Bio Bidet & Flow Faucets Review & Rating Updated: May 10, 2024
Law Requirements
Warranty Footnotes:1. "100% Coverage of all parts and Bio Bidet labor for the entire product for the five years from original date of purchase."Download/Read/Print the Bio Bidet faucet warranty.Learn more about faucet warranties.
This Company In Brief
Bemis manufactures extruded plastic products and sells imported toilet seats and other bathroom fixtures, including automatic faucets as Bio Bidet and Bio Bidet Innovation.
The faucets are neither manufactured by Bemis nor manufactured in the U.S. The company that makes them is located in China.
The faucets are backed by a substandard warranty that does not meet the requirements of the federal law governing the form and content of consumer product warranties.
Beemis Manufacturing traces its roots to 1901 as the manufacturer of wooden toy wagons with an innovative and patented steering mechanism. Its introduction to plumbing products occurred in 1935 when it began making wood toilet seats for its Sheboygan neighbor,
It still manufactures toilet seats, but now out of plastic, which it sells under the Bemis, Church, Mayhfair, Westport, and Oisonite brands sold at Ace Hardware, Bed Bath & Beyond, Do-It Best Hardware, and Meijer Hardware stores. Bemis and Church toilet seats are also sold by big box lumber stores such as Home Depot and Lowe's, by general merchandizers like Amazon, and by dedicated plumbing supply stores including Grainger, Ferguson, and Winnelson.
The Company
Bemis Manufacturing is a subsidiar ofOrganized as Coaster Wagon Works by Arthur White in 1901, Bemis changed its name in 1938 after expanding into plastic molding. It is still privately owned by the Bemis family. Its current CEO, Vesla Hoeschen, is the fourth generation of family members who have managed the company.
Its products, according to the company's Wikipedia entry, include plastic furniture, suction canisters, sharps waste containers, fluid management systems, gas caps, gauges and various extrusion and injection molded plastic parts for companies such as John Deere and Whirlpool Corporation."
Bio Bidet is a Bemis subsidiary. Its principal business is the importation and sale of the washlet-style toilets pioneered by the Japanese sanitary wares manufacturer, Toto, Ltd., and devices that convert ordinary toilets into washlet-style toilets.
It sells two types:
- Nodels that do not require electricity and clean with a stream of unheated tap water and
- The (understandably) far more popular models that heat the water electrically but require an electrical outlet somewhere near the toilet, something most bathrooms do not have.
Its two additional products are towels and faucets. Both are just a minor part of its sales.
The Faucets
Bio Bidet's foray into selling faucets is just a decade old.
It sells a total of six faucets. Five are kitchen faucets and one is for the bathroom lavatory.
Hands-Free Operation
The faucets are all hands-free, although the term "hands-free" is not strictly accurate.
They turn water on and off with the wave of the hand in front of a sensor, a technology that dates to a 1980s invention by Australian engineer Norman Wareham. They do not, however, control water temperature or flow rate, both of which must still be set manually.
If power to a Bio Bidet Kitchen faucet is interrupted, it can be operated manually. The lavatory faucet does not permit manual operation. If it loses power it is out of business until power is restored.
Hands-free faucets were invented for public washrooms as a hygiene measure to prevent the spread of disease. For domestic use, the faucets are sold primarily for convenience.
Restroom faucets normally turn themselves off after a few minutes to conserve water. Domestic models do not usually have this feature and must be shut off by a subsequent hand wave.
Power Source
Some sort of electrical power is needed to operate the faucets. This may be stepped-down line voltage or batteries.
The Bio Bidet versions all run on batteries. As a power source, batteries have both good and bad points. They must be replaced periodically. The company claims that they can last as long as a year before needing replacement. User experience is between six and nine months in a typical kitchen. On the other hand, they are not subject to periodic failures of the power grid.
Other companies sell hands-free kitchen faucets powered by house current. Unfortunately, Bio Bidet does not — not yet, anyway. Most modern kitchens have one or more electrical outlets under the sink for the disposer and dishwasher, so household current is not hard to find.
An outlet suitable for a hands-free bathroom faucet is still rare in most bathrooms. Any outlet near a lavatory sink is usually 36-48" above the floor and not suitable for powering a faucet. In this location, battery power is the winner.
The very best option for powering hands-free operation is household current with a rechargeable battery backup. These are available in other faucet brands that are usually a lot more expensive than Bio Bidet faucets.
The Manufacturer
All or almost all of Bio Bidet's products are imported. Faucets are no exception.
The faucets are made by Xiamen Forbetter (or Fangte) Sanitary Ware Co., Ltd., a Chinese manufacturer. It is a known producer of good quality lead-free faucets.
It is somewhat of an expert at the manufacture of hand-free faucets, including developing and engineering its own electronic sensor controls. It has received dozens of Chinese patents on its innovations and at least three U.S. patents.
Forbetter sells its faucets in other parts of the world under its registered FBT faucet brand.
It is a subsidiary of Xiamen Lota International Co., Ltd., a very well-known Chinese company that manufactures faucets and faucet components for the who's who of North American faucet sellers, including:
among many others.
Lota is in turn a subsidiary of Luda Industrial Co., Ltd., owned by Taiwan citizen Wu Caipan and his family.
Luda operates six major factories in Xiamen with branch factories in Fuzhou, Zhuhai, and Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. The company and its subsidiaries manufacture faucets, showers, tub fillers, bathroom accessories, locks, cabinets, and various other kitchen and bathroom home products made of metal.
Faucet Construction & Materials
Faucet construction is modified "core and shell." The use or this method or contstruction is how the company can keep its prices low and still sell good quality faucets.
In a conventional faucet the faucet body and spout carry water and also give the faucet its shape and appearnace. In core and shell, water management and appearance are partly or wholly divorced. Water is directed through a copper or PVC tube (the core). This core is then concealed inside a decorative outer skin (the shell) that gives the faucet its shape and style.
Because the shell never touches water, it does not need to be lead-free. And, because it is not structural, it can be made of a material with less strength than brass.
This is usually a zinc alloy. The most common is an alloy called ZAMAC (for its metal content: Zinc, Aluminum, Magnesium, and Copper) developed by the New Jersey Zinc Company in 1929.
Core and Shell Construction
Core and shell technology is not new in faucet manufacturing.
Wall-mounted faucets have always been core and shell. The core (usually called the "valve" or "rough") is mounted in the wall and the shell (usuallly called the "trim") is the skin that conceals the core.
Spray hoses can be a source of faucet failure in pulldown and pullout kitchen faucets.
It is not uncommon for hoses to become snagged on objects under the sink. To reduce the problem, some companies have introduced devices to prevent snagging. for example, has what is essentially a hose reel called an sBox that eliminates snagging.
Some types of hoses are more trouble-free than others.
Hoses are typically mad of polyvinyl chloride (PVC).
The least expensive PVC hoses are reinforced with nylon or polyester strands for additional strength. Better hoses, however, are wrapped in a protective sheath.
Stainless steel makes the most durable wrap. Its disadvantage, however, is that it is noisy, making a rasping sound when pulled out and again when retracted. Some people find the noise distracting.
The compromise is the nylon braided wrapper: not quite as durable as steel, but a lot quieter in operation.
In our examination of Bio-Bidet faucets, we found this type of hose.
What's new is that the technique is now being applied to deck-mounted faucets and the core, rather than being brass is a lead-free metal, usually copper, or a composite material such as PEX.
ZMAK Faucet Handles Before and After Finishing
Zinc is easily identified by its dull gray color. Zinc faucet handles shown before (top) and after chrome plating.There is virtually no stress on a faucet handle, so zinc works well in this faucet component or any other component not under water pressure. In core and shell construction, it can be used as the shell without diminishing the quality of the faucet.
faucets are already all core and shell construction with a zinc alloy shell.
Why Not Brass?
Brass is the traditional primary faucet material. It is strong but easy to work with. Brass casts, forges, and machines with relative ease. Brass is also anti-microbial. The copper in brass kills bacteria, retarding the build-up of potentially hazardous microbes inside a faucet.
Brass has one serious drawback, however. Most alloys of brass contain metallic lead. Ordinary (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.
Lead, however, is now all but banned in North America in any drinking water component due to its toxicity to humans, particularly children, and its tendency to leach into water passing through brass components.
According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), lead, even in small amounts, causes slowed growth, learning disorders, hearing loss, anemia, hyperactivity, and behavior issues.
Before 2014, a faucet sold in the U.S. or Canada could contain as much as 8% lead and still call itself lead-free.
Now the maximum lead content of those parts of a faucet that touch water is 0.25% (1/4 of 1%), basically just a bare trace. Indeed, there may be more lead in the air you breathe than there is in a faucet that has been certified lead-free.
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 why bismuth-brass alloys are considerably more expensive than leaded brass.
This increased cost has encouraged many faucet manufacturers to use substitute materials where possible and redesign faucets to use less brass.
Core and shell construction is one of the better answers to the brass problem. It Uses very little lead-free brass, if any at all, without sacrificing strength, durability, or safety by using alternative metals.
Zinc
Zinc is a common alternative to brass in faucets. It is easy to cast and machine, and takes finishes very well. Zinc or, more likely, a zinc-aluminum (ZA) alloy can replace brass in almost any part of the faucet not under water pressure.
Zinc is not as strong as brass and does not resist constant water pressure as well as brass. However, its use in non-pressurized parts of a brass faucet such as handles, base and wall plates, and is commonplace event in faucets advertised as "all brass."
Some major faucet companies, including faucets have been almost completely converted to core and shell.
Most of mid-priced Delta-brand faucets still use brass shells but not being under water pressure, the brass is not structural and can be relatively thin. The brass does not need to be lead-free since the water flowing through the faucets does not touch the shell.
Bio Bidet's faucets use a "non-metallic"or copper tube [1] for their waterways. The shell of the faucets is a zinc-aluminum (ZA) alloy.
Plastics
Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene (ABS), a low-cost, easily manufactured, non-toxic, impact-resistant plastic is commonly used substitute material for brass. It can be safely used in incidental faucet 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 constant water pressure.
Among those suspect uses is in the spray heads of Bio Bidet's kitchen faucets.
Unfortunately, plastic spray heads (called "wands" in the faucet industry) have become the standard for many manufacturers, including some that sell upscale faucets such as
Proponents of the material give three reasons for the 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, ABS plastic degrades over time from exposure to ulta violet and is 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 for long-term use in faucets, products that most consumers consider lifetime products.
Although 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.
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.
The Faucet Components
Two components of a faucet are critical to its long-term trouble-free functioning: valve cartridges and aerators. The valve cartridges control water flow and temperature. Aerators shape and moderate the stream of water emitted from the faucet.
Valve Cartridges
We do not know for certain who makes the valve cartridges used in Bio Bidet faucets. The cartridges in the faucets we examined did not have maker marks that identify the manufacturer.
Bio Biden's website has no information on its valve cartridges other than the fact that they are of the newer ceramic technology. Nor does it list valve cartridges as one of the replacement parts that it sells, which is unusual. Most faucet failures occur in the cartridges, so they are commonly available from the faucet seller as replacement parts.
We asked the company to identify its cartridge sources.
How to Clean a Ceramic Valve Cartridge
If your faucet starts to drip after several years, the problem is most likely in the valve cartridge.
The cartridge is probably not defective. It is just clogged up with mineral deposits accumulated over the years from hard water.
The two ceramic discs that shut the water off no longer mesh completely, allowing a few drops of water to slip through.
To return it to full functionality, removing the lime scale deposits is all that is required.
Here is how that can be done:
- Remove the cartridge following the instructions in your faucet manual.
- Soak the cartridge for up to 30 minutes in a solution of 50% household vinegar and 50% water.
- While you are waiting, take a toothbrush soaked in the vinegar/water mixture and clean the cavity in the faucet that holds the cartridge. Wipe it dry with a clean cloth.
- Rinse the cartridge thoroughly in clean cold water.
- Lubricate the O-ring(s) and rubber washers with silicon plumber's grease
- Reinstall the cartridge.
If the mineral build-up is substantial, you may have to do this more than once.
Generally, companies that go to the expense of buying good quality valve cartridges for their faucets have no problem telling us all about them — usually more than we want to know.
Bio Bidet, however, chose not to respond to our email requests for its valve sources.
All of the company's faucets are single-handle and require what is called a mixing cartridge. Despite the improving quality of Asian mixing cartridges, the best are still made in Europe.
The premier manufacturer is probably Kerox, a Hungarian manufacturer that specializes in mixing cartridges.
Another is CeramTec cartridges made in Germany. CeramTec was a pioneer in technical ceramics in the early 1980s. It developed the standard cartridge designs used by most cartridge manufacturers today, including those mentioned in this review. Standardization makes cartridges from most manufacturers interchangeable. A 35mm valve cartridge, no matter who makes it, will fit a faucet requiring a 35mm cartridge.
Of the Asian valve cartridge manufacturers, two companies stand out for single-handle mixing cartridges.
The first is Geann Industrial Co., Ltd. in business for over 30 years, It is an established Taiwanese manufacturer of ceramic disc cartridges building a reputation for its good to excellent quality and gaining recognition as a cartridge on par with many of the better European products.
It is becoming the cartridge-maker of choice for faucet companies that buy their faucets from Asian manufacturers, including
Bio Bidet's manufacturer, Forbetter Sanitary, and the rest of the Lota Group have a preference, however, for Sedal cartridges.
Sedal S.L.U. is somewhat behind Geann in quality but still makes a sturdy cartridge.
It is a technical ceramics company chartered in Spain and headquartered in Barcelona but manufacturing in China. It is a favored cartridge of Chinese manufacturers producing faucets for the North American and European markets.
Sedal makes a substantial cartridge and improving year by year and should give many years of drip-free service, but is not yet up to the quality of the best European products.
Valve Cartridge Testing & Certification
No matter where valve cartridges are made or by whom, they have to be tested and certified to minimum North American standards to be used in a faucet sold in the U.S. or Canada. Minimum North American standards are very tough and the cartridges in Bio Bidet faucets have passed the tests and meet the standards.
The Shape of Water
Aerators shape water into several types of streams. Here are the most common:
-
Aerated Flow:
To create an aerated stream, a device located at the end of the faucet's spout called an aerator introduces air into the water flow. - Air softens the stream, making it less likely to splash.
-
Laminar Flow:
Laminate flow is a less common process for producing a water flow that is splash-less. - Water droplets are constrained to travel along smooth, parallel paths without any intermixing or disruption between the adjacent columns of water. This softens the water flow without introducing air.
- For home use, laminar flow is most often found in trough-style faucets, sometimes called "waterfall faucets."
-
Spray:
To create a spray, aerators re-route the water through tiny apertures that separate the single stream into dozens of tiny streams and simultaneously cut off air intake so the water is no longer aerated, making the spray more powerful. - Sophisticated sprays also increase the water volume, usually from 1.8 to 2.2 gallons per minute (the legal maximum flow) to give even more power to the spray for rinsing dishes.
Life-Cycle Test
The North American cartridge life-cycle stress test requires operating the valve cartridges through 500,000 cycles under 60 pounds per square inch (psi) of water pressure[2] without a single failure.
That's not a typo, a full half-million cycles are required. At one cycle per second, the test takes six days to complete.
Life-Cycle Stress Testing: For a video showing the operation of the type of machine that puts faucets through life-cycle testing, go here. Warning: it's very noisy.
In other countries, the standards are much less rigorous. The European (EN 817) life-cycle test is just 70,000 cycles and the Chinese requirement (GB18145) is a mere 30,000 cycles.
Burst Test
A second stress test, informally known as the "burst test," subjects the cartridges to a water pressure surge of 500 psi – 10 times typical household water pressure for one minute. If the cartridge leaks or deforms under this pressure, it fails.
Aerators
are another critical faucet component.
Faucet aerators used to be simple devices, often just several layers of aluminum or copper mesh, that added a little air to soften the water stream so it would not splash out of the sink.
The days of simple aerators, however, are largely gone.
Today, aerators are precision devices engineered by companies like the Swiss-based Neoperl or the Italian Amfag S.r.l., which are also used to
- Limit water volume to the lower flows required by federal and state water conservation laws,
- Shape the stream of water, and
- Prevent backflow that can result in the contamination of household drinking water.
It is important, therefore, that this device be the best available.
Bio Bidet does not identify the source of its aerators on its website and did not respond to our written requests for that information. We took several apart to see if the devices had any manufacturer identification, but they did not.
Buying Tip for Smart Faucet Buyers
Never buy a faucet if you don't know the manufacturer of the valve cartridge or aerator. The quality of these two components largely determines whether the faucet is a lifetime product or one that will fail within a few years. If customer service cannot provide the information, ask to speak to someone who can. If you cannot get the information, something fishy is going on. Move on to another faucet company.
If a manufacturer is unknown to you, we will be glad to send you what information we have on the company. Mail us at starcraftreviews@yahoo.com. We will respond within one business day. We do not charge for this service.
The aerators in Bio Bidet kitchen faucets are built into spray heads, which makes their functioning even more critical since they must maintain an ability to switch back and forth between aerated stream and solid spray.
The spray heads in the company's pulldown faucets also activate water flow as soon as they are disengaged from their base, a welcome feature but one that additionally complicates aerator functioning.
Most aerator malfunctions are caused by mineral buildup from hard water, so the fix is the same as that for cartridges. Soak the spray head in a mixture of 50/50 water and household vinegar for up to 30 minutes to dissolve the lime scale. See How to Clean a Ceramic Valve Cartridge.
Faucet Finishes
Bio Bidet faucet finishes include Polished Chrome, Brushed Nickel, Oil-Rubbed Bronze, Matte Black, and a finish called Champagne which is a matte brass.
Chrome and Brushed Nickel are the standard finishes, available on every faucet. The others can be found on some faucets but will usually add slightly to the price of the faucet.
We would like to tell you about the processes used by Bio Bidet to produce its finishes. However, like all of the rest of the information we requested from the company, it chose not to respond to our written requests for information.
What we do know about the finishes we got from examining the faucets and making educated guesses.
Electroplating
Chrome is .
Electroplating is the oldest form of metal coating, using a process discovered in 1890 by Luigi Brugnatelli, an Italian chemist but it did not come into widespread industrial use until the 1840s.
It involves immersing faucet components 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 components.
Finish Durability
Some finishes are more durable than others.
Here are common types of faucet finishes and their durability from most to least durable.
- (PVD) finishes are 10 to 20 times more scratch-resistant than electroplated chrome.
-
, electroplating is a process of coating one metal with another using an electric current to transfer the metal ions through an acid bath. `The process has been used to finish faucets since early in the 19th century.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.
- 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 resistance to scratches and mars as the finish on your car.
Usually, multiple coats are applied, one or more undercoats, and then two or more coats of the finish metal. The undercoats are required because many plating metals do not bond well with brass. An undercoat of copper or nickel is usually applied as a primer. They bond well to brass and chrome bonds well to copper and nickel.
Physical Vapor Deposition (PVD)
Brushed nickel is identified by the faucets' manufacturer as a (PVD) finish.
PVD is one of the latest space-age faucet finishing technologies, 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. Today, PVD technology is everywhere, and the machinery required is getting smaller, faster, and cheaper all the time.
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.
No faucet company guarantees its finishes against careless cleaning.
To create a PVD coating, a faucet is first electroplated, typically with a nickel compound, then polished and thoroughly cleaned.
An undercoat is almost always required — usually a highly polished nickel or chrome plating, for two reasons.
first, a PVD coating is too thin to protect the underlying materials from corrosion, so a barrier coat, usually nickel, must be applied over materials that corrode, such as brass, before the PVD finish is applied.
Second, a PVD finish has no gap-filling properties whatsoever. It takes on the exact configuration of the object being coated, so an absolutely smooth, polished surface is needed before PVD is applied. Nickel polishes nicely and bonds well to brass, so it is a common choice.
The PVD coating is applied in a sealed chamber that is loaded with unfinished faucet components. All the air is removed and replaced by a carefully calculated mix of nitrogen or argon and reactive gases.
A rod of the metal to be used for the finish is heated to a temperature so high that the metal dissolves into individual atoms. Typical plating metals are nitrides of zirconium and titanium, both non-reactive metals that do not tarnish, corrode, rust, or change color.
The atoms mix with the various reactive gases to get the desired color and finish effects and are then deposited in a very thin film – 2 to 5 – on the faucets.
With the first PVD machines, the mix of gasses was left up to the operator who had to be part scientist and part artist to reliably reproduce a finish time after time. Today, however, the mix is controlled by computer. To get a particular finish, the operator merely selects the finish in the computer and the machine takes care of blending the proper gas mix.
Despite being just microns thick, a PVD coating is extremely dense and, in consequence, very hard and durable. By some estimates, PVD chrome is up to 20 times more scratch-resistant than electroplated chrome.
Powder Coating
The remaining finishes, Oil-Rubbed Bronze, Matte Black, and Champagne, most likely, are .
A powder coat is usually described as semi-durable
, not as robust as electroplated or PVD finishes, somewhat more durable than the finish on your car. In use, it requires more care to maintain a like-new appearance.
It is 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.
Once the powder is applied, the item being coated is baked in an oven to melt the coating, changing its structure 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.
The Faucet Warranty
We found two different Bio Bidet faucet warranties. The online warranty differs from the warranty packaged in the box with the faucets as part of "Installation, Operating & Maintenance Instructions."
Having two different warranties on the same product is not permitted under U.S. law due to a scam that was fairly common in the days before Magnuson-Moss and one of the abuses the federal law was enacted to prevent.
A company would publish a generous warranty to encourage a consumer to buy a product, then replace it with a much more restrictive warranty packed in the box once the consumer had bought the product.
The practice is called a "warranty shuffle" — a form of bait and switch
. It is now very illegal and prohibited by Magnuson-Moss.
Our first task in analyzing the Bio Bidet warranty is determining which warranty is the legal warranty.
We chose the online version because the in-box warranty is not delivered to the buyer until after the sale of the faucet. Therefore, it does not comply with the Magnuson-Moss pre-sale availability rule. A consumer product warranty must be available to be read by a prospective buyer before the sale of the product. The online warranty meets the pre-sale availability rule (somewhat).
However, most of our observations about the online warranty also apply to the in-box warranty.
Neither warranty rises to the standard for North American faucet warranties. The five-year term of the warranties is much shorter than the standard lifetime warranty pioneered by over a half-century ago.
The warranties are not well written (lawyers say "drafted"). Related provisions are jumbled in no particular order. Critical terms are not defined, requiring the reader to judge their meaning from context. There is also considerable redundancy with many provisions unnecessarily stated at least twice.
Additionally, the warranty fails to comply with the minimum requirements for consumer product warranties as set out in the federal Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act (15 U.S.C. §2301) and the regulations promulgated by the Federal Trade Commission governing such warranties.
Interpreting the Warranty
Generally, the length of a faucet company's warranty is a very good indicator of how long a company's management truly thinks its products will last without breaking.
A company's marketing materials may gush about its "durable parts with long lifespans" and its "tough and hassle-free" faucets but its real opinion about the longevity of its faucets is usually contained in its warranty and it is often much less glowing.
Bio Bidet is no exception. According to the company, its "tough and hasssle-free faucets" with "long lifespans" are guaranteed to last just five years before needing "repair or replacement." That is exactly what the warranty implies.
Why that should be is not at all evident.
Our examination of the faucets and their components found that they should be of reasonable durability — manufacturing was very good, critical components like the cartridges are satisfactory, and hoses and aerators are at least adequate.
These are certainly not the best-made faucets in the world, but not the worst either. Their quality reflects their price point. They are easily on par with brands such as faucets, economy faucets that are supported by a lifetime warranty. A five-year warranty is just a small step up from having no warranty at all.
As a potential buyer, you should be aware of the implications of the very short duration of the Bio Bidet warranty.
It may be that Bio Bidet's tepid warranty is prompted by an overabundance of caution by the company's management. But, we also know that Bio Bidet's management almost certainly knows things about its faucets that we don't know and cannot find out. So, management's considered opinion about the longevity of its faucets as expressed in its warranty may be something to which some attention should be paid. Just the fact that the faucets are guaranteed for just five years rather than for a lifetime certainly gives us pause.
Compliance with Warranty Law
The Bio Bidet faucet warranty is a good example of why consumer product warranties should not only be written by a lawyer but by a lawyer with a very good understanding of the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act.
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.
A product is merchantable if it serves its ordinary purpose. A faucet, for example, is merchantable if it may be legally installed in a drinking water system and 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 and does not allow a merchant that offers a written warranty to waive them.
Learn more about merchantability at The Warranty Game: Enforcing Your Product Warranty.
The warranty advertises itself on the Bio Bidet website as being a Full Warranty in contrast to a Limited Warranty that provides less protection. Unfortunately, however, the warranty tries to take away many of the protections that Magnuson-Moss requires in a full warranty and some that are required in any consumer product warranty, full or limited.
(Actually, the comparison shown on the company website is between a prorated and non-prorated warranty — not the same as a Full and Limited warranty. Full and Limited are terms that are defined by law.)
Here are a few examples:
• State-Law Implied Warranties
The first example is the company's attempt to limit the protection of state-law statutory warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose using the following language:
"Except to the extent prohibited by applicable law, any implied warranties, including that of merchantability or fitness for use, are expressly limited to the duration of this warranty."
It is not legal under Magnuson-Moss for a company offering a full warranty to limit coverage by state law warranties. (15 U.S.C. §2304(a)(2))
• Deceptive Language
The second problem with the attempted limitation could be more serious.
The provision could be considered deceptive and one of the three cardinal rules of Magnuson-Moss is that warranty language must not be deceptive.
This provision would almost certainly lead a reasonable person to believe that the duration of state-law warranty coverage would be limited to five years and that is the very definition of deception under the law.
We don't think that Bio Bidet is being intentionally deceptive. No doubt whoever wrote the warranty found the language in some other warranty and copied it, unaware that it is prohibited in a Full Warranty.
But, under Magnuson-Moss, deliberate deception is not required to incur liability for misrepresentation.
The Act imposes a duty on the company of reasonable care "to make the warranty not misleading." (15 U.S. Code §2310(c)(2)) The very presence, however, of the provision in the Bio Bidet warranty evidences a lack of reasonable care and, therefore, culpable misrepresentation.
In any lawsuit, Bio Bidet's liability could well include punitive or exemplary damages for deception that could far exceed any actual damages.
• Repair or Replace at Bio Bidet's Option
Another legal misstep occurs in this language:
"Our obligations under this warranty are limited to repair or replacement, at Bio Bidet's option, of products or parts found to be defective…"
Most of this sentence offends Magnuson-Moss. The attempt to limit remedies under the warranty to "repair or replacement" is not permitted. Nor is the phrase "at Bio Bidet's option."
The remedies for a defect promised in the warranty are "repair or replace." Under a full warranty, repair is an option. If the repair does not remedy the defect after a reasonable number of tries, however, the buyer, not the company, has the option of a replacement faucet or a full refund. (15 U.S.C. §2304(a)(1))
• At Bio Bidet's OptionUnder Magnuson-Moss, a company never has the sole option to determine whether a defect has occurred or the remedy to be applied. The Act provides in very clear language that a company offering a warranty …
"… shall not indicate in any written warranty … either directly or indirectly that the decision of the warrantor is final or binding in any dispute concerning the warranty …" ((16 CFR §700.8. Also see 15 U.S.C. §2304(a)(4))
Once again, this provision could be considered deceptive.
• Labor Costs
The warranty states that Bio Bidet's labor is free. But, we are not certain what that labor would be other than the few minutes required to find, package, and mail replacement parts.
The real labor cost is that required to uninstall, repair, and reinstall the faucet. A plumber's charges may be many times the cost of a few parts. Bio Bidet seeks to avoid any responsibility for the costs of installation labor with this language:
"Bio Bidet is not responsible for the cost of removal, return and/or reinstallation of products
A faucet is, however, a product that has utility only when installed. A company providing a full warranty on such a product has a legal "Duty to Install" and must "provide such installation without charge …(16 CFR §700.9)
Placing responsibility for the cost of returns on the consumer is also a problem. The company requires a buyer to complete and sign a Replacement Form before it will send a replacement faucet. The form requires the buyer to return a defective faucet at the buyer's expense. Such a requirement is illegal in a Full Warranty. The company can require a return of a defective faucet, but it must pay the cost of the return. (16 CFR §700.6)
These are just some of the legal errors our legal panel found in the warranty. For the full analysis of the warranty, download and read the annotated Bio Bidet Warranty.
Warranty as Marketing Tool
Bio Bidet needs, at minimum, to clean up its warranty to comply with federal law. While it's doing that it should also consider changing its whole approach to its warranty.
There are two basic philosophies of warranty in the faucet business. The first tries to reduce the cost of warranty service to its irreducible minimum and insulate the company as much as possible from liability for a failed product.
This is the bean-counter approach, the tack favored by accountants and chief financial officers, and it unquestionably describes Bio Bidet's warranty.
The other, and better, approach is to use the power of a good warranty to drive sales – figuring (correctly) that any additional cost of providing a first-class warranty will be more than offset by the increased sales revenue that a first-class warranty generates.
This is the Moen marketing approach.
Moen, one of the first major faucet companies in the U.S. to offer a lifetime warranty on its products, figured out early that a good warranty and strong back-end support would substantially increase sales on the front end.
It worked.
Its warranty helped boost Moen from a little-known bit player in the 1950s to the second-largest faucet company in the U.S., behind Delta Faucets, by the 1970s. (The companies are now tied for the top slot, each having roughly an equal share of the U.S. faucet market. Which one is number one on any given day is a coin toss.)
The loyalty of Moen customers is legendary. It is nearly impossible to talk a Moen customer out of a Moen faucet, shower, or tub filler – not that we try.
Bio Bidet should take a leaf from Moen's playbook and start looking at its warranty as an opportunity to build sales and forge customer loyalty rather than strictly as a nuisance liability to be minimized as much as possible.
More on Faucet Warranties
Download, read, and print the Bio Bidet Faucet Warranty.
For more information on how to interpret faucet warranties, see Faucet Basics, Part 6: Faucet Warranties.
To learn how to enforce a product warranty, read The Warranty Game: Enforcing Your Product Warranty.
Read our Model Limited Lifetime Warranty
The Company Website
The Bio Bidet Website is well-designed with menu-driven navigation that is easy to follow. Unlike the case at other websites, we were never stuck trying to figure out where to go next.
Faucets are easy to find. Click on the menu icon at the top right of the page, then on "Flow Faucets" to display a pictorial directory of the company's six faucets.
| Specification | Score | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| ADA Compliance (Yes/No) | 0 | Not indicated |
| Aerator Manufacturer | 0 | Not identified |
| Baseplate Included | 3 | In linked document only |
| Certifications | 3 | In linked document only |
| Country of Origin | 0 | Not identified |
| Dimensions | 4 | Overall dimensions on the listing page, otherwise in a linked document only. |
| Drain Included (Yes/No) | 5 | Yes |
| Faucet Images: Multiple images, 360° rotating image, or video | 4 | Single view image in one finish supplemented with additional images |
| Finish(es) | 5 | Listed and pictured for each faucet |
| Finish Type | 0 | Not identified |
| Finish Images | 5 | Yes |
| Flow Rate(s), Maximum | 0 | Not identified |
| Installation Instructions | 4 | Link provided |
| Material, Primary (Brass, Stainless, etc.) | 0 | Not identified |
| Materials, Secondary (Zinc, Plastic, etc.) | 0 | Not identified |
| Mounting Holes, Number of | 3 | In linked document only |
| Parts Diagram | 4 | In linked document only |
| Spray Head Material | 0 | Not identified. |
| Spray Hose Manufacturer | 0 | Not identified |
| Spray Hose Type | 0 | Not identified |
| Supply Connection Size/Type | 4 | In linked document only |
| Supply Hose Included (Yes/No) | 0 | Not indicated |
| Supply Hose Manufacturer | 0 | Not identified |
| Supply Hose Type | 0 | Not identified |
| Valve/Cartridge Type | 5 | Identified as ceramic |
| Valve/Cartridge Manufacturer | 0 | Not identified |
| Warranty Online | 5 | Yes |
| Warranty Link in Listings[1] | 5 | Yes |
| WaterSense® Listed (Yes/No) | 0 | No |
|
Scale:
90+ A Excellent, 80+ B Good, 70+ C Average, 60+ D Poor, 59- F Fail
| ||
|
Table Notes:
[1] A link from a faucet listing to the full text of the applicable warranty is required by pre-sale availability of the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act.
| ||
| Download/Read/Print the minimum content required in an online faucet listing to permit an informed buying decision. | ||
What is hard to find, however, is hard information about the faucets sufficient for a well-informed buying decision.
A faucet listing displays a single view of the faucet on the left side of the screen with thumbnails showing other images available, usually the same view in a different finish. Clicking on the thumbnail displays the image.
On the right side of the page is the name of the faucet and the finishes in which it is available. Clicking on a finish will redisplay the faucet in the selected finish — a nice feature for visualization.
"Feature List" when clicked displays what the company believes are the most important features of the faucet.
Below "Feature List" are a few glowing five-star reviews from customers. (We have yet to see a one-star review on a faucet site.)
Below the reviews, on the left are Product Resources, Measurements, Warranty, and Reviews.
Measurements displays the overall dimensions of the faucet. Warranty is a link to the online warranty, and Reviews is a link to all of the customer reviews of the faucet.
The most productive link is to Product Resources that displays just one resource, the "Installation Manual."
For most faucet companies, an installation guide is just what it says: a set of instructions for installing a faucet.
For Bio Bidet faucets, however, it is much more. It includes certifications, a dimensioned drawing, finishes available, and a five-year warranty that, as indicated above, is not the same as the online warranty.
All of this is in both English and French.
In effect, the Installation Manual is a specifications sheet with instructions for installing the faucet. The only thing missing is an exploded parts diagram.
While were are happy to have all of this information, much of it important to an informed buying decision, we would prefer that it be available on the faucet's listing page.
No one is going to look in an installation guide for specifications. We found them purely by accident (and because we look at everything).
Minimum Website Faucet Listing Information
We identify 30 or so faucet specifications that are necessary for a fully-informed buying decision. Everything from how the faucet is presented in images to the number of mounting holes needed.
The number and type of specifications vary slightly from faucet to faucet. Not every faucet listing requires every specification.
For example, WaterSense® listings apply only to lavatory faucets. Similarly, the material used in a spray head and spray hose information applies only to pulldown or pullout sprays. These are usually found only on kitchen faucets.
Some specifications, however, apply to all faucets. Primary and secondary materials, country of origin, finish type, and certifications are examples. Of this list, Bio Bidet discloses certifications, but none of the rest.
Our volunteer researchers identified the information provided on its website for each Bio Bidet faucet and found it to be woefully deficient. A summary of their findings is displayed in the Minimum Website Faucet Listing Information table, elsewhere on this page.
Bio Bidet's score is lower than it should be. We score a maximum of five points for a specification displayed in the faucet listing. If it is available only in a download, it loses points. If it is not available at all, then that specification is scored zero.
The company has all of the information needed for an informed buying decision. It just needs to be willing to share.
Customer Service
We judge customer service to be "unsatisfactory."
Agents tried to be halpful but demonstrated a woeful lack of knowledge about the company's faucets and were largely unable to answer our questions. A referral of our inquiries to "someone in management" elicited no response.
Admittedly, faucets are not the company's primary products, but if a company is going to sell faucets it needs to be certain that customer service agents know something about them beyond how to handle a return.
And even handling a return or finding and mailing a part seems to be problematic.
The Better Business Bureau rates the company's response to customer issues an F, on a scale of A to F, based on the number of complaints and failure to respond satisfactorily to customer issues.
The complaints, as reported by the BBB, evidence a widespread failure to communicate well with customers or satisfactorily handle product issues. Typical is this complaint:
"I purchased a sink faucet from (seller name deleted) two years ago and the faucet handle had a piece break off that is causing the handle to keep falling off. I have tried calling Bio Bidet's number and receive a recording that hangs up. I emailed them on March 19, 2023 and have received an auto :confirmation received" email back but no further correspondence, even after following up multiple times. I just need help replacing the handle and no one will get back to me."
We don't know if that sort of stonewalling is inadequate staffing, incompetence, or company policy, but whatever the cause, it is disturbing.
Testing & Certifications
Comparable Faucets
Faucets made in Asia comparable to Bio Bidet in quality with the same or a better warranty, but not necessarily comparable for design or price, include
Not all of these brands offer a hands-free faucet.
Conclusions
We are not convinced of the utility of a hands-free faucet, but if you are considering the purchase of one, Bio Bidet should figure in your deliberations if and only if you are comfortable with the company's short-term, less than "Full" warranty.
Otherwise, we see no real problems with the price/value relationship of the faucets. We don't know of a better quality hands-free faucet at the prices charged by Bio Bidet.
We are continuing to research the company. If you have experience with Bio Bidet faucets, good, bad, or indifferent, we would like to hear about it, so please contact us or post a comment below.
- Forbetter refers to its water tubes as "unleaded brass." Our visual inspection of the waterways inside Bio Bidet faucets revealed a metal tube that looked more like copper than brass. Ordinary copper, unlike brass, does not include metallic lead in its alloy and cannot leach lead into water passing through the faucet. Copper pipes and tubing are nearly pure copper alloys composed of 99.9% copper and a maximum of 0.04% phosphorous. This tiny amount of phosphorous increases the strength and oxidation-resistance of the copper. The Chinese commonly use the term "brass" (huáng tóng) to identify the metal we call copper (tóng) and vice-versa.
- Normal household water pressure is between 40 and 60 pounds per square inch (PSI). The test is conducted with pressure on the high side of normal to put as much stress on the faucet as is reasonable.