Best Methven Faucets / Tap Mixers

Perfect compromise between basic sink mixer and goose neck – Spent a long time looking for a mixer tap that satisfied four main requirements. 1). Needed to fit in with existing sink, we only had a 25cm splash… Read more

back with small working area - so wanted a mixer that didn't dominate the space. 2) Wanted more height than the standard mixers to make filling vases, jugs etc easier. 3) Retain the same reach as existing mixer without pull out hose. 4) Reliable brand with good warranty - mainly looking for Methven Grohe Hansgrohe

Looked at many offerings from the major brands. The goosenecks were simply too tall and would look out of place or were not from one of the providers we were looking for. After many iterations, I started looking around again and stumbled on the Maku line of taps made by Methven, the same people that made our shower head. They are a NZ brand and do have a good reputation for their taps. These ones are not goose necks though they will give some advantages over the current sink mixer. DIstance from base centre to nozzle is 19.6cm, current mixer is 20cm so a little shorter. Height from sink to tap nozzle for Maku is 18.5cm, current mixer is 10cm. Most of the goose neck nozzles I looked at were low to high 20 cms with overall height reaching over 30cm. Maku's clearance will allow us to fill our biggest vase, the water jug and Laundry bucket without issue. The nozzle was lower than any of the goose or U neck mixers I was looking at so splashing should be kept to minimum (in theory). The aerator in the nozzle can be rotated which will direct the water rather than just going straight down. The overall height keeps about the same level as the top of the splash back which is around 25cm ... so it won't stick out. The tap swivels. This tap was $469 35mm cartridge is standard size

Installation Was pretty simple with the only real struggle being positioning of the clamp plate. This was due to the clearance between the hot and cold water tube connections being very close together. There are two rods securing the tap to the sink which ensures stability, better than the one rod on our old mixer. Other complexity was related more to the lack of space under the sink than the product itself. Have provided a shot of how the tap came out of the box and included items (please ignore the two isolation taps as these were bought seperately).

Operation The tap is very smooth to run and glides between between flow rate and mixing hot and cold water. The initial flow rate was very strong so I have partially closed the isolation tap to limit flow as we wanted to reduce splashing.The O ring seal at the base of the mixer looks OK I do wonder if multiple O rings might provide a safer seal.

Results We have been using the tap now for two weeks and are very happy with the outcome. For me the only concern I have at the moment is how it swivels. Swivelling the tap basically swivels the whole unit aside from the tap. This means the base connected to the sink swivels this may reduce the life of the O ring, I'd feel more comfortable if the base remained in a fixed position though this may not have been feasible in production. At this stage I'm comfortable saying I believe I've selected the perfect tap to meet all our requirements.