The Impossible
Floating Tap
Company
Ten years of handmade floating tap water features. Six staple products. Customers across the globe.
Water pouring from thin air. It really does look like magic.
A tap suspended in mid-air. No visible pipe. No explanation. When you first see it, the rational part of your brain simply refuses to accept what your eyes are telling it.
The earliest known patent for a floating liquid illusion display was filed in 1991, for a commercial device designed to make liquid appear to pour from an unattached spigot. From there the concept spread, most famously to Aqualand in Spain, where El grifo mágico "The Magic Tap " became one of the most photographed landmarks on the Costa de la Luz.
Other giant versions followed: Hampton Court Palace Flower Show, public parks across Spain, Butlins in Skegness, Belgium, Switzerland, the United States, Canada. What started as an engineering curiosity became a global phenomenon.
So how about a bit of this magic at home?
The first patent
The earliest known patent for a floating liquid illusion display is filed - a commercial-scale device for trade shows and exhibitions.
Theme parks take notice
Giant floating tap installations appear at water parks across Europe and beyond. They become landmarks - photographed by thousands of visitors.
The Magic At Home?
After seeing these gigantic taps we brought the idea home and made our first one. We thought the idea was brilliant. At the time, domestic floating tap features were limited - only a handful of similar products existed anywhere on the market. We saw an opportunity to build upon what was there, to develop the best illusion we could, with the intention to make everything properly. Solid brass, hand-soldered copper, built to last.
The range grows
Starting with a single design, the collection expands one feature at a time. The Valve. The Spring. The Cooper. The Grand. The Station. Each one still made by us, by hand from our small workshop.
Still focused. Still handmade.
Ten years on, every feature is still built, painted, tested and packed by hand in Oxfordshire. The plan hasn't changed - make the best floating tap water features available anywhere. Alongside the core range, bespoke commissions have taken the floating tap into places we never anticipated. Custom-built features for exhibitions, trade shows, product launches and brand activations. Large-scale installations for businesses, hotel lobbies and public spaces. If someone has an idea for something unusual, we're usually interested in making it. The idea behind all of it has always been the same: take something genuinely magical and make it available to anyone - whether that's a back garden in Oxfordshire or a stand at an international trade show.
One focus. No shortcuts.
Rather than follow what already existed, the goal was to do it our own way - create something built to last, offered in a range of styles and colours, and to always keep improving.
One product. One focus. Ten years.
Brass tap. Hand-soldered copper spout. Hand-painted, lacquered finish. A pump specifically chosen for low noise and long life. Every detail considered for the best floating illusion.
No shortcuts. No compromise on quality.
Six staple features.
From Oxfordshire to everywhere.
Features from our collection have been installed in home gardens, pub courtyards, hotel lobbies, international expos, shop fronts, offices, ponds and lakes - and if the emails are anything to go by, quite a few Victorian stone sinks, repurposed cattle troughs, the corner of a swimming pool, and at least one very ambitious garden gnome display.
If it holds water, someone has probably tried it.
Every feature still leaves our hands.
Every feature that leaves us has been made by hand, tested, and packed by the same small team that started this in 2014. That hasn't changed and we don't intend it to.
Thank you for supporting something genuinely handmade with care.
The Impossible Floating Tap Company · Oxfordshire · Est. 2014Ready to see more?
Every feature is made to order. Pick your style, choose your colour, and we'll build it for you.
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