The latest example of how professional kitchens are influencing the residential market.

So you’ve seen the stainless-steel refrigerator, the six-burner stove, extra-deep sinks. Now it’s time to start installing another product common to professional restaurant kitchens that more consumers want at home.

To call a pot filler a “faucet” is to miss the point.

“Pot fillers are a very practical way to bring a water source to the stove,” says Ed Detgen, vice president of marketing for Danze, “but they also provide a ‘wow’ factor for anyone, consumer or installer, who wants to set themselves apart.”

Basically, pot fillers mount on the wall or deck surface next to the stove. Pros use them to fill huge pots directly atop a burner with water. That way they don’t have to carry a heavy pot filled with sloshing water from sink to stove. (Of course, somebody lower on the totem pole has to empty the pot.)

Most fillers have a double-jointed spout that can extend up to two feet to reach any point on the stove, yet fold flat against the wall when not needed. While the control may be on the wall or at the base, most models now also have a control right at the spout. That way, homeowners don’t have to reach across a hot stove to turn the water on and off. But other wall-mounted fillers offer a single arm that may not reach as far, but would still work well for most amateur chefs at home.

The residential models we’ve seen from various manufacturers are just as simple or stylish and with almost as many finishes as the regular faucets consumers have come to expect elsewhere in the kitchen or bathroom.

Wall-mounted fillers, the basic model for restaurateurs, are best for new construction or an extensive remodel of a residential kitchen. Deck-mounted models, however, are a better choice for more modest remodels or the only choice for a cooking island.

Shawn Hardy, product manager for Moen’s Showhouse® brand, says pot fillers are gaining momentum. He says the company expects the category to make up about 10 percent of all the kitchen faucets Moen expects to sell this year.

“It certainly is a new way to differentiate a kitchen,” he adds. “And it is just the latest example of how professional kitchens are continuing to influence the residential market.”