I love mine. I use it constantly. I have a family of 6 and use it for all my cooking. Some feel it is an eyesore and would rather not have it interfering with their backsplash but I don't mind. No regrets here!

No, but except for pasta we rarely fill large pots (and you still have to dump it out).. For small pots, I just use my water on the fridge as it's right next to the stove so that solved the issue if I just need a little bit of water but we have a tiny kitchen so either way it's not an issue - we could still install one, but its not a priority and its one more thing to worry about leaking.

I love mine. I care less about disruption of my back splash than about ease of maneuvering heavy stockpots full of water. However, even better would have been a small drain sink right next to the stove so that I could also empty those pots without lifting them. (I have a lot of pain issues that I didn't have when we planned the house, though, so this may not be true for everyone.)

I didn't get one and don't regret it, but it may be a case of 'since I've never had it, I don't miss it.' Also, we have a prep sink almost right across from the stove, so it's a close enough water supply for me. The pullout faucet allows me to set larger pans on the counter beside it to fill them if I want.

I seriously considered it initially, but in the end decided against it (possible leaks inside wall, no drain there, etc.)

About half-way through our planning & design, I scrapped the idea.

Do I regret, nope! Not at all! I have a prep sink about 3' away on the same counter run and I just fill a pot on the counter (I have a pull out faucet there), twist, take a step or two, and I'm at the cooktop. It's also just a step or two to dump pasta water in the prep sink.

I have one and love it. Use it daily for filling up large pots, small pots, my tea pot. If I didn't have one I would have been fine because I didn't have one before. It's just another part of the kitchen remodel that has made kitchen chores easier!

One question I have is people always say they are leery of them because there is no drain, they may leak. Then do you not use the icemakers in your fridge? They leak and have no drains either! I've never understood why one is accepted and the other "pooh poohed".

My neighbor recently had to replace her kitchen floor because her fridge ice maker line had a small hole in it, not enough for water to pool but enough that, over time, the floor got spongy. One day she stepped in the wrong spot and heard the inevitable sound of a problem.

I have to admit I am very paranoid with the icemaker and worry about it - we have a shut off valve in the basement for it that we can even drain the water out of and it gets turned off even if we go away for the weekend (as does the laundry - 3 shut off valves for that area - sink, main shut off and washer - joy of DIY - can do as much or little as you want). Its not about acceptable or not - but I worry about it and it's one less thing to worry about flooding given the dishwasher, sink and ice maker are enough and we have a tiny kitchen.

What about putting instant hot water near the stove? Is that just as good ??

A faulty fridge icemaker hose caused damage in my home so I am cautious.

David

Hi, Kelleg. My husband really wanted a potfiller, but we opted against it for several reasons. I was at a neighbor's house with my kids and one of them went over to the potfiller over the top of their $$$ stove and tried to wash his hands! Eeks. I think your kids are older (and probably have more sense than that!) but it made me realize I didn't want a plumbing device that could leak, etc. in a place where there is no drain.

Also, my kitchen is not enormous and we have only about 5 steps from sink to cooktop, so not enough to warrant a separate device.

I'm very happy with my decision to leave it out, but I have an acquaintance who loves hers and raves about it.

Anita

We had a problem w/our old refrigerator's water line, but we found it right away...a pool of water by the refrigerator was a good hint...

With a pot filler, there's a very good chance that any leak you have will be inside the walls...something you will most likely not see until it's too late and significant damage has already been done (not to mention the mold you probably will have by then...and mold is notoriously difficult to totally remove cheaply.)

My DS and I have asthma with a significant sensitivity to mold & mildew...so we're very careful on that front!

We have a midsize kitchen, certainly not huge by any stretch of the immagination. We didn't NEED a pot filler, nor did we NEED a prep sink, but that being said...we enjoy both of them.

I'm not overly worried about it leaking, any more than the plumbing in the wall for our toilets, fridge, tub/shower, etc. Stuff happens, if it leaks we'll learn about it soon since I have water alarms on everything and auto shut off alarms wherever possible. It's actually fairly simple plumbing, and they're not prone to leaking.

I have a small child, and I suppose if I really didn't watch him or his friends, they could go play with it, but really....when do you leave kids in a kitchen that long? SO long that they can climb onto the counter, crawl over a huge stove, and then turn on the pot filler....oh both valves mind you because it takes more than one to get the water to flow. And I don't mean to be rude....but I have to ask? How old is a child who is tall enough to reach over the stove and turn a pot filler on? and yet does not understand a stove is not a sink????

Anyhoo, we only regret that we didn't also add a scrap sink to the entire mix :o) But we love the pot filler, and FYI it does not interrupt our BS since we've mounted it on a side wall to the left of the stove There are also lovely counter mount ones.

Wow, now you have me thinking...I just asked my DH what the chances were of us getting a leak with the potfiller and he told me that at the time he was concerned and spent time with the contractor to make sure to do everything possible to prevent a leak. DH said they searched around for the "right fittings"...don't know, I'm just a bystander...has anyone out there actually had a leak from one?
With all that said I do really like mine but wouldn't know what I was missing had I never had it. I have become grateful for it, it definitely makes the chores in the kitchen easier - I make alot of soups, pastas and teas. If you won't be manuvering heavy pots with water and the concern for leaks and having a disruption in your backsplash exists it might not be for you.

Great input from everyone. I am leaning towards not doing it just to save myself the money and since I have a prep sink so close, but I would love more input if anyone else wants to contribute.

How often do you fill large pots with water, deglaze pans, can fruit or other produce, or work in the kitchen with lots of other people around, either at your sink(s) or otherwise in the cooking area with you. My answers to all of those questions contributed to my decision-making process in favor of the potfiller. I also added a valve so that I can use filtered or unfiltered water.

I never knew that potfillers existed until I visited here. So I lived my whole life w/o one, & still don't have one, & I'm still managing to fill my pots just fine ;-D

I think kitchendetective's questions are good ones. If you're not doing any of those things on a very regular basis, it seems like overkill to me. If you are, you would probably really appreciate one.

Eeeeek! Forgot the question mark.

Kitchendetective, those are good questions. I make a lot of pasta, but don't do any of the others. I also make a lot of recipes where I measure the water. I don't think the potfiller is that helpful for this. I am really leaning towards not doing one now just to save the money. I want to get stainless faucets instead of chrome and they are more expensive and then the potfiller is also more expensive. If I don't get the filler, the cost will cover the higher price of stainless fixtures with some left over!

I think it is a BIG thing to have at least two sources of water in a kitchen. This is why I asked if an Instant Hot Water tap is a good alternative to a pot filler.

I'm hoping this question is close enough to the original question to be worth including here. Also I'm hoping people comment on this, i.e. "At least two taps" in any size kitchen no matter how small.

David

Absolutely no - though at first I thought I wanted one until I decided it was kind of a "gadget du jour". I've found I like to fill pots from my hot water dispenser since it comes to a boil in a flash. I'm not a canner though - maybe it's good for that.

I have my regular tap & my hot/cold filtered tap, but they're right next to each other, so I don't know how valuable it is to simply have 2 sources of water. But then again, my kitchen is relatively small & basic, & there usually isn't more than one person, sometimes two, cooking at a time. I don't have the budget for a lot of extras, & I'm very happy with what I have. :)

I REALLY appreciate the instant hot - way more than I expected to!

Lovetocook-good points but when you and your husband are the GC and contractor/plumber, etc. it also makes you think differently - for us it really isn't about cost as they aren't that expensive and it's just a little copper (we haven't switched to pex yet and I wouldn't in that area and would want good solder joints)... it really came down to how often would I use it vs. time vs. do I really care. Plus, we're painting in a few years the backsplash, so we "could" add it later but a year later I see no need for it.

davidro1,

I've always had only one source of water in the kitchen for my entire life with two exceptions:

We lived in a lovely townhome in D.C. for a few years that had instant hot water. I used it twice I think. However, I was in residency and did very little cooking during that period of my life.

Our last refrigerator purchase gained an ice and water dispenser for us. This was critical for me at the time because my children were very young and couldn't reach the faucet. I wanted them to be able to get their own drink of water 150 times a day.

I've never missed a second water source, never even thought about it, actually. I'm the only cook, and one faucet is plenty in this house - or it will be when my youngest is big enough to reach the faucet for herself.

David, I'd agree that two sources of water are appropriate for any size kitchen, but I personally wouldn't substitute a pot filler for a hot water dispenser or visa versa. For a couple of reasons, one, a pot filler normally is plumbed with larger piping so it fills the pots faster. Typically they're cold water only, because that's the best water to cook with.

Hot water dispensers are great, but they don't have the same flow. And while they're nifty if you want a quick cup of tea, they'd be pretty cumbursome to fill a pot with.

Personally I'd put a hot water dispenser in a master suite in a heart beat. I'd love to have a breakfast kitchen with a small microwave, hot water dispenser and coffee maker. But no pot filler :oP

No regrets.

After being in our kitchen for 3 1/2 years I think our best decisions were based on getting items that we knew would be helpful for the way we function (i.e. everytime we had traffic jams at the sink in our old kitchen---usually several times a day---I daydreamed about the way our new kitchen would function with a separate prep sink on the opposite side of the kitchen) and cutting the items that we thought "could" be useful or we thought we might regret not getting down the road. I appreciate not having any more appliance, plumbing, or electrical worry than we already have.

There were a bunch of items,including a potfiller, I wanted when I saw them in magazines or read about them on this forum. Dh and teen dd steered me toward simplicity and I'm thankful they did.

Stick with the items you feel sure about (and for some, a potfiller will be on this list)---those are the items you'll most appreciate.

As far as fridge water supply with no drain vs. potfiller with no drain: we had never had a fridge hooked up to a water supply before. I was willing to risk damage to our 100-yr-old wood floors because I was pretty sure the easy access to ice would increase the amount of water my family would drink---and it did, by a lot. I'm pretty sure the risk vs. reward ratio would be a lot less favorable for a potfiller--for my family (and the opposite may hold true for other kichens.)

kitchendetective - I didn't know that you could add a valve to get both the filtered and unfiltered - that would be great! I wonder how hard that would be to do at this point, we haven't put our backsplash in - just drywalled...

kelleg - I make alot of things using my measuring cups with the potfiller, I just put it under the faucet.

I think it comes down to function for you and your familys needs - for us it has proved indispensable. It has lightened my load considerably with as much as we use it. There have been many times that I've been cooking and my children are at the sink and we aren't waiting around for one another. Our kitchen is very active from tots to teens and we have a small kitchen with just the one sink. BUT I've been cooking for 20 years with only one water source and never knew it could have been better : ) - Like others I never heard of a potfiller until we began talking about a kitchen renovation and my DH mentioned it and said he thought I could use one, from there I began seeing them everywhere and then heard about them on this forum. I am now spoiled with the thing and love it! (I'll change my mind if it springs a leak!!!)
kitchendetectives points are excellent - if you don't do alot of those things it would be unecessary and like you said you could spend $$ in different areas that would be appreciated.

Oh IglooChic! You just described my "dream MBR"!!!! I so want a "breakfast kitchen" w/instant hot (tea for me) and MW...

Someday we hope to add a first floor master suite + laundry room addition....and that's in my plans!!!! (I can picture myself waking up on a Saturday winter morning, making a cup of tea, and curling up in a comfy chair in front of a fireplace that's b/w the bedroom & bathroom. Or, taking a relaxing bath with a fire going, lights out, and gazing at the stars through the skylight! *relaxing sigh*)

Oops! Sorry for the hijack...

i'm not anywhere near finished yet (still building) but i've always thought a back splash w/out a pot filler seemed bare to me! i like the look of them.

about an instant hot: there are many things that require you begin with cold water ...such as making hard boiled eggs. if you put the eggs in hot water they'll crack open and poach. plus, an instant hot doesn't put out a lot of water. i imagine if you wanted to fill a pot for pasta it would take five or ten minutes. ...obviously don't know for sure, but while it seems a good idea, and instant hot doesn't really work in that location.

Wouldn't have one if you paid me. Well, unless you paid me a whooole lot. Like, 5 figures.

Seriously.

No regrets. We have a prep sink in our island opposite our range/cooktop area, and that's close enough. I didn't want either the liability of a source of water without a drain or anything in the middle of our cooking area backsplash.

One thing to remember...one still has to lug the pot to the sink to drain it.

That said, IMO, if another water source is really important, better bet is to install a small sink next to the cook top; solves the lugging of the pot to the main sink to drain..as well as the no drain issue, wall leaks, etc...and is more useful..as one can use it for a prep sink if the kids are in the way of the main sink.

Last but not least, one can have a back splash that is uninterrupted by a what is essentially a faucet sticking out of the wall. :-)

When I was in the design stages for this kitchen, I seriously considered putting a pot filler in. My cooktop is on one side of my kitchen and the sink is on the other side. So I decided I was going to need a food prep sink on the cooktop side anyway and it ended up being located only a few steps away. With a sink so close, I no longer saw the need or advantage of a pot filler, especially since they only dispense cold water.

Another consideration for me is the fact that I am on a well. Water lines that do not get used often should be allowed to run for a moment to ensure that fresh water is in the line and not unchlorinated stagnant water. I was afraid I'd end up having to run water into a pot and carry it to the sink for disposal prior to using the pot filler anyway....so why bother? It just didn't make any sense to me.

We certainly don't have a high-end kitchen and we do have a pot filler. We also have a micro wave/vent above our cooktop.

We did install the microwave an inch simply because the standard 18" clearance was too low for our purposes. We installed the pot filler as high as we could with still a 1/4" clearance. All our pots fit under it, including my large canning kettle - the main reason I wanted a pot filler.

Both my husband and I love our filler. We haven't had it long but already we're using it on a daily basis. I suspect it's going to be one of those things we wonder how we previously did without.

Here is a link that might be useful: The Mushroom Factor

adunate , I am trying to install the potfiller but it seems like it's tight fit with the microwave above it. Do you have the measurements of the distance between range to potfiller and pitfiller to microwave? also the potfiller I have is 7" in height maybe I can change to a smaller one?