Perrin & Rowe Faucets Review & Rating Updated: 04/01/23
Unit 1
Gateway XIII
Gateway XIII
Rainham, RM13 9JY
England
Distributed By
Rohl, LLC
3 Parker
Irvine, California 92618-1605
(800) 777-9762
Law Requirements
Footnotes:1. The term "lifetime" is not defined and would be given its normal meaning: the actual lifetime of the buyer.2. Some finishes, are excluded. See main text for details.3. The warranty has some substantial legal defects that would have only a limited impact on the warranty claims process, but would probably invalidate most of the restrictions and exclusions written into the warranty in any court challenge.
Download the Perrin & Rowe faucet warranty by Rohl.
Learn more about faucet warranties.
This Company In Brief
Perrin & Rowe Ltd is an English company that manufactures faucets, shower sets, and bath and kitchen accessories in the English classical style reflecting the Victorian, Edwardian, and Art Deco periods from the mid-19th to the mid-20th century.
To complement its faucets, it also offers a complete line of matching shower sets, bidet faucets, and accessories such as towel bars and robe hooks. There are even coordinating trip levers for the toilet.
North America is the company's largest export market where distribution is handled by , Perrin & Rowe's sole distributor in North America.
Founded in 1978 by two design and production engineers, Robert Perrin and Gregory Rowe, as Avilion Limited to manufacture high-quality machined components for industry, the name of the company was changed to Triflow Concepts Limited in 2010 then to TCL Manufacturing Limited, and finally to Perrin & Rowe to better reflect the brand name of the line of products the company manufactures.
The company has always had a close relationship with a U.S.-based distributor of European and New Zealand faucets.
Rohl was instrumental in persuading then Avilon, Ltd. to venture into faucet manufacturing by guaranteeing the fledgling company a ready market in the U.S. Rohl is still the exclusive distributor of Perrin & Rowe faucets in North America.
In 2014 Rohl, LLC cemented the relationship by buying a 50% interest in TCL. The acquisition announcement indicated that the companies would continue to operate as separate concerns with current CEO, Steven Cole directing TCL. Lou Rohl, the CEO of Rohl, LLC has a seat on the governing board and is listed in Companies House filings as the company's chief executive.
In 2016 Fortune Brands Home & Security, Inc., the owner of
It appears that Fortune Brands intends to recast Perrin & Rowe as a separate company, under the umbrella of its new Global Plumbing Group that will include the Moen, Perrin & Rowe and Rohl brands.
Fortune Brands does not own Jorger, it is merely the distributor of the company's product in North America.
TCL manufactures in Rainham, Kent.
The company is unusual in that it does not seem to import any of its faucet components from outside the European Union.
Most faucet manufacturers import at least simple faucet parts from China or Taiwan. Based on customs records, TCL does not appear to do so.
The company is the inventor of the Tri-flow® faucet which combines hot, cold, and filtered drinking water in the same faucet, eliminating the need for an additional faucet for filtered water. It incorporates the Tri-flow technology into some Perrin & Rowe faucets but also manufactures Tri-Flow faucets for the Swiss-based faucet company,
The design of the faucets is English classical, favoring the late Victorian and Edwardian eras. The company's literature states that
...[c]lassical design does not go out of date but has a timeless elegance that sits comfortably alongside a wide range of architectural styles. Perrin & Rowe is the real thing: authentic quality and classical styling which ensures that each product item will stand the test of time.
The faucets are suitable for a bath or kitchen with pre-1940's styling.
Several collections address late 19th and early 20th century Victorian and Edwardian decors and an Art Deco collection takes care of the Arts and Crafts period from 1910 to the start of the Second World War.
For contemporary styles, you will have to move over to one of Rohl's other product lines. Perrin & Rowe does not do contemporary.
The faucets are available in eight standard finishes: polished chrome, nickel, pewter, gold, and English bronze.
The polished chrome has a truly spectacular hand-polished finish. The company describes pewter as a "brushed nickel finish that looks like stainless steel" and English bronze as a "chocolate brown colored satin finish," a color we would ordinarily think of as oil rubbed bronze.
Three of the finishes are intended to tarnish over time: polished brass, satin brass, and aged brass. We see no reason why these are not considered the same finish.
Satin brass and polished brass will turn into aged brass very quickly unless polished every week or so.
If you don't want the look of aged brass and don't want to polish the faucet every few days to keep that new-brass look, we suggest you pick another finish or even another faucet line, one that has a PVD polished or satin brass finish. PVD brass does not tarnish (because it's not really brass. It just looks like brass.)
The Perrin & Rowe faucet warranty provided by Rohl is about at the standard for faucet warranties in North America. Rohl will replace a defective part and even a whole defective faucet if necessary, for the "lifetime" of the original owner.
The electronics in touchless faucets have a 5-year warranty. Special finishes and are not covered by any warranty. It is normal in the industry to exclude living finishes from any warranty protection.
The warranty contains multiple drafting errors,
We doubt that it was written by a lawyer, but if it was, he or she needs a refresher on warranty law.
As written, the warranty does not comply with the federal Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act (15 U.S.C. §2308), the federal law that dictates the minimum content of and sets the rules for consumer product warranties in the United States.
While the warranty caption offers a lifetime guarantee against manufacturing defects in the faucet, the term "lifetime" is never defined. This lack of definition violates the Magnuson-Moss requirement for a "clear and explicit" statement of the duration of a consumer warranty.
The term "lifetime" is not self-defining. It could have many meanings: the lifetime of the buyer, the lifetime of the faucet, even the lifetime of the company. The term is ambiguous without a clear definition. U.S. warranty law does not permit ambiguity in a faucet warranty. Where ambiguity exists, it must be resolved in favor of the consumer under the dotrine of "contra proferentem". So, whichever lifetime is most benefits the buyer will be the lifetime that applies.
Certain other terms such as "normal domestic use" and "excess mineral deposits" are also not defined. We have no idea what makes domestic use "normal" or what constitutes "excess" mineral deposits, and we suspect none else does either.
We have had a handful of complaints about Rohl's warranty service being unresponsive and not very prompt at returning e-mails or telephone calls. Our test of the company's service was satisfactory. The Better Business Bureau has received no complaints about the company. Rohl is not, however, accredited by the BBB.
The faucets are of excellent quality throughout. The single function valves used in the company's two-handle faucets appear to be made by Anton Tränkle GmbH & Co KG, a German manufacturer of high-quality brass cartridges. We have not positively identified the mixer cartridges used in the company's single-handle faucets but they are probably by Kerox, a Hungarian manufacturer of good to excellent cartridges.
To complement its faucets, TCL offers a complete line of matching shower sets, bidet faucets, and accessories such as towel bars and robe hooks. There are even coordinating trip levers for the toilet. For the kitchen, accessories are limited to soap dispensers.
Rohl vigorously enforces sales only through authorized outlets. The company will not provide product support for faucets purchased from an unauthorized retailer, including internet sellers of lower-cost European versions of the faucets it sells. Be wary of counterfeit Rohl faucets sold through non-traditional venues such as e-Bay. Rohl discourages discounting and maintains a strict advertised price protection policy. No authorized distributor is permitted to advertise a discount greater than 25% below the company's published list price.
Faucets comparable to Perrin & Rowe in quality but not necessarily in design include
Not all of these brands are of the same quality as Perrin & Rowe faucets.
We are continuing to research the company. If you have experience with Perrin & Rowe faucets, good, bad, or indifferent, we would like to hear about it, so please contact us or post a comment below.