Gerber & Danze Review & Rating Updated: August 22, 20224 Our panel of consu­mers and industry pro­fes­sion­als has rec­ognized Danze and Gerber by Danzes fau­cets as a Best Val­ue in luxury fau­cets made or assembled in As­ia. Read the Best Fau­­cet Val­ue Re­port for more in­for­ma­tion.

Imported

China

Ger­ber Plumb­ing Fix­tures, LLC
2500 Internationale Pkwy.
Woodbridge, IL 60517
USA: (888) 328-2383
CAN: (800) 487-8372
https://globeunion-us.custhelp.com/app/ask/

A U.S. subsidiary of
Globe Union In­dus­tri­al Corp
22, Chien-Kuo Rd.
Taichung Export Processing Zone
Taiwan, R.O.C.
886-4-25349676

Rating

Business Type

Product Range

Kitchen, Bath, Prep and Bar Faucets

Certifications

Brands
Danze
Ger­ber

Street Price

$105 - $700

Warranty Score

Cartridge

lifetime¹

Finishes

Lifetime

Mechanical Parts

Lifetime

Proof of Purchase

Required

Transferable

No

Meets U.S. Warranty
Law Requirements

No²

Footnotes:

1. "As long as the original purchaser owns the fau­cet." If the owner moves and takes the fau­cet to the new house, the warranty still applies.

2. The warranties do not contain certain mandatory language required by Federal warranty law.

• Download/Read/Print the Danze/Gerber faucet warranty.
• Learn more about faucet warranties.

This Company In Brief

Danze was a name under which Globe Un­i­on In­dus­tri­al grew a major brand identity in the U.S. It has changed the brand name to Gerber (or Danze by Gerber), to integrate the products with Gerber Plumbing Fixtures purchased in 2003.

The fau­cets are made in mainland Chin­ese factories by its subsidiary Shen­zhen Globe Un­i­on In­dus­tri­al Corp., Ltd.

As a whole, the fau­cet line seems to be well made. The quality is very good for the price. Many of the fau­cets are very stylish.

While Globe Un­i­on in the past mostly copied existing European and Amer­i­can designs, the company has recently begun introducing its own styles and they are good, some are even excellent.

Introduced to the U.S. in 2000, Danze is a name under which Globe Un­i­on In­dus­tri­al Cor­por­a­tion has grown a major brand identity in the U.S. It was for two decades the most actively promoted of the many fau­cet, fixture, and accessory brands owned by the gigantic As­ian company controlled by the Ou-yang Ming family of Tai­chung, Tai­wan.

The Company

Globe Un­i­on, founded in 1985, is the dominant fau­cet manufacturer in Asia under its GOBO brand. Its fau­cets are made in mainland Chin­ese factories by its subsidiary Shen­zhen Globe Un­i­on In­dus­tr­i­al Corp. (with a small bow to Can­ada for some automatic faucets).

Globe Un­i­on acquired the assets of Ger­ber Plumb­ing Fix­tures in 2003, keeping the well-re­gard­ed Ger­ber name and Ger­ber's extensive North Amer­i­can distribution network, while moving most manufacturing to Shen­zhen and Wei­fang, China.

In the process, it eliminated over 700 Amer­i­can manufacturing jobs. The sole surviving North Amer­i­can factory is in Channel­view, Tex­as.

Globe Un­i­on is a full-line fau­cet manufacturer, making and selling fau­cets at every price level. In addition to making its own lines of Danze, Ger­ber, and GO­BO fau­cets, it is an manufacturer for other companies.

It supplies mid-priced and economy store-brand fau­cets to big-box retailers including

It also manufactures upscale and luxury fau­cets for So, the company's ability to manufacture very good and even excellent fau­cets is unquestioned.

The Brands

This capability is well-reflected in the Danze Ger­ber lines. Ger­ber includes any number of economy and mid-priced fau­cets.

Many Gerber faucets are holdovers from the older Ger­ber Plumb­ing before it was acquired by Globe Un­i­on. Although priced economically, they are still well-made and supported by Ger­ber's lifetime warranty.

Danze by Gerber fau­cets tend to be more upscale and are of good to very good quality, especially for the price. Many of the Danze fau­cets are very stylish, and while Globe Un­i­on mostly copied existing European and Amer­i­can designs in the past, Its current crop of fau­cets is its own designs.

Danze has been a marketing success in North America, largely overcoming the reputation earned through very poor post-sale customer service in the first few years of the brand's history.

The brand has grown to impressive proportions in just over twenty years with hundreds of brick-and-mortar retailers and a strong internet presence.

In the process of promoting the Danze line, however, Globe Un­i­on has phased out other, less promising brands, many of which have disappeared from the market entirely.

We can no longer find Globe Un­i­on's Amerstream fau­cets anywhere, for example, although its showers are still available.

Some brands such as

faucets are reviewed separately. Click on the name to open the review.

The former was disbanded by Globe Un­i­on in 2012 after selling its Door Hard­ware division to Schlage Locks in 2010 along with the right to the Fu­sion brand name.

The abandonment of the brand stranded Fusion fau­cet owners. Although Fusion faucet warranties are still supported by Danze, the parts needed to repair Fusion fau­cets are no longer being made and the parts inventory is drying up, so there is not much Danze can do for the owner of a broken Fusion fau­cet other than sympathize.

Globe Un­i­on has now moved its marketing focus from Danze to Ger­ber.

The company announced the integration of Danze into the Ger­ber family of products in 2019. In 2020, the Danze website was folded into a revamped Ger­ber website. The former danze.com website redirects to the new, integrated site. Danze is no longer simply Danze, a stand-alone brand, but Danze^® by Ger­ber.

The old Ger­ber Plumb­ing fau­cets held over from the pre-sale Ger­ber Plumb­ing are still identified as Ger­ber fau­cets. These are mostly work-a-day basic fau­cets, many still equipped with the old-style compression cartridges.

They make up most of what Ger­ber calls its Commercial collection because plumbers still like them and still use them, mostly for commercial installations.

More upscale fau­cets sold as Ger­ber or Danze by Gerber faucets are just Danze faucets re-labeled with the Ger­ber brand. These are easily identifiable because the model number of the fau­cets will start with a D (for Danze).

Faucets made expressly for Ger­ber, not sold by Danze, including all of the Ger­ber fau­cets in the Com­mer­ci­al collection have model numbers that begin with G (for Ger­ber).

We don't expect this ambiguous cross-branding to continue for long. Globe Un­i­on will almost certainly keep both brands, but work toward a more demarcated brand differentiation over the next few years, giving each a clear identity.

Ger­ber is a plumber favorite and has been for many years. The brand is a prime candidate for a line of economy and/or mid-priced fau­cets that will have a ready market among plumbers and multi-unit housing owners.

The Danze brand is fairly well-known among the buying public as a brand with a reputation for style and quality. Most likely Globe Un­i­on will re-cast the Danze name as the more upscale fau­cet.

The process may have already started. Ger­ber fau­cets are drifting toward the lower end of the fau­cet price spectrum, while Danze fau­cets are slowly inching toward the higher end.

Based on Globe Un­i­on's past practices, the metamorphosis will probably proceed by inches rather than yards and may take most of a decade to complete.

Danze/Ger­ber fau­cets are of good to very good quality using some of the best components available for fau­cets, including good to excellent ceramic cartridges.

Faucet Construction & Materials

Danze fau­cets are made using conventional faucet construction out of stainless steel and brass.

Stainless Steel

Some kitchen faucets sold by Danze are made from stainless steel. The stainless steel is 304 stainless, an alloy that includes chrom­ium and nickel. The nickel gives the steel a crystalline structure which increases its strength. The chromium helps the steel resist corrosion.

Steel is much harder than brass. It can be made in thinner profiles that use less material and still have more than adequate strength.

Stainless 304, also known as "food-grade" stainless, is by far the most common alloy used to make kitchen utensils, silverware, cookware, and fau­cets.

Why Stainless Steel Does Not Rust: Properly alloyed stainless contains at least 10% chromium (which gives stainless its slight yellowish tinge) and a dollop of nickel. These form a coating of oxides and hydroxides on the outer surface of the steel that blocks oxygen and water from reaching the underlying metal, preventing rust from forming. The coating is very thin, only a few atoms thick, so thin that it is invisible to the eye under ordinary light but thick enough to protect the fau­cet.

Stainless steel kitchen faucets are not identified as such on the Gerber website. The way we distinguish between brass and steel kitchen faucets is to look at the available finishes. Stainless steel faucets are available in a stainless steel "finish." Brass faucets are not.

Brass

Some Danze kitchen and all bath lavatory fau­cets are made of brass.

Traditional (alpha) brass is a blend of copper and zinc with lead added to make the material more malleable, less brittle, and easier to machine.

However, lead is now all but banned in North America in any drinking water component due to its toxicity to humans, particularly children.

According to the both the En­vir­on­ment­al Prot­ec­tion Agen­cy (EPA) and the World Health Organization (WHO), lead, even in small amounts, causes slowed growth, learning disorders, hearing loss, anemia, hyperactivity, and behavior issues.

Before 2014, a fau­cet could contain as much as 8% lead and still call itself lead-free. Now the maximum lead content of those parts of a fau­cet that touch water is 0.25% (1/4 of 1%), basically just a bare trace. In fact, there may be more lead in the air you breathe than there is in a modern fau­cet that has been certified lead-free.

To comply with the restrictions on lead, today's lead-free brass replaces lead with other additives. The most common is bismuth used, like lead, to reduce brittleness without adding toxicity.

Bismuth is similar to lead – right next to lead on the periodic table of elements – but it is not harmful to humans.

It is, however, very expensive. It is 300 times rarer than lead, even rarer than silver, which is the reason that bismuth-brass alloys are considerably more expensive than leaded brass.

This increased cost has encouraged many fau­cet manufacturers to use less expensive substitute materials in their fau­cets where possible.

Zinc & Zinc/Aluminum Alloys

The most common substitute material is zinc or a zinc-aluminum (ZA) alloy like ZAMAK, a zinc composition containing 4% aluminum.

Zinc, however, is not as strong as brass and does not resist water pressure as well. But, the use of zinc in non-pressurized parts of a brass fau­cet such as handles, base plates, and is common even among manufacturers of luxury fau­cets.

It does no harm when used in these components, and may save consumers a few dollars.

Plastics

Plastic is the other commonly used substitute material. It may, like zinc alloys, be safely used in incidental parts like base plates and shrouds, and it has been largely trouble-free in aerators and as casings for ceramic cartridges. Otherwise, its use is suspect.

Unfortunately, Plastic spray heads (called "wands" in the fau­cet industry) have become the standard for many manufacturers, including some that sell upscale fau­cets such as

These manufacturers give three reasons for their use of plastic:

• Plastic does not get uncomfortably hot in use like metal wands;

• Plastic is not as heavy and is more comfortable to hold for long periods of time; and

• Plastic is a lot cheaper than brass or stainless steel – even cheaper than zinc.

However, plastic wands also fail much more often than metal wands. And although engineers have made significant improvements to their reliability over the past decade, the problem has not been entirely solved.

The Sure Cure for Too-Hot Spray Wands: The simple cure for spray wands that get too hot is to reduce the temperature of the water. Dishes do not need to be rinsed in scalding hot water.

Better wands are made of metal, insulated against excessive heat transmittal.

The wands on the Danze kitchen faucets appeared to be plastic. But, to be sure, we confirmed the material with Danze. According to a company spokesman, the spray wands on Danze kitchen fau­cets are all plastic.

Danze Valves & Cartridges

Unlike many large fau­cet manufacturers, Globe Un­i­on does not use proprietary ceramic cartridge valves. It designs and engineers its fau­cets around off-the-shelf standard configuration ceramic valves, all made by specialist outside cartridge manufacturers.

The advantage to Globe Un­i­on of using standardized cartridges is that it does not have to keep up with the fast-changing ceramics technology – its suppliers do the keeping up – and the money it saves by not having to invest in a ceramics plant can be used to further expand its core business – quality metalwork.

The advantage to the buyer is that standard configuration cartridges are widely available and usually less expensive than proprietary cartridges.

The fau­cet manufacturer has a monopoly on proprietary cartridges and can charge as much as the market will stand. And, if the choice is between a new cartridge or several hundred dollars for a new faucet, the market will stand a lot.

A good example is the DA503486 35 mm cartridge used in most Danze single-handle fau­cets. It is a standard configuration cartridge made by no fewer than six respected ceramics companies. It sells online for as little as $8.00. The DA503486 35 mm cartridge from Danze, by contrast, sell for up to $40.00.

We examined a number of Danze and Gerber single-handle faucets for this report. All of the mixing cartridges use in the faucets appear to have been manufactured by Ke­rox Kft, a Hun­gar­i­an technical ceramics manufacturer that makes only mixing cartridges.

Kerox is probably the top Eur­o­pe­an cartridge brand for sin­gle-hand­le fau­cets, and very popular with Chinese manufacturers exporting faucets to the European and North American markets.

However, at least five other well-respected cartridge manufacturers make this standard configuration cartridge, including

1. Gal­a­tron Plast S.P.A. (It­a­ly), the originator of standard configuration cartridges,
2. Ku­ching Int­er­nation­al Ltd. (Tai­wan/Chi­na) maker of the KCG brand cartridge,
3. Ge­ann In­dus­tri­al Co., Ltd. (Tai­wan/Chi­na),
4. Sed­al S.L.U. (Spain/Chi­na),
5. Hy­dro­plast S.R.L. (It­a­ly).

The cartridges used in Globe Un­i­on's two-handle fau­cets are more of a mystery.

Two-handle fau­cets require two cartridges, one for cold and the other for hot water.

The most common cartridge pair used in Globe Un­i­on two-handle fau­cets is GA60310W (cold) and GA60311W (hot). Where these cartridges are made is not known, or rather, Danze knows but it's not talking.

Most of the time we can identify cartridges using the maker marks printed or stamped into the cartridge. These cartridges, however, had no marks, so we could not identify them through visual examination.

When we asked Danze to identify the manufacturer(s), we received a variety of responses, all amounting to "No".

One Danze engineer told us that Globe Un­i­on assembles its own stem cartridges for two-handle fau­cets, something we know to be complete nonsense. Another spokesman admitted that the cartridges are made in China, but declined to name the manufacturer because "it's a trade secret."

We suspect, however, that they are probably good-quality cartridges, on par with the rest of the components of Danze fau­cets.

We have never gotten a complaint about them, and a quick review of the complaints online showed none about Danze cartridges. But, we would be more comfortable buying a Danze or Ger­ber fau­cet, however, if we knew the source of the cartridges.

Danze Faucet Finishes

The company offers six different finishes on its fau­cets.

The basic finish, available on nearly every fau­cet, is Polished Chrome.

Electroplating is the well-established traditional way of finishing fau­cets that has been around nearly since faucets were invented. It is a very durable finish, but it does scratch and abrasive cleaners should be kept away. Some fau­cets, particularly those in the Ger­ber Com­merc­ial collection, offer no finish other than chrome.

The next most common finish on bathroom fau­cets is Brushed Nickel, also electroplated.

Nickel is a soft metal that scratched easily. This is the reason that most nickel finishes are brushed rather than polished. A brushed finish helps hide the inevitable scratches.

Brushed Bronze is not actually bronze. It is a harder, more scratch-resistant metal, probably titanium, applied using technology to look like bronze. Danze calls the PVD finish its Permanence^® finish.

PVD finishes are applied in a very thin (2 to 5 microns) but very dense layer in a vacuum chamber that is loaded with unfinished fau­cet components. All the air is replaced with a carefully calculated mix of inert and reactive gases. A metal rod to be used for the coating is heated to a temperature so high that it dissolves into individual atoms creating an ionic plasma that bombards the components.

PVD finishes are incredibly durable finishes, almost indestructible, that require very little maintenance. A wipe-down every once in a while will usually suffice.

Satin Black and Tumbled Bronze, are – essentially a dry paint in powder form applied using a special low-velocity spray gun that disperses the powder while giving it a positive electrical charge.

The powder is drawn to the fau­cets to be finished which have been given a negative charge.

The coated fau­cets are then baked in an oven which melts and bonds the powder and changes the structure of the coating into long, cross-linked molecular chains. These chains are what give the coating its durability, reducing the risk of scratches, chipping, abrasions, corrosion, fading, and other wear issues.

Powder coatings are considered no more than "semi-durable" – not as robust as electroplated finishes and requiring more care to maintain a like-new appearance. The most frequent source of damage to powder coatings is over-aggressive cleaning, so detailed care instructions should be closely followed.

Stainless steel, available on kitchen fau­cets, is not an applied finish. It is the material of the faucet itself, polished and brushed to look nice.

Some fau­cets in the Ger­ber Classica™ collection are unfinished, bare brass. These are intended for use where appearance does not matter, in a laundry room, for example. They will corrode, turning brownish over time unless polished regularly.

For more information on types of fau­cet finishes and the pros and cons of each type, go to Faucet Finishes.

The Gerber Website

The Ger­ber website is well-designed with intuitive, menu-driven navigation. The information provided about each fau­cet is very good, but not quite sufficient for an informed buying decision.

Each fau­cet listing contains several photos of the faucet from different angles, allowing a prospective buyer to view it from nearly every possible point of view.

Four menu options are available: Product Information, Specs, Certification & Standards, and Support.

The Product Information tab displays a quick summary of the fau­cet's features. The Specs tab provides a few more measurements such as height, width and spout reach along with the connection type. Certification and standards tell you whether the fau­cet is ADA compliant, certified to the basic North Amer­i­can fau­cet standards, and/or Watersense^® listed.

The Support tab, however, contains the real meat of the listing. This option displays .pdf documents that can be downloaded and links to other website pages that have useful information – the warranty page, for example.

1. The Spec Sheet details the fau­cet's features essentially duplicating the information contained in the Product Information, Specs, and Certification & Standards tabs all in one place. We learned quickly to ignore these menu tabs and call up the spec sheet for all of the information available on the fau­cet. The spec sheet also offers the additional benefit of being easily printed without having to wrestle with your browser's print function.

2. The Installation Manual is useful to your plumber to identify any special tools needed and possible installation problems.

3. An Illustrated Parts List, that identifies all of the components of the fau­cet giving the product id of parts in case you need to order a part at some point.

4. Warranty links to a page that displays the Ger­ber lifetime fau­cet warranty,

5. FAQs, a link to the frequently asked questions page, and

6. The Contact-Us Page, makes it easy to get in touch with customer support by telephone or e-mail.

The layout of fau­cet listing pages is clear and precise, a paean to whoever designed the page. We have seldom seen it done better.

Two things about the fau­cet listings we do not like.

The first is the failure to identify the manufacturer of the ceramic cartridges used in a fau­cet. A description of the cartridge as a "ceramic" cartridge does not help very much. There are good and not-so-good cartridges in the world. The only way to know if the cartridge is one of the good ones is to know the identity of its manufacturer. We believe most are Kerox cartridges, a very good product, but we cannot be certain that every faucet is equipped with a Kerox cartridge because we did not examine every single-handle faucet. Our budget for acquiring faucets for examination and testing does not go nearly that far.

The second is failure to identify the type of finish. Whether a finish is electroplated, PVD, or a powder coat makes a very big difference to it care and maintenance and figures large in how long a finish can be expected to last. This is information a potential buyer should know.

Danze & Gerber Warranties

Danze and Gerber have separate warranties. Often the very same faucets are sold under both brands, so the warranty you get depends on the brand name on the box. The warranties differ, so the brand you buy is important.

The Danze warranty protects the original buyer from "defects in material and workmanship for as long as the consumer purchaser owns it."

It is badly drafted, however, repetitive in parts and not always clear as to what protection is provided. For example, Danze limits its obligation "to replacement parts only." It does not indicate what it will do if replacement parts are not available or if the facet simply cannot be fixed.

It also contains some very unwelcome provisions. For example, it requires all warranty claims to be made in writing "accompanied by the defective part along with the original proof of purchase. ..." It also states that "warranty parts orders may be subject to shipping & handling charges." (Never, ever part with your original proof of purchase under any circumstances. Send a clear copy instead.)

The requirement that the warranty claim be made only in writing and the defective part be returned for examination is unduly burdensome, and to Danze's credit, neither is usually required in practice. The potential charges for shipping warranty parts are penny-pinchery at its most extreme form. Fortunately, Danze has never charged for shipping parts that we know of.

The warranty does not comply with the federal Mag­nu­son-Moss War­ranty Act (15 U.S.C. §2308), the federal law that dictates the minimum content of and sets the rules for consumer product warranties in the United States. In any court challenge, most of the exclusions and limitations imposed by the warranty would likely be voided, and the only parts of the warranty that would remain are those that most favor the buyer.

The Ger­ber fau­cet warranty does a better job of complying with Mag­nu­son-Moss, but its drafting is also jumbled and repetitive in parts.

Like the Danze warranty, it promises freedom "from defects in material and workmanship, for as long at s long as the original consumer purchaser owns it." However, it excludes electronic parts from lifetime coverage, limiting the warranty to 5 years on these parts. Five years is better than the industry average of 3 years, so this limitation is actually above the industry standard.

To remedy a defective fau­cet,

"Ger­ber will replace, free of charge, during the warranty period, any product or part thereof that upon inspection proves defective in material and/or workmanship under normal residential application. If replacement of the original part is not practical, Ger­ber may elect to replace it with an equivalent part or refund the purchase price in exchange for the return of the product."

But, it ends this recitation with the words (in bold print) "These are your exclusive remedies."

These are not your exclusive remedies, and Mag­nu­son-Moss prohibits this sort of misrepresentation in a consumer warranty. The Federal Trade Commission has identified such language as a deceptive practice, but so far has taken no action against violators.

You have any number of additional remedies at law, including those under the statutory warranties of merchantability and fitness for purpose.

Overall, our panel of warranty lawyers rated both warranties to be standard for the North Amer­i­can market, but just barely.

Globe Un­i­on needs to get the Danze lawyers together with the Ger­ber lawyers to come up with a warranty shared by both brands and to fix some glaring deficiencies in the Globe Un­i­on warranties.

Customer & Warranty Service

Globe Un­i­on has largely conquered the parts and warranty issues that formerly plagued the company's products.

Replacement parts, warranty support, and installation help are available at a dedicated Danze support center, and at 1-888-328-2383 ( 1-800-487-8372 in Canada). Other than for general questions, you will need your brand name and model number to get any assistance

The Danze Support Center contains three Product Identification Catalogs which, as far as we can tell have information about every product ever sold by Danze. It also has links to the Danze customer support e-mail at which you can submit a question to support agents, and to useful articles about matters such as how to replace a cartridge.

In our customer service tests, Danze scored above the 4.0 out of 5 that we consider satisfactory. The Better Business Bureau scores both Danze and Ger­ber A+ for their response to customer issues. Neither Danze nor Gerber, however, is a BBB-accredited business.

Faucet Testing & Certification

Comparable Faucet Brands

Faucets made in China or Taiwan roughly comparable to Danze/Ger­ber in quality and warranty include

Conclusions

Overall, we judge Danze fau­cets to be a very good value in a mid-priced fau­cet.

The quality of the products is such that they easily compare to fau­cets at the upscale end of the fau­cet continuum that are priced considerably higher.

The consensus of our plumber panel is that most would have no hesitation installing a Danze or Ger­ber fau­cet in even the busiest bathroom or kitchen in the expectation of a long and trouble-free service life. Those that expressed reservations cited the lack of information about the ceramic valves used in Gerber's two-handle fau­cets.

If a problem does develop with a Dance or Gerber faucet, the company now has one of the most capable customer service organizations in the industry to take care of any warranty issues.

We are continuing to research the company. If you have experience with Danze fau­cets, good, bad, or indifferent, we would like to hear about it, so please email us at starcraftreviews@yahoo.com or post a comment below.

For more information about Globe Un­i­on In­dus­tri­al, the company, see