A few years ago, we replaced our older ‘Space Age’ plastic kitchen sink with a new Kohler Cast iron dual sink and at the same time a new Kohler faucet. It was old stock, missing the hoses, but I bought them, it’s been great ever since. A nice K-63520 white faucet, spray head, handy. Well the spray head plastic cracked, so I dug around, various sellers, near $100, but Amazon has the replacement head for $65. (11 in stock) Put it in the cart, go the check out, and see this note: This item cannot be shipped to your selected delivery location. Please choose a different delivery location.
Well, I only have one location, home! Where I need it… Called Customer Service, she tried to help, but apparently some Gov’t regulation prevents them shipping to my zip code, maybe others, and she couldn’t override it… Other Sellers in their listing, same note.
I tried my SIL’s address, different Zip code, tried the Delivery Locker nearby, no help for either.
Ideas?
Update: SOLVED! It was the water usage limits on us here in CA, as this was an older faucet, without the restrictors, they couldn’t ship here, so I had it shipped to my Inlaw’s home in Carson City, NV! Went right through, they are coming down next weekend for the Annual Christmas Pizza Party, so no problem!! Had never run into this before!!
Just in time for Christmas!! I did run into this when we did the bath remodels, all the fixtures were from build, com and they went with the low flow versions of the shower heads, faucets, but I’d forgotten that the kitchen sink was old stock, once that was remembered, bingo, quick fix! Odd that Amazon didn’t suggest a compliant version, but I think this model is discontinued at Kohler. Happy Holidays!
We’ll see the inlaws next weekend, they’ve done a Christmas Pizza Party for years, gather lots of local folks they don’t see at family gatherings, some are old friends of ours from ages ago, too, and the wee ones get a kick out of the toys, games, pizza, and the rest of us the many pitchers of beer! Looks like we’ll also be traveling to Carson City for Christmas, too, maybe a few days on either side, family is scattering a bit… Just hope Donner Pass is open then… 4x4, chains, if needed! I’ve come over and hit whiteout conditions up top, no fun!
Those restrictions have been around for decades – maybe not before the 90s - certainly before 2000. I always get a price for things like plumbing, lighting, etc. from Builders.com and in the plumbing department anything that uses water shows the issue. Usually there is say a 1.15 or maybe it is 1.25gpm version for California and a 1.5gpm for places I have lived.
Since I bought this house two years ago I have been annoyed with the slow flow at the sinks. I thought maybe the aerators were clogged so I bought new ones at the local hardware store. 1.5 GPM. No difference. I suppose that since I am on a well I should tolerate it better, but instead I picked up a package of 2.2 GPM aerators on Amazon. The difference is modest, but noticeable. I suspect that doing one extra load of laundry uses more water than the extra flow for a year.
The kitchen faucet is more frustrating than the bathroom ones I changed, since only there do I need to fill a big pot or a dishpan with water. And it takes a minute and a quarter to reach full hot.
Yes, kitchen sink in particular, filling pans, pots, it would just slow things down. I bet if I had to replace the whole faucet, and buy local, I’d be stuck with the low flow…
However, as needed, I can go visit the inlaws in NV and be OK!
When I did my large renovation in 2002, the plumber asked me how I like the flow in my faucets (slow or normal). I said “normal” so he used a plier to remove an insert under the aerators that restricted flow to CA style.
Since I didn’t want to ron an extra line to the back, furthest away, bathroom, I put in one of the recirculates with a valve under the sink… Now, almost instant hot, the cold is a little lukewarm for a but, but livable, and for showers, only a few seconds for nice hot water… Initially I had it on the rimer, but our odd schedules, come or going at odd times, I finally just turned it ON all the time, works out well…
A new setup, or If I had access to the crawlspace, I’d run a PEX return line, but this valve setup is easy…
There is a plumber in the family who described such a system. I’m feeling kind of lukewarm about that idea. It seems wasteful, not that I let that stop me in other areas. And shortly much of the electricity heating my water will come from solar.
Right now the hot water lines in the basement are laid out very efficiently, if the goal is simplicity and saving copper. There is a long - about 24 feet - trunk, with feeds to end points. The trunk is significantly larger than the individual feeds. I’ve been pondering having a shortcut path installed from the hot water heater to the kitchen, using PEX instead of copper. While the shortcut might save twelve feet or a bit more, I think the real improvement would be that it would all be smaller than than the trunk it bypasses. Comparing the ID of half inch vs three quarter copper pipe, the smaller is about half the larger. The ID of 5/8 PEX seems to be close to that of 1/2 copper, and 1.2 PEX is around 36%.
(Most of the above is thinking out loud. I even went downstairs and took some measurements, made easier by 12 inch on center floor joists.)
I had two recirculating pumps in the last house (2 branches), but eventually turned them off because I got tired of having the cold water be hot-to-warmish. As annoying when you’re brushing your teeth to have to run the line to get it cold…
In this house I ran an extra pex line for a recirculator in the basement before I closed up the ceiling, although I haven’t hooked it up yet. I’m not going to have it run 24/7, I will set it on a remote button which will run either by manual press or by proximity sensor (haven’t decided) so it will only pull when it’s efficient to do so.
The other thing I have done is to locate a Point Of Use hot water heater (2.5 gal, I think) under the kitchen sink, which feeds both the sink and the dishwasher. Turn on the faucet, there’s hot water there within 1 second. Presumably this makes the dishwasher more efficient because it doesn’t have to heat the water which would normally come in at room temperature for a while.
The hot water line comes into the cold water input, so as the POU heater empties it is refilled by hot from the traditional hot water heater on the other side of the house, so…endless. It takes a bit of room under the sink, about the size of a stack of Popular Science magazines, I’d say. But that stops endless minutes of flushing cold water away waiting for the hot, the cost is some electricity for the POU heater.
You just reminded me of an earlier time, not too long after moving here in the mid '70s, and I guess when I replaced the SS double sink with the ‘SpaceAge’ plastic one, as part of that project, I added a Kitchenaid Instant hot water unit under there… It worked OK, but we really found we didn’t use it often as we thought, micro was handier, and it just ate power and the water became stale as it had no way to return or circulate, only output was a separate faucet on the sink… I unplugged it, and the next chance I had to play under there, I pulled it out.
Maybe if we were more pf a tea drinker it would have been used a bit, seemed like a good idea when I put it in… Trashed it…
Our plumber when I asked for a bid on adding the recirculated pump/valve evidently didn’t want the job, wanted $1200 to do it, so I added it myself. Maybe an hour, just the cost of the pump kit, maybe $300… Later he told me he’d removed many of them because folks didn’t like that warm cold water, but I guess just different preferences. It saves a lot of time/water getting the shower up to temp, the way our CA climate is going, strict water limits are going to be going on for quite a while…
When I read Goofyhoofy’s description I imagined having one supplied by the hot water supply, feeding both the faucet and dishwasher (which is all I have there). No separate faucet, just the same kitchen faucet. That wouldn’t get stale.
It would drive me crazy. One complaint about the water softener system I have is that I never get that really cold well water that I love because it has been sitting in the softener tanks
This is the unit, wall bracket and a separate faucet, kept it really hot, but with little use/flow, it was a mistake to put it in, I see some on eBay, maybe for some situations, maybe a separate switch t so it didn’t set there and cook forever it might work, or for a cabin, bar… Hot buttered rum, etc…
Yeah, as I said that’s what I did at this house (although I haven’t hooked it up yet). At the last house the heater was in the basement but and the bedroom/bath/sink was on the 2nd floor. There was no way to run a new line without ripping up multiple floors and ceilings.
I haven’t started it up yet because there’s little point in having it run all the time when it’s really only needed a few times a day. So I will put in a manual switch to trigger it to cycle when someone enters the bathroom. Otherwise it’s just pulling hot water out of the heater and letting it cool down in the pipes - which then heats the house (OK in winter, counterproductive in summer).
In my experience electricians are a whole lot better at running things without large holes. And the low voltage folks (think alarms & COAX) are often the best. For a fee most folks will do work – it is only a matter of price. Something like ¼ PEX is all you need.
