Blanco kitchen monobloc tap fitting

[James_H]

My everlasting kitchen refit is at the tap fitting stage. I have bought a Blanco tap and following the instructions to fit it seems reasonable, although we haven't started it yet. I have a few questions on the specifics of fitting for which any advice would be appreciated.

The kit comes with copper tails, which screw into the tap base. They start at 10mm diameter then widen to 15mm. The kit also comes with two 15mm non-return valves (not isolation valves).

I would need a pipe bender (as per the instructions) to widen the gap between the pipes, which as supplied is zero, to get the fittings on. I guess it's common practice to bend one tail higher than the other, so they can be unscrewed in the future if need be?

I remember a thread stating to ditch these non-return valves because of how they impede flow with cylinder-fed HW. Should I only fit the non-return valve on the CW side?

The new kitchen supply plumbing has been done by ourselves using Speedfit, with the hot and cold supplies terminated at 90 degrees to the tails. I don't think there's enough bend in Speedfit pipe of that length to do that though, without putting a lot of strain on the pipes and fittings.

Should I ditch the whole set of Blanco fittings and just get flexi 15mm to M10 connectors? I then just have the issue of where to put the non return valve(s) (or flow issues).

Thanks,

James

 

[Steady]

The rigid copper tails that come with the tap WILL bend apart by hand. Just screw them into the base of the tap,fit tap to sink then bend them apart enough to get your fittings on. The flexis are ok but your tap will sit more rigidly on the sink if done with the original copper tails. The check valves are recommended under the Water Regs when supplying a mixer tap. Whether you choose to fit them or not is up to you. They won't make the tap work any better with or without. They are fitted to prevent backflow i.e. the hot water mixing with the mains cold in the tap and contaminating the cold supply. Cold mains is a Category 1 fluid, Hot is Category 2.

 

[James_H]

Thanks for the reply.

I was always planning to fit the check valve to the cold to avoid the hot tank water contamintaing the cold supply, but did not know whether it was such a problem if hot water is just made a bit colder. However, I will fit both to meet the regs now.