Decent place to buy kitchen/bathroom taps

flibbage0 · 31 Aug 2011 at 13:57

Does anyone know of any decent places to buy kitchen/bathroom taps.

I've thought of Wickes and B&Q

Also looked at the bath store(they seem quite expensive)

Any other places to try?

Thanks

DBT85 · 31 Aug 2011 at 14:00

Do not buy from any of them.

It'll likely be over priced and underconstructed unless it's a branded product. Stick to big named stuff like Bristan and others that are made properly and are solid brass. We bought our Bristan Prism bath taps and basin mixer from Ebay. The mixer was 65 and the bath taps were 60. Seen them elsewhere for £120 each.

http://www.bristan.com/

flibbage0 · 31 Aug 2011 at 14:04

Cheers, will have a look, is there really that much of a difference?

I'm guessing that they last longer.

Gilly · 31 Aug 2011 at 14:05

I got a Bristan shower mixer (for until our proper shower is fitted) from B&Q for under £60.

Ahleckz · 31 Aug 2011 at 14:07

Porcelanosa do beautiful stuff.

GinG · 31 Aug 2011 at 16:20

Have a look on Ebay, not sure on quality but some similar style of taps that retail for over £100 in stores like B&Q can be found at a 1/5 of the price...

worth a punt at buying 1 to check on? quality

kefkef · 31 Aug 2011 at 16:39

Another +1 for ebay. We got some recommended when purchasing the bathroom earlier this year, got it all on ebay far cheaper, even bathstore branded furniture at about 60% the cost of their 'sale' items. Just got to be willing to wait around for the right stuff to come up for auction.

DBT85 · 31 Aug 2011 at 17:10

flibbage0 said:
Cheers, will have a look, is there really that much of a difference?

I'm guessing that they last longer.

It's partly that branded stuff will last longer, and partly that they will also do spares for a minimum of like 10 years after you buy them. It may sound silly, but if in 5 years time one of the cartridges goes in one of the bath taps you bought from x shop goes and you can't get a spare then you need to buy whole new taps and fit them. Which is usually a pain with the bath in situ.

As Gilly said, you can get Bristan and other makes in the B&Qs etc, but just hunt around for a decent price.

flibbage0 · 31 Aug 2011 at 18:12

Todge said:
It's partly that branded stuff will last longer, and partly that they will also do spares for a minimum of like 10 years after you buy them. It may sound silly, but if in 5 years time one of the cartridges goes in one of the bath taps you bought from x shop goes and you can't get a spare then you need to buy whole new taps and fit them. Which is usually a pain with the bath in situ.

As Gilly said, you can get Bristan and other makes in the B&Qs etc, but just hunt around for a decent price.

Well just found out from my mum (yes I'm helping them to buy taps :rolleyes:

)
that the shower mixer tap we bought from wickes was £100 and the pull up knob thingy that switches between tap and shower has broken, we've had it for 5 years, so not that long.

DBT85 · 31 Aug 2011 at 18:24

flibbage0 said:
Well just found out from my mum (yes I'm helping them to buy taps )
that the shower mixer tap we bought from wickes was £100 and the pull up knob thingy that switches between tap and shower has broken, we've had it for 5 years, so not that long.

And can you still get spares? I assume not if they are looking for replacements.

If it's you that's fitting the new taps and the bath is staying where it is, do yourself a favour and spend a few quid on a box spanner from toolstation or the like.

http://www.toolstation.com/shop/Hand+Tools/Plumbers+Tools/Tap+Backnut+Spanner+12+34/d10/sd210/p43996

Means you can get a decent turn on the things in awkward positions and makes life MUCH easier.

Also you need taps which work with the pressures you have available otherwise performance is crap. IE if you have a hot tank and its not pumped then you are probably looking at a hot water pressure of about 0.2 bar. Your cold water mains into the house could be around 3bar by comparison.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Bristan-B...room_Taps_PP&hash=item2a1282a3ab#ht_750wt_905

is one option for a shower tap mixer. Its £99 from them (I used them for ours) and over 200 from a few others.