what fixture brands do you guys like?

Question

I was watching this guy on youtube and he was talking about buying Moen for his rentals.  his point was that you are paying for the labor anyway, why not go with something good.  He also mentioned that Moen has lifetime warranty on parts, so when a tenant wears it out you can just get a replacement part and its free.

I love Moen in my personal home, but dont think I would go with it in a rental because if something breaks I cant be waiting on a replacement part. I will just go down to the store and get a replacement myself. Also the warranty doesnt cover misuse, incorrect install, etc. In my rentals I usually put american standard, as I see it in lots of hotels and commercial places. I figured if its good enough for high traffic, its good enough for a rentals and I havent had a problem yet. I tried Kohler before but doesnt seem to hold up as well.

What are your guys thoughts and have you guys tried other cheaper brands that hold up?

Jim K. · Answer

I happen to know a bit about this from my time as a professional reviewer. I've looked at and worked through the installation process of literally dozens of kitchen and bathroom faucets from a large number of manufacturers over the last few years.

Delta is owned by Masco, which includes a large number of other well-known plumbing fixture brands under its umbrella. Delta, Peerless, Brizo, Hansgrohe are all made by Masco. Moen is owned by Fortune Brands. Fortune plumbing fixtures includes luxury brands Riobel and British Perrin & Rowe, but no other mainline US fixtures. American Standard is owned by Lixil, which also owns Grohe.

IMHO, Masco has been putting its real money into Hansgrohe in recent years and Lixil has been doing the same for Grohe. Delta and American Standard both frequently suffer in engineering quality as a result. Moen has a significant edge on quality and design for ease of installation in North American households.

Delta is marketed more heavily than the others. Its standard shower rough-in, the MultiChoice, is easy to work with but has obvious engineering issues (the brass is far thinner than I feel comfortable with).

American Standard tends to go with ambitious ideas that look great but have weaknesses in engineering that you wouldn't normally find in Delta and practically never in Moen. A case in recent point is the touchless Beale kitchen faucet. The motorized valve just died on mine, three years in.

Moen just keeps on chugging on, because it's the backbone of Fortune Brands' developing portfolio. Plumbers like it for its forgiving installations. It rarely gets stylish and glitzy enough for trendy flips, though.

So for me, especially since I don't pay people to change out my faucets and do it myself, it's Moen all the way.

Pat L. · Answer

I've swapped out quite a few Moen diverters & faucet cartridges over the years & it's tough. Once they get corroded it's quite the battle. They will send you a new cartridge BUT I've had to asked several times & threaten to go with Kohler.

Then the diverter retaining clip is a fall into the wall cavity nightmare. The other issue with a new Moen diverter install is that BOTH the hot & cold has to be pressurized to ensure the diverter works so you can check for leaks. With the HW tank gone we had to run cold to both inlets just to test it. NOWHERE does the installation manual reveal this idiosyncrasy & the 1-800 help-line had no clue. We did have a new Moen $180 bath faucet fail in under 6 months & they would only send a new one if we paid a $25 shipping fee. Now I have 2 Moen faucets as spares as she went with Kohler instead.

My preference is Kohler for every fixture BUT their toilets with that large cylindrical flush valve constantly fail, so we go with Am.Std. Also Kohler will ship any missing parts & life time warranty parts without question. I can often get Kohler shower doors, fixtures etc for 1/3 of the price because of missing or damaged parts & Kohler will send the replacements gratis. I did get called in on a friends Kohler install where the shower diverters were not working (they had a large 72inX48in shower base with two sets of shower fixtures). The plumber had bailed totally frustrated & the install paperwork he left was not Kohler. It was simply a 20 minute realignment of the diverter heads.

BOB CRANEY · Answer

@Royce Talbo

Look at the Kraus Brand available on Amazon. I like the commercial look and heavy duty build quality, with all brass construction and commercial grade internal parts meant to last thousands of cycles.

I have used a few different of the commercial type kitchen faucets and the faucets were all priced aggressively on Amazon, had a really heavy feel, simple install with great warranty.

As others have said, stay away from the faucets at the big box stores, as they have been value engineered to meet a price point. Out of the 12 apartments I have used them in, I have had to repair, replace several in less than 6-8 years. They are just junk with more plastic and cheap internal components than the options you can find at your local plumbing supply house or online.

I like looker toilets for strong, stable tank to bowl connection but the fill and flush valves internally are only lasting about 5 years before they need new parts or replacement. If you have a lot of units you want to have some spare faucets to swap in for your tenants, while you wait for your “lifetime” parts to come in 7-14 days from the manufacturer

Tim Johnson · Answer

I vote for Delta hands down on shower valves, you can always get parts and they are easy to change.  Sink facuets, I don't care about because they are easy to change, so I would normally just buy peerless or something else mid grade. Stuff buried in walls buy the best.

Scott Mac · Answer

Moen faucets.

Oscar Olivo · Answer

Hi All,

I have had bad luck with Moen.  For all of my renovations I have used Kohler and no failures thus far.  Got a good discount through the local plumbing supply with a contractor's account.  YMMV!

Barbara Harrison · Answer

We use Moen in the bathrooms of our resales and rentals, never had a problem. My husband prefers Delta for the kitchen, he likes the trendier look and again no problems to date. He does all the installs himself.

Patrick Moore · Answer

@Royce Talbo

Moen is the strongest and easiest to find parts.

The plumbing company I work for always suggests moen fixtures and American standard toilet.

Jim S. · Answer

As soon as I have a problem with a faucet I replace it with a Moen. The money you spend on a Moen you will more than save when you don't have to service it. I think you would have to take a hammer to a Moen to break it.

Mike McCarthy · Answer

Easy. Moen or Delta.

Toilets are always American Standard.

Worth spending a few extra dollars for something that will pretty much last forever.

what fixture brands do you guys like?

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