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Technology is coming to all kinds of places… even the kitchen sink. It’s possible to control your tap, without a touch… this is the Pfister Stellen touch-free kitchen faucet. It allows you to wave your hand in front of the sensor to turn the water on and off, keeping germs from spreading.
I received a Stellen faucet (model #LG529-ESAC) to test and review in my home, and here’s what I found.
The Stellen is a tall, sleek, streamlined kitchen faucet. The high arc gives it lots of room to maneuver. It comes in a few different finishes to match your space. The faucet has a motion sensor so that when you wave your hand near the tap the water will turn on and off. There’s also a pull-out sprayer so you can clean out the sink of get water– both in stream or a spray– where you need it.
The tap operates forward only, meaning you can get it into tight spaces, or really close to the backsplash or wall. You can install it with or without a deck plate or base plate.
There’s a couple of handy features built in to this tap to prevent problems. For starters you can override the sensor by just using the handle, so you can always get water. You can set the handle to the pressure and temperature you want, leave it there, and then leave it open, so that any time you wave your hand, you get what you need.
There’s also a battery pack you can get as an add-on, meaning you’ll always have power to keep the motion sensor running, even in a power outage.
After a few weeks of use I found that the tap is pretty reliable. It does take some getting used to in terms of how close to wave your hand to get it to trigger. A couple of times it did go off when I walked by it in the dark.. perhaps a shadow set it off? That’s really only happened twice.
There’s another weird thing that happens.. and that’s when my espresso machine is running, sometimes it sets the tap off. It must be the vibrations? It’s not a big deal since I’m usually standing right here and just shut it off. If the tap did go off all on its own, there’s an auto shut-off that kills the flow after 3 minutes of inactivity. It’s probably a good idea to manually shut it off if you’re going to be gone for any length of time.
Overall, this new Pfister Stellen has been a nice addition to the kitchen. It works well, and having the hands-free motion technology has been handy in ways I didn’t really imagine. It sells for about $350 US from home improvement stores.