Kohler Faucets Review & Rating Updated: October 14, 2024 Our panel of consumers and industry professionals has recognized Kohler faucets as a Best Value in mid-priced faucets made or assembled in North America. Read the Best Faucet Value Report for more information.

Summary

Made In

the U.S.A. and Canada

From Domestic and Imported Parts and Components

and

Imported

China, Mexico, and Intia

Kohler Co.
444 Highland Drive
Kohler, WI 53044
(800)-4-KOHLER

Rating

Business Type

Product Range

Kitchen, Bath, Prep, Bar, Laundry and Utility Faucets

Certifications

Brands
Kohler

Street Price

$120 - $1,695

Companies that produce, assemble, or import water-saving goods certified to satisfy stringent WaterSense criteria are the only ones eligible to participate in the EPA WaterSense Partnership.

Sustained Excellence Awards are the highest level of recognition and are awarded only to WaterSense Partners that demonstrate consistent outstanding water conservation efforts.

Warranty Score

Cartridge

lifetime¹

Vibrant Finishes

Lifetime¹

All Other Finishes

1 year ²

Mechanical Parts

Lifetime¹

Proof of Purchase

Required

Transferable

Meets U.S. Warranty
Law Requirements

No³

Warranty Footnotes:

1. "Kohler Co. warrants its faucets.... to be leak and drip free ... for as long as the original consumer purchaser owns his or her home … Kohler Co. also warrants all other aspects of the faucet or accessories and [Vibrant] finishes to be free of defects during normal residential use for as long as the original consumer owns their [sic] home. …"

2. "Non-Vibrant and painted or powder coated finishes … are covered by Kohler Co.'s one-year limited warranty.

3. The Kohler warranty does not comply with the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act (15 U.S.C. §2308). See the main text for more details.

Download/Print the Kohler warranty.

Learn more about faucet warranties.

This Company In Brief

A privately held, family-owned and -operated U.S. manufacturer of an enormous line of very good to excellent kitchen and bath fixtures since 1873, Kohler has been a consistent innovator. in the plumbing and sanitary wares industry.

Kohler is one of the largest U.S. manufacturers of plumbing and sanitary products, with twelve North American factories.

Faucets are an integral part of the Kohler kitchen and bath line, ranging in style from ho-hum but very reliable to very stylish (and still very reliable).

Kohler sells over 200 different faucets, not including variations made possible by changing handles and finishes.

One summer day in 1883, John Michael Kohler, an Austrian immigrant and the proud new owner of the Sheboygan Union Iron & Steel Foundry, took some glass powder and sprinkled it on an iron horse trough from the company's product line heated it to 1,700^° F.

The resulting "enamel" coating was so tough and durable that he featured the "Enameled Horse Trough and Hog Scalder" as the centerpiece of the company's next product catalog, with a footnote that read: "When furnished with four legs, will serve as a bathing tub."

As a horse trough and hog scalder, it was not an overwhelming success but as a bathing tub, it became the foundation of an American plumbing empire that is now well into its second century with worldwide scope and annual revenues of nearly $8 billion USD.

But Kohler's inventions in bathing did not end there.

In 1911, the company launched the alcove bathtub with an integrated apron that replaced the clawfoot tub. It still dominates American bathrooms today. Over 80% of the bathtubs installed in the U.S. are alcove tubs.

By 1920, Kohler had become the third-largest plumbing products manufacturer in the United States.

Later innovations include the Karbon kitchen faucet – the world's first articulating faucet – and the Suspend ceiling-mounted faucet.

The Company

Kohler is a privately held, family-owned, and operated U.S. manufacturer of an enormous line of very good to excellent kitchen and bath fixtures and fittings since 1873.

Sanitary wares are not its only business, however, and it is no longer a single enterprise, but a collection of businesses grouped under the Kohler banner.

Collectively, they sell bath and kitchen products, furniture, cabinets, ceramic tile, fabrics, small gasoline and diesel engines, electrical generators, and even gourmet chocolates. One subsidiary owns resort hotels and golf courses, including the original St. Andrews course in Scotland.

Kohler is still one of the largest U.S. manufacturers, with a dozen or so North American factories.

Its newest U.S. factory, in Casa Grande, Arizona began manufacturing ^® composite bath fixtures in 2023 supplementing the company's existing Vikrell plant in Huntsville, Alabama.

Still, that is just a small fraction of the 50 or so factories Kohler owns worldwide, and only 6,000 (15%) of Kohler's 40,000 worldwide employees work in the U.S. and Canada.

Kohler Faucet Manufacturing

Faucets are an integral part of the Kohler kitchen and bath line, ranging in style from ho-hum but very reliable to very, very stylish (and still very reliable).

Unlike its major competitor, – a company that has been dissected, dismembered, and reconstituted as an entirely new company under Japanese ownership, the core Kohler is much the same company it was in 1873 although it has gone through a few name changes since the Sheboygan days.

Kohler manufacturing, however, is not a strictly American activity and has not been for many years.

Kohler has gone global and with globalization has come global manufacturing. The company has greatly expanded its overseas production since 1990 making massive investments in acquiring and modernizing foreign factories.

Kohler has a major assembly plant in Mexico, two factories in India, twelve in China, and additional plants in Thailand and Indonesia.

Most of these facilities make fixtures such as bathtubs, sinks, and toilets – basic manufacturing that does not require advanced technologies but does use a lot of manual labor. The facilities in Thailand and Indonesia, for example, produce sanitary fixtures but not faucets or shower components.

But, some make faucets, and as a consequence, Kohler North American Faucet manufacturing has seen a slow but steady migration offshore.

Kohler has cut U.S. manufacturing by 30% since our first review of the company in 2008, with a corresponding reduction in its U.S. manufacturing sector workforce.

Nonetheless, most Kohler faucets sold in the U.S. are still assembled in the U.S. although the majority of the parts and components used in the faucets are manufactured in China and India.

Kohler's Overseas Factories

Kohler owns three faucet factories in China and one in India to produce faucets and faucet components.

Kohler India Corporation Pvt Ltd. has manufactured faucets primarily for the South Asian market in its state-of-the-art 125,000 square foot factory in Jhagadia, India since 2011.^[1]

In 2015, Kohler announced a plan to expand this facility into an export hub to supply faucets and other sanitary ware to the U.S., Canada, and China.

So far, only a few Kohler faucets sold in the U.S. are assembled in India and imported ready to sell. An increasing number of the components, however, used to assemble faucets in the three U.S. plants are manufactured by Kohler India.

Beijing Kohler Ltd. is the result of a joint venture in 1995 between Kohler and a Chinese faucet manufacturer. The plant manufactures bath and kitchen faucets and faucet components. Much of its production is exported to North America as ready-to-sell faucets. It also provides faucet components to Kohler's faucet assembly plant in India.

Image Credit: Kohler

Kohler Sensate™ touchless kitchen faucet in a rose gold and titanium Ombré split finish that won a Best of the Year award from Interior Design Magazine in 2018.

According to Kohler, the Ombré finish for kitchen and bath faucets uses an innovative technique that melds two Vibrant metal finishes together to render a subtle but striking transition from light to dark.

Nanchang Kohler Co., Ltd. specializes in manufacturing high-quality faucets using the latest technologies in a state-of-the-art facility completed in 2005.^[2]
Its faucets are sold mostly in China where Kohler is a major presence with sales that exceed those in North America. But, its faucets are also sold in the U.S., Canada, France, India, and many parts of the rest of Asia.
We believe that many of Kohler's luxury

Shanghai Kohler Electronics Ltd., established in 2007 supplies all of Kohler's electronic controls for hands-free faucets and other bathroom products and manufactures most of the electronic faucets sold by Kohler worldwide.

Kohler's Contract Suppliers

Kohler also buys components and some fully finished faucets from outside manufacturers. Over our look-back period of 60 months, the manufacturers have included:

Guangzhou Seagull Kitchen and Bath Products Co., Ltd. is one of China's oldest faucet manufacturers, predating China's opening to the West by several decades.

It was established by the Peoples Republic of China as a state-owned enterprise at the beginning of the Great Leap Forward in 1958.

In addition to those manufactured for Kohler, Seagull makes faucets or faucet components for the who's who of companies selling faucets in North America.

These include among many others.

Sunspring Metal Corporation of Taichung, Taiwan owns a large factory in Taiwan and two more in China. Its mastery is the casting and machining of zinc components. It is the largest buyer of zinc in the world.

It does not manufacture finished faucets but supplies most of the zinc components used in Kohler faucets. it also manufactures zinc components for

Hangzhou Panasia Sanitary Ware Co., Ltd. manufactures faucets, flexible hoses, drains, and other metal sanitary fittings that it sells throughout the world. In addition to Kohler, its customers include

Xiamen Runner Industrial Corp., Ltd. is a subsidiary of the Runner Group which owns multiple operating companies that manufacture kitchen and bathroom fixtures and fittings, water and air purification devices, and health care equipment.
Runner Industrial also manufactures faucets for

Sinotap Technology Co., Ltd, established in 2012, is growing a reputation for the manufacture of quality faucets at all price levels: economy, mid-priced, and luxury.

The company is not yet well-established in the North American market but is trying hard with eight extensive collections of what it calls "American" faucets.

At present its sole customer among the big American faucet companies is Kohler.

Kohler Faucets Country of Origin As of December 9, 2024
Collection	Base Model	Description	Origin
(None)	K-35744	Pot Filler
Albany	K-REC33400	Semi-Pro Kitchen
Alteo	K-45100	Centerset Lavatory
	K-45102	Widespread Lavatory
	K-45800	Single-handle Lavatory
Artifacts	K-29709	Touchless Pulldown Kitchen
	K-72758	Widespread Lavatory
	K-72759	Widespread Lavatory
	K-72760	Widespread Lavatory
	K-72761	Widespread Lavatory
	K-72762	Single-handle Lavatory
	K-72763	Single-handle Lavatory
	K-72768	Single-handle Bar
	K-76519 K-76520*	Bridge Kitchen * w/ Sidespray
	K-99259	Pulldown Kitchen
	K-99260	Pulldown Kitchen
	K-99261	Pulldown Kitchen
	K-99271	Pot Filler
	K-99262* K-99263	Single-handle Kitchen * w/ Sidespray
	K-99264	Prep or Bar
	K-99265* K-99266 K-99267	Single-handle Kitchen * w/ Sidespray
	K-99270	Pot Filler
	K-99271	Pot Filler
	K-99260	Pulldown Kitchen
Avid	K-97345	Single-handle Lavatory
	K-97347	Single-handle Vessel
	K-97352	Widespread Lavatory
	K-97358	Wall-Mount Lavatory
Bancroft	K-10577	Widespread Lavatory
Bancroft	K-10579	Single-handle Lavatory
Bellera	K-560	Pull-Down Kitchen
	K-27378	Centerset Lavatory
	K-27379	Single-handle Lavatory
	K-27880	Single-handle Lavatory
	K-29106	Semi-Pro Kitchen
	K-29107	Prep or Bar
	K-29108	Pulldown Kitchen
Castia by Studio McGee	K-35907	Single-handle Lavatory
	K-35908	Widespread Lavatory
	K-T35910	Wall-mount Lavatory (Trim)
Clearwater	K-20902	Wall-Mount Bridge Kitchen
Components	K-28267	Semi-Pro Kitchen
	K-28268	Pulldown Kitchen
	K-28269	Pulldown Kitchen
	K-28270	Touchless Pulldown Kitchen
	K-28271	Touchless Pulldown Kitchen
	K-28272	Single-Handle Kitchen w/ Sidespray
	K-28274	Single-Handle Kitchen w/ Sidespray
	K-28276	Pot Filler
	K-28277	Single-Handle Bar
	K-28290	Single-Handle Bar
	K-28291	Single-Handle Beverage
	K-28292	Single-Handle Beverage
	K-77958	Single-handle Lavatory
	K-77959	Single-handle Vessel
	K-T23888	Wall-mount Lavatory (Trim)
	K-T23889	Wall-mount Lavatory (Trim)
	K-T23890	Wall-mount Lavatory (Trim)
Composed	K-103C36 K-103C37	Single-Hole Touchless Lavatory
	K-104C36	Single-handle Touchless Vessel
	K-27329	STouchless Wall-Mount Lavatory
	K-73050	Single-handle Lavatory
	K-73060	Widespread Lavatory
	K-73159	Single-handle Vessel
	K-73167	Single-handle Lavatory
	K-73168	Single-handle Vessel
Coralais	K-15171 K-15172*	Single Handle Kitchen * w/ Sidespray
	K-15175 K-15176*	Single Handle Kitchen * w/ Sidespray
	K-15182 K-15198 K-15199	Single Handle Centerset Lavatory
	K-15240 K-15241 K-15243	Centerset Lavatory
	K-15261	Widespread Lavatory
	K-15265	Widespread Lavatory
	K-15270	Laundry, Service Sink
	K-15583	Single Handle Centerset Lavatory
Crue	K-22972	Pulldown Kitchen
	K-22973	Semi-Pro Kitchen
	K-22974	Pulldown Kitchen
	K-22975	Prep or Bar
	K-22976	Pullout Kitchen
Cruette	K-780	Pulldown Kitchen
Devonshire	K-193	Single-handle Lavatory
	K-393	Centerset Lavatory
	K-394	Widespread Lavatory
Edalyn by Studio McGee	K-28356	Bridge Kitchen
	K-28357	Single-hole Kitchen
	K-28358	Pulldown Kitchen
	K-28359	Pot Filler
	K-28360	Semi-Pro Kitchen
Elate	K-99491 K-99492	Single-handle Lavatory
Fairfax	K-12181	Single-handle Lavatory
	K-12183	Single-handle Vessel
	K-12185	Side-handle Kitchen w/ Sidespray
	K-12266	Centerset Lavatory
	K-12865	Side Handle Kitchen >w/ Sidespray
Forte	K-10215	Single-handle Lavatory
	K-10217	Single-handle Vessel
	K-10269 K-10272*	Widespread Lavatory * Ultra-Glide Valve
	K-10270	Centerset Lavatory
	K-10443	Prep or Bar
	K-22060	Semi-Pro Kitchen
Graze	K-22061	Semi-Pro Kitchen
	K-22062	Pulldown Kitchen
	K-22063	Pulldown Kitchen
	K-22064	Pulldown Kitchen
	K-22065	Prep or Bar
	K-22066	Pot Filler
	K-22067	Pot Filler
	K-22068	Pulldown Kitchen
Hint	K-97060 K-97061*	Single-handle Lavatory * w/ Base Plate
	K-97093	Widespread Lavatory
	K-97094	Centerset Lavatory
	K-97100	Widespread Lavatory w/ UltraGlide valve
Honesty	K-23255	Widespread Lavatory
	K-23257	Widespread Lavatory
	K-24857	Widespread Lavatory
	K-99760	Single-handle Lavatory
Jolt	K-30612	Pullout Kitchen
	K-30613 K-30614*	Single-handle Kitchen * w/ Sidespray
	K-30615	Single-handle Kitchen w/ Sidespray
	K-30616	Widespread Kitchen w/ Sidespray
	K-30617	Centerset Lavatory Kitchen, High Arc
	K-30618	Centerset Lavatory Kitchen – Low Arc
	K-30619	Centerset Lavatory Kitchen – Low Arc
July	K-16027	Single-handle Lavatory
July	K-97282 K-98146* K-P97282^† K-97283^‡	Single-handle Lavatory * w/ Base Plate † 0.5 GPM water flow ‡ w/ Drain Assembly
Kelston	K-13490	Centerset Lavatory
Kelston	K-13491	Widespread Lavatory
Kumin	K-103K36 K-103K37	Single-handle Touchless Lavatory
	K-21648	Single-handle Lavatory
	K-98827	Single-handle Lavatory
Lir	K-R33449	pulldown Kitchen
Lir	K-R33500	Touchless Pulldown Kitchen
Loure	K-14661	Widespread Lavatory
Margaux	K-16230	Single-handle Lavatory
	K-16231	Single-handle Vessel
	K-16232	Widespread Lavatory
Maxton	K-R22868	Single-handle Kitchen w/ Sidespray
Maxton	K-R22869	Two-handle Kitchen w/ Sidespray
Memoirs	K-454	Widespread Lavatory
Memoirs	K-T11838	Touchless Wall-Mount Lavatory (Trim)
Oblo	K-103B76 K-103B77	Touchless
	K-104B76	Single-handle Touchless Lavatory
	K-104B87	Single-handle Touchless Vessel
	K-106B77	Touchless Faucet
Occasion	K-27000	Single-handle Lavatory
	K-27003	Single-handle Vessel
	K-27008 K-27008-K K-27008-N	Single-handle Lavatory
	K-27008-3 K-27008-4	Widespread Lavatory
	K-27009 K-27009-K K-27009-N	Single-handle Lavatory
	K-27009-3 K-27009-4	Widespread Lavatory
	K-T27011	Wall-Mount Lavatory (Trim)
Parallel	K-22567	Side-Handle Wall-Mount Lavatory
	K-23472	Single-handle Lavatory
	K-23475	Single-handle Vessel
	K-23484	Widespread Lavatory
	K-24804	Single-handle Lavatory
	K-T27120	Wall-mount Lavatory (Trim)
Pinstripe	K-13132	Widespread Lavatory
Purist	K-14402	Single-handle Lavatory
	K-14404	Single-handle Vessel
	K-14406	Widespread Lavatory
	K-14408	Widespread Vessel
	K-14410	Widespread Lavatory
	K-14434	Single-handle Lavatory
	K-24982	Semi-Pro Kitchen
	K-25780	Ceiling-Mount Kitchen
	K-29179	Ceiling-Mount Kitchen
	K-7505	Pullout Kitchen
	K-7506	Pullout Kitchen
	K-7507 K-7508*	Single-handle Laundry * w/ Sidespray
	K-7509	Single-handle Laundry
	K-7547 K-7548*	Bridge Kitchen * w/ Sidespray
	K-7549	Wall-Mount Bridge Kitchen
	K-T11837* K-T11839 K-T11841	Touchless Wall-Mount Lavatory (Trim) * w/ Drain Assembly
	K-T11840	Touchless Wall-Mount Lavatory (Trim)
	K-T14413	Wall-mount Lavatory (Trim)
	K-T14414	Wall-mount Lavatory (Trim)
Riff	K-2383	Pulldown Kitchen
	K-23830	Pulldown Kitchen
	K-23832	Pulldown Kitchen
	K-23833	Prep or Bar
	K-26430	Single-handle Vessel
	K-26431	Wall-Mount Lavatory
	K-27398	Widespread Lavatory
	K-27399	Widespread Lavatory
	K-27400	Single-handle Lavatory
	K-T26432	Wall-mount Lavatory (Trim)
Rival	K-30468	Pullout Kitchen
	K-3046p	Pulldown Kitchen
	K-30470 K-30471*	Single-handle Kitchen * w/ Sidespray
	K-30472	Prep or Bar
Rubicon	K-R26582	Two-Handle Kitchen w/ Sidespray
Sensate	K-72218	Touchless Kitchen
Simplice	K-596	Oulldown Kitchen
	K-597	Oulldown Kitchen
	K-647	Two-Hole Kitchen
	K-649	Two-Hole Kitchen
	K-22033	Semi-Pro Kitchen
	K-22034	Single-handle Bar
	K-22035	Single-handle Laundry
	K-22036	Pulldown Kitchen
	K- 27380	Widespread Lavatory
	K-27388	Centerset Lavatory
	K-27389	Single-handle Lavatory
	K-27390	Widespread Lavatory
Strayt	K-103S36 K-103S37	Single-handle Touchless Lavatory
Strayt	K-104S36 K-104S37	Single-handle Touchless Lavatory
Streamline	K-45344	Single-handle Electronic Lavatory
Taut	K-46028 K-46029*	Single-handle Lavatory * w/ Drain Assembly
	K-74013 K-74027*	Single-handle Lavatory * w/ Base Plate
	K-97031	Centerset Lavatory
Tempered	K-22020	Widespread Lavatory
	K-22021	Centerset Lavatory
	K-22022	Single-handle Lavatory
	K-22023	Single-handle Vessel
	K-24661	Pulldown Kitchen
	K-24662	Semi-Pro Kitchen
	K-24663	Prep or Bar
	K-23764	Pulldown Kitchen
Tone	K-23765	Semi-Pro Kitchen
	K-23766	Pulldown Kitchen
	K-23767	Prep or Bar
	K-26437	Single-handle Lavatory
	K-26438	Wall-Mount Lavatory
	K-27414	Widespread Lavatory
	K-27416	Widespread Lavatory
	K-T26439	Wall-Mounat Widespread Lavatory (Trim)
Touchless	K-13460 K-13461 K-13462 K-13463	Single-handle Lavatory
	K-13466 K-13467 K-13468 K-13460	Single-handle Lavatory
	K-13472 K-13472 K-13474 K-13475	Single-handle Lavatory
	K-7514 K-7515 K-7516 K-7517	Single-handle Lavatory
	K-7518 K-7519	Single-handle Lavatory
Tournant	K-77515	Semi-Pro Kitchen
Tournant	K-77515	Semi-Pro Kitchen
Traditional	K-35744	Pot Filler
Traditional	K-35745	Pot Filler
Triton Bowe	K-100T70	Single-handle Lavatory with Vandal Resistant Aerator
	K-400T20	Centerset Lavatory
	K-400T70	Centerset Lavatory
	K-520T70	Widespread Wall-Mount Lavatory
	K-521T21	Widespread Wall-Mount Lavatory
	K-522T20	Widespread Wall-Mount Lavatory
	K-730T70	Wall-Mount Lavatory
	K-800T20	Widespread Lavatory
	K-800T70	Widespread Lavatory
	K-810T20 K-810T21*	Two-Handle Kitchen * w/ Sidespray
	K-810T70	Widespread Lavatory
	K-810T71 K-810T71*	Two-Handle Kitchen * w/ Sidespray
	K-815T20	Widespread Kitchen
	K-815T70	Widespread Kitchen
	K-820T20	Widespread Wall-Mounted Kitchen
	K-820T70 K-820T71*	Widespread Wall-Mounted Kitchen * w/ Lock
Trove	K-R33300	Pulldown Kitchen
Tyne	K-R21415	Pulldown Kitchen
Venza	K-28124	Centerset Lavatory
	K-28125	Widespread Lavatory
	K-28126	Single-handle Lavatory
Country of origin information is derived from multiple sources – as often as possible two or more independent sources for each faucet. We cannot, however, guarantee 100% accuracy because (1) our sources may be out of date or otherwise not 100% accurate and (2) Kohler changes suppliers from time to time. However, we believe the table is substantially correct.

Xiamen Olt Co. Ltd. has been manufacturing automatic, hands-free, kitchen and bath faucets since 2002. It is a known innovator, having received several patents for its improvements to hands-free faucet technologies

It manufactures primarily for the export market, providing automatic faucets to Zurn Industries, in the U.S. as well as the Kohler automatic faucets not manufactured in-house by Shanghai Kohler Electronics.

Country of Origin

Kohler does not disclose the countries from which its faucets are obtained. However, despite its large overseas manufacturing establishment, and unlike most of the company's ceramic fixtures, the majority of Kohler faucets sold in North America are still made in North America albeit from imported parts and components.

The pattern is slowly changing, however, as more and more of Kohler's faucet manufacturing is shifting to China and India while its American plants concentrate on assembling its more upscale faucets.

Kohler Faucet Materials

The primary material in Kohler faucets is brass or stainless steel. All bathroom sink faucets are brass. Kitchen faucets may be either metal.

Kohler does not identify the primary metal of its faucets on its website except to say that it is "premium metal", a term that means absolutely nothing. Premium metal could be a nice grade of zinc or a splendid blend of tin.

Some faucets are described as having "all brass construction."

If you have any tendency at all to believe a faucet is all brass, please don't.

No modern faucet is all of any one material, and especially not all brass. Brass is expensive, and the unleaded brass required for faucets is still more expensive.

The primary material may be brass but the secondary material used for base plates, wall plates, handles, and is commonly a zinc alloy. For valve cartridge cases and aerators, the usual material is plastic.

Zinc & Zinc-Aluminum Alloys

Zinc-aluminum (ZA) alloys are widely used in faucet construction, especially for faucet handles.

We know that Kohler uses a lot of zinc in its faucets just from records showing imports from zinc component producers such as Sunspring Metal Corporation.

The most common ZA alloy, ZAMAK (or ZAMAC), is designed for precision die casting — the process used to produce most faucet components. ZAMAK is a composition of zinc with 4% aluminum, 3% copper, and a small amount of magnesium. The material was invented and patented by the New Jersey Zinc Company in 1926.

The alloy takes a finish as well as, or even better than, brass. It does not have the tensile strength of brass, but in handles and baseplates, strength is not much of a concern.

Plastic

Plastic is freely used in valve cartridge bodies and aerators. It works well in these applications and may save a few cents in manufacturing costs. But, it is also the primary material in Kohler's kitchen faucet spray heads. And, that could be a problem.

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

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 water.

Faucet companies 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.

Plastic is indeed cheaper, much cheaper than any metal, and that is the primary reason for the switch to plastic. The rest is mostly horse hockey.

A Kohler spokesperson explained its use of plastic wands was aimed at avoiding liability for injuries from too-hot sprays, a statement that pegged our BS meter to its maximum.

We checked the usual legal databases and our industry sources and found no instance of a company being sued for an excessively hot wand (or a wand that is too heavy).

The plastic used in most kitchen faucet sprays is Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene (ABS), a low-cost, easily manufactured, non-toxic, impact-resistant plastic. It is about as chemically inert as plastic gets, entirely unaffected by most common household cleaning products.

However, it is affected by UV radiation even when protected by UV inhibitors. ABS plastic degrades over time, becoming brittle.

It is also not dimensionally stable. It expands and contacts more than most other plastics with temperature changes making tight tolerances challenging to maintain.

These characteristics make plastic wands suspect in faucets which in the minds of most consumers are supposed to be lifetime products.

Although materials chemists and engineers have made significant improvements to their reliability over the past decade, the problems have not been entirely solved.

The general view in the faucet industry is that better wands are made of metal — brass, zinc, or stainless steel — insulated against excessive heat transmission.

Kohler Faucet Valve Cartridges

Its valve cartridge is the most important part of a modern faucet. It's what makes the faucet work, dispensing metered amounts of temperature-controlled water on demand. If a faucet fails, ordinarily it is the cartridge that is the problem. So, it's important that the cartridge be the best available. Fortunately, Kohler uses good-quality ceramic valve cartridges in its faucets, even its least-expensive products.

Two-Handle Faucets

For many years the stem cartridges used in Kohler's two-handle faucets were purchased from Anton Tränkle, GmbH & Co. KG, a German company that makes superior ceramic cartridges.

These have been largely phased out since 2011, replaced by Kohler's proprietary UltraGlide^® cartridges. Kohler calls these the "next generation of faucet technology".

According to the company, advanced engineering and precise manufacturing allowed the company to eliminate the rubber O-ring that seals the faucet stem. The O-ring is the weak point in most stem cartridges. Kohler calls this feature "Dry Stem Technology" and claims that it not only helps prevent leaking but also reduces mineral build-up – another cause of valve failure.

Buying Rule for Smart Faucet Buyers:

The Faucet Cartridge

Never buy a faucet unless you know who made the cartridge.

Its cartridge is the most critical part of a faucet. It is the component that controls water flow. Without a working cartridge, a faucet is no longer a faucet.

Companies that use good-quality cartridges in their faucets usually disclose the cartridge source on their websites. Those that don't will happily identify the cartridge in a call to customer service.

If the company refuses to reveal the sources of its cartridges (because it is a "trade secret"), you can confidently assume it is not one of the better brands.

For more information about faucet valves and cartridges and the companies that make cartridges known to be reliable, see faucet Valves & Cartridges.

The UltraGlide cartridge has endured testing through four million on-off cycles — eight times the industry standard life-cycle test of 500,000, cycles,^[4] equivalent to about 560 years of use in even a busy kitchen or bath.

For a video showing the operation of the type of machine that puts faucets through life-cycle testing, go here.

The test, run continuously, takes nearly six days to complete and simulates about 70 years of use in a busy kitchen or bathroom.

The limitation of the test, however, is it does not measure mineral buildup over time or its effect on the cartridge.

We know that a brand-new cartridge is very robust but a cartridge is "new" for a very short period of time.

What we need to know is how the cartridge works when it is "old", and, unfortunately, there is no test for that other than the passage of years.

Single-Handle Faucets

There is nothing novel or innovative about the mixing cartridges used in Kohler's single-handle faucets.

These are , off-the-shelf mixing cartridges made by Hydroplast S R L and Kuching International Ltd., the manufacturer of KCG brand cartridges.

Hydroplast is an Italian technical ceramics company known for its high-quality, leak-resistant ceramic valve cartridges.

Kohler Mixing Cartridges for Single-Handle Faucets

Kohler mixing cartridges for single-handle faucets. The top row shows cartridges made by Hydroplast S R L, an Italian manufacturer of good to excellent ceramic cartridges.

The Kohler GP1016515 cartridge (shown at left) is identical to the Hydroplast B35 cartridge (right). The two are interchangeable.

The bottom row shows KCG 35mm cartridges faucet made by Kuching International Ltd., a ceramics manufacturer in Taiwan since 1988. The cartridge on the left is labeled as a Kohler cartridge. The one on the right is an unmarked KCG cartridge. Again, they are interchangeable.

They are widely used in faucets sold in North America, including by

Kuching has been a ceramics manufacturer in Taiwan since 1988.

The cartridges are not considered by the industry to have the quality of the Hydroplast product, but we think that perception is dated and somewhat colored by the fact they are made in Taiwan.

The KCG valve is by no means a super cartridge like Delta's Diamond Seal Technology^® cartridge or In2aqua's PVD+ diamond-like-carbon cartridge (and neither is the Hydroplat cartridge) but it is more than adequate.

Kohler thinks the KCG is a good cartridge worth guaranteeing for a lifetime. Other companies feel the same.

KCG cartridges are widely used by major brands to equip faucets sold in North America including

Kohler Faucet Finishes

Kohler offers about 14 finishes on its faucets. We say "about" because, while its finishes do not change often, they do change. In fact, four finishes available on faucets at our last update to this report have now been discontinued. So, there may not be exactly 14 when you read this review.

Polished Chrome is the standard finish, available on most if not all Kohler faucets. The other finishes offered on a faucet depend on the model and whether it is a kitchen or bath faucet.

Certain finishes such as Vibrant Stainless Steel are available only on kitchen faucets while others, including Vibrant Moderne Brushed Gold and Vibrant Titanium, are limited to bathroom sink faucets.

"Vigrant" PVD Finishes

Kohler makes a big fuss over its Vibrant^® finishes, most of which seems justified.

These are Kohler's PVD finishes and are easily identified because all have the word "Vibrant" in the name.

Kohler has other PVD finishes not identified as "Vibrant."

Oil Rubbed Bronze (ORB), for example, is a PVD finish. Why ORB is not a "Vibrant" finish no one at Kohler was able to explain.

PVD finishes are hard and very robust. By some estimates, they are 10-20 times more resistant to scratching than electroplated chrome.

To watch faucet components being given their PVD finishes, check out this brief video. Be aware that it is very noisy, so you might want to turn down the volume on your player.

Other Finishes

Kohler Faucet Finishes
Polished Chrome (CP) Electroplated Bath & Kitchen One-year Warranty*	Vibrant Titanium (TT) PVD Bath Lifetime Warranty	Vibrant Polished Nickel (SN) PVD Bath & Kitchen Lifetime Warranty
Vibrant French Gold (AF) PVD Bath Lifetime Warranty	Vibrant Polished Brass (PB) PVD Bath & Kitchen Lifetime Warranty	Vibrant Rose Gold (RGD) PVD Bath Lifetime Warranty
Brushed Chrome (G) PVD Bath & Kitchen Lifetime Warranty	Vibrant Brushed Nickel (BN) PVD Bath & Kitchen Lifetime Warranty	Vibrant Brushed Bronze (RBV) PVD Bath & Kitchen Lifetime Warranty
Vibrant Moderne Brushed Gold (BGD) PVD Bath Lifetime Warranty	Oil-Rubbed Bronze (2BZ) PVD Bath & Kitchen One-Year Warranty*	White (0) (Discontinued)
Biscuit (96) (Discontinued)	Satin Black (TB) (Discontinued)	Matte Black (BL) Powder Coat Bath & Kitchen 1 Year Warranty
Black Black^™ (7) (Discontinued)	Brushed Stainless (BS) PVD Kitchen One-year Warranty	Vibrant Stainless (VS) PVD Kitchen Lifetime Warranty

Chrome is, according to Kohler's technical services, its only remaining finish, and Matte Black is its last surviving .

All of the other powder coats – White, Biscuit, Black Black, and Satin Black – have been discontinued as faucet finishes although they may still appear on other products.

Powder coatings are the least hard-wearing of the faucet finish technologies. Often described as semi-durable, they are not nearly as robust as PVD or electroplated finishes and require more care to avoid damaging the finish.

The wimpy one-year warranty on its remaining powder coat strongly suggests that Kohler management has very little confidence in the durability or longevity of this finishing process.

Split Finishes

The finishes available on each faucet are identified on the Kohler website. Any finish other than basic chrome will result in an addition, sometimes a hefty addition, to the price of the faucet.

Faucets in the Tone collection can be ordered in a . Part of the faucet is Chrome or Moderne Brass and the rest is Matte Black.

Most split finishes are sharply demarcated. Kohler, however, has developed a technique to blend two finishes so that one flows gradually into the other.

The Vibrant^® Ombré finish is described by Kohler as an "innovative technique that melds two Vibrant metal finishes together to render a subtle but striking transition from light to dark." It won a Best of the Year design award from Interior Design Magazine in 2018.

Porcelain Finishes

Kohler until a few years ago also made faucets with porcelain spouts in colors and patterns that exactly matched its porcelain sinks. These were fascinating little faucet gems. Nothing like them existed outside of Kohler.

Examples are the Bol and Vas faucets (pronounced "bowl" and "vase").

These are also no longer being made, but may still be for sale at retail venues and have apparently become the darlings of the retro crowd, available from time to time on auction sites.

Kohler Faucet Designs

Kohler's original faucet designs are created in Studio Kohler, its in-house design centers in the U.S., France, and China.

Kohler designs have won numerous honors in international design competitions including four product design Red Dot awards in 2018 followed by two products awarded top honors in the 2019 competition and another in 2020.

In 2021 it won for its highly customizable Tailored^® Vanity Collection and received three additional awards in 2022.

The annual competition, dating back to 1955, is sponsored by the Design Zentrum Nordrhein Westfalen (DZNRW). Entries are evaluated by an expert jury comprised of independent designers and design professors. Red Dot is one of Europe's most prestigious juried design awards.

The company has won 56 iF world design awards and was recognized by iF in 2020 as having one of the top 50 in-house design teams in the world. That's not just faucet design teams, but design teams for all designer products from purses to Porsches.

The Carafe 2.0 purifying faucet is its most recent winner. The faucet dispenses both filtered drinking water and tap water from one faucet, eliminating the need for a separate filtered water tap.

The iF award, conferred by the iF International Forum Design since 1953 recognizes excellence in design in 6 disciplines including Product Design and Interior Architecture.

Kohler has won multiple Good Design awards. First awarded in 1950, Good Design is the oldest and most prestigious of the international design competitions.

The Chicago Athenaeum Museum of Architecture and Design and the Metropolitan Arts Press Ltd. join annually to honor the most innovative industrial, product, and graphic designs produced around the world.

Kohler always seems to have at least one faucet in inventory that stands the design world on its ear and forces it to pay attention.

The recently discontinued Karbon^® faucet introduced in 2008 as the world's first articulating faucet was one of these wake-up-and-pay-attention products.

Engineers loved it for the space-age carbon fiber used its construction to add strength while reducing weight.

The articulating design was very practical. The faucet could be twisted into almost any position and would stay there, unlike sprays that retract when released (or drop into the sink).

The design is old news now. The "oohs" and "aahs" are long gone. But, at the time it was a design phenom. Gizmodo even called it "modern art awesomeness for the kitchen."

The newest Kohler eye-opener faucet, introduced in 2023, is the Purist Suspend^® ceiling-mounted kitchen faucet – not as powerful a statement as the Karbon, but still interesting. It is an adaptation of a faucet that has been used in commercial kitchens and laboratories since the 1920s.

In its residential incarnation, Kohler has given it design finesse and digital electronic awareness.

The faucet valve in the ceiling is controlled by a wireless and water-resistant remote "puck" that can be placed anywhere in the kitchen.

It has three flow options: regular, boost, and eco. Boost is, according to Kohler, "a powerful prep and cleaning spray" while eco is a water-saving option. The seven-foot hose can reach just about anywhere in a small kitchen, including the range for pot filling.

Where to Buy

Kohler products are widely available. However, since 2012 none but authorized dealers, including online sellers, can sell Kohler products.

Its most ubiquitous brick-and-mortar outlet is probably 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.

Kohler 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 Kohler faucets are also available at general merchandising sites such as Amazon, Costco, and Wayfair, but styles and finishes are limited.

Kohler Pricing

Kohler faucet prices range from low mid-priced to luxury.

Prices at the low end are competitive with the company's mid-priced competition including

At the high end, prices encroach on premium lines such as But, they never reach the stratospheric prices of some luxury faucets such as Waterstone's distinctive Wheel faucet that sells for $10,000 and more in some finishes or any number of faucets from France that can top $20,000 easily.

Online Non-Sale Prices
Kohler Purist K-14406-3
(In French Gold)

List Price $1,013.30

AllModern: $760.00
Amazon: $697.00
Build.com: $759.97
EasyPlumbing: $759.97
FaucetDirect: $759.97
Houzz: $760.00
Joss & Main: $760.00
Perigold: 760.00
Wayfair: $759.97

Its most expensive faucet offered by Kohler is the new Purist Suspend ceiling-mounted faucet at around $2,200. Otherwise, its top-of-the-line faucets sell for around $1,700. Not chump change, but certainly not stratospheric.

The company, wisely, has avoided the very low end of the faucet business that requires a lot of plastic parts. Even Kohler faucets priced below $150.00 feature the same solid construction and top-end components as Kohler's $1,000+ faucets.

Kohler actively pursues the premium kitchen and bathwares market, and cleverly too, by providing architects and designers with good quality CAD images in multiple file formats that make it easy to include Kohler products in computer-aided designs for kitchens and bathrooms.

Minimum Advertised Price

No matter where you buy, do not expect deep discounts.

Showrooms are critical to Kohler's business. They are where most Kohler products are sold, often in suites that include faucets, showers, tubs, toilets, sinks, and accessories. To protect showroom sales, Kohler limits the minimum price at which authorized retailers can sell its faucets. This Minimum Advertised Pricing policy prevents steep discounts by internet sellers that have a much lower overhead and can afford extensive discounting.

E-tailers can sell below the minimum price, but cannot advertise the lower price. The net effect appears to be a reluctance by internet sellers to sell much below the list price.

We did a quick survey of online prices using the Kohler Purist K-14406-3 as our test faucet. The chart above shows the non-sale selling prices as of October 2024. We are not privy to Kohler's MAP policy, not being a Kohler retailer, but it appears that the maximum allowed discount is about 10%.

Kallista and Custom Design

If the wide variety of the Kohler faucet collection is not enough for you or you absolutely must have a designer's name attached to your faucet, then try Kohler's upscale sister brand, a collection of faucets, sinks, bathtubs, showers, bath furniture, and accessories, or Kohler's custom design service that will create a faucet just for you.

Custom design and manufacturing are pricey, so it is best if you plan to buy several hundred faucets for your mega-condo project, upscale casino, or luxury hotel to somewhat amortize the cost.

Buying Rule for
Smart Faucet Buyers:

Warranty

Never buy a faucet unless you have carefully read and understand the faucet's warranty. It tells you more than the company wants you to know about management's true opinion of the durability and life expectancy of the faucets it sells.

Learn how to interpret faucet warranties at Faucet Basics, Part 6: Understanding faucet Waruranties.

Learn how to enforce your warranty with step-by-step instructions at The Warranty Game: Enforcing Your Product Warranty.

Model Lifetime Warranty: For an example of a warranty that avoids Kohler's drafting problems and complies with the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act, download and read our Model Limited Lifetime Warranty.

The Kohler Warranty

Kohler's faucet warranty is a mess – a sterling example of how not to write a consumer product warranty.

It is actually hard to imagine how a multi-billion-dollar company could end up with such a shambles of a warranty document.

Its poorly written disorganized jumble of discordant paragraphs should be an embarrassment to any company.

It violates numerous provisions of the 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.

It also contains a lot of redundancy, none of which is necessary.

For example, the Kohler lifetime warranty does not apply to faucets used in a commercial setting. The document repeats that exclusion three times using different wording each time. Once would have been enough, twice more than enough, and three times is beyond overdone.

Our much-put-upon panel of volunteer warranty lawyers has parsed the document phrase by phrase and extracted the core of the actual warranty, which is summarized at right (or above, depending on how your screen displays this report).

Kohler's Warranty Problems

The warranty is legally defective, but most of the warranty defects hurt Kohler more than the consumer, so we did not deduct from the company's warranty score. Some leave the company open to warranty liability it probably did not anticipate.

Here is a list, with explanations, of the major problems our panel found with the warranty. There are others not discussed here, including references to documents outside of the warranty which violates the "single document" rule (16 CFR § 701.3(a)), and a claim to have the exclusive right to determine an appropriate remedy under the warranty, an absolute no-no under Magnuson-Moss (16 CFR § 700.8).

Illegal Disclaimer

The Kohler warranty proclaims (in all caps, so you can't miss it), that

… KOHLER CO. AND/OR SELLER ARE PROVIDING THESE WARRANTIES IN LIEU OF ALL OTHER WARRANTIES, EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. …

This claim has three problems:

It is not written in the simple and readily understood language required by Magnuson-Moss,
It violates the Magnuson-Moss prohibition against disclaiming implied warranties, and,
The language is deceptive, a major violation of Magnuson-Moss.

Any one of these will get it thrown out of court.

Disclaimer in Turgid Legalese

The first problem with this proclamation is its language.

It is the sort of language that lawyers love because it requires a Lawyer to decipher. Legalese, however, turgid or otherwise, violates the bedrock Magnuson-Moss requirement that…

"the terms and conditions of written warranties on consumer products be clearly and conspicuously stated in simple and readily understood language" (15 U.S.C. § 2302(a))

Readily understood means readily understood by the average consumer, not just by the average lawyer.

Magnuson-Moss intends for an average consumer to be able to read and understand a product warranty before purchasing the product, so it must be written in the vernacular, not lawyer-ese.

Disclaimer Not Permitted

The second and more serious problem is that Magnuson-Moss, in very explicit language, prohibits a company that provides a written warranty from rejecting (lawyers say "disclaim" – a word that should never be used in a consumer warranty) state law implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose. (15 U.S.C. § 2308 (a))

What Is the Implied Warranty of Merchantability?

All states and provinces in North America have laws requiring that consumer products be fit for their ordinary purposes and conform to an ordinary buyer's expectations.

This is the implied warranty of merchantability. It derives from English Common Law and is the law in both Canada and the U.S. It automatically attaches to every sale of a consumer product by a merchant.^[9]

A product is merchantable if it serves its ordinary purpose. A faucet, for example, is merchantable if it dispenses controlled amounts of water.

A merchantable product must remain merchantable for a reasonable amount of time. How much time varies with the product. A faucet that leaks after one or two years is probably not merchantable. One that doesn't leak until its 20th anniversary probably is – a faucet is not expected to be leak-free forever.

Magnuson-Moss refines state warranties of merchantability by providing uniform national standards for form and content, but it does not supersede them.

Learn more about merchantability at The Warranty Game: Enforcing Your Product Warranty.

If Kohler wants to sell its faucets "as is" – free of the state-law implied warranties – then it must first get rid of its written warranty, something it is probably not going to do.

Written seller warranties are intended by Magnuson-Moss to supplement implied warranties. They are "in addition to" not "in lieu of."

So the language in the Kohler warranty that seeks to substitute the Kohler written warranty for state law implied warranties has no legal effect whatsoever.

Deceptive Disclaimer

The final and very worst problem with the provision is that it is deceptive.

An average consumer (and even an average lawyer not familiar with Magnuson-Moss) could easily be misled into believing that he or she no longer has access to the protection of state-law warranties.

Summary of
Kohler's Limited Lifetime Warranty

Kohler Faucets installed in an owner-occupied residence are guaranteed against leaks and defects "during normal residential use" for a lifetime, defined as "for as long as the original consumer owns their [sic] home."^[6] (The lifetime warranty applies even to electronic faucet components, which is unusual in a faucet warranty.)
The following are excluded from lifetime coverage:
1. Faucets installed "outide of the Americas"^[7] or used "in a public space for commercial, industrial, or institutional purposes." (5-year warranty),
2. Faucets installed in a rented dwelling not occupied by the buyer (10-year warranty), and
3. Non-Vibrant finishes, including electroplated Chrome and PVD Oil-Rubbed Bronze (1-year warranty).
"Organic^[8] finishes are warranted only if manufactured after January 1, 2019. (Kohler does not have any organic faucet finishes at this time.)
To cure a defect, Kohler will replace the faucet cartridge or "will, at its election, repair, replace, or make appropriate adjustment." However, Kohler's maximum liability cannot exceed "the purchase price of the faucet."
The warranty does not cover "removal, installation, labor charges, or other incidental or consequential costs" that may result from a defective faucet.

Such deception is expressly prohibited by Magnuson-Moss which requires a warranty be written in

"… words or phrases which would not mislead a reasonable, average consumer as to the nature or scope of the warranty." (15 U.S.C. § 2302 (a) (13))

We doubt the misrepresentation is deliberate. Whoever wrote the provision simply did not understand its consequences. But, deception does not need to be deliberate to have consequences under Magnuson-Moss.

The law imposes a duty of reasonable care on a company providing a written warranty …

"…to make the warranty not misleading." (15 U.S.C. §2310(c)(2))

The very presence of the provision in the Kohler warranty evidences a lack of reasonable care and, therefore, culpable deception.

What these three defects mean to you, the faucet buyer, is that the disclaimer can be disregarded. But what they mean to Kohler is potentially a lot of money.

If the provision is ever litigated, the company is probably going to be taxed with punitive or exemplary damages in addition to actual damages, costs, and the consumer's attorney fees — a little gift from Magnuson-Moss for companies that do not obey its rules. (15 USC § 2310(d)(2))

As a consumer buyer, you have

The warranty protection offered by the company,

and
All of the protections provided by state law in your state's implied warranties of merchantability and fitness.

Kohler cannot legally take these away so don't be misled by warranty language claiming to "disclaim" state law implied warranties.

These implied warranties often provide more protection than a company's written warranty.

Limiting the Duration of Implied Warranties

Magnuson-Moss does allow one modification to implied warranties in states where it is permitted. Kohler can limit the duration of the implied warranties to the same term as its written limited warranty.

This means that if the Kohler warranty on a part is one year, the state's implied warranties on that part can also be limited to one year.

That's the one and only modification of state law warranties that Kohler can legally make, and only in states where such modifications are permitted by law.

That modification is not automatic, however. Kohler has to put the limitation in its warranty in "clear and readily understood" language. It has not done so. There is not a single word in the Kohler warranty suggesting that the duration of state law implied warranties is limited.

Our suggested language, taken from our Model Limited Lifetime Faucet Warranty is the following:

"The duration of implied warranties (including but not limited to those of merchantability and fitness for a particular or special purpose) arising under state law is limited to the shorter of the duration of such warranties provided by state law or the duration set out in this warranty."

Defective Definition of "Lifetime"

"Lifetime" in a warranty is not self-defining.

We know that because the courts have repeatedly said so, as does the Federal Trade Commission in its regulation of the use of the words "life" or "lifetime when describing a warranty.

Lifetime in a warranty seldom actually means Lifetime – the actual lifespan of something or someone. It's usually much more limited.

Whatever the definition, Magnuson-Moss requires a warranty to clearly disclose how its duration is to be measured and, if applicable, what events terminate the warranty. (16 CFR § 701.3 (a)(4))

Kohler's definition of "lifetime" is for

"as long as the original consumer owns their [sic] home."

So, if the buyer sells their home a year after buying a faucet, the warranty expires (unless he or she buys a new home) even though the buyer may live quite a few years longer.

This definition has some basic flaws, however (other than its butchery of the English language).

It does not require the buyer to continue to own the faucet for the warranty to remain in effect. It only requires that the consumer own "their" home.

The term "their" home does not limit home ownership to the buyer's current home – the home in which the faucet was installed. It includes any home that can be reasonably described as "their" home.

Warranty protection is limited to buyers who own a home. It does not extend to buyers who rent, lease, or sub-let.

Not requiring the buyer to continue to own the faucet makes it possible for the warranty to remain in force for as long as the faucet is installed somewhere, ending only when the original owner ceases to own a home or the faucet winds up in a landfill. Probably not what Kohler intended.

Consider the following example, however:

An "original consumer purchaser" named Ralphy buys a new home and sells his original home – the one in which his Kohler faucet is installed, to his pal, Vinnie, leaving his Kohler faucet behind.

Vinnie now owns the faucet, but not the warranty. Under the terms of Kohler's warranty, the warranty itself can be owned only by the original buyer.

If a few years later the faucet develops a leak, can Ralphy claim under his Kohler warranty for Vinnies's benefit?

Sure!

According to our lawyer panel, the warranty still applies because Ralphy still owns a home that fits the description, "their" home. Owning "their home" is the sole and only requirement for the warranty to continue in force. If the warranty is in effect, a claim can be made that Kohler would be legally bound to honor.

Image Credit: Kohler Kohler Bol (top row) and Vas faucets featured a porcelain spout that exactly matched the finish on the company's porcelain sinks. These faucets are no longer manufactured but may still be for sale at retail venues.

An odd result indeed but that's the way Kohler has chosen to write its warranty, so that is the legal result of its chosen language.

What Kohler means to say – but says badly – is that its lifetime warranty lasts …

" … for as long as the original consumer purchaser owns the faucet and resides in the dwelling in which the faucet is first installed."

This revised language also has the happy result of extending warranty coverage to buyers who do not own their homes.

Void for Improper Cleaning? Seriously?

Our favorite warranty defect, however, is not a legal issue, just incredibly bad legal drafting. Here is the language,

"Improper care and cleaning will void the warranty."

Absolutely in love with redundancy, the warranty repeats the restriction in a footnote that reads:

Never use cleaners containing abrasive cleansers, ammonia, bleach, acids, waxes, alcohol, [or] solvents not recommended for KOHLER finishes. This will void the warranty."

The key word here is "void." Let's take a look at what "void" means.

The plumber just installed your brand-new Kohler kitchen faucet. But, he left greasy fingerprints all over the place.

You reach for the nearest cleaner under the sink, not noticing that far down in the ingredients list (printed in type so small that you need a microscope to read it) ammonia is identified as one of its constituents.

You clean and polish your new faucet until it sparkles and gleams.

Unfortunately, however, you just voided your Kohler warranty.

It's now over, finished, kaput, done with, extinguished, gone – not just the finish warranty, but the whole thing – every clause and every provision is canceled.

That's what "void" means.

It makes no difference that cleaning with ammonia did absolutely no harm to the faucet. Damage is not required for the warranty to be voided. The only thing that does matter is that you cleaned your faucet with a prohibited substance, ammonia. So your warranty is dead.

So sorry.

Unskilled writers of product warranties tend to use the word "void" much too loosely without fully assessing its legal impact.

This is an excellent example of that sort of careless legal drafting.

What Kohler is trying to say is that damage caused by maintenance or cleaning not in accordance with its care and cleaning instructions is not covered by the warranty. Very reasonable! And that's what the warranty should say. But, that's not what it does say.

One Customer's Kohler Experience

Back in 2005 when I was remodeling my home, I had to go shopping for three bathroom sink faucets. I wound up choosing Kohler, mostly because I liked the style of the fixtures, and because they touted that their … valves have a "lifetime warranty". Now I'm always a little bit suspicious about absolute promises from any big company but I liked the faucets and so paid a little bit extra to buy Kohler vs. a less expensive brand…

Fast forward to 2012, and one of my hot water valves just stopped working — I couldn't turn it on at all. I disassembled the faucets but could not get the valve out of the valve body — it was stuck! I considered buying new faucets to get my sink back working again but then remembered Kohler's warranty, looked up their number on the internet, and gave them a call.

I was ABSOLUTELY SHOCKED — at the EXCELLENT service! I only had to press two buttons on the automated system before I was transferred very quickly to a pleasant, … English-speaking lady who promptly identified the make and model of faucets I was calling about, and within 5 minutes had ordered me a replacement valve body. She asked if I had any other problems with Kohler products, and I told her that my kitchen sink sprayer was not flowing like it used to. She said a new diverter valve would be included in the box, and that the parts should arrive in 5-7 days. I was never hassled about proof of purchase, ownership, etc.

As good as her word, 4 business days later my replacement faucet valve (with a brand-new supply hose) and a diverter valve arrived from Kohler. All free, at no cost, and living up to every bit of their lifetime guarantee.

I .... could not be happier with my purchases or Kohler's OUTSTANDING customer service!

Of course, Kohler will probably never find out you improperly cleaned your faucet and voided your warranty, and you are under no obligation to tell, unless asked, which is unlikely.

We just wanted to poke a little fun at such incredibly bad legal drafting.

Kohler Customer Support

Fortunately, Kohler's customer service is excellent and makes up for most of the deficiencies in its warranty. Agents routinely ignore the more nutso legal niceties of the Kohler warranty. Not always, but usually.

If you have a receipt showing you bought a Kohler faucet that is now broken, they will help you fix it without regard to whether you once cleaned your faucet with ammonia. (And usually without asking if you still own "their" home.)

They are knowledgeable about Kohler products, courteous, and eager to help with problems.

In our most recent tests, Kohler customer service scored 4.5 out of a possible 5.0 points, one of the highest scores ever. Anything above 4.0 is acceptable.

We have tested Kohler support periodically for 15 years. In that time, it has never received a score lower than 4.2, so the current exceptional score is not a flash in the pan.

The only problem our testers noted was the occasional wait time that exceeded 5 minutes. Five minutes is acceptable. Anything over that is not.

However, the Better Business Bureau disagrees with our assessment, awarding Kohler a C on a scale of A+ to F for its handling of the customer issues submitted to the Bureau.

We rarely dispute the BBB's ratings, but in this case, it is way off the mark.

Kohler is a giant company that sells a vast array of products: small engines, generators, furniture, tile, and so on, as well as plumbing products. The BBB lumps all of these diverse products into one rating. We don't think that's justified.

Complaints about its chocolates being "mealy", its generators failing, or its golf courses being overgrown have nothing to do with its faucets.

If all the non-plumbing products are removed, Kohler gets far fewer complaints about its products than do other large companies like both of which are rated A+ by the BBB.

As far as we can tell, Kohler handles its few faucet complaints properly and with dispatch.

The Kohler Website

The Kohler website is, in a word, artistic.

It is beautifully illustrated with well-staged images of Kohler products. What it is missing, however, is about half of the hard information about its faucets required to make an informed buying decision. Pretty pictures are nice but we would rather see hard data.

The site is easy to navigate.

To find a faucet, click "Products" on the main menu at the top of the home page. A drop-down menu then offers several choices. Select "Bathroom" or "Kitchen" then "Faucet" on the menu that pops up. Now find "Shop All [Bathroom/Kitchen] Faucets."

It displays in different locations depending on whether you are using a desktop display or a smartphone, and it may be partially obscured by yet another lovely product image, but it's there somewhere.

Filters allow you to narrow your choices by price, finish, style, or collection. You can also choose to look at only touchless or voice-activated faucets.

To find out whether the information provided about a faucet is sufficient for an informed buying decision, we chose the K-76519-4 Artifacts^® two-handle bridge-style kitchen faucet and the Components^® K-77958-4A single-handle bathroom sink faucet as our test faucets – in part because they were among the faucets we acquired for examination and we could compare website information to the actual faucets for accuracy. (It is accurate, by the way.)

The faucets are depicted in a 3/4 view main image usually supplemented by one or more additional images and/or a video of the faucet.

If you select from among the finishes available for the faucet, the main image displays the faucet in the selected finish. A nice feature that helps a reader visualize the faucet in his or her preferred finish.

Other information about the faucet is contained in four easy-to-find links: "Features", "Specs", "Installation & Service Parts", and "Design Files."

Features

As you might expect, Features is a list of the best attributes of the faucet. It is the electronic version of what used to be called a "tear sheet", designed to highlight the faucet's selling points. Here are the features of the Artifacts faucet:

Artifacts K-76519-4 Two-Handle Faucet Features

Matching two-function side sprayer featuring Sweep^® Spray and BerrySoft^® provides convenience for cleaning and food prep.
BerrySoft^® is a light spray ideal for washing hands, rinsing delicate dishware, and prepping fruits and vegetables.
KOHLER ceramic disc valves exceed industry longevity standards for a lifetime of durable performance
ProMotion^® technology's light, quiet braided hose and swiveling ball joint make the side spray easier and more comfortable to use
MasterClean^™ spray features an easy-to-clean surface that withstands mineral buildup.
Tall swing spout with 360^° spout rotation offers superior clearance for filling pots and cleaning.
Two lever handles offer separate control of hot and cold water.
1.5 gpm (5.7 lpm) maximum flow rate at 60 psi (4.14 bar)

Specs

Specs downloads a .pdf specification sheet that does not contain much in the way of actual specifications. It merely repeats the features list but adds a complete list of the faucet's certifications and reveals the faucet's primary material – almost always "premium metal", which tells you nothing.

The Spec sheet is a major disappointment.

Installation & Service Parts

These links, as you might expect, open the faucet's installation instructions and an exploded parts list, both .pdf documents.

The exploded parts list has a problem.

The full page cannot be displayed on a desktop monitor using any of the most popular browsers: Chrome, Edge, and Firefox with Windows 10 or 11. Making the diagram large enough to read moves most of it out of the viewing area. Making it small enough to fit in the viewing area makes it too small to read.

The only way to read the entire sheet is to print it.

It does display correctly on smartphones using the Android operating system. We did not check with an iPhone using the iOS operating system.

Design Files

This section lists 2D and 3D CAD drawings available for the faucet – files that are usually not of much interest to faucet buyers. But, they are very helpful to designers and specifiers.

The files are in just about every CAD format available.

Kohler Website Scoresheet

(Minimum Website Information)
Score: 61 out of 100

Grade: D

☑ ADA: Whether the faucet is suited for operation by persons with disabilities.
☑ Brand Name/Model/Name or Number: The name or number must be the same as the name or number that appears on the certificates 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, and Clearance from countertop to spout are the minimum dimensions needed to determine whether it will fit your sink.
☑ Drain Included: Lavatory faucets only.
☑ Exploded parts diagram: Provided as a link to a portable document format (.pdf) document, but the document is defective.
☑ 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.^[a]
☐ Faucet Material (Secondary): Aluminum, plastic, zinc/zinc alloy, etc.
☑ Finishes: All of the finishes in which the faucet is available.^[a}
☐ Finishing Process: Electroplate, PVD, powder coat, etc. specified for each finish available.^{^[b]}
☑ Flow Rates: Maximum flow rate(s) in gallons per minute (GPM).
☑ Valve Type: Compression, washerless, or ceramic cartridge.
☑ Valve Source: Where and by what company the valve is made.
☑ 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.
☐ Mounting Hole Diameter: The diameter of the mounting hole[s] required for installation, in inches.
☐ Spray Head Material: Brass, stainless steel, plastic, Hybrid (brass/plastic, steel/plastic), etc.^[c]
☑ Supply Hose Included: Whether 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.)[d]
☑ WaterSense: Lavatory faucets only.

(Checked boxes indicate specifications usually, but not always, provided on the Kohler website.)

[a] The primary faucet material is identified only as "premium metal", which could be brass, stainless steel, or a zinc/aluminum alloy. "Premium metal" has no established meaning in the vernacular or faucet industry jargon. It is simply a meaningless phrase that sounds impressive.

[b] The process used to produce each finish is provided elsewhere on the site, but not with the faucet listing.

[c] Most sprays are plastic, but some are not. Kohler does not indicate which are plastic.

[d] The warranty is online, but there is no link from a faucet listing to the warranty as required by federal warranty law.

Website Scoresheet

How much hard information were we able to glean from the various files and lists? Not all that much. At right (or below, depending on your screen display) is the scoresheet summary.

Faucet specifications listed in this schedule are the minimum required for a well-informed decision to buy a faucet. As you can see, Kohler provides slightly more than half of the needed information on its website.

You may be surprised to know, however, that it actually does better than most faucet companies. (And some Kohler retailers do better yet. See Ferguson's Build.com, for example.)

In our profit-making (sometimes) business, StarCraft Custom Builders we never buy a faucet for a project unless every one of these specifications is known.

Faucet Fundamentals

If you don't know why these minimum specifications are necessary, go to

Faucet Basics, Part 1: How Are Faucets Made?

and start reading. When you finish Part 8, you'll know.

If the information is not on the company website, we ask customer support. If the answer is not forthcoming, either because support agents don't know or have been asked not to tell, we look for another faucet.

We are not foolish enough to buy a faucet unless we know exactly what we are getting, especially since many of our customers prefer faucets in the $1,000.00+ price range.

But, even a $100.00 faucet is an investment in a lifetime product that should be spent wisely, so always make sure you have this basic information before you click that "Complete Purchase" button.

Kohler's Labor Relations

The transition to overseas manufacturing has not been without labor problems for Kohler including a strike by United Auto Workers Local 833 in 2015 to protest the outsourcing of fixture manufacturing to Kohler's Mexican factory and a demand by the union for the end of a two-tier pay system created in 2010 during the Great Recession.

The union felt that wage concessions made during the economic downturn were no longer needed after the economic recovery. The strike lasted 32 days before wage and benefits concessions by the company were accepted by union members.

Labor strikes are not new to Kohler which has had a contentious relationship with its U.S. workforce almost since its founding.

A 1934 labor strike at Kohler's Wisconsin plants turned violent, resulting in two dead and 43 injured in clashes between Kohler strikers and "special deputies" hired by the company to protect the plant. The National Guard was finally called in to restore order.

A government investigation after the strike was unable to identify the individuals responsible for the gun violence, attributing it to "several ruthless persons."

A second strike twenty years later in 1954 was the longest strike of a major corporation in U.S. history. It lasted six years.

Ultimately the National Labor Relations Board ruled that Kohler had refused to bargain in good faith and ordered the reinstatement of 1,700 union workers and payment of $4.5 million in back pay and pension benefits.

A strike in 1983 lasted just 16 days but was marred by violence almost from its first day with strikers hurling rocks at company property and the company's security force responding with tear gas.

A police SWAT team was brought in to restore order. Two strikers were killed when a motorist drove his vehicle through a picket line.

The company's labor problems have not been limited to domestic factories.

A 2005 report on working conditions by China Labor Watch identified multiple labor issues in Kohler's vitreous china factory in Foshan, many of them illegal even under very lax Chinese labor laws.

Among other restrictions, China limits workers' right to strike. Independent labor unions are illegal. The only legal union is the All-China Federation of Trade Unions, sanctioned by the Commuist Party, which is generally considered Wholly ineffective.

Kohler has since remedied the more egregious issues.

Testing & Certification

Kohler Co. has been recognized by the Environmental Protection Agency with a WaterSense^® Sustained Excellence Award.

The California Energy Commission sued Kohler Co. for illegally selling unapproved faucets in California from January 2018 to August 2020. The company paid a penalty of $12,826.00 to settle the suit in 2021.

Comparable Faucets

Faucets comparable to Kohler include:

Conclusions

Kohler is hard to classify.

Its faucet prices range from low mid-priced to premium. On the low side, it completes with budget faucets like those from

Faucet Street Price Comparison

In U.S. Dollars

Kohler makes stylish, well-crafted, reliable, work-a-day faucets designed to last drip-free year after year with scarcely a hiccup. Most designs will not make the design-glitterati do their "ooh" and "aah" thing, but they are plenty stylish enough for us regular folks.

The company's written warranty is largely a shambles, but it does not generally reflect the company's warranty practices, which is a good thing. In practice, the company handles valid warranty issues with dispatch and a minimum of bureaucratic nonsense.

We consider the company's faucets at all price levels to be a best value. The $130 online special is of the same quality as the $1,200 designer faucet purchased from a design studio. It would be hard to go wrong buying a Kohler faucet, but if you do get a clinker (and every company makes the occasional dud), you get help fast and reliably from the company's sterling customer support.

Be a little circumspect in selecting a finish, however. Powder-coats and "non-Vibrant" finishes (including Chrome^[10] and Brushed Stainless), have a very short one-year warranty period strongly suggesting that Kohler management has little faith in their durability or longevity. (What can possibly be a problem with electroplated Chome, we don't know.) But, if management suspects the non-Vibant finishes will fail after just one year, perhaps you should also.

Our rating panel was unanimous in its view of Kohler faucets. All would buy a Kohler for their own kitchen or bath "without hesitation" but only in a finish with a lifetime warranty.

Continuing Research

We are continuing to research the company. If you have experience with Kohler faucets, good, bad, or indifferent, we would like to hear about it. We are also looking for examples of Kohler faucets made in India, Thailand, or Indonesia. If you come across a faucet made in any of these countries, snap a photo of the box label showing the "Made in …" declaration and email the image to us.

Please note, we cannot answer questions posted in the comments below. If you have a question or information about Kohler faucets, email us at starcraftreviews@yahoo.com.)

Footnotes:

1. Rick Romell, "Kohler opens Faucet plant in India", Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 6/6/2001; "Kohler sets up a new Faucet plant in Jhagadia", Business Standard, 1/20/2013.

2. "Kohler Sets up 5th Factory in China", China.org.cn, 7/14/2004; Robbie Whelan, "Robotic Toilet Helps Turn Kohler Into a Net Exporter", Wall Street Journal, 3/28/2012.

3. A base faucet is a faucet minus its handles and finishes. A base model may have multiple handle styles available and many different finishes, all of which have their own model number, but all of which are usually made by the same manufacturer. For determining country of origin, all of these variations are counted as one "base faucet."

4. The North American life-cycle testing protocol set by the basic faucet standard, ASME A112.18.1, requires that valves and cartridges be tested through 500,000 cycles – equivalent to about 70 years of normal use in a kitchen. A robotic arm moves the faucet handle from off to full on, then off again; and it repeats this cycle 500,000 times. At one cycle per second around the clock, the test takes just under six days to complete. Four million cycles require about 48 days. If the cartridge fails at any time during the six days, it is not certified. This is the most rigorous standard in the world. European and Chinese standards required only 60,000 cycles.

Other proprietary cartridges have also been tested to very high cyclic rates. Faucets have been tested to 5 million cycles, a test that takes nearly 60 days to complete and is equivalent to 700 years of ordinary kitchen use.

For a video showing the operation of the type of machine that puts faucets through life-cycle testing, go here.

5. A micron or micrometer (international symbol: μm) is one-millionth of a meter. For comparison, a strand of spider-web silk is about 5 μm in diameter and the thickness of a sheet of ordinary copy paper is about 100 μm. The average person cannot see anything smaller than 50 μm.

6. The requirement that the original consumer purchaser own his or her home eliminates tenants from any warranty protection. The warranty requires that the original consumer purchaser continue to own his or her home for the lifetime warranty to remain in effect. It also requires that an original consumer purchaser own the rental dwelling in which a faucet is installed for the 10-year rental warranty to attach. A renter who buys a Kohler faucet and installs it in the home he or she rents does not qualify for either warranty since the home is owned by someone else. This is an example of poor legal drafting. A better expression would be that the original consumer purchaser "resides" in the home in which the faucet is originally installed."

7. The warranty defines "Americas" as "North America, Central America, the Caribbean and South America, excluding Brazil."

8. Organic finishes are what most other companies refer to as or sometimes "architectural" finishes usually defined as "A natural patina on a metal that is expected to change over time due to interaction with the environment, handling, and use." Examples include unlacquered copper, nickel, bronze, and some powder coatings.

Kohler does not at this time use any living finishes on its faucets.

9. If implied warranties attach to every sale by a merchant, how is it that you can buy a used car "as is" without a warranty?

Simple. Thirty-nine of the 54 states and territories and most Canadian provinces allow the sale of consumer products without an implied warranty if the seller clearly discloses the fact, that is, disclaims any implied warranties.

But the seller must do it the right way for it to be effective.

The seller must not provide his own written warranty on the vehicle. If he does, then the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act prohibits him from disclaming state-law implied warranties.

Second, the seller must comply with all of the common law requirements for disclaiming implied warranties. He must …

a. Make the disclaimer in writing,

b. At or prior to the time of sale,

c. Displayed or presented in a conspicuous manner so it will be noticed,

d. Using language that makes it clear and unmistakable what warranties are disclaimed, and

e. Provide the buyer with an opportunity to examine and test the product being purchased prior to the sale.

10. Actually, we think Chrome was omitted from the Kohler lifetime warranty through an oversight. The drafter of the very poorly written warranty simply forgot about Chrome. Customer support treats Chrome as having a lifetime warranty. But, before you buy a Chrome faucet, check with support to be sure.

Kohler Faucets Review & Rating Updated: October 14, 2024 Our panel of consu­mers and industry pro­fes­sion­als has rec­ognized Kohler fau­cets as a Best Val­ue in mid-priced fau­cets made or assembled in North Amer­ica. Read the Best Fau­­cet Val­ue Re­port for more in­for­ma­tion.