Thanks so much, very helpful -- I had no idea a pull down and a pull out were actually two different things! That thread link was so helpful, really! So I think I am going to choose a pull-OUT as I don't want a gooseneck shape and the pullouts I've seen on FaucetsDirect are the ones I naturally gravitate toward. Thanks for your help, and also for making me think about the button that can hold the spray for me. Who knew choosing one little faucet would be so involved! Now I have to start thinking about the bathroom faucets.... :-)

alku05- It looks like your prep sink Floriano has a seam right at the flare of the "flower head", if you will. Is that what you rotate for spray, or is it underneath there, not visible? I have both sizes of Florianos also, but I have never been able to figure out how to get the spray on the smaller one. I guess I don't really need it there, so I just forgot about it. But now that I see your picture, I don't have that seam in my "flower head", it's just a solid piece. Maybe mine is older and just isn't designed for that, I'm not sure.

I haven't bought my faucet yet. I'm using a $10 stop valve for now, and it's on a flexible bendable pipe that holds its shape (Kitec iPex). For my ideal faucet spray, I think I's like the spray wand to be a little "tip" at the end of the hose. I don't like large spray wands, even when I have pulled the hose farther out of the tube. I've tested out faucets in other people's kitchens and I've been to every showroom and hardware store within 50 miles. I think that, according to all who have one, a pull-down or pull-out spray is easy to use. It seems to me that people pull it out (or "down") most often to rinse off the side walls of the sink. I've observed people pulling the spray out a few inches for this. On web sites, manufacturers' videos seem to show me most often people pulling the spray out a long way in order to fill a vase on the counter next to the sink. (This doesn't make sense to me: I could just put the empty vase into my deep sink... besides, I only fill a vase once in a blue moon, but I rinse the sink out constantly.... oh well, who cares about "real" needs when we can fantasize about vases.) Pulling downwards is easier than any other movement because your arm's natural strength is highest when you only move it from up to down. Pulling it downwards is one straight movement, with a straight arm using the big flat muscle under your shoulder blade. (Like in swimming or in cross country skiing). It's technically harder to pull something outwards sideways as it requires several other muscles. It's harder for two reasons. One is that more muscles = more coordination. The other is that the muscles coordinated are the smaller ones. I have a vacuum cleaner with a hidden self-returning coiled spring loaded electrical wire (hope that is clear). The effort is weird sometimes pulling it out. A pull-OUT spray makes you pull sideways. Pulling it out the longest possible length reminds me of pulling out the vacuum cleaner electrical cord. Mind you, I would almost never have a reason to pull the hose out the longest possible amount. Pulling sideways has one other disadvantage: it puts more stress on the junction points where the faucet body meets the countertop hole or sink hole, and where the swiveling part of the body sits in the fixed part of the body. In a small faucet body this is insignificant, but the bigger the body the more the rocking. I think this explains why larger faucets are mostly configured to have a rounded tube at the top, so you pull downwards (straight down) more than outwards (towards you). Pulling downwards puts a physical stress on the faucet base that is mostly downwards, and that is not going to weaken the faucet body swivel joint or the bolted connection to the counter or sink. Pulling more towards the side forces the metal body to receive this side to side force more often, and it could lead to something loosening up. The Arwa Surf faucet seems to me to be a good compromise in terms of shape, if you don't want a long rounded top on a high faucet. Use "Arwa Surf " as key words for your web search if you want to see it the shape. All faucets are installed a few inches away from the sink wall, and they reach forward about 8 or 9 inches. I'll guess the query about it seeming "like it would collide with the front of the sink" is more about the spray shooting too far forward, and not about any collision when one pulls the spray out of the tube. A spray that shoots straight down or slightly forward is going to end up hitting the sink bottom. All faucets do this; they project the stream down onto the sink bottom, some a bit more forward than others. hth

I like a pulldown. Sidespray is too fiddly and pullouts aren't as massive, meaning I don't get the spout length my shortness requires. :) I have a Kohler Simplice right now as a temporary faucet. It's okay but the spray button doesn't work right. I shoulda exchanged it but I was lazy--Kohler makes a good faucet and I just got a dud. Previously I had a huuuuge Hansgrohe Allegro Pro, selected purely by size (I was having back issues with the faucet spout length in my unremodeled kitchen). It looked like an alien space craft from the original War of the Worlds movie. Great faucet BUT! Like others, I found that the HG spray button wasn't a simple on/off mechanism. You could turn it on, you could turn it off, but if you turned off the water, it would revert to stream. Not a big deal unless you are a Tapmaster user trying to conserve water while washing veggies with the sprayer. I'll probably get another one when I remodel anyway. :) So whatever you get, make sure the spray/stream mechanism works the way you want. What we think is an obvious function may not have occurred to the faucet designers. (The Simplice--if the button acts like it should--is the way it should be. On or off, until you change it.)