Kartell K-VIT Flex Kitchen Sink Mixer with Pull Out Spray – Chrome (KST001)

Kartell K-VIT Flex Kitchen Sink Mixer with Pull Out Spray – Chrome (KST001)

A kitchen tap works harder than anything else in the house — hand washing, filling the kettle, washing up, rinsing vegetables. Kartell put it plainly: “by far one of the most used fixtures within the home”. That is the thing to keep in mind when choosing one.

The Flex is the professional-kitchen shape: a straight column with a coil-spring arm holding a pull-out spray head, and a separate swivel spout below it.

What the spring arm is for

The spray head pulls down and out on the spring, so it reaches the whole sink and well beyond the front edge. That is genuinely useful for rinsing a big roasting tin, washing salad, cleaning the sink itself, or filling a bucket standing on the floor beside the unit.

The spring returns it to position when you let go, so it does not need putting back. It is the most capable tap in the range and it looks the part in a kitchen with an industrial or shaker-industrial feel.

The trade-off is presence: at 1.86kg and standing tall with an exposed spring, it is a statement rather than a quiet fitting. In a small kitchen it can dominate.

Before you order

This is a single tap hole deck-mounted tap, the standard arrangement on a modern kitchen sink. If your sink has two tap holes you need a pair of pillar taps instead.

No waste is included. Kitchen sinks come with their own waste and overflow, so that is normally not a problem — but worth knowing if you are replacing the sink too.

Measure the height available if there is a window sill or a wall cupboard over the sink. A tall gooseneck that fouls a window that has to open is the most common reason a kitchen tap goes back.

Living with it

Ceramic disc cartridge with quarter-turn operation — a small movement of the lever gives full flow, and ceramic discs do not perish the way rubber washers do, so a tap that gets used twenty times a day should not start dripping.

Polished chrome wipes clean with a soft damp cloth. In a kitchen it shows water spots and fingerprints more than most places, so a quick wipe after washing up keeps it bright. Avoid abrasive cleaners and limescale removers left to soak — both cut through the plating, and dull chrome cannot be brought back.

Guarantee

Kartell give the kitchen tap range a 5 year guarantee, with moving parts and working components covered for 12 months. That is shorter than the lifetime cover on their bathroom brassware, which is fair enough given how much harder a kitchen tap gets worked.

Other kitchen taps

The Kartell kitchen range runs to eleven taps. The nearest alternatives to this one are the Optima in chrome, the twin-spout Dual and the Plan, a plain single-lever gooseneck.

Specification

• Code: KST001
• Polished chrome, gloss finish
• Solid brass construction
• Single lever operation
• Coil-spring arm with pull out spray head
• Swivel spout
• Ceramic disc cartridge, quarter turn operation
• Deck mounted, one tap hole
• Length 220mm
• Weight 1.86kg
• Fixings supplied
• Waste not included
• 5 year guarantee (1 year on moving parts)
• Barcode 5055681438814

Downloads

Download the technical data sheet
Download the fitting instructions