I don't have a Delta Pilar, but to address your secondary questions...

Water cools off over time in the pipes for any faucet..."regular", hands free, or on/of touch (the Delta Pilar). It's not a matter of what type of faucet you have. The only ways that I can think of right now to keep water hot all the time is to have either an "instant hot" tank or a "tankless hot water heater". Even then, the water that's past the "heater" will cool down.

As to the "chicken hands" issue...it's not perfect. You still have to touch the faucet somewhere to turn it on/off. If you have long arms or are tall, you can probably use your arm or wrist (assuming they're "clean"), but for someone short, it will be more problematical.

True hands-free functionality comes in one of two ways: motion-sensor on/off and foot/knee pedal. In both cases, there is no need to touch the faucet anywhere. Probably the easiest for everyone to use is the foot or knee pedal.

For those with a Pilar or similar...what happens if you have to move the faucet around? Does it turn off when you touch it so you have to turn it on again? Or, does it somehow "know" not to turn off? I don't know about anyone else, but I move the faucet around quite a bit while using it.

Check out this blog Young House Love. They were given the Pilar from Delta, they installed it and gave reviews.

Here is a link that might be useful: Young House Love Blog

Quick answers:

Yes, the faucet swivels.

Water temp pretty much stays where set, but I haven't let it set for a long time - I'm guessing it would cool off a bit after a while.

Moving the faucet isn't a problem - the faucet can tell the difference between a touch to turn on and off and a deliberate push to move the faucet around. Just takes a couple of days for the operator to figure out the difference between a tap and a push : )

Like it a lot.

HTH,

Jay

I second Jay's post, we have had ours about 3 months and LOVE IT! I am tall but find that I never have to touch the faucet with dirty hands, can always use my wrist. If you are cleaning and don't want it to come on, just push the leaver down and it will stay off. If you are turning it from one sink to the other it says off. GREAT faucet, I now go over to my Mom's house and beat on her faucet wondering why it won't come on, oh yeah itâÂÂs not my Pilar!

Can't offer any answers since ours will be installed this week! Glad to hear good things about it. I was a bit nervous about it at first. Can't wait to give it a try!!

Love my Pilar.... I've had it for 7 months now.

As others have said it knows the difference between a touch and a grab. Also the pull out part (ie the bottom couple of inches) isn't touch sensitive. Only the rest of the arc.

As far as comparing it to a pedal, I believe the advantage of the touch is that you don't have to be facing or centered at the sink area. I can start filling the sink or a pot, wander around the kitchen and from across the way or on my way past, just reach over and give it a tap for off (or on).

Finding some part of your hands that are not dirty is really a nonissue, you can touch with the back of your hand, your elbow, your forearm..... once my husband was being especially goofy when were still in our initial first couple of days use and he bent over and turned it on with his chin.

I also appreciate the fact that after your hands are clean you can turn it off with a tap from the back of your hand or forearm and the faucet and controller stay dry.

When I was first researching there was some question about battery life. I'm at about 7 months and am still using the set that came from Delta with the faucet. Bought mine on ebay and got a terrific deal. Waaaay less than the Vinnatta or the foot pedal I'd been considering.

The sprayer stays on, it has a solid feel, terrific water pressure at both the spray and stream settings, basic enough simple styling that it can fit into about any style kitchen, great warranty.... whats not to love? OK: my only complaint is that the pull out hose could be about 6" longer and then I could fill pots and vases that were set next to the sink... it's not long enough to do that.

You all have made me very happy because I really wanted to try the Pilar for my weird install, but I got to looking at the pics on line and wondered if it swiveled.

And it does!!!!!

So here's my plan: last week I lucked into buying a great used Elkay Lustertone sink at my local Habitat Store. It wasn't what I set out to buy, but one of those times where the unexpected filled the bill better than what I thought I wanted. I wasn't planning on a stainless steel prep, but this old sink was cheap ($10) and my husband said just buy it and we'll use it to try out the placement and utility to see if we like having a prep sink. So I got it and spent half a day scrubbing/polishing and, ulitmately, buffing it. What I wasn't expecting is that Lustertone is such lovely material that it cleans up so well. I got the rust, hard water scum, scratches, and vile grungy-faucet crud off completely. Tonight, it's sitting in my dining room, just glowing.

The thing is, it's a top mount and I wanted an undermount, and it has three faucet holes. And it's rectangular 13.5 X 16.5. What to do...?

So (since it's just a test sink anyway, I sez to myself), why not turn 90 degress so it's wider side-to-side rather than deeper front-to-back, because I think it was Buehl who mentioned that wider felt better to use.

Then I decided to undermount it anyway with a positive reveal that follows along that little ridge that surrounds all drop sinks. This leaves the three holes located on a flat deck area about 3/16ths inch lower than the little ridge which I think will make things easier since I am plopping this baby in a wood countertop (IKEA BB) and the farther away the wood is from the water, the better.

But now I have three visible holes running along the side of the sink deck, not at the back, as the sink was planned. However, this is going to be installed in a relatively narrow (28") island work surface that may sometimes have people using it from both sides, so not having a row of faucets sort of walling off the back of the sink from the other side would be good. If I orient it so the faucets are on the right side, I could arrange the three holes with (from farther back to closer) faucet, control lever and soap dispenser. That way users on the opposite side would have some use of the sink (may be not the soap dispenser). It won't be quite as convenient from the opposite as it will be from the principal side, though still OK, I think. But for this to work well, it was critical that the faucet swivel so it could be pushed a bit out of the way when need from either side. And you all tell me it does! Yeah!

And once it's on, operators from both sides can turn it on with a touch. Perfect.

Many thanks to all who answered my question so quickly and thoroughly. Can't beat the Kitchen Forum!

L

I am also interested in this faucet. To tag on to the original post, does anyone know how far away from the actual faucet you can mount the handle? For various reasons we would like to have the faucet at the back of the sink but the handle for on/off & temp control at the front corner...can that be done?

I'm not sure about mounting the handle so far from the faucet. I took a quick peek under my sink and there are quite a few wires and things coming out of the handle part. You might want to download the installation manual from the Delta website and show it to your plumber.