Can Smart Faucets Save Water?
My youngest used to brush his teeth with the water running the whole time. Four minutes, easy. I would yell from the hallway and he’d never hear you over it.
Maybe that’s why people always ask me about smart faucets. That, or they just tried to turn on the kitchen sink with raw chicken all over their hands. I hear both a lot from Plano homeowners, and I’ve got mixed feelings on the answer.
How Much Water You’d Really Save
Honestly? Not as much as the box says.
Texas already caps sink faucets at 2.2 gallons a minute, and WaterSense bathroom models are 1.5. Smart faucets run about the same. Where they help is shutting off when your hands move, so you’re not paying for the extra half minute somebody spends digging for the toothpaste.
In a house with kids, that’s real. In a house with two adults, it’s pretty small.
And the bathroom sink was never the big number on your bill anyway. Sprinklers in August are. So’s a toilet flapper that’s gone soft, and that one can leak more in a day than a sensor saves you in a couple weeks. If you’re trying to save water, find that first. It’s cheaper, too.
Touchless Isn’t Always the Right Call
Touchless faucets have an infrared sensor. Touch faucets (Delta’s Touch2O is a common one) turn on when you tap the spout. In a bathroom I’ll usually say go touchless.
Kitchens, I’m on the fence. Mostly because of one couple.
They’d just redone the whole kitchen and wanted touchless, so that’s what I put in, and it worked fine. Then about five weeks later she calls, real polite, asking if I can come take it back out. Turns out every time she reached across for the dish rack, the water came on and got her sleeve. Every single time.
We put in a touch model instead. Haven’t heard a peep since, which is how I like it.
Some of the newer smart faucets will pour you exactly two cups if you ask them to. Cool. Doesn’t save much water that I’ve seen.
A Faucet Install in an Older Plano House
You don’t need a permit in Plano for a basic faucet replacement on existing plumbing. Most smart faucets are an hour or two for me.
This one wasn’t. House over in Hunters Glen, which went up mostly in the late ’70s and ’80s. She had a battery touchless faucet still in the box on the counter. I got under the sink, gave the hot shutoff a quarter turn, and it started weeping around the stem. Cold side wouldn’t close at all.
So the faucet sat there another 45 minutes while I replaced both stops.
Good thing she’d gone with batteries, too. There was no outlet under that sink, and adding one means new wiring and a Plano electrical permit. That’s an electrician’s job, so I’d have had to send her to one.
Hard Water Gets Into the Sensors Too
Plano gets its water from the North Texas Municipal Water District. Even the district calls it moderately hard, mostly from minerals in Lavon Lake. It’s the white gunk on the base of your faucets.
Smart faucets get it too, just in worse spots. It fogs the sensor window so the water lags or quits on you. It also plugs a little screen filter in the control box under the sink, and then all you get is a dribble.
When somebody tells me the electronics died, it’s usually that screen. Soak it in vinegar and hit it with an old toothbrush.
I’ll be honest. If changing batteries every year or two and cleaning a sensor sounds like one more thing you’ll forget about, just get a regular low-flow faucet. Lots of my customers do and they’re perfectly happy.
Before You Start Unscrewing Things
The faucet’s almost never what costs you. It’s the supply line somebody tightened one turn too many, dripping inside the cabinet all weekend till the particleboard swells. Total Air and Heat has been your trusted next-door neighbor for 65 years. Let us check your shutoffs first.
Frequently Asked Questions
do smart faucets actually save you any water
Some, yeah. They shut off when nobody’s using them, and that’s real water. With kids in the house you’ll notice it more. Just don’t expect one sink to change your bill much.
how long do the batteries last on those
Year or two, give or take. Kitchen faucets go through them faster since they run all day. When they die, most models still work off the handle like a normal faucet, so you’re not stuck.
can i put one in myself
Probably, if your shutoffs turn easy and you bought a battery model. Plano won’t make you get a permit just to swap a faucet. But if the valves are stuck or you’d need an outlet run under the sink, I’d call somebody before you make a bigger mess.
are smart faucets worth it in a guest bathroom
Not really. If that sink only gets used when your in-laws come, it’s never going to earn back the extra cost. Put the money in the kids’ bathroom or the kitchen instead.
why do smart faucets shut off when im still washing my hands
Dirty sensor, almost always. Our water leaves film on everything around here, same stuff that builds up on your shower door, and the sensor’s no exception. Wipe it with a little vinegar. If it keeps doing it, look in the manual for a sensitivity setting.
Oh, and before you call, take a look under your sink. If those shutoffs look as old as the house, tell whoever picks up.
