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Best Brand Home Faucets

Any suggestions on which brand of faucets is the best? Want years of reliability with very hard water, with solid/heavy construction. Considering Kohler's Solid Brass (Antique series). Anyone have experience with any other brands? Any particular features that would make you pick one brand over another? Plumbers generally like Delta & Kohler because of ease of repair & part availability.

Thanks,
Kyle
 
A word of caution that was passed on to me by a plumber friend of mine-
The big box stores carry the same looking products that plumbing suppliers carry-except for example the Moen faucet at Home depot carries much cheaper plastic parts internally verses solid brass from a commercial plumbing supplier.

The part #'s are similar; HD-XYZ1234 watch for the HD or LWS (or whatever) suffix.
 
Any suggestions on which brand of faucets is the best? Want years of reliability with very hard water, with solid/heavy construction. Considering Kohler's Solid Brass (Antique series). Anyone have experience with any other brands? Any particular features that would make you pick one brand over another? Plumbers generally like Delta & Kohler because of ease of repair & part availability.

Thanks,
Kyle

As a plumbing contractor I will give you my personal picks.

If you purchase from a Big Box Home Center: Delta and/or Moen is the best value in a faucet in their price range. However, many homecenter faucets come with plastic parts [to meet their price point] versus the exact same model number sold at a plumbing wholsaler which will have brass parts.

If you purchase from a Plumbing Wholesaler: Delta and/or Moen is still the best value in a faucet most of the time. Both have great warranties, good customer service and repair parts are widely available and easy to find. Grohe is my favorite high quality faucet. It is several steps up from the value faucets and you will see and feel the quality difference if you can find a dealer with Grohe faucets on display in their showroom. I've never had a 'callback' on a Grohe faucet and most people get tired of them before they wear out!

If you purchase from a Plumbing Contractor: One of the best values in this category is a brand of faucet sold exclusively by plumbers -- it is Wolverine Brass. They manufacture their own faucet in the USA with bodies made of brass and use ceramic cartridge technology instead of stems and rubber washers and o-rings.

Faucets to avoid [IMHO]: Price Pfister -- poorly designed and cheaply manufactured, and parts almost impossible to find; they sell a ton of faucets simply because they have one of the best marketing campaigns in the industry. Kohler -- the most overrated faucet in the industry IMHO. They once made one of the best high quality brass body faucets in the industry; that was in the last century. Today they are more about style than function and durability. They are generally hard to install and parts change so often it is near impossible to locate repair parts.

These are merely my opinions based on my 20+ years in the plumbing service business. There are other faucet brands in other areas of the country which are high quality, but I will leave those to folks who are familiar with them. This is what works for me and my recommendations to a customer who is looking for buying advice. YMMV.
 
I worked in plumbing at Lowe's for a while and although the comments about the internals is true...if you are special ordering a piece supposedly it is the same that a plumbing supply house gets. I've had numerous people come in with quotes from houses and our msrp and their msrp match. Usually the price they give the customer is almost identical to what the Lowe's price is. Usually it's like 10% higher but in that case they are selling the piece for what they want...cost is the same.
 
We had Grohe fixtures installed when we had a master bath remodel about 15 years ago. It included shower w/sidesprays. Jacuzzi and basins. High quality in both look and construction. No problems. No regrets.
 
Thanks for your response PD. I need to find a line that carries a kitchen & bathroom faucet (8" spread) and shower faucets (1 tub w/handheld and 1 with shower only). With that in mind, which brand of solid brass fixtures would you advise me to consider? Thanks again!!

Kyle
 
I've had excellent luck with Delta.
The Price Pfister I installed in the kitchen has been trouble from week 1.
The house was originally plumbed with American Standard - junk. Not only the internals, but much of the externals were plastic. I've slowly been replacing all my faucets with Delta.
My mother's house has Moen, and she's been pleased.
 
It's really hard to go wrong with either Delta or Moen. Both brands give you a good 'average service life' and in addition, both brands can be serviced and/or repaired with only a handful of service parts. Both brands have several matching styles for both bath and kitchen; just lots of choices.

The service parts to repair 90% of Delta or Moen problems could be carried in a shaving Dopp bag. The service parts to repair 50% of Kohler problems couldn't be carried in a tractor trailer!

I would especially stay away from the 'Designer' brands of faucets. They're pretty, but sooner or later they're going to give problems [probably sooner] and when they do....well, good luck finding parts! I currently have a customer with a very elegant bathroom with a whirlpool faucet made by a 'designer' company that is now out of business. It will now require removing tile and replacing the faucet. The worst case scenario just got worse!
 
I bought Swiss made KWC faucets for the kitchen and bathroom about 10 years ago, and they've been going strong with no need for repair all that time (I like them so much, I did not include them when I sold my old place, and instead moved them into the new place -- even with the dismantling and moving, they proved problem free). Expensive, but extremely well built. I bought them at a plumbing supply house that assured me they'd always have the parts, if needed.
 
M

MBro

My only real experience has been with moen faucets. They install easy, look good and the warrenty is fantastic. They stand behind their 100% warrenty all the way. If a o-ring or any other part goes bad all you have to do is call moen and you'll have the part within three days.

Great service.
 

Doc4

Stumpy in cold weather
Staff member
One beef I have with most faucets is they don't have much 'range' for modulating between hot and cold ... the nobs swing a great deal, but there's only a very small part of that range of motion where you actually change the water's temperature ... so the slightest flick of the wrist changes the water from really cold to freakin' hot or vice versa. Does anyone know of a faucet or brand where this problem is properly addressed?
 
One beef I have with most faucets is they don't have much 'range' for modulating between hot and cold ... the nobs swing a great deal, but there's only a very small part of that range of motion where you actually change the water's temperature ... so the slightest flick of the wrist changes the water from really cold to freakin' hot or vice versa. Does anyone know of a faucet or brand where this problem is properly addressed?
My guess would be separate faucets for hot and cold but it's a pain adjusting for temps each time you go to rinse. Single handle faucets are much easier. Does anyone make a dual faucet arrangement with a on/off lever or maybe something that will hold the right temp and let you get water on demand without adjusting each time?
 
My guess would be separate faucets for hot and cold but it's a pain adjusting for temps each time you go to rinse. Single handle faucets are much easier. Does anyone make a dual faucet arrangement with a on/off lever or maybe something that will hold the right temp and let you get water on demand without adjusting each time?

I don't know of a 'Temp Control' lavatory faucet, but there could be one. The most common method of controlling water temp at a single lavatory is to install a 'Thermostatic Tempering Valve' under the lavatory. It is arranged so that an incoming hot and cold line are attached to it, then the outlet line, which is temperature controlled is reattached to the hot side of the faucet. It is mostly used to prevent scalding, however, it can be used just as well to control temp for 'just the right shaving water'.

These valves have an adjusting knob or screw to set the temperature. As you can see, most of these are adjustable from 80 -120 degrees. Here's an example and a little info about this type of valve. http://www.powerscontrols.com/pdf/Be480.pdf
 
This is an idea. Not only might that work on my sinkfor shaving but also on my daughter's bathroom. I know she is careful but it might be an added safeguard.
 
i was looking for the good quality and latest good design kitchen faucets if any of you here have experience with buying a good product let me know that Which is the best kitchen faucet?
 
I've had good experiences with Moen. You can hardly beat their 'for life' guarantee and they stand by it. I've had excellent customer service from them.
 
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