First, for context: I am not a plumber; before this product, I had never installed a faucet before (kitchen or otherwise); and no one would ever mistake me for having any kind of experience that would qualify me as anything other than a total and complete novice at installing faucets. That said, for the reasons below, I would recommend this faucet AND recommend a DIY installation.I did a LOT of research and reading reviews before purchasing this Delta faucet (SpotShield Stainless). Our old kitchen sink faucet was another well-known and expensive brand (starts with "M"), but after just four years it kept coming loose from the countertop and then started leaking profusely. I was determined not to repeat that with a new faucet. I was a little hesitant about getting a "touch" faucet given the wide range of reviews on point, but after digging into things, I decided to go with this Delta "touch" faucet. A month into using it, here are my thoughts on the DIY installation and product itself:1. DECIDING TO DO A DIY INSTALLATIONI decided to install the faucet myself for several reasons. Nothing against plumbers, but some reviewers suggested that installing this faucet yourself may result in the "touch" feature working better, as you may pay greater attention to detail during the installation. I don’t know how true that is, but so far so good. Also, I wasn’t keen on paying someone else to install it, and while I had never done this before, I like a challenge. And a number of reviewers recommended watching a video that Delta made on installing this specific faucet (available on Youtube), so I figured I had at least a decent chance of not messing it up.2. SKIP THE WRITTEN INSTRUCTIONS, WATCH THE VIDEO(!!!)I tried reading through the instructions first, but they might as well have been written in Greek (spoiler alert, I don’t know Greek). So I watched the Delta DIY video all the way through and felt WAY better about deciding to do it myself. I do recommend watching the entire video BEFORE you start installation, so you know what to expect. It’s pretty short (I think less than 15 minutes) and worth that additional watch. I then set up my laptop by the sink and paused the video after each installation step so I could complete the step and get ready for the next one.3. DIY INSTALLATION WAS SMOOTH AND TOOK LESS THAN 2 HRS (INCLUDING BEER BREAK)Based on some of the reviews I read, I was prepared for the DIY installation to take all afternoon. As it turns out, even taking my time, installation took less than two hours, including 25-30 minutes to remove the old faucet, a beer break to celebrate removing the old faucet, and testing the new faucet to make sure it didn’t leak, etc. Especially with the video, each step was pretty straight forward. And I was particularly careful on the steps that related to the “touch” feature. At some points it would have helped to have longer arms, but I managed. (For reference, I am a 5’6” female with normal-length arms.)4. ONE PERSON CAN DO FULL INSTALLATIONThe video notes in a couple of places that having a second person can be helpful for certain steps, but also shows how to do them with one person. At the time I decided to do the installation, I was the only one home. While I can see where having a second would have helped for some steps, I was definitely able to manage pretty well on my own.5. MINIMAL TOOLS NEEDEDI only needed a screwdriver and a wrench, as well as a monkey wrench to help hold pipes still while tightening parts. Most people probably won’t need the monkey wrench, but it was helpful in my case because of limited space to maneuver under our sink.6. DELTA FAUCET APPEARS TO HAVE HIGHER-QUALITY PARTSAs I am not a professional, I’m not sure how much weight anyone should give this observation, but it appeared to me that this Delta faucet has higher-quality parts than our old “M”-brand faucet. This was especially apparent with respect to the “anchor” part that secures the base of the faucet to the countertop (it seemed much more substantial).7. “TOUCH” FEATURE WORKS GREAT (SO FAR)As noted above, I read a range of reviews regarding the “touch” feature. Some people said that the feature stopped working after just a couple of weeks or months. One month in, we have not had any issues with the “touch” feature. As our faucet gets A LOT of use, and we use the “touch” feature almost exclusively, I think this a fairly good point of reference.Note that the faucet comes packaged with a battery pack to power this feature, but you can purchase an add-on that will allow you to plug into an electrical outlet. We are using the battery pack and will see how long the first set of batteries lasts (reviews varied a lot on this point as well).I will note that it took me a day or two to get a hang of the “touch” feature, but once I did, things were great. Everyone else in family (kids and adults) got the hang of it right away.8. WE LOVE THE “TOUCH” FEATUREWe do a lot of cooking and baking and thus spend a lot of time in the kitchen and using the sink. We all love the “touch” feature and never want to go back to a fully “manual” faucet.* * *If anything changes, I will update this review. But so far, so good!
