Aimadi Faucets Review & Rating Updated: 07/18/2023
(No North American Address)
Law Requirements
This company offers no written warranty on products its sells in the U.S. and Canada.
Learn more about faucet warranties.
This Company In Brief
Aimadi is a brand name under which Wenzhou Aimadi Technology Co. sells uncertified black market faucets through online retail sites that host third-party sellers.
It sells kitchen faucets of average quality and no particular design distinction. The designs are typical of Chinese faucets and may be found in the inventories of dozens of Chinese faucet companies.
Black Market Faucets: These faucets are not legal or sale in the U.S. and not legal for installation in a drinking water system in the U.S. or Canada. For more information on contraband faucets and how to avoid these potentially dangerous products, please visit Illegal and Black Market Faucets in North America.
The Company
Wenzhou Aimadi Technology Co., Ltd. holds itself out as a manufacturer that designs and makes the faucets it sells in North America.
Our research, however, suggests that it is a trading company rather than a manufacturer, selling all sorts of products in several countries. For example, its U. S. trade mark filing identifies the scope of its business to include:
"Electric lamps; Electric lights for Christmas trees; Faucets; Headlights for automobiles; Incandescent lamps; Light bulbs; Light bulbs, electric; Mixer taps for water pipes; Spigots; Taps; Washers for water taps; Air valves for steam heating installations; Flexible pipes being parts of bath plumbing installations; Hot water heating installations; Thermostatic valves as parts of heating installations. Basins in the nature of bowls; Bowls; Boxes for dispensing paper towels for household use; Clothes racks, for drying; Dishes for soap; Dustbins; Jugs; Plates; Porcelain mugs; Pots; Shoe polish applicators not containing shoe polish; Soap boxes; Soap dispensers; Soap holders; Toilet brushes; Toilet paper dispensers; Toilet paper holders; Toothbrushes, electric; Towel rails and rings; Coffee services in the nature of tableware; Dishers; Glass jars; Nonelectric kettles; Tea services in the nature of tableware; Works of art of earthenware, china, porcelain and ceramic."
Aimadi has no physical presnece in the U.S. or Canada.
All Aimadi sales transactions are handled in North America by hosting websites. Amazon in particular takes care of inventory, warehousing, sales, payment processing, and delivery.
Aimadi's sole role in the process is to ship faucets to Amazon warehouses from time to time, ensuring that Amazon does not run out of inventory.
Aimadi attmpts to handle post-sale matters from China by email. These include warranty claims and purchases of replacement parts other than the few sold on Amazon. The attempt, however, is not very successsful. (See more below)
Manufacturer(s)
Unfortunately, the best efforts of our team of experienced researchers were unable to discover the identity of the actual manufacturer(s) of Aimadi faucets. However, from disassembly and inspection, we identified the faucets to be of Chinese origin.
Construction & Materials
The primary material from which kitchen faucets sold by Aimadie in North America are made is brass.
Brass
Traditional (alpha) brass is a blend of copper and zinc with a small amount of lead (1.5% - 3.5%) added to make the material more malleable, less brittle, and easier to fabricate. Brass is the preferred material for faucets for two reasons:
- Brass is strong but easy to work with. It casts, forges, and machines with relative ease.
- Brass is naturally anti-microbial. The copper in brass kills microbes including bacteria, retarding the build-up of potentially hazardous germs inside a faucet.
But, brass has one serious drawback: it may contain lead.
Lead is now all but banned in North America for use in any drinking water component due to its toxicity to humans, particularly children.
According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), lead, even in small amounts, causes slowed growth, learning disorders, hearing loss, anemia, hyperactivity, and behavior issues.
To comply with the restrictions on lead, today's faucet brass replaces lead with other additives to reduce brittleness without adding toxicity. The most common is bismuth.
Bismuth is similar to lead – right next to lead on the periodic table of elements – but it is not harmful to humans.
It is, however, very expensive. It is 300 times rarer than lead, even rarer than silver, which is the reason that bismuth-brass alloys are considerably more expensive than leaded brass.
In China, the source of most off-brand faucets sold in the U.S. and Canada, there is no lead limit in drinking water, and faucets made in China for the domestic market often contain large amounts of lead.
Lead is still prized in Chinese manufacturing because it is plentiful, cheap, malleable, and resistant to corrosion. Lead compounds are regularly added to plastics and vinyl to make them more resistant to high temperatures. It is added to cheap metal products to make them seem more substantial by increasing their weight
Most faucets made in China for domestic use contain leaded brass, and the temptation, especially among Chinese companies selling low-cost faucets is to sell those lead-content faucets here. Whenever we see brass faucets made in China that have not been certified lead-free, we suspect leaded brass is being used. The faucets have not been certified because the seller knows they will not pass.
Zinc & Zinc/Aluminum Alloys
One legitimate way of reducing the material cost of a faucet is to replace expensive lead-free with lower-cost materials where practical. The most frequent substitute is zinc or a zinc-aluminum (ZA) alloy. One of the most common is called ZAMAK, a composition containing 4% aluminum.
Zinc is not as strong as steel and does not resist water pressure as well as steel. But, its use in non-pressurized parts of a brass faucet such as handles, base and wall plates, and is common even among manufacturers of luxury faucets.
It does no harm when used in these components, and may save consumers a few dollars on the price of the faucet.
Plastics
Plastic is the other commonly used substitute material. It may be safely used in incidental parts like base plates and has been largely trouble-free in aerators and as casings for ceramic cartridges but otherwise, its use is suspect especially if under water pressure.
Aimadi kitchen faucet spray heads are plastic and the use of plastic for spray heads (called "wands" in the faucet industry) is one of the suspect uses of the material.
Unfortunately, plastic wands have become the standard for many manufacturers, including some that sell upscale faucets such as
Manufacturers give three reasons for their use of plastic:
- Plastic does not get uncomfortably hot in use like metal wands;
- Plastic is not as heavy and is more comfortable to hold for long periods of time; and
- Plastic is a lot cheaper than brass or stainless steel – even cheaper than zinc.
However, plastic wands also fail much more often than metal wands. And although engineers have made significant improvements to their reliability over the past decade, the problem has not been entirely solved.
Better wands are made of metal, insulated against excessive heat transmittal.
The Sure Cure for Too-Hot Spray Wands: The simple cure for spray wands that get too hot is to reduce the temperature of the water. Dishes do not need to be rinsed in scalding hot water.
Aimadi Faucet Design & Styling
Aimadi faucets are modern spring-style pull-down kitchen faucets. No faucet in the Aimadi collection is a traditional style. The designs are conservative – fairly common Chinese designs, attractive enough but exhibiting no particular design originality.
The goal of Chinese faucet manufacturers is to sell as many faucets as possible, which means keeping their designs well within the mainstream to appeal to as many potential buyers as possible.
Although some Chinese manufacturers have begun producing original designs, some of which have won awards in international design competitions, Aimadi faucets are not from one of those companies.
Designs are usually adopted from Europe and North America.
A style that sells well in these major markets will often be imitated by Asian factories (with minor changes to avoid patent infringement). The lag time is usually 3 to 5 years, so by the time a design appears in a Chinese faucet it is no longer new.
Aimadi's faucet designs fit this pattern. They are pleasant and often smartly styled, but all are over a decade old.
Aimadi Faucet Components
The critical components used in Aimadi faucets are ceramic valve cartridges and aerators.
Valve Cartridges
We inspected several Aimadi valve cartridges and determined that they are modern ceramic valves in standard configurations of a type that is made by any number of Chinese manufacturers.
They were not imprinted with maker's marks which would permit us to identify the actual manufacturer.
As a general rule, manufacturers of better cartridge valves like Kerox Kft from Hungary or Sedal S.L.U. in China mark their cartridges for identification. The absence of identifying marks suggests a company that is not one of the top-rated manufacturers.
The Faucet Cartridge
Its cartridge is the heart of a modern faucet and should be your very first consideration when making a buying decision.
It is the component that controls water flow and temperature.
Its finish may fail and the faucet will still work. It may be discolored, corroded, and ugly but water still flows. If the cartridge fails, however, the faucet is no longer a faucet. It is out of business until the cartridge is replaced.
It's important, therefore, that the cartridge is robust, durable, and lasts for many years.
Aimadi claims that its valve cartridges have passed the standard North American life-cycle stress test. This test requires operating the cartridge through 500,000 cycles under 60 psi of water pressure without a single failure. At one cycle per second, the test takes six 24-hour days to complete.
If indeed the cartridge has passed this test, it is a fairly robust cartridge that should give years of leak-free service. But, since Aimadi does not identify its cartridges, we have no way to verify its claim.
Aerators
There are dozens of companies in China that manufacture aerators and spray-head assembles. Most are a least adequate. But some, like those from the Swiss company, Neoperl®, are little marvels of precision engineering.
Faucet used to be simple devices that merely added a little air to soften the water stream so it would not splash out of the sink.
Today, however, they are also used to limit water volume to the lower flows required by federal and state water conservation laws, and in some cases, to prevent back-flow that can result in the contamination of household drinking water.
It is important, therefore, that this little device, often smaller than a dime, be the best available.
Unfortunately, Aimadi does not identify the source of the aerators used in its faucets. We took several apart to see if the devices had any manufacturer identification, but they did not.
Aimadi Faucet Finishes
Aimadi offers six finishes on its faucets: Black, Brushed Nickel, Chrome, Gold, Oil-Rubbed-Bronze, and Gray.
A few faucets are available in in which a base finish is paired with an accent finish. Split finishes include Black with Gold and Black with Stainless.
Two of the finishes, Chrome and Brushed Nickel, are electroplated. Black, Grey, and Oil-Rubbed Bronze finishes are powder coatings. Gold may be a powder coating, but could also be applied using physical vapor deposition (PVD). Aimadi does not identify the processes used to apply its finishes, so we can't know for certain.
involves immersing the faucet and the metal to be used as plating in an acid bath, then applying an electrical charge to both objects so metallic ions are drawn from the plating metal to the faucet.
Usually, multiple coats are applied, one or more undercoats and then two or more coats of the finish metal.
The process is potentially hazardous to the operator and the environment. It involves toxic and corrosive chemicals that must be disposed of safely. No other coating technology even comes close to the dangers involved in electroplating.
The top coat may be polished or brushed. Chrome, a relatively hard metal, is usually polished to a high shine. Nickel, a softer metal, is usually brushed to help hide the inevitable minor scratches.
or PVD is one of the latest space-age faucet finishing technology, rapidly replacing electroplating as the finish of choice.
Although the technology was discovered in the 19th century, it was not used in industry until the 1950s and then only rarely due to its great expense. Its first use was in nuclear reactors. Today,the technology is everywhere and the machinery required is getting smaller, faster, and cheaper all the time.
The process itself is almost out of a science fiction movie.
Load a chamber with unfinished faucet components, remove all the air, and add back a carefully calculated mix of nitrogen or argon and reactive gases.
Add a rod of the metal to be used for the coating. Heat that rod to a temperature so high that the metal dissolves into individual atoms. The atoms mix with the various reactive gases to get the color and finish effects you want and are then deposited in a very thin layer – 2 to 5 microns – on the faucets.
Despite being just microns thick, a PVD coating is extremely dense and, in consequence, very hard and durable. By some estimates, it is up to 20 times more scratch-resistant than electroplated chrome.
From long experience, we know that PVD is nearly impossible to accidentally scratch or mar, never fades or changes color, and resists all forms of soiling.
It can usually be maintained with just an occasional wipe from a damp cloth to remove water spots. (And some PVD finishes are given a final chemical coating that resists water spots, so even the damp wipe is made largely unnecessary. A dry buff will do.)
is usually described as semi-durable
, not as robust as electroplated or PVD finishes, about as durable as the finish on your car, and requiring more care to maintain a like-new appearance.
It is essentially a dry paint in powder form applied using a special low-velocity spray gun that disperses the powder while giving it a positive electrical charge. The particles are drawn to the item to be finished which has been given a negative charge.
Finish Durability
Some finishes are more durable than others. Here are the Aimadi 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.
Once the powder is applied, the item being coated is baked in an oven which melts and bonds the powder and changes the structure of the coating into long, cross-linked molecular chains.
These chains are what give the coating its durability, reducing the risk of scratches, chipping, abrasions, corrosion, fading, and other wear issues.
Learn more the types and durability of faucet finishes at Faucet Basics, Part 5: Faucet Finishes.
Finish Care Instructions: Always read and follow the faucet seller's care instructions. Careful cleaning and maintenance not only preserve the good looks of your faucet but also your finish warranty, if any.
Aimadi Warranty
Amadi does not guarantee its faucets with a written warranty. The only protection against a defective product that it allows is a 30-day right to return a faucet that has not been installed. Of course, most defects are not discovered until a faucet is installed, so this provision sounds like a Catch-22 to us.
Aimadi, by its lack of a warranty, is telling you that it does not have enough confidence in the durability or longevity of its faucets to guarantee them for more than 30 days.
Aimadi Website
The Aimadi website is well-organized, colorful, and easy to navigate. It does not provide enough information about its faucets, however, for an informed buying decision.
Almost all of the specifications critical to an informed faucet buying decision are missing. Among the most critical are:
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Faucet Valve:
No information is provided about a faucet's valve, not even the fact that it is a ceramic cartridge valve.
- But, in addition to this basic specification, the buyer needs to know the name of the cartridge manufacturer. There are good ceramic cartridges and not-so-good ceramic cartridges.
- To make an informed buying decision the buyer needs to know the manufacturer. Otherwise, there is no way to judge the quality of the cartridge.
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Type of Finish:
The type of finish is not disclosed. The type of finish (electroplated, powder coating, PVD, etc.) is important to the long-term durability of the finish.
- If the top (wear) coat of the faucet finish is a lacquer, a powder coat, or anything other than a non-reactive metal, long-term wearability is substantially reduced.
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Warranty:
The Aimadi warranty is mentioned on the website with an opportunity to "activate" the warranty. But, the warranty document is nowhere to be found.
- U.S. law requires a consumer product warranty be made available to the buyer prior to the sale of the product.
- For faucets sold only online, this means the warranty must be on the seller's website, and a conspicuous link to the warranty provided from every place on the internet the faucet is sold. Aimadi does not comply with either requirement.
These are just some of the many gaps in the basic information that should be provided on a faucet company website that is not available on the Aimadi site.
Aimadi Testing & Certifications
Comparable Faucets
Faucets made in China comparable to Aimadi in quality with the same or a better warranty, but not necessarily comparable for design or price, include
Conclusions
There is absolutely no reason to buy Aimadi faucets. They are much too mysterious and much too risky for use in a home kitchen.
1. Price is not enough. The prices on Aimadi faucets make them attractive, but, as the list above demonstrates, a great many other companies sell good quality Chinese-made faucets for about the same price that are fully certified, legal to use in a drinking water system, and backed by a warranty of some kind. Many are guaranteed for the lifetime of the buyer.
2. They have not been certified so the presence of toxic substances like lead, arsenic, cadmium, and mercury in the faucet has not been excluded. Because these are Chinese-made products, lead is a substantial risk due to the lack of lead regulation in China.
3. We don't know and have no means of identifying of the actual manufacturer of the faucet or the cartridge used in the faucet, so we cannot judge the reliability or estimate the longevity of the faucet.
4. Aimadi offers no warranty on the faucets, suggesting that even the seller has no confidence in the long-term durability of the faucets.
4. The faucets cannot be legally installed in a drinking water system anywhere in the U.S. or Canada. A plumber probably will not install one for you, and if you do it yourself you risk, at the very least, having to replace the faucet with a legal product and the possibility in some jurisdictions of a fine and a little jail time.
We are continuing to research the company. If you have experience with Aimadi faucets, good, bad, or indifferent, we would like to hear about it, so please contact us or post a comment below.