don't think that's an issue with pullouts, really, unless you have incredible water pressure, maybe.

That's good to hear! I can probably stop worrying about splash then and go by looks and how the faucet feels in use. We do have a showroom with some of them on display with sinks and a few hooked up to water. Wish they all were....

We have a pull-out and are perfectly happy with it. We borrowed a kitchen with a pull-down and a deeper sink during our reno and did find greater splash problems.

I have a KWC Suprimo pull-out in my current kitchen. I'm going to replace it with a pull-down (probably a Waterstone) in my new house.

Pros of my pull-out
- I like the way it looks when it's by itself in a showroom. :-) Very functional, if not sleek.
- The valve ergonomics are nice. Since the valve handle is on top in the middle, you can work it with either hand without reaching through the water stream.
- This particular faucet is built like a tank. It will probably still be working when I'm long dead.
- This KWC has a locking spray button. You push it down and it stays down while the water is on. If you push down and twist then it stays down even if the water is turned off, until you twist it back the other way. I wish everyone did this (cough Hansgrohe cough).

Cons:
- It's freaking huge and overwhelms my single 24" sink. The head is too far toward the front of the sink. A smaller pull-out and/or bigger sink would probably fix this. Or a double sink, so the faucet would be at an angle for each bowl and thus not as far forward.
- The pull-out ergonomics aren't great, as someone else mentioned above. I have to pull it out and then pivot around to spray into the sink. If I pulled it straight out, I'd be spraying the floor. This is pretty different in real life than what what I thought it would be like after playing with the faucet in a showroom.
- It's a big, functional-looking block of steel, not sleek at all. I'm sure there are pull-outs that look different.

Laura

I just put in a Waterstone pull down - the head is solid brass but not super large. It stays where ever you put it.
I looked at a lot of faucets before deciding on this one.
I wanted the spray to latch on vs holding a switch.
Made in the USA - expensive but my favorite item of my new kitchen.

a2gemini, your (lovely) faucet is a pull down, not a pull out. I believe the OP is talking about this type:

{{!gwi}}

Thanks, Laura. That's really helpful. I'll write down the sizes of the Suprimo and look for something smaller. Good to know the KWCs have locking spray because I had hoped to get one with it.

How did you manage with your 24 in. sink? We have a double bowl now and the new sink is larger than the washing side of our old one, so I'm trusting it will feel roomy.

Hi may_flowers,

I barely manage with my 24" sink. I put in the new faucet a year or two ago when my old one died, and at the same time I put in a new, stainless steel, drop-in sink to replace the original 1956 porcelain / cast iron one, plus a new garbage disposal. But I didn't replace any cabinets, so I couldn't put in a larger sink. I'm looking forward to putting a big Blanco Supersingle sink in my new house. :-)

In hindsight, I should have done more. At the time I wasn't sure if I was going to remodel the house or sell it, so I just wanted something to tide me over. But now I may have to do a cheapo kitchen remodel to make it easier to sell this place once the new one is finished. Right now it mostly has the original 1956 kitchen, including an oven that looks like it came from the set of "Back to the Future". The rest of the old house is great, though.

Laura

We have the Grohe LadyLux pull outs on both our main and island prep sink. It works great - pulls out and goes back in easily. I don't find it awkward to use at all and it has plenty of reach.

Pull outs are fine! I had one for years -a Grohe that I loved. It worked soooo much better than a separate sprayer that never fully engaged and did the half spray with the rest coming out of faucet. I would never do a separate sprayer ever again. I'd much rather have the pull out than a separate. I highly recommend it over the separate. Good luck!!!

Thanks everyone! I won't get sidetracked with a side sprayer then, although I read on here recently that someone had an awesome side sprayer. Maybe it was Waterstone like a2gemini's beautiful faucet? You probably have to go very high-end to get a great one.

It's encouraging that some people do like their pull-outs. I think the scale of the faucet will have to be a deciding factor more so than pull-out v. pull-down.

This has been so helpful. I can't thank you all enough for taking the time to post about your experiences.

We just recently switched from a Grohe pull-out to a hansgrohe pull-down faucet, and I'm really surprised at how much more I like the pull down. I thought I'd miss the nice "handle" on the pull-out, but I actually find the pull-down much easier to use. It's less awkward spraying the corners of the sink, for example, without that big handle. I was really surprised. I'd read on GW that everyone likes the pull-down more, but I didn't really expect it to be true for me. I'm glad I went with the GW wisdom on this one!

I have an ancient grohe pull-out---came with the house. I like it.

When you say 15" pull-down, do you mean that the top of the arc is 15" from the counter, or 15" from the bottom of the sink, or is the spout 15" from the counter or bottom of sink?

I think pull-down faucets are more ease in using than pull-out. I don't like the handle on pull-out sprayers.

Here is a link that might be useful: Thermal Fuse

The top of the arc is 15 in. from the counter, drbeanie.

We went back to the faucet store today, and there is an awkward feel in the wrist and elbow when you move the pull-outs around a sink in a rinsing motion. We didn't find anything better than the pull-down we'd looked at last time we were there. It's made by Fluid, a Canadian company I've never heard of, but the store has been selling their bathroom faucets for years. It has all the features we wanted, and we especially like the spray head. And yes, it is 15 in. tall! I brought along a piece of wrapping paper cut to my sink dimensions, and just about all of them looked a little large. There's no avoiding it. Hopefully that effect won't seem so bad when it's on a 36" X 96" peninsula.