Hansgrohe Faucets Review & Rating Updated: December 2, 2023
Hansgrohe
Axor
Law Requirements
Footnotes:1. As long as the original purchaser owns "the product and the home in which the product is originally installed."Learn more about faucet warranties.
This Company In Brief
Hansgrohe is a leading German faucet company that is majority owned by Masco, the American holding company that also owns several American faucet brands including
It sells two lines of Faucets: Axor, its luxury brand, still made mostly in Germany, and Hansgrohe, its premium brand, increasingly made in China.
The faucets are all designed in-house or by world-famous designers and architects and are exclusive to Hansgrohe. Faucet prices are in line with and often less costly than other European designer faucet brands.
Hansgrohe supports its Faucets with a limited lifetime warranty and good customer service. But, not as good as it once was.
Hansgrohe is a shower company, well known in most of the world for its innovative and impeccable hand showers (it is the oldest and largest and probably the best hand shower company in the world).
Hansgrohe also makes excellent, high-quality, stylish lines of faucets, Hansgrohe its "premium" faucet and Axor, its "luxury" brand. (We tend to think of these as premium and super-premium lines.)
The Company
According to company lore, it all began in 1901 in Schiltach, Germany.
Otto Johannes (Hans) Grohe, a weaver by trade with some experience in metalworking, started a metal pressing shop in an unused shed with two employees making alarm clock cases for Junghans, at the time the largest clockmaker in the world.
In 1905 the enterprise incorporated as Hans Grohe, Schiltach and began making shower heads. By the eve of the Great War in 1913, the company was a leading supplier in the infant sanitary equipment industry in Germany with 24 workers and a new two-story factory.
It was not until 1928 that Hans Grohe invented the porcelain-handle hand shower for which the company became justly famous. Thirty years later, he invented the wall bar on which a hand shower can conveniently be mounted to double as an overhead shower. The adjustable spray shower arrived in 1968.
Made in USA
vs.
Made in Germany
For a faucet to be labeled "Made in USA," it must meet some very strict Federal Trade Commission rules.
It must undergo its final assembly in the U.S. and all or substantially all of the components and parts used to make the faucet must also be made in the U.S.
Negligible foreign content is permitted, but it must be truly negligible. Hot and cold buttons on a faucet are probably safe.
But, the foreign component may not be critical to the faucet's function. So, a faucet's critical valve cartridge may not be foreign.
The problem is, there are no valve cartridges made in America. They are all made in Europe and Asia.
The result is that no faucet made in America can be labeled an unqualified "Made in USA" product. The most its manufacturer can claim is that it is "Made in USA from imported components."
The "Made in Germany" rules are set by U. S. Customs, not the Federal Trade Commission, and they are much more lenient.
If a faucet undergoes its "final assembly" in Germany, it is "Made in Germany."
It may be made from 100% Chinese parts, but that makes no difference. If the parts are shipped to Germany and assembled into a faucet, the faucet is "Made in Germany" under our laws.
Nice for Hansgrohe, not so nice for
Showers are still the company's flagship product.
It did not move into faucet manufacturing in a mjaor way until 1981 but immediately began innovating.
The company patented the first pullout spray for kitchen faucets in 1984, a technology that brought to the North American market soon after it appeared in Europe.
Hansgrohe was owned and managed by descendants of the founder, Hans Grohe, until 2002 when Masco acquired a majority stake in the company. Masco, the giant American plumbing and building products holding company, also owns
Grohe family members are no longer active in the company's management. The last grandsons, Richard and Philippe Grohe, left the company in 2016. Family members still own 32% of the stock, however.
In 2012 the company changed its corporate form from Hansgrohe AG (Aktiengesellschaft, a German stock corporation) to Hansgrohe SE (Societas Europaea), which is a new form of a pan-European corporation chartered directly under the European Union.
The company stock is not publically traded and is not listed on any exchange.
Despite the change in ownership and corporate form, Hansgrohe SE is still pretty much what it has always been, a producer of very, high-style, sanitary wares still headquartered in Schiltach in the Rottweil district of Baden-Württemberg, Germany on the eastern edge of the Black Forest.
At last count, Hansgrohe owned 33 subsidiaries and sells in over 120 countries.
Its principal markets are in its home country, Germany, China, and North America. Over 70% of its sales are outside of Germany.
Faucet Design Innovation
Over the years, Hansgrohe has built a solid reputation as one of the innovation leaders in the technology and design of kitchen and bath faucets, receiving over 300 international design awards.
Its panel of designers includes Philippe Starck, possibly the best known of today's industrial designers, Antonio Citterio, Jean-Marie Massaud, Patricia Urquiola, the Bouroullec brothers, and Phoenix Design, among others — all famous names in the world of product and industrial design.
Axor Faucets
If a Hansgrohe faucet is not a premium-enough faucet for you, the company also has what it calls its luxury line, Axor.
Axor is to Hansgrohe as the high-end faucets in which most of the company's design and technology innovations appear first.
An example is the , essentially an under-the-sink hose reel for pullout kitchen faucets that eliminates the problem of snagging the hose on the junk under the sink and allows longer hose lengths – up to 2 1/2 feet. – long enough to easily water plants and fill vases on the countertop.
A clever idea, long overdue, and now available on Hansgrohe as well as Axor faucets.
Many of the Axor collections are named after the designers who created them. There are, for example, several Starck collections, a Citterio collection, a Massaud collection, and so on.
Axor faucets are typically 30-50% more costly than Hansgrohe faucets. But, for the extra charge, you will get leading-edge contemporary design not available elsewhere.
Counterfeit Hansgrohe Faucets
One undesirable effect of Hansgrohe's design acumen, however, is that it is, along with among the world's most widely counterfeited faucets, and while Hansgrohe feels that "imitation is the most sincere form of flattery", its appreciation does not extend to the theft of its designs or the unauthorized copying of its faucets.
It has zero tolerance for product piracy that has become brazen enough that counterfeiters recently showed pirated Hansgrohe look-alike products at a German trade show (where they were seized and destroyed by the Zollpolizei, Germany's equivalent to our Customs and Border Protection).
The company expects to spend over $3 million each year protecting its brands from counterfeiters and design pirates.
If you buy a faucet labeled "Hansgrohe" outside of normal distribution channels such as through eBay, the chances are very good that it is not a Hansgrohe fauct.
The prolem hits not just luxury faucet makers.
Delta faucets, for example, are constantly being counterfeited. Recently it sued a gang of Russians who were selling counterfeit Delta faucets in the U.S. on Amazon. Amazon has a written policy against selling illegal products on its site, but it makes no more than a token effort to police itself, so the policy is rarely enforced, and the sale of illegal products is rife.For more information see Delta Faucet Company sues Russian Counterfeiters over Unauthorized Amazon Sales.
Hansgrohe Manufacturing
If you buy an Axor faucet, you are getting a faucet most likely made, or at least assembled in Germany. If you buy a Hansgrohe faucet, you are getting a faucet designed in Germany that was more likely than not made somewhere else.
Hansgrohe owns six factories in Germany, including a faucet assembly plant in Schiltach and shower assembly plant in Offenburg. According to the company, Offenburg produces 22,000 products each day, mostly showers, but also some faucets.
The company also manufactures showers in France at a plant owned by Hansgrohe Wasselonne, France S.A. (formerly Zenio S.A.), and bathtubs, whirlpools, and shower cabins in the Netherlands; at a facility owned by its subsidiary, Dutch C.P.T. Holding BV.
Its largest and newest faucet factory, however, is in Shanghai where Hansgrohe Sanitary Products Co., Ltd. makes faucets primarily for the China market (in which Hansgrohe is a major player in the luxury faucet segment) but also for export to North America.
North American operations have been managed from its U.S. headquarters in Alpharetta, Georgia since 1995. The facility includes a faucet assembly plant, warehouse, and logistics and training centers.
The Alpharetta operation has shrunk considerably from its peak in 2010. When we first began reviewing Hansgrohe 15 years ago, Alpharetta employed nearly 500 workers, most in the assembly plant. Today the company claims 220 employees. Much, if not most, of that shrikage was in assembly workers.
Until 2012 most Hansgrohe faucets sold in North America were made in either in Germany or Georgia. But, in 2013 Hansgrohe finished an extensive expansion of the Shanghai factory, adding 86,000 square feet of factory floor and modernizing the plant's machinery. The final price tag was $14.6 million.
Since the expansion, there has been a steady uptick in the number and size of faucet shipments from the Shanghai facility to the U.S. and a corresponding decrease in imports from Germany.
Hansgrohe's Asian Suppliers
But, that is by no means the whole story.
Hansgrohe manufactures few of the parts and components that go into its faucets or showers.
Its proprietary faucet valve cartridges are still made in its plastics plant in Offenberg. Most other parts and components, however, are made in China and Taiwan.
Watch a short Hansgrohe video on the manufacture of its ceramic disc valve cartridges.
Hansgrohe's known component suppliers are:
- (Hangzhou) Panasia Sanitary Ware Co., Ltd. (China),
- (Xiamen) Runner Industrial Corp., Ltd. (China),
- Seagull Kitchen and Bath Products Co., Ltd. (China),
- Sunspring Metal Corp., Ltd. (Taiwan), and
- (Foshan) Xianwei Metals and Plastic Products Co., Ltd. (China).
There may be more. These are just the ones we know about.
Made In ?
By buying components and assembling the faucets in Germany and the U.S. Hansgrohe avoided the dread "Made in China" label for most of its history in North America.
|
Hansgrohe
Country of Origin
By Collection
|
|
|---|---|
| Allegro E |
|
| Allegro N |
|
| Aquno |
|
| Aquno Select |
|
| Finoris |
|
| Focus (Bath) |
|
| Focus (Kitchen) |
|
| Focus N (Bath) |
|
| Focus N (Kitchen) |
|
| Joleena |
|
| Locarno | |
| Locarno Select |
|
| Logis |
|
| Logis Classic |
|
| Logis Fine |
|
| Metris |
|
| Metris S |
|
| Metris Select |
|
| Metropol |
|
| Metropol Classic |
|
| PuraVida |
|
| Rebris E |
|
| Swing |
|
| Tallis (Bar) |
|
| Tallis (Kitchen) |
|
| Tallis C |
|
| Tallis E |
|
| Tallis Loop |
|
| Tallis N |
|
| Tallis S |
|
| Tallis Select |
|
| Vernis Blend |
|
| Vivenis |
|
| Zesis |
|
We were completely unaware of the extent to which Chinese manufacturing contributed to Hansgrohe faucets sold in North America. We did not start fully inquiring into the company's Chinese connections until very recently when asked to look into it further by one of Hansgrohe's North American competitors.
The transition to Chinese manufacturing has been done very quietly, masked by the simple process of never admitting that it is happening.
The company has become more sensitive if not outright secretive on the subject of origin.
In the past it was almost eager to disclose where its faucet were made. That candor is gone.
Every recent attempt we have made to elicit specific country of origin information has been rebuffed.
The lresponse we received to our latest e-mail inquiry was:
"[T]he country of origin of our products changes too often to have that information documented."[1]
This statement, however, is simply false. Documentation of country of orgin is required by law.
U.S. law requires a Certificate of Origin to be retained for five years for an imported faucet. (9 CFR § 181.22).
Additionally, the faucet or its container must be conspicuously marked with the country of origin as it appears on the certificate.
Violation of these requirements is a fderal crime punishable (for the first violation) with fines up to $100,000, and imprisonment of up to 1 year (19 USC § 1304). For subssequent violations, the penalty is much stiffer.
So, the notion that Hansgrohe does not know where its faucets are made is pure balderdash. It has the information. It just does not want to share.
In any event, the extent of Chinese involvement has now simply gotten much too massive for effective concealment.
Country of Origin
Survey Results
We randomly sampled 538 and Hanagrohe faucets and 106 Axor faucets to see where they were made. Here are the results:
China: 251 (47%) USA: 152 (28%)Germany: 134 (25%) China: 34 (32%) USA: 0 (0%)Germany: 72 (68%).For a breakdown by collection, see the Hansgrohe Country of Origin and Axor Country of Origin tables elsewhere on this page.
It has reached the point at which nearly half of all Hansgrohe and a third of Axor faucets sold in North America originate in China.
If you prefer an Axor or Hansgrohe faucet actually made in Germany, look for the "Made in Germany" on the box. If you don't want to wait until the faucet is delivered, you might try to get the information from customer support. (Good luck!)
If the box does not specify the origin of the faucet, it was assembled in the U.S.
If it reads "Made in China" it contains a faucet that was probably designed in Germany, but has itself never been in or even near Germany and likely has never been touched by a German.
It went straight from its Chinese factory to Georgia.
Faucet Finishes
Like most Northern European luxury faucet companies, Hansgrohe's weakness has been its relatively scant finish palette.
|
Axor
Country of Origin
By Collection
|
|
|---|---|
| Collection | Origin |
| Citterio |
|
Citterio E |
|
| Citterio M |
|
| Edge |
|
| Montreux |
|
| MyEdition |
|
| One |
|
| Starck |
|
| Starck Organic |
|
| Uno |
|
| Uno Loop |
|
| Urquiola |
|
While top-flight luxury faucet companies in North America like may offer as many as 30 finishes, German companies feel generous if they offer more than a bare handful.
Understanding Finish Warranties
A finish warranty does not protect against anything that can go wrong with a faucet finish. It protects against defects caused by faulty materials or errors in the finishing process, generally subsumed under the rubric "manufacturing defects."
Delaminating, peeling, blistering, and spalling are the usual manufacturing defects. These are extremely rare. Most problems are caused by overzealous cleaning and ordinary wear and tear, neither of which is covered by a finish warranty.
If it peels, the Hansgrohe pays, but if you scratch it or it turns a funny color after you clean with Wham-X All Purpose Miracle Cleaner – well, you should have been more careful.
Hansgrohe offers a total of 17 finishes, but only eight of these are used to finish faucets.
Its base faucet finishes are: Chrome, Steel Optik (or Optic – it's written both ways on the company website), and Brushed Nickel.
All faucets are available in polished Chrome.
Some kitchen, bar, and prep faucets are finished in a (PVD) coating called "Steel Optik" that looks like stainless steel but does not get all fingerprinty like true stainless steel.
The finish is intended to make brass kitchen faucets look like stainless steel faucets to match stainless steel sinks. As far as we can tell, Hansgrohe has no faucets actually made from stainless steel but the Steel Optik finish produces a convincing immitation.
Faucets are also available in Polished Nickel for a more traditional look. Nickel is a PVD finish.
The company formerly offered a Rubbed Bronze finish. (Most other companies call this "oil-rubbed bronze.") The Hansgrohe version shows copper highlights intended to simulate age and wear, so it looks to us more like what is normally referred to as antique or vintage bronze.
Finish Durability
Some finishes are more durable than others. Here are the Moen faucet finishes and their durability from most to least durable.
- is the old standby. It is a tough finish that will stand up to most abuse. but its durability depends on the metal used.
- Chrome is durable, nickel less so because it is inherently a softer metal (the reason chrome replaced nickel as the faucet finish of choice in the early 20th century.)
- (PVD) finishes are 10 to 20 times more scratch-resistant than electroplated chrome. They are also not affected by most household chemicals. In our experience, they are largely invulnerable to harm.
- is essentially a paint applied in a powdered form and then heated in an oven to cure. It is considered semi-durable with about the same scratch resistance as the finish on your car.
Faucets in this finish are still on store shelves as of the date of this report, but no longer appear on the Hansgrohe website. We assume the finish has been discontinued.
The company managed for years with just these few finishes but recently has expanded its palette to include what is calls its FinishPlus finishes – five additional finishes to enhance the brand's appeal to North American buyers.
These finishes are Brushed Gold Optik, Brushed Black Chrome, Brushed Bronze, Matte Black, and Matte White.
The "Plus" in FinishPlus appears to refer to the cost. A FinishPlus will add to the price of a faucet, sometimes substantially.
Hansgrohe does not identify the processes used to produce these finishes, but from hints at various places on its website and visual inspection, we believe Matte Black, and Matte White are . Brushed Gold Optik, Brushed Black Chrome, and Brushed Bronze are PVD finishes.
Physical Vapor Deposition
If you have a choice, a PVD finish is the finish to get. They are, nearly indestructible.
The finishes are applied in in a vacuum chamber loaded with unfinished faucet parts. All the air is replaced with a carefully calculated mix of inert and reactive gases.
A rod of the metal used for the coating is heated to a temperature so high that it dissolves into individual atoms creating a plasma that is bombarded onto the faucet parts to create a very a very thin (2 to 5 microns) but very dense coating.
PVD finishes are very hard (Rockwell HRC-80+, Vicker HV-2600+) and bonded to the faucet at a molecular level, essentially becoming an integral part of the fabric of the faucet.
In standard abrasion tests, PVD finishes are regularly found to be 10 to 20 times more scratch-resistant than the old standard, electroplated chrome.
Hansgrohe European Price Fixing
From 1992 until 2004 Hansgrohe participated in a scheme among 17 European sanitary wares manufacturers to fix prices in Germany, Austria, Italy, Belgium, France, and Holland.
The conspiracy unraveled after Masco bought control of Hansgrohe and discovered the plot, which it promptly reported to European authorities.
In 2010 the European Commission fined the companies involved over $700 million for violating Article 101 of the European Union Treaty, the largest fine ever imposed by the Commission, finding that the companies had been willing participants in the illegal activities of the group.
Only Hansgrohe escaped the penalty for having blown the whistle on the scheme.
The following seventeen companies were implicated in the conspiracy:
| Company | Country | Fine (millions)1 |
| Germany | $14.3 | |
| Artweger GmbH & Co. KG | Austria | $3.2 |
| Cisal Rubinetteria SpA | Italy | $1.4 |
| Duravit AG | Germany | $35.9 |
| Duscholux Holding AG | Switzerland | $1.9 |
| Germany | $67.0 | |
| Hansa | Germany | $16.9 |
| Germany | $0.00 | |
| Ideal Standard | Belgium | $398.8 |
| Kludi GmbH & Co. KG | Germany | $6.4 |
| Mamoli | Italy | $1.1 |
| RAF Rubinetterie SpA | Italy | $0.3 |
| Roca Sanitario SA | Spain | $47.4 |
| Sanitec Corp.3 | Finland | $70.6 |
| Teorema | Italy | $24.6 |
| Villeroy & Bosch AC | Germany | $87.5 |
| Italy | $4.56 |
Powder Coatings
Powder coating is the usual way that faucets are given non-metallic or "painted" finishes like Matte White.
It is a durable finish, certainly more robust than the finish on your car, but not nearly as tough as most metal finishes.
In most of the industry, it is considered "semi-durable", able to withstand most of the rough and tumble of life as a kitchen or bath faucet, but more care needs to be taken in to preserve its like-new look.
To produce the finish, a colored powder similar in texture to baking flour is applied with a special low-velocity sprayer that gives the powder a positive electrical charge. The particles are drawn to the faucet which has a negative charge.
The faucet is then baked in an oven which melts and bonds the powder and changes the structure of the coating into long, cross-linked molecular chains that give the coating its durability.
Hansgrohe's powder coated finishes are guaranteed for just three years – a strong signal from Hansgrohe management that it is not at all convinced of the long-term durability of these finishes.
A great many other faucet companies guarantee their powder coats for a up to the lifetime of the faucet. (See e.g. a Canadian luxury faucet company.)
We suggest that until Hansgrohe figures out how to make its powder coats durable enough to support a longer warranty, you should probably avoid them.
Hansgrohe Website
The Hansgrohe website is well-designed with intuitive navigation and lots of well-staged images.
Filters make short work of drilling down on a faucet that meets your needs.
Once you find a faucet, however, the information available about the faucet leaves a lot to be desired.
A typical faucet listing displays a single 3/4 view image of the faucet that changes when you select another finish to show the faucet in the new finish.
Easily displayed multiple views, however, would help a buyer better visualize a faucet.
Better still would be a 360° visualization capability such as that provided by faucets. Click on the 360° icon and the faucet is displayed in a box that allows you to rotate the faucet with your mouse to view it from any angle.
To find any detailed information about the faucet you need to find the word "Highlights." Clicking on Highlights displays three links: "Specifications", "Installation", and "Accessories & Spare Parts."
"Specifications" scrolls far down the listing to a heading entitled "Article Features." For the Metropol bathroom faucet, here are the specifications:
Metropol Bathroom Faucet
- Spray modes: Aerated spray
- Flow: 1.2 GPM (4.5 L/Min)
- Ceramic cartridge
- Does not include: Pop-up assembly
That's it. That's all the specifications there are for this faucet.
We had hopes that the link to "Product Data Sheet" would lead to more comprehensive information.
Unfortunately, however, it merely repeated the same four features, adding a small measured drawing, and an exploded parts diagram along with a message that
"More details are available on our website: www.hansgrohe-usa.com."
which is where we came from, and there are definitely no more details.
Another faucet listing, for the Metris Select Prep Kitchen Faucet, was a little more informative, Here are its specifications.
Metris Select Prep Kitchen Faucet
- Swivel range 110° / 150°
- Laminar spray, needle spray
- Toggle spray diverter
- Does not include: Pop-up assembly
- Select button provides convenient start/stop of the water flow at the sprayhead
- MagFit magnetic sprayhead docking
- Deck mounted
- Flow: 1.75 GPM (6.6 L/Min)
- Ceramic cartridge
- 3/8" hoses
- Integrated double backflow prevention
This is more a "selling features" list than a specifications sheet. It is the online version of the venerable paper "tear sheet", perorated to be torn from a catalog and left with a prospective buyer.
An actual specifications sheet has much, much more detail, more than enough to keep even the most demanding engineer happy.
Minimum specifications necessary for an informed faucet buying decision are those in the Hansgrohe Website Scoresheet. Hansgrohe provides just over half of the information needed.
Score: 52 out of 100
- ☑ ADA: Whether the faucet is suited for operation by persons with disabilities.
- ☑ Brand Name, Model Name/Number: The name or number must be the same as the name or number that appears on the crtificates that confirm its compliance with North American standards.
- ☑ Certifications: Indicate whether the faucet has been tested and certified to North American standards and is legal to install.
- ☐ Country of Origin: The country in which the faucet is made.
- ☑ Dimensions: Overall height, Depth from front to back, Spout reach, Clearance from countertop to spout.
- ☑ Drain Included: Lavatory faucets only.
- ☑ Exploded parts diagram: Generally provided as a link to a portable document format (.pdf) document.
- ☐ Faucet Images: Multiple images, a 360° rotating image, or a video link for a complete visualization of the faucet.
- ☐ Faucet Material (Primary): Brass, stainless steel, plastic, zinc/ zinc alloy, etc.
- ☐ Faucet Material (Secondary): Aluminum, plastic, zinc/zinc alloy, etc.
- ☑ Finishes: All of the finishes in which the faucet is available.
- ☐ Finishing Process: Electroplate, PVD, powder coat, etc. specified for each finish available.
- ☑ Flow Rates: Maximum flow rate(s) in gallons per minute (GPM).
- ☑ Valve Type: Compression, washerless, or ceramic cartridge.
- ☐ Installation Instructions: Generally provided as a link to a portable document format (.pdf) document.
- ☐ Mounting Holes: The number of sink holes required to mount the faucet.
- ☐ Spray Head Material: Brass, stainless steel, plastic, Hybrid (brass/plastic, steel/plastic), etc.
- ☐ Supply Hose Included: Whether or not supply hoses are included with the faucet.
- ☐ Spray Hose Type/Material: Braided nylon, PVC, stainless steel, polymer coated, etc.
- ☐ Warranty Link: A conspicuous link to the warranty that applies to the faucet. (Required by Federal law.)
- ☑ WaterSense: Lavatory faucets only.
(Checked boxes indicate specifications usually, but not always, provided on the Hansgrohe website.)
For an annotated list of minimum faucet specifications including the reasons the specifications are necessary, download and read the Minimum Content of a Website Faucet Listing table.
Older Hansgrohe websites used a lot of industry jargon. The new website is much better but some jargon remains.
An example is the term "mixer."
Even in the industry mixer is ambiguous. It means either (1) a faucet that mixes hot and cold water inside the faucet before it is delivered to the spout or (2) a single-handle faucet fitted with a "mixer" valve cartridge.
The term means nothing to the average consumer. If it is going to be used, it should be defined at every place it is used with a so the reader knows what is meant by mixer.
Still more confusion results from the over-generous use of the word "faucet".
Hansgrohe refers to sink or basin faucets, shower faucets, and tub faucets. All perfectly correct, and every insider knows what the word means when used in these contexts. But most consumers don't.
Less jargon-y terminology would follow the common American vernacular. (sink) faucet, (tub) filler, and (shower) control (or controller), limiting the use of the word faucet to sink (and perhaps bidet) faucets.
Just about everyone, professionals and consumers alike, understands these terms.
We also found a lot of British terminology on the site. Faucets are "taps". Customized products are "bespoke".
God save the King and all that – and British terminoogy works on the Canadian site – but we speak American in the U. S. of A. and a faucet is not a "tap." A tap is a spigot that dispenses beer.
Hansgrohe sometimes uses metric measurements rather than our quaint but customary inches and feet. We found fewer than at our last update, but still a significant number.
The U.S. really should join the rest of the civilized world and adopt the metric system. But, until that happens, measurements on sites addressed to U.S. buyers nned to be in customary units.
We score the website A- for navigation and presentation, but an F for incomplete hard information provided about its faucets and the overuse of jargon.
Where to Buy
Hansgrohe products are widely available.
The company has a special relationship with Ferguson Enterprises (Wolseley in Canada), the British-owned plumbing supply company that has outlets in just about every city, town, and hamlet in North America and multiple online stores, including Build.com, FaucetsDirect.com, and Faucets.com.
vs
Until 1998, Hansgrohe and were owned by the same family, the descendants of Hans Grohe who founded Hansgrohe in 1901.
His son, Friedrich, started with his father's firm but left after buying his own company in 1936. His firm eventually became Fredrich Grohe AG.
Many Grohe family members inherited shares in both firms but the two enterprises always operated as separate organizations, often in competition.
In the 1960s the companies reached an informal agreement to minimize direct competition. Hans Grohe focused on drains, shower heads, and handrails; Friedrich Grohe on faucets.
They fought over the brand name "Grohe" for several years, finally coming to an understanding that gave Friedrich Grohe AG the Grohe brand while Hansgrohe kept the Hansgrohe name.
Hansgrohe remained under family ownership until 2002 when a majority stake in the company was sold to Masco, the giant American building products conglomerate that owns the
Some Grohe family members still own shares in the two firms but they are minority shareholdersm no longer involved in the management of the companies.
Hansgrohe also sells through big box lumber stores like Home Depot and Lowes and at non-Ferguson-aligned online retailers including Faucet Depot and Quality Bath.
Some Hansgrohe faucets are also available at general merchandising sites such as Amazon and Wayfair
No matter where you buy, do not expect substantial discounts. Hansgrohe enforces a Minimum Advertised Price policy that prevents any authorized seller from advertising a price that is more than 35% lower than the company's list price.
A retailer that does so risks losing its authority to sell Hansgrohe products.
Hansgrohe Warranty
The Hansgrohe limited lifetime warranty now meets the standard for faucet warranties in North America. Such was not always the case.
In our 2018 revision to this report, we noted a limitation included under the heading Conditions and Exclusions that provided
"This guarantee shall only be valid if installation and maintenance have been duly conducted in accordance with the operating instructions and generally accepted engineering practices (e.g. by a master craftsman or authorized specialist), the operating instructions have been complied with ..."
Our volunteer panel of warranty lawyers flagged this language because it appeared to void the warranty unless the faucet was installed by a plumber or other "master craftsman". (Exactly what advantage Hansgrohe expected from having a master craftsman such as a licensed electrician or master mason install a Hansgrohe faucet was not immediately evident.)
After our report was published, Hansgrohe eliminated the language from its warranty.
The new language is much better but still has some problems.
Of most concern is its definition of "lifetime"
"… as long as the original consumer purchaser owns both the product and the home in which the product was originally installed."
that excludes renters, lessees, and tenants from warranty coverage since they do not own the home in which the faucet is originally installed. Better language would be
"… as long as the original consumer purchaser owns the product and resides in the home in which the product was originally installed."
The warranty also claims to be "THE EXCLUSIVE REMEDY OF THE PURCHASER."
The U. S. Federal Trade Commission has warned repeatedly that such claims are deceptive since a manufacturer's written warranty is never the exclusive remedy for defective products in the U.S. All consumers as a matter of law are ptoyrvyrf ny the implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for purpose provide by state statutes.
Although such language undoubtedly violates Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act (15 U.S. Code § 45), the Commission has so far taken no action against infringers.
The attempted exclusivity is, however, unenforceable.
Otherwise, the warranty complies with the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act (15 U.S.C. § 2308), the federal law that governs the content and form of consumer product warranties.
For the steps to take to enforce a faucet warranty, read The Warranty Game.
Hansgrohe Customer Service
Post-sale support is U.S.-based and responsive, earning a 4.1 out of a possible 5.0 in our tests. Anything above 4.0 is satisfactory. However, it is not as good as it was at our last full update in 2021 when it scored at 4.4.
Wait times of as long as 5 minutes were once very unusual. At present wait times can exceed 20 minutes, far too long.
Hansgrohe's explanation is that it is experiencing "heavy call volumes", which is simply not the whole story.
Every company gets unexpected surges that can overwhelm its customer support. But, if it is experiencing "heavy call volumes" hour after hour, day aft day, then the explanation is that there are too few agents.
In our scoring, we allow wait times of up to 3 minutes on average. Anything over 3 minutes loses the company points.
Once contacted, however, service agents easily handled our (purely imaginary, but complex) installation issues. Product knowledge was good and the overall attitude was friendly and helpful.
The Better Business Bureau rates the company A+ for its handling of customer complaints, its highest rating on a scale of A+ to F. The company is not, however, accredited by the BBB.
Testing and Certification
The California Energy Commission sued Hansgrohe, Inc. for illegally selling unapproved faucets in California from January 2014 to June 2017. The company paid a penalty of $300,000.00 to settle the suit in 2018.
Comparable Faucets
Faucets comparable to Hansgrohe include:
Conclusions
Over the past 10 years we have seen some lessening of the quality of Hansgrohe faucets, primarily due to the use of an increasing amount of plastic. But, overall, we think these are still good quality faucets.
Keep in mind, however, that almost half of the Hansgrohe faucets and one-third of the Axor faucets sold in North America are Chinese faucets with a German name and, as Chinese faucets go, they are relatively expensive.
If you prefer an American- or German-made faucet, check our Country of Origin above on this page, keeping in mind that the table is not the final word. Hansgrohe changes faucet sources from time to time. For the latest country-of-origin information, contact customer support. An agent might actually tell you. If so, telephone and tell us. We'd like to know.
If you like the look of a Hansgrohe faucet, there is no reason not to buy it. Its warranty is strong and customer support is generally good.
Be a little circumspect in selecting a finish, however. Hansgrohe's powder coatings have a very short warranty period – a warning that company management has little faith in their durability or longevity. If it did, the warranty would be much stronger.
Our rating panel was unanimous in its view of Hansgrohe faucets. All would buy a Hansgrohe for their own kitchen or bath but only in a finish with a lifetime warranty.
We are continuing to research the company. If you have experience with Hansgrohe faucets, good, bad, or indifferent, we would like to hear about it, so please contact us or post a comment below.
Footnotes
1. From an email received in May 3, 2023 at 2:47 p.m. from Hansrohe Technical Service, in response to our request for country of origin information.
Ten years ago when American standard was is the middle of transferring all of its faucet manufacturing to China and Mexico, we received much the same response:
"Due to the fact we change the manufacturing location from time to time, we are not able to give you country of origin by model or even product."
So, we recognize company evasion when we encounter it.