Jenny: so sorry I didn't see that you asked me a follow up question in your previous thread. Yes the franke, and probably most others, use their own filtration system for their tri flows. It is easy to connect to an ro system tho. Is it "approved"? I doubt it because they want to sell you on their very expensive ssystems. As far as the ro being aggressive, although this is true I don't think you will have any problems. The newer franke tri flows have a flexible braided connection rather than the older ones which employed semi rigid copper. The metal tubing is what was the concern about being "eaten away" by the ro. Even in those cases with metal tubing I had some clients with this setup that I had not heard of any issues over many years. If you are not comfy using one of these faucets then you could always get a dedicated ro faucet. I can tell you tho thru real life experiences, not text book theories, that you likely will not have issues with a tri flow. Will it last forever? Nope. Nothing does. But forever is a very long time. Please don't stress too much over this. You won't really go wrong with whatever you choose.

My Moen Brantford prep faucet is about 13" high, taller than you mentioned but it fits very well under my upper cabinets which are about 18" over the counter. It's a high arc with a pullout sprayer and a single handle. It's a traditional(ish) design, but you might look at Moen's other prep/bar faucets if you prefer a more modern style. (p.s. The prices listed on the Moen and Kohler sites are higher than they are in the real world -- just in case you hadn't already realized that and in case it helps.)

After researching thoroughly to buy 3 new kitchen faucets for our renovation, I came to the following conclusions. Best brands are Delta, Moen, Kohler (no order). All brands, even these, have lifetime warrantees on the cartridges; of these 3 brands, Moen's need replacing most often, so parts are cheap and easily available. Kohler breaks the least often, and you will have to call them to ship you out the replacement parts, free. Kohler also has a lifetime warrantee on the whole faucet, including finishes, not just the cartridges. All brands make cheaper versions of their faucets for big box and other discount stores. These versions use mostly plastic parts, and if you're lucky, you might get 3-5 years out of them. We got 3 years from our HD faucets, pretty consistently. We would spend $200-ish on them (in Canada, so you would have cheaper prices in the US). If you go to a plumbing store and spend $400-500 on a faucet from the same companies, you will get a mostly metal faucet that will last you more like 10 years. It is likely manufactured in China. If you go to a plumbing store and spend $600+ on a faucet from one of these companies, you may get a faucet with metal parts that was made in the US or Europe. They are all warrantied the same, so it's really a priority choice for you. When we didn't want to spend any money, we bought the cheap one at HD and got a couple of years out of it. This time we spent the $400 and hope to get significantly longer. We went with Kohler. We use our kitchen A LOT. :)

Delta and Moen are high quality and about as inexpensive as one would go without sacrificing quality. In my experience, within those lines, it is the style and finish that cause price variation within the same brand. Delta warrants their faucets equally for example. FWIW, Brizo is the higher end line of Delta and it is the styling and finishes that are responsible for price points.