Safety and function often rule the day when it comes to selecting a faucet for a child’s bathroom. After all, you don’t want a burst of hot water to burn those tiny little hands. The main concern is scald prevention. Typically this happens when a child turns on the hot water faucet handle instead of the cold or turns the faucet to a high temperature. One way to prevent burns is to use a faucet with a device that limits the water temperature that flows through it.
“In a kid’s bathroom, if you don’t have a temperature limit stop (in the faucet), if a kid turns the water on to the maximum on hot it’s going to be coming through that faucet at the same temperature as what is in the hot water heater,” said Ron Grabski, vice president of sales and marketing for Gerber Plumbing Fixtures Corp. in Lincolnwood.
The device is built into the faucet and can be adjusted by removing the handle. While lavatory faucets range in price from $35 to several thousand dollars, a good quality faucet with this feature costs the consumer $70 or more, he said.
It is only available on faucets with single handles. “There’s no way to do it for a two-handle faucet,” Grabski said.
The number of handles and their style also are important considerations. Will a child have to learn to maneuver with two handles or one? Does the faucet have knobs with several edges to grasp or handles that are easy to turn?
Home buyers with small children should consider faucets with one handle instead of two, as they are easier to use, said Nancey Trandel, design center director for Cambridge Homes, based in Libertyville.
A chrome faucet with a single acrylic handle is standard in Cambridge’s secondary bathrooms. “You just tilt it forward for on and off and sideways for hot and cold,” she said. “I’ve even seen parents mark the faucet (by drawing a line) where they want the kids to turn it to.”
Safety in faucets, however, may come at the expense of design. “Single-handle faucets aren’t as aesthetically pleasing as double-handled faucets because you can’t do as much design with them,” Grabski said. “But, in a kid’s bathroom, it doesn’t always matter.”
Single-handle faucets are made with a round handle; a “blade” handle, which looks like a rectangle with rounded edges; or a loop, which is a blade handle with a section cut out of the middle of it. “The loop has more style to it,” Grabski said. “It is like a cake knife and you put a whole in the middle of it.”
The loop and blade are designed to meet requirements of the Americans With Disabilities Act and are, therefore, easy for children to operate, he said. The round handle is more difficult for a child to use; they must grip it and turn it before the water will flow.
Finish is another option to consider when selecting a faucet. While polished brass may look elegant in a master bathroom or powder room, it will be difficult to keep clean in a child’s bath.
“In a kid’s bathroom, use chrome,” Grabski said. “It’s the most durable finish. Kids don’t clean up after themselves. When they spit out toothpaste it sits on the faucet and stays there until someone cleans it up. Put the style in mom and dad’s bathroom, where you’ll know that it will stay clean.”
Other popular finishes such as brushed or satin nickel have less shine than polished surfaces and will hide dirt and fingerprints more easily, but they cost more than chrome and brass. Those who want to avoid having their children anywhere near a faucet handle can consider faucets with sensors that turn the water on when someone is near. “When you stand in front of it, it picks up that you’re there and it turns on,” said Sharon Bryers, a spokesperson for Grohe, a faucet manufacturer based in Bloomingdale.
These types of faucets are more commonly found in shopping centers and office buildings, but some are made for the consumer market. Grohe’s “Europlus E” electronic faucet, for example, is priced from $399 to $590. It is operated by a battery.
“There are some people expressing interest in it for kid’s bathrooms,” Bryers said. “It’s not as much mess because you don’t have to use the faucet and handles as much. The germs aren’t being spread and it’s cleaner. You don’t have kids getting soap everywhere.”
While safety and function are important to many consumers, others might lean more toward design. Some manufacturers have faucets that can add a playful touch to the design of a child’s bathroom.
Kohler Co. has a “Playful as a Mouse” line of faucets in its Disney Collection that features Mickey and Minnie Mouse. The faucet has two white porcelain crosses for handles. “It has Mickey on one handle and Minnie on the other,” said Keith Kometer, senior product manager for Kohler Faucets.
The Disney faucet can be paired with a lavatory that shows a heroic Mickey rescuing Minnie from a fall down the drain. He is holding onto the top of the lavatory with one hand and using his other hand to hold Minnie’s hand.
The lavatory can be paired with wall tiles that show images of Mickey and Minnie as they get caught in the rain. The tiles are designed to show a sequence of events leading up to Minnie’s tumble into the lavatory. There also are robe hooks and decorative towel bars to help carry the Disney theme throughout the bathroom. The faucet sells for $263 and the lavatory, for $412.
“I really see this targeted toward young families with young children,” Kometer said. “It could be a very fun environment in a bathroom.”
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Allison E. Beatty is a Chicago-area freelance writer. If you have questions or information about new home buyers’ product and design choices, write to Choices c/o Chicago Tribune New Homes Section, 435 N. Michigan Ave., 4th Floor, Chicago IL 60611.
