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Trade terms for professionals and design studios
To explain these taps, Fantini’s own catalogue reaches for a Beatles record: they have, it says, the same colours as the uniforms the band wears on Sgt. Pepper’s. It is an odd comparison for a brassware maker to print, and the catalogue leaves it there, adding only that the success was immediate. The taps are I Balocchi, which Davide Mercatali and Paolo Pedrizzetti drew in the Seventies, when a bathroom tap was chrome and nobody asked why.
As designer taps go, the basin set is quick to describe: an arched spout standing between two handles, each one a cross of four rounded lobes, on three holes in the basin. Fantini regards that three-hole version in red and chrome as the classic face of the series. There is also a single-hole mixer, with spout and handles gathered on a single body, and a wall-mounted one. Nothing on them has a sharp edge, and the body under the paint is brass. Besides the red, the standard colours are matt black and matt white; a colour picked from the RAL Classic range is made to order. In an executive bathroom in pale stone, the matt white all but vanishes against the basin and the red does the opposite.
The rest of the series divides into what you see and what the wall keeps. In view: the single-hole bidet mixer, the two-handled kitchen mixer whose spout swivels, the exposed bath set with a hand shower, the rain shower head on its arm, wall or ceiling. Behind the tiles: the thermostatic shower valve with its stop valves, the diverters, and the built-in bath and shower set that pairs with a wall spout. Flush plates, wastes and the bottle trap come in matching finishes. La Mercanti sits down with the designer’s palette and marks which pieces take the colour and which stay black or white.
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Brass. Fantini’s technical manual gives brass as the base material of the series, and names it again for the rain shower head and the FIT hand shower. The colour is a painted finish applied over the metal.
They do different jobs. The Idrospray is a hand spray for personal hygiene and comes with its own mixer, so the water can be tempered; the Idroscopino is meant for cleaning the WC and has a stop valve only. Each is supplied with a wall outlet, a holder and a brass hose.
No. The built-in thermostatic valve sets the temperature but has no means of shutting the water off, so Fantini requires it to be ordered either with a stop valve for each outlet or with diverters that include a shut-off. La Mercanti checks this pairing on every shower order.
At least 10 l/min (2.6 gpm). The head has a limiter that caps delivery at 12 l/min (3.2 gpm) at 3 bar, and Fantini states the lower figure as the minimum flow for it to perform as designed.
Yes. Among the fittings Fantini lists in the finishes of the series is a pair of filter valves with shut-off, sold together. Under a basin whose pipework is left on show, the valves can therefore be the same red, black or white as the tap above them.
The I Balocchi three-hole basin set needs three holes at a fixed spacing and comes with its own waste. Five steps to settle before the basin or worktop is drilled.
The set stands on three holes in a row: the spout in the middle, a handle on either side. Each hole is Ø 35 mm (1.38 in), and the centres sit 100 mm (3.9 in) apart. Put those two figures on the basin drawing before anything else.
Many basins arrive already drilled. Compare the tap ledge with the 100 mm (3.9 in) spacing before ordering; where the basin offers one hole only, the series has a single-hole mixer that carries the spout and both handles on one body.
The arched spout projects 11.5 cm (4.5 in). On the drawing, check that this brings the water down inside the bowl and clear of the rim; with a very deep ledge or a small bowl it is the figure that decides.
The three-hole set is supplied with a click waste and with flexible supply hoses. Neither needs a line of its own on the order, and a second waste bought separately would simply be left over.
The handles come with the set and work ceramic headworks that open and close in a quarter turn (90°). Give the installer the drilling figures together with the basin drawing, not after the worktop has been cut.
