Christine Kirkham (asker) Oct 26, 2011:

Thanks very much - am passing all this on.

Bourth (X) Oct 26, 2011:

It looks to me as if Néoperle is a deformation of Neoperl, an American company producing flow control devices for plumbing. As others have said, a crapaudine is something you'll find in your roof guttering, not on your tapwater pipes. I suspect it may be a poor translation from original English, possibly for some sort of strainer or aerator, you know, those screw-on bits on the end of your tap with a multi-level wire strainer inside that retains any grit that might have got into your water (in the water pipes, I mean) and makes the water gush out all straight and vigourous, not soft and floppy as it does coming out of a tap not so equipped. It's a shame they don't make a biological screw-on device serving the same purpose for men of more advanced years.