Can I buy taps in Germany and use them in Ireland?

MuffinsDa

I am in the process of renovating a kitchen and bathroom and it looks like taps, specially good Grohe kitchen taps, are a lot cheaper than Germany. I know they have a slightly different plumbing system, is there anything I should be concerned with when buying taps from Germany, or will they work OK here with relevant adapaters/pressure reducers etc?

Deanicus

I replaced my kitchen tap with one from Lidl. The flexi connectors were smaller which I presumed were due to being in European spec

I managed to get an adaptor from a plumber's merchants but I think required one going from imperial to metric which may be hard to find. I also might have used a healthy amount of PTFE tape to stop leaks but that is more of a reflection of my skills than anything

I'd suggest contacting the company, asking for the dimensions of their flexis, seeing if you can buy some separately for cheap and go to a merchants to see if they have anything that would suit it

Idioteque

Just check the specs of the taps to make sure they suit your arrangement. If like many you have gravity fed hot and cold on most taps, you might need taps that work with low pressure depending on the head. You can normally find that info on the spec sheet for the taps. From memory (could be wrong) in countries like Germany they mostly have pump-fed taps so a lot are designed for high-pressure systems.

Anything4883

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058226221/can-i-buy-taps-in-germany-and-use-them-in-ireland

I bought from Reuter - Germany. Grohe. No problem

MuffinsDa

I ended up ordering a sink from Germany but chickened out of ordering a tap, too many parameters (pressure, EU vs UK size, etc etc)

Sam Russell

[I am not a plumber] Actually I discovered that Ireland uses imperial pipes (half inch) but UK and Europe all use metric (15mm). Now for 15 mm it is not so important as the olives in a compression fitting only need changing, but for larger sizes, it does. I was told (by a plumber working on my house) to never buy plumbing parts from B&Q for this reason - they do not fit.

Hard to believe.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118433452#Comment_118433452

Almost everywhere else on the planet both hot and cold water are from a high pressure mains fed. Ireland and the U.K. are rather weird outliers using attic tank feeds, probably due to having historically undersized water mains.

If you’ve a gravity fed non-pumped system, it might be a wrong valve type and not flow adequately. Low pressure taps tend to use bigger pipes and valves to allow water to flow. High pressure can get away with much smaller plumbing. It’s something you’d definitely see with old Irish and British bath taps more so.

In most cases, unless you’ve a very tall house or your showers downstairs, gravity fed really isn’t much use for showers, unless you want a trickle - hence all the use of pumps here. That’s not something you really see anywhere else in Europe or the US, Canada etc. Quite unique to British inspired plumbing.

If it’s mains fed / pumped it’s more than likely absolutely fine to use high pressure taps.

Irish plumbing sizes are a bit weird and also aren’t necessarily compatible with UK stuff also continental plumbing isn’t always metric. Quite a few examples of fractions of inch pipe used.

Adaptors to both metric and various inch based pipe sizes are widely available.

With taps you’re generally dealing with threaded fittings and those are very standardised, including here.

The weird variations are more to do with the pipes than the final fittings.

Typically continental taps are usually connected to an isolation valve under the sink, and come with standard a flexible, metal braided pipe anyway.

My kitchen and bathroom taps are to French spec with absolutely zero issues. Works fine.