California Faucets Review & Rating Updated: November 25, 2024 Best Value Logo Our panel of consu­mers and industry pro­fes­sion­als has rec­ognized Cal­if­orn­ia fau­cets as a Best Val­ue in luxury fau­cets made or assembled in North Amer­ica. Read the Best Fau­­cet Val­ue Re­port for more in­for­ma­tion.

Summary
Assembled in USA
From Domestic and Imported Parts and Components
California Faucets, Inc.
5231 Argosy Drive
Huntington Beach, CA 92649
(800) 822-8855
info@calfaucets.com
Rating
Business Type
Product Range
Kitchen, Bath, Prep and Bar Faucets
Certifications
Brands
California Faucets
Street Price
$400-$1,200
Warranty Score
Cartridges
lifetime1
Finishes
lifetime2
Mechanical Parts
Lifetime3
Proof of Purchase
Required
Transferable
No
Meets U.S. Warranty
Law Requirements
Yes
Warranty Footnotes:
1. "[F]or as long as the original consumer owns the product and resides in the dwelling in which the product is initially installed."
2. The finish warranty protects against manufacturing defects and, except on living finishes, tarnishing. Living finishes are expected to tarnish and change color.
3. Mechanical parts is defined as " all parts and components of a product except cartridges and finishes."
Read the California Faucets warranty.
Learn more about faucet warranties.

This Company In Brief

California Faucets assembles well-designed artisan fau­cets from domestic and imported components finished to order in any of 30 finishes at the company's Cal­ii­forn­ia facility.

The company's fau­cets are well made using high-quality materials and components throughout including top-of-the-line ceramic cartridges from well-respected technical ceramics manufacturers.

Prices are consistently 20 - 30% below its competition for faucets of similar style and quality.

The company's fau­cet warranty is very well written and meets the requirements of the North Am­eri­can standard lifetime fau­cet warranty.

Its customer and warranty service is award-winning and rated A+ by the Better Business Bureau.

Founded in 1988 by Fred Sil­ver­stein, family-owned Cal­i­forn­ia Fauc­ets assembles well-made artisan fau­cets of its own design from domestic and imported components. The company is managed by family members including Jeff Sil­ver­stein, the son of the founder. its current CEO.

The fau­cets are assembled and finished to order from a palette of 30 available finishes in the company's Huntington Beach, Cal­ii­forn­ia assembly plant.

Its kitchen and bath fau­cets are a part of well-coordinated collections in complementing styles and finishes.

Bath collections may include fau­cets, tub sets, shower sets, bidets, and bathroom accessories consisting of towel bars and rings, toilet paper holders, robe hoods, and grab bars.

Kitchen fau­cets are likewise coordinated with matching accessories, typically a soap dispenser, taps for hot or filtered water, air gap, and an air activation switch for a disposer.

Global Sourcing

Under Federal Trade Commission guidelines, the company does not meet the requirements for claiming its fau­cets are "Made in U.S.A.", but can claim they are "Made in U.S.A from imported parts." For our purposes, this makes it an – a company that produces fau­cets from parts and components manufactured largely outside of the company.

California Faucets sources globally for the components used in its collections. We have identified suppliers from Germany, Italy, Hungary, Taiwan, and China.

Its known suppliers include:

Its suppliers have remained relatively stable over our 60-month look-back period. We do not know for certain that these are the company's only suppliers. There may be others that we have not yet identified, but we believe these are the company's primary sources of components, parts, and accessories.

The D Street fau­cet offers a choice of three high-arch spout shapes and six handle styles (three shown). Combine these with 26 finish choices, and there are 468 variations available for this one fau­cet.

Domestic Production

The company has a reputation for quality and innovation. Its approach to making its heavy, all-brass craft fau­cets is smart and creative, helping to keep its prices relatively low while allowing extensive customization of its quality fau­cets.

The process of producing the company's artisan fau­cets is more craft shop than factory.

Faucets are not produced en masse on an assembly line. They are assembled and finished one at a time as they are ordered.

According to company founder, Fred Sil­ver­stein, Cal­i­forn­ia Fau­cets spent five years learning how to hand-as­semble and custom finish quality fau­cets with short turn-around times that nearly equal as­sembly-line speed but produce a handcrafted fau­cet.

Valves and Cartridges

California Faucets uses none but the very best ceramic cartridge valves in its fau­cets.

Its valve is the most important component of a fau­cet. By using the best available cartridge valves, the company does as much as can be done to ensure a lifetime of leak-free fau­cet performance.

Ceramic Cartridges

Its ceramic cartridge is the heart of a modern fau­cet. The cartridge controls water flow and (in single-handle fau­cets) water temperature.

Fluhs Equipped

With a working cartridge, a fau­cet is a fau­cet doing what fau­cets do: metering water in a safe and controlled manner.

Without a working cartridge, a fau­cet is just an odd-looking paperweight. So, it is important that the ceramic cartridge be tough, durable, and long-lived.

Kerox

For detailed information on ceramic fau­cet cartridges including how they are made and used, see Fau­cet Valves and Cart­ridges.

Two-Handle Faucets

The company engineers all of its two-handle fau­cets to fit standard 1/4 turn ceramic cartridge valves made by the German company, Flühs Drehtechnik, GmbH, known for its stunningly flawless products.

Flühs, located in Lüd­en­scheid, Germ­any since 1926, is world-renown for its precision machining and is generally regarded as the manufacturer of the world's best single-function stem cartridge.

Flühs (sometimes spelled Fluehs for English speakers) valves are heavy-duty products with an established reputation for leak-free reliability.

Single-Handle Faucets

The mixer cartridges for single-handle fau­cets are supplied by Kerox Kft of Hungary.

Kerox started out making dental ceramics when Hungary was still a Warsaw Pact county in the orbit of the Soviet Union. It makes dentures. But it also makes mixing cartridges that are preferred by many upscale fau­cet companies in Europe and North America.

It is being challenged by some of the better mixing cartridges coming out of Taiwan, but it is still considered by most in the faucet industry to manufacture what is probably the best mixer cartridge made.

Kerox is also well known for the quality of the ceramic discs that it sells to other cartridge manufacturers, including Mas­co, the owner of the fau­cet brands, for the Dia­mond Seal Tech­nol­ogy® super cartridges used in its newer fau­cets.

Design Innovation

The company's designs are crisp and refreshing but not ultra high-style, which may displease the design glitterati, but they are plenty stylish enough for the rest of us regular people.

It offers fau­cets in traditional, transitional, and contemporary styles, suitable for any historical period from Victorian through contemporary urban chic.

Squeeze-Handle Wands

Lever-handle spray wands from

The original side sprays that accompanied kitchen sink fau­cets in the 1960s were all lever-operated. European fau­cet companies introduced the button-operated spray in the 1980s. The Cal­ii­forn­ia Faucets "squeeze" lever wand is a return to the traditional operating mechanism.

The commercial wand from T & S Brass is not for the home kitchen. Commercial kitchens are not limited to the maximum residential fau­cet flow of 2.2 gallons per minute (8.3 liters per minute). The spray produced by this sprayer is enough to peel the shell from a walnut.

The Kohler fau­cet is operated by two buttons, one (at top) to engage the spray and the other to switch from stream to spray and back again. Buttons are more delicate than levers and more prone to failure. They are also harder to operate for persons with manual limitations.

Flex-Design

The designs are extremely flexible.

Decorative items such as spouts and handles for each model fau­cet are often interchangeable, so a great many different configurations can be created without altering the mechanics of the basic fau­cet.

Customers can select from one of the company's hundreds of pre-defined fau­cet designs. But, the company allows customization to a previously unheard-of degree.

Indeed, "customization" is possibly not the right word. Customers can design a unique fau­cet creation of their own.

Several thousand different fau­cets can be created just by swapping parts and finishes: sort of like ordering in a Chin­ese restaurant – take one spout from column A, a handle from column B, and a finish from column C.

The recently introduced D Street bathroom fau­cet is a good example.

The fau­cet gives the buyer a choice of three high-arch spout shapes and six handle styles. Combine these with 26 finish choices, and there are 468 variations of just this one fau­cet.

The Des­can­so widespread lavatory fau­cet offers nine handle selections along with 26 available finishes to create 234 possible choices.

The flex-design champion, however, is very possibly the Davoli pulldown kitchen fau­cet. It offers 8 handle styles, 27 finishes, 3 spout options, and 2 spray choices for a possible 1,296 different fau­cets.

We decided one day in a fit of utter lunacy to calculate the number of fau­cet variations available from the company but gave it up at 10,527 as a bad idea. We still don't know how many there are in total, but it's a bunch.

Squeeze-Handle Spray

The company has been an innovator since its inception and has never stopped improving its products.

Many of its innovation are to products other than faucets – showers and drains, for example, innovations that are interesting, but not the subject of this review.

One of its fau­cet innovations is a squeeze-handle spray for its pull-down fau­cets. It is an adaption of the lever-type sprayers used in restaurants for as long as any of us can remember, but unlike the clunky commercial devices, it's actually stylish.

Squeezing the lever activates a powerful spray function, releasing it returns the fau­cet to its normal aerated stream.

Click for a short company video showing the squeeze-handle pulldown spray in action. Use your browser's Back button to return to this text.

It is a very ergonomic design, easy to use for those with limited manual dexterity, certainly much easier to operate than those little buttons you usually have to either flip or press to operate the spray.

Brass Spray Wands

Another feature of Cal­ii­forn­ia Faucets spray heads (the industry term is "wands") we like is that they are brass, not plastic.

Other companies, including upscale producers like have switched to plastic wands.

Faucet companies give three reasons for their use of plastic:

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.

It 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.

In the nearly 20 years we have been testing and reviewing faucets, we have never had a consumer complain about sprays being too heavy. We checked the usual legal databases and our industry sources and found no instance of a company being sued for an excessively hot wand.

The wands used with California Faucets kitchen faucets are insulated so they do not get uncomfortably hot in use. We weighed the wands included with out test faucet and found none that hit the scale at over 10 oz., about the weight of a can of soda.

The general view in the fau­cet industry is that better wands are made of metal – brass, zinc, or stainless steel.

Industrial Chic

Some of the fau­cets are what the company calls "industrial chic." These are modifications of commercial designs that have been around a while, offered by companies like but made more stylish for the residential market.

One that is noteworthy is the Steam­punk Bay series that includes fau­cets, tub fillers, and accessories.

The fau­cets have a vaguely Victorian industrial ambiance due to the use of handle styles typical of steam-driven machinery of the 19th century.

The effect is interesting and novel, similar to the

Click for a short company video on the Steampunk Bay series. Use your browser's Back button to return to this text.

Another fau­cet in this category is in the Descanso series available in eight handle styles and a high arc and low profile spout. The and carbon fiber accents available on some handles add visual interest.

Design Awards

The company's fau­cets have won numerous design awards. The most recent include:

Outside Designers

However, not every fau­cet sold by Cal­ii­forn­ia Faucets is an in-house design.

The company has begun using outside designers to bring a new perspective to the design of some of its products.

Finish Durability

Some finishes are more durable than others.

Some, the so-called , are expected to fade, discolor, and otherwise show the effect of use and wear over time. These results are built into the finish.

Other types of finishes, however, are expected to be more durable. They are not expected to fade, discolor, or show undue wear.

Here are common types of fau­cet finishes and their durability from most to least durable.

For more information about fau­cet finishes, including their durability and longevity, see Faucet Basics: Part 5 Faucet Finishes.

These include Beverly Hills-based Arch-In­ter­i­ors De­sign Group headed by designer Christ­o­pher Grubb whose Christ­o­pher Grubb Col­lec­tion debuted in 2022.

The Model K51-110 pullout kitchen fau­cet and the Model K51-150 pre-rinse fau­cet from the Corsano Series are modification of designs owned by Vicario Armando.

These differ from Armando's European versions in being re-engineered to conform to the common connection sizes used in North America (where we still cling stubbornly to our quaint customary units – inches and feet – rather than metric units adopted by the rest of the civilized world).

The faucets are produced in Califoria from components supplied by Vicario Armando from Italy.

Faucet Finishes

California Faucets finishes its products in its own facility in Cal­ii­forn­ia.

The advantage of in-house finishing is that the company can guarantee every item in a purchase order will have the exact same finish by the simple process of finishing them all at the one time in the same batch. (Which is why you should, if possible, purchase all products in one order.)

It offers 30 finishes. Nearly half of the finishes are the almost indestructible (PVD) finishes. Chrome and nickel finishes are , and the remaining 15 are .

Five of the powder coatings are . These finishes are intended to change and transform in their appearance through use and exposure to the environment, acquiring a "patina" that may be very different from its new-in-the-box look.

All finishes, including living finishes, are guaranteed for a lifetime against manufacturing defects such as blistering, cold shuts, pitting, peeling, and delamination – all of which are the result of errors in the finishing process.

A guarantee of any kind on living finishes is rare in the industry.[1] We know of only two other companies that offer such a guarantee. Cal­i­forn­ia Fau­cets is the only company we know of that offers a lifetime guarantee. All of the other warranties are for 1 to 5 years.

Other than living finishes, all are also guaranteed against tarnishing, which we interpret to mean any substantial color change. Many finishes, especially darker finishes like oil-rubbed-bronze and black, will fade slightly over time. If they are in direct sunlight, this "over time" fading may be just a few years. This sort of fading is "ordinary wear and tear" and is not included in this or any other finish warranty we know of.

Manufacturing defects in fau­cet finishes are extremely rare these days – virtually unheard of. The era of the China-chrome finish that could be scraped off with a fingernail is long gone. Defective finishes seldom get past a final inspection, and rarely leave the factory.

The company considers some finishes to be "premium" finishes. These finishes add to the cost of a fau­cet, sometimes substantially.

Types of Faucet Finishes

is the old standard fau­cet finish, having served the industry well for over 150 years.

Plating 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.

Some metals cannot be plated directly to brass. The metal does not bond well and can peel. An intermediate metal (usually copper, nickel, or a zinc/nickel alloy) undercoat may be necessary.

Undercoats are also used to even out any small imperfections in the brass and to reduce cost. Chrome, for example, is expensive, nickel is not, so nickel undercoating is preferred to several coats of chrome for a finish with an appearance of depth.

The process is inherently dangerous, involving very corrosive acid solutions, and the resulting waste products are hazardous to the environment if not disposed of properly.

is considerably less burdensome to the environment. It does not involve toxic chemicals or produce hazardous waste.

California Faucets Squeeze Handle spray is an ergonomic design, and easy to use for those with limited manual dexterity, much easier to operate than those little buttons you usually have to either flip or press to operate the spray.

The technology was developed over 80 years ago during the Second World War as an alternative to slow-drying liquid paint to speed up wartime production of the masses of equipment needed by the military.

Powder coating is the usual way that fau­cets are given non-metallic or "painted" finishes. (Although this is starting to change. See Thin Film Cera­mic Coat­ings, elsewhere on this page.)

A colored powder similar in texture to baking flour is applied with a special low-velocity sprayer that gives the powder a positive electrical charge. The particles are drawn to the fau­cet which has a negative charge.

The fau­cet is then baked in an oven which melts and bonds the powder and changes the structure of the coating into long, cross-linked molecular chains that give the coating its durability.

The process has some drawbacks.

Powder coatings must be applied in relatively thick coats to avoid defects like orange peel – a mottled, uneven surface. The thickness can obscure fine detail in a fau­cet's design.

A powder coat is only semi-durable. It does not bond to the underlying metal like metallic finishes which means it can chip if not handled carefully. It also requires more care in cleaning. A harsh cleaning solution can damage the finish.

(PVD) finishes are, by contrast, nearly indestructible. They are applied in a very thin layer (2 to 5 microns [2]) in a vacuum chamber loaded with unfinished fau­cet parts.

All the air is replaced with a carefully calculated mix of inert and reactive gases. A rod of the metal used for the coating is heated to a temperature so high that it dissolves into individual atoms creating a plasma that is bombarded onto the fau­cet parts.

Different finish colors and effects are created by using disparate plating metals and varying the mix of reactive gases. PVD brass or gold can be created, for example, using a titanium alloy as the coating metal with nitrogen gas. Adding methane to the mix reddens the color, producing rose gold, and adding a little acetylene darkens the finish for an antique or vintage brass effect.

The very dense PVD coating is very hard (Rockwell HRC-80+, Vicker HV-2600+ [3]) and bonded to the fau­cet at a molecular level, essentially becoming an integral part of the fabric of the fau­cet.

The very dense PVD coating is very hard (Rockwell HRC-80+, Vicker HV-2600+ [3]) and bonded to the fau­cet at a molecular level, essentially becoming an integral part of the fabric of the fau­cet.

Thin Film Ceramic Coatings

Powder coats are falling out of favor in the industry as PVD is coaxed by engineers and materials chemists into reliably producing the colors and finish effects that were once available only as powder coats.

Zest pulldown kitchen fau­cet with a thing film ceramic coating in blue from

In addition, a new type of liquid paint called thin-film ceramic (TFC) is making inroads into the fau­cet industry.

Initially used to protect hard-use items like fire­arms and military field equipment, TFC has begun appearing on fau­cets (see ).

Its advantage over powder coatings is its microscopic ceramic particles. Em­bed­ded in the material, these nano-ceramics make it nearly as resistant to scratches and other environmental hazards as PVD coatings, and by some accounts, even more resistant.

Its advantage over PVD is that it does not require a large upfront investment in specialized equipment that may cost upwards of $100,000 to produce a super-durable finish. It needs only a standard spray booth and a low-temperature industrial oven to cure the paint – equipment that most coatings applicators already own.

In abrasion tests, PVD finishes are regularly found to be 10 to 20 times more scratch-resistant than the old standard, electroplated chrome.

Our experience is that it takes a lot of work to damage a PVD finish. A Scotch Brite® pad will mildly scratch the surface, but it takes effort. Brillo® pads have no effect at all (But, keep scouring pads and powders far, far away from your fau­cets)

To watch California Faucets 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.

To learn more about protective finishes on fau­cets see Faucet Finishes.

Website

The company's website is well--structured and easy to follow with intuitive navigation.

The Descanso Culinary kitchen fau­cet in three PVD finishes. This fau­cet won a "Best of Year" design award from Interior Design Magazine and was honored by Better Homes & Gardens as one of the "30 Most Innovative Products" in 2017.

The site's search function is powerful and very useful in finding products.

We did our usual tests: finding all of the fau­cets in a collection, finding specific model numbers, and finding all of the products available in specified finishes. The search results were unfailingly accurate.

To facilitate finding a fau­cet that meets your needs, filters allow narrowing your search by style (traditional, transitional, industrial, or contemporary), the number of mounting holes, spray location (pull-down, pull-out, etc.), ADA compliance, and so on.

The information provided about individual fau­cets is comprehensive. Almost, but not quite, everything you might want to know about a Cal­ii­forn­ia fau­cet is either displayed or linked.

The "Where to Buy" feature is fast and accurate, listing retailers in order by distance, closest first.

Links to downloadable documents or other pages on the website include:

Steampunk Bay single-handle high-arch lavatory fau­cet with wheel handle. Lever and Blade handle styles are also available.
The K51-150 Corsano pre-rinse kitchen fau­cet is a Vicario Armando design.

Finishes are displayed as button icons. Clicking on a button displays the name of the finish, and changes the image of the fau­cet to show the selected finish. This a valuable feature that helps a potential buyer accurately visualize the fau­cet.

The K51-110 pullout kitchen fau­cet in satin nickel is a fau­cet from the Corsano Series designed by Vicario Armando designs.

Other information not now provided that we would like to see displayed with each fau­cet listing includes:

Overall, we give the company an A+ for its excellent web design but a B- for the information about its fau­cets displayed on the site – one of the highest scores we have ever given.

The information provided is comprehensive but not quite sufficient for a fully informed buying decision.

Understanding Faucet Finish Warranties

No warranty protects against all of the hazards that can befall a fau­cet finish, and the Cal­ii­forn­ia Faucets finish warranty is no exception.

It protects against just those defects that result from errors in the finishing process: peeling, flaking, blistering, scaling, excessive discoloration, delamination, and, for other than living finishes, tarnishing.

These are extremely rare, and by "extremely rate" we mean "almost unheard of."

Most damage to fau­cet finishes results from over-zealous cleaning.

Modern finishes do not require scrubbing. They need little more than a wipe-down with a mild detergent and soft cloth. Harsh chemical cleansers or scouring pads are not needed.

Finish damage caused by customers is never covered by a fau­cet warranty.

If it peels, flakes, or scales, Cal­ii­forn­ia Faucets pays. But, if you scratch it or it turns a funny color after you polished it a few times with Wham-X All Pur­pose Mir­a­cle Clean­er, you are on your own. Sorry!

Faucet Warranty

The California Faucets warranty meets all of the requirements of the North Am­eri­can standard limited lifetime warranty introduced by more than a half-century ago.

It also fully conforms to the requirements of the Mag­nu­son-Moss War­ranty Act (15 U.S.C. §2301), the federal law that governs the content and form of consumer warranties.

The standard limited lifetime warranty guarantees all parts of a fau­cet, including finishes, against manufacturing defects for as long as the original owner owns the fau­cet and resides in the dwelling in which the fau­cet is originally installed.

As a bonus, the Cal­ii­forn­ia Faucets warranty also guarantees finishes, other than living finishes, against tarnishing.

The warranty excludes any damage resulting from the removal of a flow-restricting device and defects caused by

"modification, alteration, abuse, misuse, or accident; maintenance, cleaning, installation, or removal not in accordance applicable instructions; mineral accumulation, corrosion due to a marine or other saline environment[s] or corrosive chemicals, use of the product outdoors; acts of God or the government; criminal, intentional, reckless, or negligent acts; or ordinary wear and tear,"

all of which are normal exclusions.

Faucet Warranties: For more information on how to read and interpret a fau­cet warranty, see Understanding Faucet Warranties. For information on how to pursue a warranty claim, see The Warranty Game: Enforcing Your Product Warranty.

Customer Service

The company's sterling post-sale warranty and parts service gets high marks and few complaints.

In our service tests, we were favorably impressed by Cal­ii­forn­ia Faucets' handling of our (purely imaginary) issues with defective parts and installation.

Our volunteer testers, all experienced plumbers, remodeling professionals, or savvy homeowners, contact the company from different parts of the U.S. and Canada to mask their association with us. Generally, they follow a loose script that requires them to do everything reasonably possible to confound a customer service agent.

California Faucets agents, however, seem to be largely un-confoundable. They know their products and can respond well to even the most intensely stupid question – and these guys and gals are masters of the truly stupid question. We give the company's post-sale service 4.6 on a scale of 1 to 5, a very high score and a big thumbs up.

We are not alone in our high opinion of the company's customer service.

Tamalpais contemporary lavatory fau­cet in French Gold.

California Faucets won the Decorative Plumbing & Hardware Association's annual award in 2014 for excellent customer service. DPHA cited "responsiveness, courtesy, knowledge, ability to go above and beyond the norm, and overall performance" as its reasons for the award.

An Old Plumber's Trick

Here's an old plumber's trick that we learned years ago from an old plumber that can save all the wondering where you put the receipt for your faucet 15 years ago when you bought it:

Put the paperwork for your faucet, sink, disposer, hot water dispenser, etc., including receipts, installation instructions, user manuals, your plumber's business card, and warranties (especially warranties), along with any leftover hardware and special tools, in a plastic bag. Tape it to the inside of the sink cabinet.

Even if you forget where it is, your plumber will find it when he or she starts work on the faucet.

The Better Business Bureau rates the company's handling of customer issues A+, its highest rating indicating a nearly perfect score of between 97 and 100.

It has maintained this top rating for all of the nearly 20 years we have been reporting on the company. (View the BBB letter rating scale.)

Installation

The fau­cets we acquired for testing were rated "very easy" to install by our plumbers on a four-point scale of "very easy" to "very hard".

The instructions were clear and well-illustrated. But, the installation process is so intuitive that the fau­cets probably could be installed correctly without instructions.

Nevertheless, if you are a do-it-yourselfer, we strongly recommend that you read and understand the instructions and have the right tools at hand before proceeding with the installation.

Testing and Certification

Comparable North Am­eri­can-made or -assembled fau­cets include:

Conclusion

If you are in the market for a faucet to fit your luxury kitchen or bath or that one luxurious touch for a more modest kitchen or bath, we suggest a long look at Cal­ii­forn­ia Fau­cets. It would be very hard to go wrong with a product from this company.

Our overall view of the company's fau­cets is very favorable. We rate the fau­cets a good to excellent value based on the relationship of the company's prices to its style and quality.

Despite its assembled-one-at-a-time approach to fau­cet building, the company keeps its prices remarkably low, especially for artisan fau­cets. We can buy any number of Cal­ii­forn­ia Fau­cets for below $500.00 that outshine just about any other fau­cet line at that price point. Compared to other artisan manufacturers such as its prices are ridiculously low.

Our rating panel was unanimous in its view of the company and its fau­cets. All of the members indicated that they would buy a Cal­ii­forn­ia Faucets fau­cet for their own kitchen or bath "without reservation."

Continuing Research

We are continuing to research the company. If you have experience with Cal­ii­forn­ia Faucets, good, bad, or indifferent, we would like to hear about it, so please contact us or post a comment below.

Footnotes
  1. Living finishes, also called Organic and Architectural finishes are designed to react to their environment, aging over time to a patina that may be quite different from its original appearance. Native polished brass, for example, naturally tarnishes, aging to a soft brown we typically refer to as antique or vintage brass. Other living finishes are intended to age in various ways. Some turn darker, some fade, and some change color completely. Since effects such as tarnishing and color-changing are not defects in a living finish, there is almost nothing to guarantee, so most companies do not include living finishes in their warranties. California Faucet is the only known exception.
  2. 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.
  3. For comparison:
    • Diamond: HRC 100
    • PVD Coating: HRC 80+
    • High-quality carbon tool steel: HRC 55-65
    • Cubic Zirconia: HRC 42-50
    • Titanium: HRC 36
    Note: The actual Rockwell HRC scale does not exceed 65. Values higher than 65 are estimated from Vickers scale testing.