The slide of the faucet

cbo111

cbo111

Full time employment: Posting here.
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What is the deal these days with bathroom and kitchen faucets? I am frequently having to repair dripping faucets and replace ones that malfunction in myriad ways. I live in a 4-year old house that is rapidly moving toward its third kitchen new faucet! Too many moving parts. And too many of the parts are plastic, they just seem to erode and wear out. Don't get me wrong, plastic does have its applications and is a wonderful product....but not in faucets. I think my grandparents had the same kitchen faucet for the entire 50-some years the owned their home. All their faucets were cast iron or steel, with a couple rubber washers. They were bulletproof.
The guys at Home Depot said its the water that is causing the problems. Really?

Oh, and don't get me started about the internal guts of toilet tanks; all plastic!
 
cbo111 said:
What is the deal these days with bathroom and kitchen faucets? I am frequently having to repair dripping faucets and replace ones that malfunction in myriad ways. I live in a 4-year old house that is rapidly moving toward its third kitchen new faucet! Too many moving parts. And too many of the parts are plastic, they just seem to erode and wear out. Don't get me wrong, plastic does have its applications and is a wonderful product....but not in faucets. I think my grandparents had the same kitchen faucet for the entire 50-some years the owned their home. All their faucets were cast iron or steel, with a couple rubber washers. They were bulletproof.
The guys at Home Depot said its the water that is causing the problems. Really?

Oh, and don't get me started about the internal guts of toilet tanks; all plastic!
Click to expand...

As a side job, I review stuff for a home improvement big box. They send me random stuff, and I use or install it and reviiew it. One item was a well known kitchen faucet that simply didn't work! Would have given it a zero if they allowed it. So, yeah, I feel your pain.

As for the plastic. In faucets, some of this is actually a result of federal regulations. It is the easiest way that they can pass the lead leaching tests. No solder, no lead.

The faucets of old were usually really thick real brass. Great stuff! Miss those days. Many brass faucets may have soldered seams, which can leach the lead, along with plating and other cheap ways of making the (fake) "brass."

My local Habitat Restore will not accept faucets made before 2014.

MWRA - About Lead and Faucets

Most faucets purchased prior to 1997 were constructed of brass or chrome-plated brass, which contain up to 8 percent lead (the main metals in brass are copper and zinc). Water sitting for several hours or overnight in a brass faucet can leach lead from the brass faucet interior which may produce high lead levels in the first draw of drinking water. Later regulations mandated that most faucets purchased after 1997 contain less lead than previously used thereby reducing the possible leaching of lead. However, the most recent legislation, called “Get the Lead Out,” mandates that after January 4, 2014, all faucets purchased will contain no more than a weighted average of 0.25 percent lead in relation to wetted surface.
Click to expand...
 
My plumber told me to stick to Moen or Delta and I have had luck with those brands. We have a cheapie Home Depot faucet at the Ranch House which is a community facility with a meeting room, kitchen, and shower and restroom facilities. That faucet is terrible. It doesn't shut off all the time and it is impossible to adjust the water temperature. It is less than two years old.
 
Hermit said:
My plumber told me to stick to Moen or Delta and I have had luck with those brands. We have a cheapie Home Depot faucet at the Ranch House which is a community facility with a meeting room, kitchen, and shower and restroom facilities. That faucet is terrible. It doesn't shut off all the time and it is impossible to adjust the water temperature. It is less than two years old.
Click to expand...
I have had decent luck with those.

I really like my American Standard Water-sense toilets, but their faucets need to be flushed down the toilet.
 
My new kitchen faucet broke a week after warranty ran out :facepalm:. The plumbing store had pity on me and sold me a replacement, different brand, at cost. So far it's good.
 
We rebuilt in 2011 and have not had any issues with any of our faucets... I don't recall what brand we bought.
 
I'm a Moen guy, they have served me well.
 
Freedom56 said:
Buy Moen. They give you parts or replacements for free for life.
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My builder grade Delta faucets have lifetime warranty too. Customer service is good. House is 18 yrs old and they sent me replacement cartridges for the shower and kitchen that are priced ~$100 at Home Depot.
 
I use Moen in my home and in my rentals, however, in my apartment building the tub/showers were built with Central Brass in 1974. Just occasional washer, seat or handle replacement.
 
I had a leaking kitchen faucet in my rental, it's not Moen, but some other brand that was cheap at the time. In my research I found out they warranty it for life.

So I phoned them and they shipped the parts to the house, (pays to keep receipts :) and it swapped out the parts and it is fine.

I did notice hard water buildup which will be an issue in some years.
 
same thing happened to me with Delta... the faucet came with the house so I didn;t have a receipt but that was not a problem... give them the model number and the ship you the cartridge.
 
Miss the old Delta faucets that only needed an o-ring kit every 7-10 years.

My 30 year old kitchen & bath faucets have easily replaced (done once already) separate hot & cold valves.
 
When I redid the kitchen about two years ago, I installed a "high end" faucet like the Danze noted above (but not that brand). It cost near $500. So far, TWO flex hoses have failed attached to the pull out spray head. Nice....
 
Our kitchen faucet is a Kohler. I installed it 13 years ago. IIRC, it was around $750 at the local plumbing supply house (probably the retail MSRP). We bought it online for under $400. No problems whatsoever in all those years. I clean out the screen once or twice a year. And recently I had to tighten up the fitting that attaches the pull-out hose to the sprayhead.

We're currently remodeling the master bath. I read tons of reviews on various fixtures. We ended up with mostly Delta, but the standalone shower is getting a Luxart valve and trim, and one of the sinks is getting a Viga faucet. I was a little skeptical about Viga because I had never heard the name. But the reviews are really good, the look is amazing, and prices are reasonable. So we'll see.
 
I hear you on the plastics. Especially in toilets.

Stay away from the Pfister brand (Lowes carries it in Canada). Great looking and innovative designs. Internal guts seem to have been designed by a blind monkey and made out of recycled water bottles.
 
pb4uski said:
same thing happened to me with Delta... the faucet came with the house so I didn;t have a receipt but that was not a problem... give them the model number and the ship you the cartridge.
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Yep. I don't have any receipts for the ones installed by the builder. I usually pick out the picture that matches my unit but when that didn't work for the kitchen sink, they had me email a picture. Now when I call they have me in their caller ID database.
 
I've always been impressed with Kohler service. Also like the good upper midwest accents I get, versus, well, some offshore phone room.
 
davebarnes said:
O-rings are/were a crap technology.
Ceramics are so much better.
Click to expand...
My dad was a plumber specializing in repair.

Going out on side jobs with him in the 60s. Oh, those were the days! He had hundreds of O-rings, maybe more. All different sizes. And then there were seat grinding tools. Faucet repair is a lost art, I suppose. But for decades, it was the norm. I remember him repairing faucets and toilets that were mostly 20's era (boom time). When the time came to replace, he took the old faucets, collected them, and sold as scrap. Even back then, and especially in the 70s, he got a pretty penny for scrap brass. Of course, those faucets were stout. Pounds of brass! Heck, even the float balls in the toilets were brass!

Before he died, he taught me a few tricks I didn't catch in my childhood. For valves, he had all kinds of tricks. My favorite I learned was how to fix a leaking valve stem with graphite packing thread. Your 50 year old valve is leaking? That 50 year old valve is fine. No need to replace it. What a pain! Just tuck in a little graphite thread around the stem!
 
Most of my faucets are builder-installed Moen models. When I called about the "lifetime warranty", they apologized and said that was for original purchasers with receipts. They did offer to ship me cartridges for $15 a pop!
 
I’ll be replacing the original disposal in the house we built 20 yrs ago. It doesn’t look like it but the sink is extra deep and it sucks to do the faucet. What you see is faucet #2. I’m fond of Moen and they have “Motion Sense” models. My kitchen is out of date with Corian and light maple. I’m looking for convenience not a buyer. Does anyone have that type of faucet? What are your thoughts?
 

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