Lissa- I just had a Franke Little Butler installed three days ago and I can't tell you how much we love it. The reason I chose it was that I wanted both the hot and cold water to be filtered, and at the time I was looking, Franke was the only company that did this that I found. (I bought the unit last year, yes it has taken THAT LONG to get to where we were ready to install it). The Insta-hot brand filtered the cold but not the hot water. Anyway, the unit is not that big-- the heater is a rectangular cube about 11x7 inches. The filter (it is a Franke triflow filtration unit) is a cylinder about 11 inches high by 2 inches in diameter. However, I don't have a separate cooling unit for the cold water, since the temp coming out of the cold tap is good enuf for me. Also, my fridge has filtered cold water for those times when it matters to me. But the Little Butler filter, heater, and my garburetor fit very comfortably in the sink cab, which is 36" wide. As for cost, when I was looking these units were quite high, but I bought mine from an ebay storefront with 100% positive feedback for about half the price I was quoted in the snazzy plumbing showroom (can't remember numbers now, it's been so long). Hope this info is of use, good luck!

Some basic troubleshooting. I slid the rotational limit stop out of the way so I could open the valve fully. Even when fully open, not obstructed by the limit, I got no hot water. The inlet pipe coming in from the right side of the valve feels cold, so now I'm back to the opinion that the cartridge was installed upside down. So is that a reason why no hot water could be getting mixed into the valve?

In our remodel, we will have external ice and water and a hot water dispenser in the prep sink. Right now we use the Brita and a hot water pot (plugged in 24/7) which keeps water boiling hot but sits on the counter and takes up lots of space. My kids and DH love cold water and miss the dispenser (which is currently broken on my kitchenaid) That was one of their musts for the new kitchen. I LOVE hot water and can't live without it for tea and hot water, hot chocolate. I would rather pull a lever rather than microwave or boil water. SO, for our remodel, my rationale was since i'm getting cold filtered water in the fridge- I would save and get the hot water dispenser in the sink. If the water dispenser in the fridge is that slow..i'll put the Brita in my new and bigger fridge. For me it wasn't a hard decision- it seems overkill to have 2 filtered cold water dispensers. Now I have to look into the energy consumption you are talking about because I am trying to be energy conscience and efficient with this new remodel.

I have a similar faucet (Franke Manor House) and a Mountain Plumbing water dispenser (Little Gourmet), single handle in bronze, but you can see the styles together in this pic: Mine were purchased on ebay for rock-bottom clearance prices, so I wasn't picky about the slightly different colors--I painted the water dispenser handle to better match the porcelain faucet handles. I also have four holes in the counter, and don't consider it a problem. I vote for #4 (the Little Gourmet MT1201?). This post was edited by mama_goose on Wed, Nov 20, 13 at 11:46