I would say it's not important at all. Neither of my faucets line up - kindof. My prep sink has the drain off center because I rotated the sink 90 degrees from how it's built to be situated, so you have to actually turn the faucet sideways to get it to shoot down the hole. I never do except when I run the disposal. I have no splashing problems hitting the bottom of the sink.

My main sink does line up but the stream of water curves so it doesn't go down straight to the hole. No splashing issues. When I run the diposal, I use the pull-down sprayer and shoot it directly down the drain, which is totally fine because whenever I run the disposal, I am doing it as part of the cleaning out the sink from debris, which means I have the sprayer in hand anyway.

I think the garbage disposal needs water and it doesn't matter which direction it comes from as long as it is getting fed water. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

Maybe my faucet is different than some, but the water falls in the drain perfectly at a certain pressure, but if I turn it on strong it over shoots the drain. With a 10" sink splash isn't a problem.

Thanks, needsometips08 and Doraville.

This helps a ton.

One thing I'm curious about: do batch feed disposals require more or less water while they're running than continuous feed? Would both types require me to shoot water down the drain with my sprayer while disposal is running (assuming my faucet doesn't send water directly into the drain)? Not a big deal, but could be a tie-breaker in my choice between BF and CF.

Thanks again.

In answer to your question, no, batch feed disposals do not require more or less water than continuous feed disposals. They both require the same amount of water. The disposing goes faster and more efficiently if the water is flowing directly into the drain from the faucet, but it's a minor difference. As long as you have a good amount of water going into the drain, that's what's important.

Thanks, Shannonplus2, that's all I needed to know. You all are peaches!