What is characteristic of bronze mixers?

The modern plumbing market is distinguished by a truly huge range, but bronze mixers occupy a special position in it. Bronze itself refers to expensive metals, so the price of such plumbing is traditionally high. This material is chosen by people who want to equip their home in a classic style, as a rule, antique. Today we decided to talk about the varieties of such mixers and alternative variants in bronze.

Bronze Mixer Types

Immediately it should be noted that if you do not touch items made of precious metals such as silver and gold in a design, then bronze is the most reliable and durable material for the production of sanitary ware. This is indirectly evidenced by the fact that fierce Europeans, at the slightest opportunity, prefer to put just bronze.

But, despite the apparent patriarchal nature, the variety of such plumbing is produced no less than that of its modern competitors. Plus, from a technical point of view, all new-fashioned water supply mechanisms equally apply to bronze mixers.

Joystick mechanism

Bronze faucets for the bathroom or kitchen with a joystick or lever mechanism for adjusting the flow of water is now deservedly considered the most popular.

This type of adjustment takes at least 50% of the modern market, caused by several factors:

• First of all, this convenience. Both in the kitchen and in the bathroom, the hands are often either soapy or dirty, turning the knobs of regulators under such circumstances is not very convenient, it is much easier to turn the adjusting lever in one motion.
• From here the following advantage of such mechanism follows. When the crane is off, the lever can bring it to the working position several times faster. Owners of such cranes clearly, at the level of intuition can in a split second establish the pressure and temperature of flow that they need.

• Due to the design features of such a crane, water passing through it practically does not reduce the pressure. In other words, if in your plumbing system low pressure in pipes is not uncommon, then you better install the linkage mechanism.
• And finally, it’s much easier to do it yourself.. No special skills are required here.

Tip: There is a perception that the lever bronze sink faucet does not fit the retro design. Although retro and belongs to the strict classical direction, recently it has undergone some changes. At the moment, a whole line of lever cranes is produced in good harmony with the classics.

Two-valve or wing mixers

The principle of operation of such a device is well known to all adults since childhood, it is a traditional mechanism, where hot and cold flows are regulated separately. Although such products are available for any plumbing, but still a two-valve bath mixer made of bronze is considered more common and convenient.

Important: although the controversy about this has not subsided to this day, but it has been empirically discovered that both a faucet for a bathroom and a similar mixer for a kitchen made of bronze are much more economical than their joystick competitors. Therefore, if the goal is to save, you should pay attention to the two-valve mechanism.

Faucets with thermostat

Kohl, we started talking about expensive plumbing, one can not forget about such a useful innovation as a bronze shower mixer with a thermostat. Of course, a bronze kitchen faucet with a thermostat is also available, but it is in the bathroom, as well as in the shower, that this fixture is most in demand.

In contrast to the above-mentioned competitors, bronze products with a thermostat not only look great, but also clearly control the temperature and pressure of the feed stream. The only significant disadvantage in them is the high price.

Bronze or bronze

Bronze faucet for the kitchen or bathroom can easily fit into almost any interior. At the same time such a crane will become almost the central figure of the picture, its star. It will look ridiculous unless in the modern high-tech style, all other design directions are widely used this metal.

But the well-known wisdom, which says that not everything, the gold that glitters, in this case fits perfectly. The fact is that due to the high cost of pure bronze products, not so much is produced. Flexible modern market quickly responded to the demand and offered mixers for bronze. Here there are several directions.

For example, the best quality kitchen faucet in bronze is actually made of brass. Brass billet is cast and brought almost to the finishing state. At the penultimate stage, it is covered with a thin layer of bronze using electrolysis or a more modern vacuum deposition. The final step is to fine-tune the product manually.

The fact is that the operational characteristics of brass are not so different from the almost ideal characteristics of bronze. Such a crane will work for a long time and reliably. If the water supply mechanism was made qualitatively, then such a mixer would become morally obsolete rather than fail.

Worse if the bathroom mixer in bronze was made of silumin, it is silicon-aluminum alloy. Such things are most often stamped by our Chinese friends. Although the new product looks attractive, but this beauty will hold no more than 5 years. Silumin itself is not durable, and when temperature drops and high humidity, it begins to oxidize and crumble.

There is one more separate, but rather narrow direction. When, for example, a bronze sink mixer is coated with gold or silver. It is clear to anyone that the gold blank will cost fabulous money, and sputtering of several microns is quite capable of giving the impression of a natural metal, plus a bronze base will last more than a dozen years.

It would be unfair to keep silent about the fact that sometimes bronze items are chrome plated or otherwise coated. Most often these are exclusive items made to order for marginal design projects. This metal, is used here only in view of its unique quality and high reliability.

Tip: often our people are guided by untwisted brands. German and Italian manufacturers are considered the best in this niche. But if their price does not fit into the repair budget, then you can take Czech or domestic goods. Chinese things are also good, but by and large this is a lottery.

A few words about the subtleties of choice

Modern technologies have reached such excellence that it is sometimes difficult to choose a really high-quality product.

In order not to buy a fake at the price of the original should pay attention to some details.

• First of all, both bronze and brass, the metals are quite heavy and the weight of such cranes will be significantly higher than that of silumin.
• If in this outlet there is a large selection of goods, ask the seller to put several products nearby and compare them. Most often, on closer examination, a fake will immediately be evident.
• Not the last role is played by documents and packaging quality.. The original product, without fail, will have a personal certificate of quality with an indication of the warranty period. In addition to the certificate, the installation manual is attached to such a product.

• Bronze faucets for the bathroom or kitchen, the product is not cheap, so you should dig into the details. For example, pay attention to the quality of the paper on which all accompanying documents are printed, as well as the font.
• Sometimes, under the brand of an expensive artificially aged tap, an ordinary mixer is sold, painted from a can of bronze paint, which will peel off after a couple of months. Such hack-work gives out itself on joints, in corners and places of fastening.

• If a bronze shower faucet is purchased, the diffuser itself must have self-cleaning nozzles. This can be seen immediately, the holes on the grid will be small, soft and slightly convex. When you turn on the shower, the pressure will stretch the holes and wash away the plaque. It is also not superfluous to have multiple dispersion modes.

Tip: if you are an adherent of imported goods, then it is better to take products that are marked on the fact that they are made specifically for the Russian side. This is a guarantee that they are adapted to our networks.

The video in this article shows the subtleties of choice.

Conclusion

When deciding to install a bronze faucet, first of all, look at the price, this metal is expensive and you may want to buy a brass faucet for bronze. The only thing you don’t need to do is buy a silumin fake from Chinese friends. (See also the article How to choose a sink: features.)