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Slippery rock Gazette
Faucets Can Do That, Now?
July 2021|15
   Awhile back I thrilled and captivated you with infor- mation on the current state of sinks. I am about to do the same with faucets. Faucets have come a long way in the last few years. Gone are the days of the chrome, two-hole, tall escutch- eon, almost straight neck, some with a sponge holder faucet. (Although, if you have a retro kitchen, I’m sure you can find one somewhere.)
While the function of faucets hasn’t changed, the actual faucets themselves have gone through major changes. These days, fau- cets are made from a variety of materials including but not lim- ited to stainless steel, bronze, enamel, nickel, gold and copper.
Less expensive faucets can be made of plastic while more ex- pensive faucets can be made from glass, wood or even stone. Although stone and glass faucets can be much more expensive, they do not have the touchless or voice sensors that faucets of more com- mon materials such as chrome or
Does that come in glass? Why, yes it does. Glass faucets are one
of the unexpected materials energizing faucet design.
© MARK ANDERSON. www.andertoons.com
Sharon Koehler
Artistic Stone Design
Travertine and marble faucet by Marti.
stainless steel have.
Back in the more recent day, in
the kitchen, the standard was a three-hole faucet with a separate sprayer on the side. Then along came the single-hole faucet with the sprayer attached. Boom! One hole was all that was needed. Then there were touchless faucets.
In the beginning, touchless fau- cets were mostly used in com- mercial settings like hospitals and public restrooms in rest ar- eas, and restaurant restrooms. There are two different types of touch faucets. There is the style where all you have to do pass your hands under the faucet and water set to a predetermined tem- perature streams out. The other type of touchless faucet does ac- tually require touch, but you are not required to turn or move a handle. You just touch the fau- cet neck with your wrist or some other part of your body and the water will stream out. The funny thing is that all my life (and prob- ably yours, too) we have always
This retro faucet-plus-sponge dish was last year’s hot item,
and no longer the height of contemporary faucet design. Look for voice and motion activated faucets as the new tech-enhanced gold standard.
been told that water and electric- ity don’t mix. However, touchless faucets either require batteries or ELECTRICITY to work. If plug- ging your faucet into an electrical outlet makes you a bit nervous, then make sure yours is battery operated. Plus, if you get a bat- tery operated one and the elec- tricity goes out, the faucet will still work. Just about every faucet manufacturer sells some type of touchless faucet.
Now though, faucets have gone a step further with voice activation (aka smart faucets). Truthfully, you can’t actually talk to the faucet and tell it what you want. (Well, you could, but that’s not how it works.) You and your voice activated faucet need a mid- dleman or assistant in the form of Alexa or Google. You also need to “program” the faucet app with the presets you need. “Alexa, tell the faucet to fill the baby bottle.” Helpful if you have a screaming, hungry baby on your hands. Or “Google, have the faucet fill the sink with 95-degree water.” Great while you are wrestling a small, dirty dog into the sink.
The success of these faucets de- pends on your presets, your Alexa or Google assistants on your phone, your internet and electric- ity (unless you get one with bat- teries or battery backup). Losing any one of those things can affect how your faucet works, if at all.
Now don’t think that kitchen faucets are having all the fun and getting all the upgrades. Soap dis- pensers, vanity faucets and bar faucets are getting tech upgrades, too. You can get touchless mod- els in all these types of faucets, plus vanity and bar faucets now are available with pull down sprayers, as well.
Faucets have changed a lot in the last few years. Just make sure that whatever options you think you want, do your research. If you have a customer inquiring or wanting one of these faucets, there is nothing wrong with be- ing helpful and informative, but make sure they do their own re- search as well. Faucets may have changed, but not all faucets are created equal.
Functional and elegant pull- down faucet with an Art Deco
aesthetic that echoes the Roaring 1920’s. Touchless and even voice-activated faucets are becoming a must-have in up- scale kitchens. Touchless
models retail from about $400 up to $1,000 or more, depending on the brand,
the electronics, and the materials used.
  Please send your
this article to Sharon Koehler at Sharon@asdrva.rocks.
thoughts on
       Move Over, Nessie
Now that’s a fish story.
A 240-pound sturgeon that could be more than 100 years old was caught in the Detroit River by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
The “real life river monster” was nearly 7 feet long, the agency said on its Facebook page, where the photo was shared more than 24,000 times by late afternoon of its posting.
“Based on its girth and size, it is assumed to be a female and that she has been roaming our waters
over 100 years. She was quickly re- leased back into the river” after be- ing weighed and measured, the Fish and Wildlife Service said.
The typical fishy lifespan is 55 years for a male sturgeon and 70 to 100 years for females, accord- ing to the Michigan Department of Natural Resources.
This fish was caught near Grosse Ile, south of Detroit, while a three-person crew was conducting an annual sturgeon study. Frozen round goby, a tasty snack for a stur- geon, was used as bait on a long line sunk deep in the river.
It took about six minutes to get the fish into the boat with a net.
“I felt the fish thumping on the line. As it got closer, it just got bigger and bigger,” said Jason Fischer, who was with fellow biologists Paige Wigren and Jennifer Johnson.
Wigren recalled thinking, “Yep, this is going to be a real good fish story.”
“She was tired out and didn’t fight us very much,” Wigren said. “Imagine everything that fish has lived through and seen.”
Lake sturgeon are listed as a threatened species in Michigan. All sturgeon caught in the Detroit River must be released.
   “Shirley, when was your last vacation?”
 






















































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