Kartell K-VIT Optima Kitchen Sink Mixer with Pull Out Spray – Chrome (KST003)

Kartell K-VIT Optima Kitchen Sink Mixer with Pull Out Spray – Chrome (KST003)

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 Optima is the tidy way to get a pull-out spray: a plain gooseneck with the spray head built into the end of the spout, so there is no spring arm on show.

A pull-out spray without the hardware

Pull the head off the spout and it comes away on a hose, reaching across the sink and over the front edge — useful for rinsing pans, washing vegetables and cleaning the bowl out. Push it back and it clicks into the spout, and the tap looks like an ordinary gooseneck again.

Against the Flex, which does the same job with an exposed coil spring, the Optima is the quieter fitting — better suited to a kitchen where you do not want the tap to be the first thing you notice. It is also lighter and cheaper.

The same tap is also made in brushed steel, which costs a little more but hides fingerprints far better — worth thinking about in a kitchen.

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 brushed steel, the Flex, with its coil-spring spray arm and the Plan, a plain single-lever gooseneck.

Specification

• Code: KST003
• Polished chrome, gloss finish
• Solid brass construction
• Single lever operation
• Gooseneck spout with pull out spray head
• Ceramic disc cartridge, quarter turn operation
• Deck mounted, one tap hole
• Length 246mm
• Weight 1.23kg
• Fixings supplied
• Waste not included
• 5 year guarantee (1 year on moving parts)
• Barcode 5055681438838

Downloads

Download the technical data sheet
Download the fitting instructions