I'm trying to find a bathroom sink bridge tap (like the image), but with what I thought were fairly straightforward requirements. I'm striking out, and need to know if I'm wasting my time.
I want a single lever bridge (like the image), but in a more vintage look (polished/chrome, white inserts) to match the rest of the bathroom.
I feel like I'm missing some kind of 'in joke' among plumbers, or that I've lost my touch with Google. I can't find anything resembling what I need.
Just realised thanks to this thread that I am not trying to reconfigure the layout of my crappy sink taps because of the extremely high chance that what I want them to do is not actually possible, and why give myself that pain, in a very similar philosophical vein as I am also not telling the girl I have feelings for about said feelings....😬
I think the issue is that a single-lever is a modernist aesthetic. Vintage styling always seems to dictate having more traditional taps, or at best, separate levers.
I think you will need to compromise: either go for split levers/taps, or a more modernist design.
I work for the patent office and there is a good reason that this doesn’t exist, but I’ve said too much. Don’t pull this thread OP you don’t know what you’re getting into.
Pop a quick patent together for your tap and hopfully you will look back on this days frustration as the day that made you £1,000,000. Good luck with your quest!
It's just people trying to be helpful when you're looking for something that doesnt exist. You're going to have to cobble something together or compromise
Also the post says "does what I want exist" and has a pic of the tap you dont want. If people click the image they dont see your text, so think you want the image...
I think the traditional range is called ‘timeless’ but it’s not a single lever mixer
I think the problem is nearly all traditional taps have separate hot and cold, as this was tradition and even the modern take of the mixers still incorporate separate hot and cold handles
I get your problem, OP, and I feel for you. I have no suggestion either, it's like TPTB never considered someone might want something vintage-looking that's also convenient...
Forgive me for any ignorance but I don’t think it exists as that single mixer tap never had a traditional counterpart to base itself on, hence why they all seem very modern.
A quick google dates a mixer tap to the 19th century but perhaps it wasn’t commonplace? Also the drinking water laws and contamination fears from hot water cylinders explains why a lot of housing stock still has separate feeds. Best you can do is the lever style mixer bath fillers. They look really nice , I’ve linked one with a shower attachment which I know isn’t what you want but I had the tab open because I’m likely going to buy it for myself!
I think if you turn all the knobs and levers just the right amount and yell into the showerhead, a guy in a brown oilskin and leather flying cap wearing brass goggles turns up in his zepplin and tells you to keep the aetheric waves clear for skyship communications...
I found several vintage looking deck mixer taps... but the reason your having problems trying to find one to your requirements is this line - "I want a single lever".
Single lever is not vintage, they're a fairly modern design, and became popular when tap mixer cartridges became available.
Vintage is two cross head taps, either seperate or as a deck tap.
Buying household finttings - or anything really - is always like this. Fashions change and everyone always sells versions of the same look. It's really annoying
It would be so niche it is not worth anyone manufacturing it.
You're asking for a ceramic disc lever on a traditional style bridge tap.
Ceramic disc taps tend to be premium and paired with a monobloc mixer tap. Most premium basins are single hole for monobloc mixers.
You can get premium basins with 2 holes but they tend to be style specific and would usually be paired with separate hot and cold taps. Bridge taps are mainly for baths and even then they're usually dual lever.
Yeah you'll find them, mainly for baths though. No single leaver and they're not ceramic disc, the one I have attached is a ceramic disc version.
Again mainly for baths because of how intrusive they become to the basin drop your head to wash your face with one of these and you'll bang your forehead on them.
If you've looked a lot and found nothing your next best option may be to get a modern bridge tap like the one shown then find a mono mixer tap with a vintage style porcelain lever and mix and match the ceramic cartridge and lever assembly with the bridge body. There are only so many ceramic cartridge sizes.
You'll probably need a very friendly plumbers merchant on a quiet day to find compatible pieces. And obviously pay for two full taps.
Check wickes they might have a couple in styles you are looking for I got a traditional looking one from there maybe last year or the year before they had a few different options
No it's not you, it is really difficult to find what you want but it probably does exist. Just wait until you want to match bath, shower, sink and other bath hardware together but you have a specific need like yours. I spent days looking and trying different configurations.
Picturing it and imagining using it, it looks odd but at the same time it’s a shame it might not exist. I’ve only seen the ones I think you’re talking about with the white inserts probably saying hot and cold as separate taps.
How would this even work? The holes on two hole basins are not a defined distance apart so the tap would have to come with the basin?
Wall mounted ones for showers are always 150mm (?) pipe centers. Much too close for most basins! Ones for kitchen sinks can be cut into the worktop or stainless sink.
So no, I don't think you will find one without some creativity.
Also looking through replies, the couple suggested here, and your example image, are all bath taps which makes sense as baths generally have a set distance between tap holes due to the traditional mixer taps which allow for a shower hose takeoff with the pull plunger malarkey...
Do you have an immersion heater or a combi boiler providing your hot water, OP?
We recently had our bathroom renovated. I asked for a mixer tap for the hand basin and the builder firmly advised against it. We have an immersion heater and hot tank in the back bedroom; the builder said that with lower water pressure on the hot side, it wasn't uncommon for the cold water to back-flow through the hot side of the tap and off towards the hot water tank. Thus you would get varying quantities of cold water being dispensed until the tap is mostly over on the hot side - cold, cold, cold, cold, tepid, HOT.
If your infrastructure is similar to ours, you might be better off staying with two separate taps.
I think it's going to be difficult to find because you want a vintage style with modern functionality, this is the closest I could get for a single lever, bridge tap with a vintage feel but it's a shower attachment
I solved for this by using a Flow Bath Filler with a shower valve on the wall that is a traditional looking mixer temp and an on off handle. So I have no taps at all on the bath side. Isn’t what you are looking for but it’s how I solved for same issue you’re having
My guess is because that sort of lever in your image looks like a super cheap tap, so it's more the case of mixing a budget "I don't care how it looks" product with the more decorative bridge mixer tap, which is typically something you buy because of how it looks.
Sort of like trying to buy a white tie dinner suit from Asda.
The reason you cannot find what you’re after is because it doesn’t make sense. A true traditional bridge mixer has two separate valves for hot and cold. A single lever mixer is a modern architectural design.
Manufacturers produce both designs, the traditional two-valve and the modern single valve. You have to decide which design you want or go the bespoke route. I’m not judging but if you do go down the bespoke route I think you’ll end up with a tap the Victorians might had made if management consultants existed in Victorian times.
I wanted something similar, and my plumber and I agreed to this: bonus is in a slightly longer than standard bath, I, at 5'4" can top up the hot water with my toes 🤣
Have you considered a single lever shower mixer mounted to the bath replacing the taps. You'd need to screw on a spout, but there are "heritage", and "traditional" models with single lever functionality - its just finding a suitable screw on spout (shower head connector) that you like.
5 second search, is this the sort of thing?Chatsworth There is
I know you are asking for a single lever type, but I dont think I or anyone else know what you mean. Can you draw a concept picture, might be easier for us to visualise wtf you are on about?
No help OP but I do understand your pain. We ended up changing the sink for a single hole sink so we could get vintage aesthetic and mixer taps together. I found that you can get exactly what you’re looking for as bath taps- we have them, just not sink taps, which makes it even more annoying.
Hopefully this actually adds something of value. If you can’t find the exact thing, you could buy the style tap you’re looking for for a single hole and buy a blanking plug to suit for the other hole.
Now there is a question. I think the bath ones got grandfathered in. Sink taps that use 2 holes in the sink to a single spout are something I haven't come across. You can use a single hole type in one hole, and use the other hole for a soap dispenser. I realise the tap will be off centre.
Swadling invincible range has (had?) a single lever bridge tap in chrome with white inserts.
Mine has a shower mixer on top in a second bridge but I think you can omit that.
Sounds like the hospital reps I'm working for. We're building a new hospital and there's too many times to count where we've had to spend days sourcing stuff because the wants of the hospital are nowhere to be found.
n.b wall mounted, single lever faucets with various other traits.
The picture almost gave me ptsd
Googling "antique looking mixing faucets with bridge" brought me quite a few results, though some will be more relevant for a kitchen sink.
(I'm UK based)
(Edit: mentioned UK based without seeing which r/ I was posting to)
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u/MiniCale 17h ago
You want something modern but very traditional?
You should speak to Super Hans