Swan Neck Taps

A swan neck tap, known in the Indian trade as a bar tap or swan neck sink cock, is a deck-mounted tap with a tall curved spout. The curve is the point of it: the outlet sits well clear of the bowl, so a tall pot, a bottle or a bucket fits underneath without being tilted. Every tap in this range is cast from solid lead-free brass ingot and finished in chrome over three plating layers, copper, then 10-micron nickel, then 0.3-micron chromium. Each uses a quarter-turn lever on a ceramic disc cartridge tested beyond 5,00,000 operations, with a food-grade foam-flow aerator at the outlet. Prices run from around Rs 1,770 to Rs 2,240.

How to choose a swan neck tap

  • Measure the clearance you need. Stand the tallest thing you regularly fill beside the sink and check it against the spout height. A swan neck buys height a pillar cock cannot.
  • Confirm the tap hole. These are single-hole deck-mounted taps running off one supply. If the supply is behind the wall, a wall spout is the right fitting instead.
  • Decide hot or cold. A bar tap is a single-supply cock. Where you need hot and cold blended at the outlet, look at a single lever sink mixer.
  • Look at the body, not the shine. Solid brass ingot has weight to it. A light alloy body feels similar on day one and behaves very differently after three years on hard water.

Living with chrome taps in Indian water

Hard water is the main enemy of a tap in most of India. Dissolved calcium blocks the aerator first, and a tap that seems to have lost pressure has usually just scaled up. Unscrew it, soak it, refit it, and the flow returns. The nickel underlayer beneath the chromium is what stands between the brass and monsoon humidity or coastal salt air. Clean with a soft damp cloth; acidic descalers and scouring powders strip plating, and once the nickel is exposed the tap pits quickly.

Common questions

What is the difference between a swan neck tap and a bar tap? None, in practice. Both names describe the same fitting. Swan neck describes the shape, bar tap describes where it was first used.

Will a swan neck tap work on an overhead tank without a pump? Yes. These are quarter-turn cocks with no pressure requirement of their own, so they run on gravity-fed supply. Only the aerated feel of the stream softens at low head.

Can I fit one on a kitchen sink? Yes, and it is a common use. The spout height that suits a deep kitchen sink is exactly what the swan neck shape gives you.