Delta Faucets Review & Rating Updated: March 1, 2024 Our panel of consumers and industry professionals has recognized Delta faucets as a Best Value in mid-priced faucets made or assembled in North America. Read the Best Faucet Value Report for more information.
Law Requirements
Footnotes:1. For "as long as the original buyer owns the dwelling in which the faucet is installed."2. Delta takes the sensible position that you are probably not going to be asking for parts for a faucet you don't currently own, and very rarely asks for proof of purchase.Read the Delta warranty.Learn more about faucet warranties.
This Company In Brief
If there is an 800-lb. gorilla in North America's world of kitchens and baths, it is Masco Corporation – one of the world's largest faucet companies.[1]
Masco's Faucets
Masco sells eight brands of faucets from economy to luxury through its various subsidiaries.
all products of the Delta Faucet Company, are really the low, middle, and high ends of the same Delta faucet line.
faucets are made by another Masco company, Brasstech, Inc., and are at the middle/high end of American faucets. An increasing number of Brasstech products are being made in Mexico by Brasstech De Mexico S.a De C.v. Brasstech also makes faucets for the upscale retailer.
owned by Masco Canada, is a manufacturer of budget faucets for the Canadian market.
Masco's most recent acquisition, is the only Masco company that does not assemble faucets in North America. It imports Chinese-made faucets.
the upscale faucet manufacturer in Germany, is the last player in Masco's rollcall of famous faucets, also at the high end of the Masco lineup.
Masco also owns Bristan Group, Ltd. in the UK, but none of these faucets are sold in North America.
In addition to Delta, it owns in Germany, and Bristan Group, Ltd. in the U.K.
Although one of three major players in the North American faucet market – are the others – Delta Faucets is just a minor part of Masco's overall business.
Masco is also a major presence in
- Cabinets (Kraftmaid, Merillat, Mills Pride, Quality Cabinets, Moores Furniture (UK));
- Paints and coatings (Behr, Kilz, Hammerite);
- Bathtubs and showers (Aqua Glass, Hüppe, Mirolin, Watkins Spas);
- Water, gas, and steam fittings (Brasstech, BrassCraft, Master Plumber, and Plumbshop);
- Replacement windows (Milgard, Masco Window (UK));
- Decorative hardware (Franklin Brass, Liberty Hardware)
- Lighting (Kichler)
- PVD coating technologies (Vapor Tech); and
- Staplers (Arrow).
Alex Manoogian, an Armenian who fled Turkey at age 19 to escape the Armenian Genocide, established the company as Masco[2] Screw Products in 1929 with two partners: Harry Adjemian and Charles Saunders to manufacture automotive parts.
It was renamed Masco Corporation in 1961 to reflect its growing diversification as a holding company. By 1975 it was one of America's largest companies and on the Fortune 500 list.
Delta, established in 1954 as a separate enterprise to manufacture faucets, was not added to the company until 1958.
Do these faucets look familiar?
Chances are one of them does. You probably owned one, or, depending on your age, your parents or grandparents did.
These are the original single-lever kitchen faucets introduced in the 1940s and '50s: the Moen 8710 (top) and Delta 100, featuring the revolutionary washerless cartridges that made single-handle faucets possible.
These are some of the best-selling faucets of all time and many thousands are still in service.
The Moen 8710 was only recently discontinued, but the classic Delta 100 is still being made and is widely available for about $80.00.
Delta made its name in the post-WWII housing boom of the 1950s and '60s with single-handle faucets featuring its signature "washerless" ball-style mixing valve.
Delta's Ball Valve
Some histories of the company credit Alex Manoogian with inventing the ball valve. He didn't, but he was smart enough to recognize its value.
The ball valve was the brainchild of Landis Harlan Perry (1911-1985).
During his wartime service with the U.S. military, Perry started tinkering with a design for a better "fluid valve" that combined the control of water flow and blending of water temperature in one simple device.
After his discharge in 1945, he applied for a patent on his "mixing valve." It was awarded in 1952 (U. S. patent 2592062).[3]
Plumbing & Mechanical Engineer has identified the Perry valve as one of the "greatest plumbing … inventions" of the 20th century.
Manoogian, looking for a faucet valve to challenge the enormously popular washerless cartridge introduced in 1947, immediately realized the ball valve's potential.
After refining the design to make it more easily manufactured, he licensed the valve from Landis and founded Delta Faucet to make single-handle faucets using the new valve. At first, the company made only kitchen faucets. It added bath faucets in 1960.
By 1958, just four years after the new valve was launched, Delta's sales topped $1 million (CAD $1.38 million). Delta is still one of the best-selling faucets [4] in North America.
Today the washerless valve has been been largely retired after a run that lasted most of half a century.
Both Moen and Delta have replaced their washerless valves with ceramic disc cartridge valves, the newer water control technology invented by in the early 1970s.
Ceramic valves use nearly indestructible ceramic discs rather than vulnerable rubber seals to control water flow and temperature.
However, the Delta ball has not disappeared entirely. In fact, since the expiration of Delta's patent, it has been very widely copied.
It is still used in many less expensive single-handle economy faucets, sold by a number of faucet companies in North America, including:
To view a list of cartridges used in Delta faucets, download the Delta Cartridge List.
Delta also continues to use a version of the washerless valve for some faucets in its Classics and Foundations collections. These are easy to identify. Any cartridge that rests on a rubber seal and spring such as the RP25513 or RP1740 is a washerless valve.
The Moen washerless valve, on the other hand, is completely gone.
We know of no faucet company that still uses the valve, including which has replaced its washerless valve with its patented Duralast® ceramic cartridge.
The thousands of Moen washerless valve faucets still in use throughout North America have not been forsaken, however. Replacement valves are widely available, as are repair kits to replace worn seals and o-rings.
Valves and Cartridges:
For more information on the various types of control valves used in sink faucets, including washerless valves, see Faucet Valves & Cartridges.Where are Delta Faucets Made?
Delta enjoys a very good reputation among consumers and plumbing professionals alike.
Among plumbers, the Delta line of faucets is a perennial favorite. In every plumber poll we have ever read, Delta is always the first or second choice as the plumbers' go-to faucet.
Plumbers like faucets that don't cause trouble – which describes Delta faucets to a tee. And, if it does break, Delta gets the plumbers' vote as the easiest faucet to fix, even easier than Moen.
WaterSense® Sustained Excellence
Delta Faucet Company has been repeatedly recognized by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as a WaterSense® Sustained Excellence Award winner.
The award is the EPA's highest recognition for continued, exemplary efforts to help advance the WaterSense program and water efficiency.
Beginning in 2012, all-new Delta Faucet lavatory faucets have been designed to meet or exceed WaterSense standards set by the EPA.
Since the program's inception in 2006, the WaterSense program has helped consumers save a cumulative 2.7 trillion gallons of water and more than $63.8 billion in water and energy bills. More than 1,900 utilities, manufacturers, retailers, builders, and other organizations partner with the EPA through its WaterSense program.
Use the EPA's Water Savings Calculator to estimate the amount of water and energy you can expect to save by installing water-efficient products. To learn more about household water conservation, go to Saving Household Water.
Homebuilders also like the faucets. According to Statista, Delta faucets constituted nearly one-third of the faucets installed in new homes in the U.S. in 2018. (Comparable statistics are not available for Canada.)
Among homeowners, Delta ranks high in our "top of mind" survey. Consistently between 25-28% of the homeowners taking the survey, identify Delta as the first brand that comes to mind when they think "faucet".
A lot of Delta's reputation, however, rests on the nearly universal belief that Delta is one of very few American faucet companies that still manufactures its faucets in America.
In past years, that belief was true. It no longer is.
These days, Delta has become somewhat reticent about disclosing where its faucets are made.
An inquiry to customer service about the origin of a particular faucet will usually result in some version of this more or less standard non-answer answer:
"As a global manufacturer, we source and assemble a number of parts around the world. The location information on the back of the box will tell you where your specific faucet model was made."
We know from experience that when a company suddenly becomes reluctant to discuss where its faucets are manufactured, it usually means that they are made "Not-In-USA."
We saw the same song-and-dance at American Standard when it shifted virtually all of its faucet manufacturing to China and Mexico over a decade ago.
So, we put our researchers to work searching out exactly where Delta faucets are produced. (See the Country of Origin table elsewhere on this page.)
We excluded Delta's commercial line of faucets,[5] and faucets that have been discontinued and can no longer be found in retail inventories. This left 250 basic faucet models.[6] Of these, 139 were made in China or Vietnam and 106, or 42%, were assembled in the U.S.
The survey confirmed two trends at Delta that we have been observing for several years:
- An increasing number of Delta faucets are being manufactured by outside companies, and
- An increasing number of Delta faucets are being manufactured in Asia, mostly in China but also in Vietnam.
Fewer than half of the Delta-branded non-commercial sink faucets still in distribution in North America originate in North America.
Delta still employs over 1,600 Americans in the U.S.at its headquarters in California and its U.S. production facilities in Greensburg, Indiana, Jackson, Tennessee, and Morgantown, Kentucky, and about half that number of Canadians in two Ontario facilities: one in London and another in Cambridge.
Delta, however, is no longer the American that it was throughout most of the 20th century.
It is now primarily a . It designs its faucets but then has them manufactured by other companies.
The faucets it still produces in the U.S. are assembled in the company's facility in Jackson. However, most of the components used are imported.
Delta contracts virtually all of the casting, forging, and machining required to produce faucet components to third parties, primarily in China, but also in Mexico, Thailand, and Vietnam.
Delta Faucet
Country of Origin
By Collection
|
|||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Collection | Origin | Collection | Origin | ||
100 / 300 / 400 | Abbott ① | ||||
Addison ② | Allentown ⑦ | ||||
Allora | Alpen ① | ||||
Alux ① | Anderson | ||||
Antoni | Ara | ||||
Arabella ① | Arc ② | ||||
Archdale | Arvo | ||||
Ashlyn | Ashton | ||||
Aubrey ③ | Auburn ④ | ||||
Becker ① | Bellini ① | ||||
Berkley ⑤ | Bowery ⑥ | ||||
Broadmoor ⑦ | Broderick ⑧ | ||||
Broderick Pro | |||||
Caffery ③ | Capertee | ||||
Carlisle ③ | Casara ③ | ||||
Cason | Cassidy | ||||
Celice | Chamberlain ⑦ | ||||
Charmaine | Cicero | ||||
Classic | Collins | ||||
Compel | Coranto ⑧ | ||||
Corin | Corwin | ||||
Dawson ③ | Debonair | ||||
Deluca | Dolman | ||||
Dorval ⑧ | Dryden | ||||
Dunsley ① | Dyerton | ||||
Eldridge ⑦ | Emery ⑦ | ||||
Emmeline | Emmett ③ | ||||
Esato ② | Esque | ||||
Essa | Everly ⑦ | ||||
Flynn ① | Foundations ① | ||||
Foundry ② | Fuse | ||||
Galeon | Geist | ||||
Grail | Grant ⑦ | ||||
Greydon ⑦ | Griffen | ||||
Haywood | Hazelwood | ||||
Hyde ⑦ | Izak ③ | ||||
Jordan | Junction ② | ||||
Kami | Kate | ||||
Kayra ⑧ | Keele | ||||
Kine | Knoxville ① | ||||
Lahara | Lakeview | ||||
Lakewood | Lampard ③ | ||||
Larkin ① | Leland | ||||
Lenta | Lewiston | ||||
Linden | Loraine ⑦ | ||||
Mandara | Mandolin ⑦ | ||||
Marca ⑦ | Mateo | ||||
Merge | Modern | ||||
Monrovia | Mylan ② | ||||
Nicoli | Nyla ①③⑦ | ||||
Ophela ② | Osmond ① | ||||
Owendale ⑦ | |||||
Palo | Pierce ⑦ | ||||
Pilar | Pivotal | ||||
Porter ③⑦ | Portwood ⑦ | ||||
Sandover ① | Saville | ||||
Sawyer ① | Saylor | ||||
Shiloh ⑦ | Signature | ||||
Silverton | Spargo | ||||
Struct | Stryke | ||||
Talbott | Tesla | ||||
Tetra | Theodora | ||||
Tilden ① | Tolva | ||||
Tommy | Trask ① | ||||
Trillian | Trinsic | ||||
Trinsic Pro | |||||
Valdosta ① ③ | Valo | ||||
Vann | Vero | ||||
Vesna ② | Victorian | ||||
Westville | Windemere ① | ||||
Woodhurst | Wynn | ||||
Zalia ① | Zura | ||||
Exclusive to:
① Lowes
② Online sales
③ Menards
④ Costco
⑤ Sam's Club
⑥ Ferguson
⑦ Home Depot
⑧ Trades
Canada
Legend:
U.S.A.
China
Vietnam
|
In its last known "Buy American Act" catalog in 2011, Delta claimed to manufacture 100% of its faucets equipped with Diamond Seal Technology valves in the U.S. That statement is no longer true.
Very few, if any, current Delta faucets produced in North America can now qualify as "Made in USA." To claim that designation, most of the parts and components going into a Delta faucet would have to also be made in the U.S.[7]
They aren't.
Delta has not expanded production in North America since 2013 when it enlarged its Greensburg plating and finishing plant – not to make more faucets but to manufacture acrylic tubs and shower enclosures.
Delta closed its factory in Chickasha, Oklahoma, laying off 600 American workers, soon after its new plant in Panyu, China became operational.
The China plant, owned by Delta's Chinese subsidiary, Delta Faucet (China) Co. Ltd., was intended to manufacture faucets, Delta's line of economy faucets and to produce faucets for the Chinese market.
True to the company's original intention, much of the factory's Peerless production is exported to the U.S. and Canada.
But, it also makes some of the components used to assemble Delta faucets in North America, and very possibly some fully assembled Delta faucets (although we have not been able to confirm that fact from import records).
Delta also owns a Mexican , Delta Faucet Company Mexico, S. de R.L. de C.V.
Delta makes a few faucet parts and components in Mexico, but we have found no evidence that any of Delta's finished faucets are imported from south of the border.[8]
Delta has chosen to extend its production not by investing in plant expansion but by outsourcing its manufacturing to other companies.
Most Delta faucets are now made by contract manufacturers overseas.
Delta's principal suppliers of finished Delta and faucets are the following, all of which are companies.
-
Lota is an manufacturer of faucets, showers, plumbing fittings, and bathroom accessories founded in 1990. Its primary business is the design and manufacture of bath and kitchen plumbing products for other companies.
- Lota appears to be Delta's principal faucet manufacturer. We tracked a number of shipments from Lota to Delta since 2018 containing over 10,000 faucets each. Even by Delta standards, that's a lot of faucets.
- In addition to manufacturing for Delta, Lota makes faucets for
-
PPI (Xiamen) Industry Co., Ltd.
PPI is a Chinese manufacturer of faucets and showers. It manufactures its own PPI line of faucets sold in Asia and the Mid-East.
- In addition to the faucets it manufactures for Delta, PPI makes most of the faucets sold by Spectrum Brands and some of the faucets sold in Canada by
-
Runner Group
Founded in Taiwan in 1976 as Runner Technology Co., the company relocated to mainland China in 1989 once the Communist Party began allowing foreign investment.
- The Group owns ten subsidiaries in Asia that manufacture kitchen and bathroom fixtures, fittings, water, and air purification devices, and health care equipment. Delta imports faucets and faucet components from three of those subsidiaries: (Xiamen) Easo Co., Ltd. located in Fujian, (Xiamen) Runner Industrial Corp., Ltd., and Runner Industry (Thailand) Co., Ltd. located in Rayong.
Delta Diamond Seal Technology Cartridges
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.
The Delta Diamond Seal Technology super cartridge is just such a cartridge. Tested to 5 million cycles, it is likely to provide a leak-free performance for a lifetime.
- Runner manufactures faucets or faucet components for several other faucet companies that sell in North America , including
-
Seagull Kitchen and Bath Products Co., Ltd.
Founded in 1958, Seagull has eleven factories in China and two more in Vietnam. It manufactures kitchen and bath faucets and shower systems that it sells under its own brand in Asia.
- It also makes faucets and faucet components for other companies as an manufacturer. These include
These are not Delta's only outside faucet suppliers. A large number of manufacturers from China, Taiwan, Malaysia, and Vietnam make the various parts and components used in Delta faucets, but not fully finished faucets. These are much too numerous to list.
Faucet Companies:
To learn more about faucet companies, their organization and business type, and how these factors affect design, marketing, warranty, and the availability of replacement parts, see Faucet Companies.The Diamond Seal Technology® (DST) Valve
Delta's pioneering washerless cartridge is well on its way to a richly-earned retirement after a nearly 50-year career.
Its replacement in an inceasing number of Delta faucets is a proprietary ceramic disk super cartridge invented by Delta: the Diamond Seal Technology (DST) cartridge.
Code | Explanation |
---|---|
ADA | Meets Americans with Disabilities Act and Accessible Canada Act guidelines |
BRS | Brass Lever Handles |
DST | Diamond Seal Tecnology Ceramic Cartridge |
ECO | Low Flow - Eco-Friendly |
LF | Certified Lead Free |
LHP | No Handles - Handles ordered separately |
LPU | No Pop-up - Drain ordered separately |
MPU | Metal Pop-up Drain |
NPS | Plastic Pull-Down Spout |
PPU | Plastic Pop-up Drain |
SD | Includes Soap Dispenser |
T | In the suffix (such as 9113T), ndicates a Touch2O faucet. |
T | As the first character (such as T3333), means "Trim" and is used to itendify the faucet shell used with a wall-mounted faucet. |
Z | Includes Escutcheon |
The company claims that this cartridge is a quantum leap in cartridge design.
We think it a major improvement in cartridge technology – "quantum leap", however, remains to be seen. Check back in 50 years or so.
Diamond dust is embedded in one disk of the two-disk set. The diamond dust takes the place of the water-resistant lubricant normally used in ceramic disk cartridges.
According to Delta, the diamond coating helps keep the disks absolutely smooth since the coated disk continuously scrubs and polishes the other disk so they always mesh perfectly. It also continuously grinds away any mineral deposits that may insinuate themselves between the disks.
Also according to the company, the more you use it, the smoother it gets – very much the opposite of ordinary ceramic cartridges that get stiffer with time and use as the lubricant between the disks wears away.
Delta manufactures DST cartridges in the U.S. at its plastics plant in Morgantown, Kentucky using imported ceramic discs.
Its disc suppliers appear to be:
- Maruwa Sdn Bhd, a subsidiary of a Japanese company, manufactures in Malaysia. It also manufactures ceramic discs for Moen's new Duralast ceramic cartridges.
- Kerox Kft, a Hungarian manufacturer of top-quality ceramic cartridges used by dozens of European and Asian faucet manufacturers, including
Both companies have solid reputations for good to excellent products.
Delta has had this cartridge independently tested through 5 million cycles – 10 times the lifespan of a typical ceramic cartridge – equivalent to approximately 700 years of daily use in your kitchen or bath. [9]
But, if it does leak and you need to replace the cartridge, it's very easy to do, and the new cartridge is usually free to the original owner of the faucet under Delta's lifetime warranty.
DST cartridges are already available in most Delta single-handle faucets, and will eventually be the only type of cartridges used.
Other Delta Valves
The cartridges used in Delta's two-handle faucets are a medley of different cartridges and different manufacturers. Some of the latest models use Diamond Seal Technology cartridges. These can be identified by the "DST" in their model numbers.
Older faucet collections are stuck with ceramic discs that do not have the diamond dust coating. A few, primarily in the Classic and Foundations collections are still equipped with washerless cartridges.
Most of Delta's non-DST cartridges are proprietary, patented products manufactured by Delta in Morgantown, Kentucky, but it also buys ceramic cartridges from other companies, including:
- Flühs Drehtechnik in Germany (often spelled Fluehs for English speakers), a manufacturer of some of the world's best ceramic cartridges. These are used in a few wall-mounted faucets, notably those in the Addison collection.
- Kuching International, Ltd., a Taiwan-based manufacturer that sells KCG-branded cartridges internationally,
- Sedal S.L.U, a manufacturer chartered in Spain but manufacturing in China in two facilities: Sedal Technical Ceramics in Jiangmen and Sedal Kaiping.
Super Ceramic Cartridges:
For more information on super ceramic cartridges see Faucet Valves & Cartridges. For another approach to creating a super ceramic cartridge, see our review of faucets.Delta's Exclusive Faucets
Delta makes some faucets available only to certain retailers.
Some Delta faucets are earmarked for online sellers only and are not available to brick-and-mortar retailers. Some are exclusive to the building trades.
Others are supplied only to big box lumber stores: Home Depot, Lowes, and Menards. The warehouse retailers, Costco and Sam's Club, also have their own Delta faucets, as does the plumbing supply distributor, Ferguson Enterprises (Wolesey in Canada).
Exclusive faucets are a boon to discount retailers that can always claim to have the lowest prices on an exclusive model. They know is not sold by any other retailer.
The exclusivity is not ironclad, however.
A collection may contain one or more faucets exclusive to certain sellers This does not necessarily mean that every faucet in the collection is earmarked for those sellers. Some collections contain non-exclusive as well as exclusive faucets.
Some faucets such as those in the Porter and Valdosta collections are split among multiple sellers, and some exclusive faucets are just Delta's regular models renumbered. The B2511LF from the Foundations collection, for example, is the B2514LF-PPU-ECO in Menards and the B2511LF-PPU-12 at the Home Depot. It's exactly the same faucet, just renumbered.
Exclusive Delta Faucets:
Faucets that are exclusive to certain sellers are identified in the Country of Origin table elsewhere on this page.Construction & Materials
Brass containing lead is no longer allowed in the parts of a faucet that touch water.
Lead, even in small amounts, is a known health hazard, especially to children. Accoding to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), lead causes brain damage, slowed development, and speech and hearing problems.
Water passing through brass channels can pick up small amounts of lead from leaded brass.
The current North American lead-free faucet standards are the strictest in the world – so strict that lead in faucet brass has effectively been banned and is replaced by substitute materials, the most common being bismuth.
Bismuth is next to lead on the periodic table, but unlike lead, it is harmless. Also unlike lead, which is plentiful, bismuth is a rare element, rarer than silver, and priced accordingly. Its use in no-lead brass has been a major contributor to the dramatic rise in the price of sink faucets over the past 20 years.
The cost of lead-free brass has forced faucet companies to search for ways to minimize its use while still producing robust, lifetime faucets.
Core and Shell Construction
One of the most effective is core and shell construction.
In a conventional faucet, the body and spout do double duty. Tney give the faucet is appearance and style. But, they are also the components through which water moves in the faucet.
In core and shell constructon, the two functions are separate. Water is channled through tubes inside the faucet. It never touches the outside shell of the faucet.
Delta has adopted core and shell technology for its new faucets.
The core is composed cross-linked polyethylene (PEX)[10] tubes that are threaded through the faucets body and spout. Typically the tubes extend all the way from the shutoff valve under the sink to the tip of the spout as one continuous, unbroken channel.
PEX is a very strong but chemically inert plastic. It contains no metal. The water cannot possibly pick up any lead from the tubes.
Delta calls this core its Innoflex™ waterway. In addition to eliminating the need for lead-free brass, the technology alse offers several other advantages over traditional faucet construction.
- It reduces the number of connections needed in the water channel, decreasing the risk of leaks.
- It eliminates the shell as a structural component. It is no longer under pressure. Water is entirely contained within the PEX tubing. Not being under water pressure, the outer structure of the faucet can be a thin-walled skin.
- It creates an air gap between the the Innoflex tubing and the outer shell of the faucet, virtually eliminating heat transfer to the shell so it does not get uncomfortably hot in use.
- It reduces many of the constraints on faucet design.
- In traditional faucet construction, the design of the faucet can affect how the faucet works. Designers have to be constantly aware of the interplay between their design and the operation of the faucet.
- With core and shell, the function of the faucet is almost entirely contained within the core. The outside shell has nothing to do with the operation of the faucet. Designers are free to concentrate on how the shell looks rather than how it works, giving them more design flexibility.
InnoFlex construction is used in most new Delta faucet collections. Older collections are not being converted to the new technology, however. As older models are retired, traditional faucet construction will largely retire with them, and eventually, most if not all Delta and Brizo faucets will be constructed using core and shell technology.
Materials
One of the failings of Delta's website is that it does not usually identify the primary and secondary materials from which faucets are made.
While most of Delta's older faucets are still made out of brass usng conventinal construction, the decorative shell of many, if not most, of Delta's new faucets is made of a zinc alloy call [11]
Zinc is not as strong as brass and not a suitable as brass for parts of a faucet under water pressure. But, for non-pressurized parts, zinc is adequate. It its easier to cast, machines well, takes finishes readily.
Plastic is another matter.
Plastic has become almost universal in and housings for some cartridge valves. In these applications, they have worked very well, which is a little surprising. One of the tests that cartridges must survive in order to be certified is a surge test in which the plastic cartridge must survive a pressure surge of a whopping 500 psi for one minute without deforming.
Unfortunately, however, plastics have also become common in the spray heads ("wands" in the faucet-speak) of kitchen faucets
Manufacturers such as Delta began switching from metal to plastic wands a few years ago for three reasons:
- Plastic does not get uncomfortably hot in use like metal wands;
- Plastic is not as heavy and is more comfortable to hold for a long period of time; and
- Plastic is much, much cheaper than stainless or brass.
It is also true, however, that plastic fails more often than metal wands. But, it has now become almost unavoidable.
How Are Faucets Made?:
For a comprehensive article on the materials and processes used in manufacturing faucets, see How Are Faucets Made?.)Touch2O® and VoiceIQ™ Automatic Faucets
Other Delta innovations include its electronic hands-free faucets. Touch2O® technology allows a faucet to be turned on and off just by touching the faucet. VoiceIQ™ uses voice commands to do the same thing, and to set water temperature and specify the amount of water your want the faucet to dispense – any volume from a teaspoon to a gallon.
Touch2O
Touch on/off technology has been around for decades, used originally to operate lamps. It makes use of the capacitance of the faucet – its ability to hold a certain number of electrons. Touching the faucet imports additional electrons from your body – not many, but a detectable number. The faucet reacts to this change in capacitance by activating a solenoid to turn the water on or off.
Touch technology differs from the touchless systems used by other companies that require some sort of sensor, usually an electric eye. Passing a hand in front of the sensor turns the faucet on or off.
Touch2O works well. The only problem we found was that it's fairly easy to accidentally activate the faucet in the ordinary course of washing up, and some events other than touching will sometimes activate the faucet. Touch2O combats this rare problem by automatically turning the water off if it does not detect activity for four minutes in kitchen faucets or one minute in bathroom faucets.
VoiceIQ
VoiceIQ is a much more complex technology. It requires either Google Assistant or Amazon's Alexa installed in the home, so most buyers will have some degree of ditital literacy.
Still, only one of our testers was able to install the system on the first try. The process is complicated and requires switching back and forth between the Delta installation app and your home system.
The best results flow from watching one of the several installation videos on YouTube before attempting the installation.
Hands-Free
Without Electronics
For a more durable and lasting "hands-free" operation, consider two tried and true mechanical solutions.
Wristblade handles of the type used in hospitals can be operated with a wrist or elbow if your hands are too really too dirty to touch your faucet.
Pedal Valves that operate using foot pedals have been staples in hospitals, restaurants, schools, and laboratories for many decades.
Depending on the installation, pedals can be used to simply turn the water on and off or also adjust the volume of water flow.
After-market pedal controls such as those from PedalValve can be added to nearly any sink faucet without affecting normal hands-on operation.
View a video of the PedalValve foot pedal in operation.
The array of measurement units VoiceIQ understands is impressive: fluid ounces, cups, pints, quarts, gallons, liters, and milliliters. It also comprehends fractions, but only in the format "one quarter" or "one half". "One quarter cup" will work but "a quarter cup" will not.
The downsides are several.
- It works only with Touch2O-enabled faucets that are also VoiceIQ capable which eliminates all of Delta's two handle faucets and any Touch2O faucet manufactured before January 1, 2018.
- The faucet handle must be left in the on position at all times – to us this is a splendid example of an accident waiting to happen.
- Voice commands must be fairly precise, otherwise the device does not know what to do. "Turn on," not "turn faucet on." To get a measured amount of water, the command must begin with the word dispense as in "Dispense one cup." For a custom container such as a baby bottle, the command is "Fill."
- And, of course, you must first wake up Google Assistant or Alexa with "Hey Google" or "Alexa."
- With Alexa, there is no means of locking out specific users. A child can have an amazing good time putting the system through its paces. Google's Android operating system has a function called Voice Match that helps to prevent unauthorized use, but it is a chalenge to set up and is anything but infallable. If you catch a cold, you could find yourself locked out.
A Solution in Search of a Problem?
We are somewhat skeptical of electronic technology of all kinds in a residential sink faucet.
It seems to us to be rather gimmicky – a solution in search of a problem. Yes, it's rad, cool, awesome, and all the other usual adolescent hyperboles, and at a little more than $160.00 ($200.00 CAD) on top of the cost of a Touch2O faucet, even VoiceIQ is affordable. But is it needed?
At this point in its evolution, Touch2O does nothing more than turn the water on and off. It does not regulate flow rate or water temperature. So it's not a true hands-free operation.
VoiceIQ is a little more capable. It can adjust water temperature, but only if the faucet handle is left on and in the full hot position which, again, looks to us like an even more serious accident waiting to happen, especially with young children in the household.
The ability to dispense measured amounts of water is novel and clever but of limited utility.
The process has a built-in lag time (or "latency," as the digital cognoscenti like to call it) between giving the command to Google or Alexa and getting the result over wi-fi.
It is usually not more than two or three seconds, but in that two or three seconds, you could already have gotten your half cup of water manually and be off to some other task.
Durability of Electronic Components
More importantly, the current digital electronic technology is not very robust.
In public restroom faucets where the technology was first tried and is at its most mature, the electronics is usually the first component of an automatic faucet to fail.
The technology needs to get a lot more reliable, almost to the level of robustness, before its use in faucets becomes practical. We have little confidence in its long-term durability.
Neither does Delta.
While Delta provides a lifetime warranty on all of the other parts of its faucets, the warranty on the electronic components of the Touch2O and VoiceIQ technology is just 5 years – longer than the 1-3 year warranty offered by many other faucet companies on their electronics, but still considerably shorter than a lifetime guarantee.
In our experience, once the novelty of hands-free operation has worn off, the feature is rarely used because it simply is not that much more convenient than manual operation, and when the technology fails, many of our customers don't bother to have it fixed.
Delta Faucet Finishes
Delta faucets are available in 22 standard finishes including 7 .
One finish, Bright Stainless Steel, is not an applied finish but the material from which the stainless steel faucet is made: buffed and polished to a high shine.
Four finishes – Chrome, Brushed Nickel, Artic Stainless, and Black Stainless – are .
Black, Oil-Rubbed Bronze, Peened Stainless, Venetian Bronze, and White are .
The three remaining finishes – Stainless, Polished Brass, and Champagne Bronze – are the company's patented Brilliance® finishes developed by sister company, Vapor Technologies Inc., one of the early pioneers of PVD coatings.
Physical Vapor Deposition
The PVD finishing process is almost science fiction.
Load a chamber with unfinished faucet components. Remove all the air and add back a carefully calculated mix of nitrogen and reactive gases.
Add a chunk of the metal to be used for the coating, usually in the form of a rod then heat that rod to a temperature so high that the rod dissolves into individual atoms.
Finish Durability
Some finishes are more durable than others. Here are Delta faucet finishes and their durability from most to least durable.
- Brilliance® (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 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.)
- 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.
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 (.00008-.0002") – on the faucets.
PVD is commonly used to simulate metals that tarnish or corrode using metals that do not.
PVD brass can be created, for example, using a very hard and tarnish-resistant titanium alloy as the coating metal with nitrogen gas. Adding methane to the mix reddens the color, producing rose brass, and adding a dash of acetylene darkens the finish for an antique or vintage brass effect.
The very dense PVD coating is very thin but also very hard (Rockwell HRC-80+ and Vicker HV-2600+) and bonded to the faucet at a molecular level, essentially becoming an integral part of the fabric of the faucet, In abrasion tests, PVD finishes are regularly found to be 10 to 20 times more scratch-resistant than electroplated chrome.
In our tests, a Scotch Brite® heavy-duty scouring pad was able to damage a Brilliance finish slightly, and it still took considerable effort. Brillo® pads had no effect at all. (Nonetheless, keep all scouring pads far, far away from your faucet finish.)
Electroplating
is the time-proven standard, having served the industry well for over 100 years. It 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. Chrome is the most commonly used plated metal, followed distantly by nickel.
In most instances, electroplating is a multi-coat process. Undercoats of copper and nickel usually precede the final decorative coating. The undercoats have two purposes:
- Some metals, chrome being one, do not adhere very well to naked brass. One or more nickel undercoats are used before the chrome is applied so the finish does not flake or peel. If finishing zinc, undercoats of copper then nickel are commonly used. The copper sticks well to zinc, nickle adheres tightly to copper, and chrome bonds securely to nickel.
- Undercoats help smooth out any imperfections in the faucet matrial. PVD, for example, has no gap-filling properties whatsoever, so it is not uncommon for faucets to be undercoated with electroplated nickel and/or chrome before a PVD coating is applied. The undercoats eliminate any potential flaws in the surface so they don't show up in the final finish.
Understanding Finish Warranties
A finish warranty does not protect against everything that can go wrong with a faucet finish.
It protects against defects caused by faulty materials or errors in the finishing process, generally subsumed under the rubric "manufacturing defects."
Blistering, delaminating, peeling, and spalling are the usual manufacturing defects. These are very rare – almost unheard of. The bad old days of peeling China chrome are long gone.
Most finish problems these days are caused by overzealous cleaning and ordinary wear and tear, neither of which is covered by a finish warranty.
If it peels, the company 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.
Powder Coating
are much less robust, usually described as "semi-durable", requiring more care than electroplated or PVD finishes to maintain a like-new appearance.
The powder is applied using a special low-velocity spray gun that disperses the powder while giving it a positive electrical charge. The powder particles are drawn to the faucet which has been given a negative charge.
Once the powder is applied, the faucet is baked in an oven at about 400°F (204°C) 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.
Hydrophobic & Oleophobic Coatings
Some Delta faucet finishes are given a final coating to combat water spots and fingerprints. There are two types. Lumicoat™ and Spotshield®. Spotshield has the additional advantage of being anti-microbial, reducing bacteria and mold accumulation.
According to the company:
"The finish technology allows users to easily wipe the surface clean with only a soft cloth, eliminating the need for cleaners and chemicals."
These are what are known as . They are formulated at the molecular level to shed water. Because water does not stock, it does not dry on the faucet leaving what are called waterspots. Many are also . They repel oil such as the oil on your fingers which makes them fingerprint-resistant.
Typically these coatings are very thin, as thin as 2-4 , so thin that they do not obscure the finish under the coating or change its appearance.
Currently, there are two SpotShield finishes, Spotshield Brushed Nickel and Spotshield Stainless. Lumicoat is available on a much wider range of finishes. Faucets available in Lumicoat finishes are identified on Delta's website.
We have seen no data on the durability of Lumicoat or Spotshield. Delta undoubtedly has such data, but has not seen fit to make it public.
Whatever the finishing technology used, however, Delta guarantees all faucet finishes for a lifetime, indicating a very high level of confidence in the durability of its finishes.
Be aware, however, that scratches, chips, and other damage resulting from lack of care in cleaning or maintenance are not included in Delta's warranty (or any faucet warranty for that matter). Nor is ordinary wear and tear.
Faucet Finishes:
To learn more about protective finishes on faucets including the technologies used to produce the finishes, their limitations, durability, and care requirements, see Faucet Finishes.Improved Faucet Designs
Delta faucets have historically been long on solid engineering and precise manufacturing but more than a little short on style.
The times, they are a-changin', however.
Delta has borrowed a little design pizzaz from to lend a little oomph to its collections. We are starting to see Delta faucets that, while certainly not avant-garde, are a giant step up in the style department.
The collections are still skewed toward traditional and transitional faucets – Delta's meat and potatoes market. But, some designs featuring the angularity and industrial simplicity favored by European designers are starting to show up. By far, however, most Delta faucets still retain the sweeping, graceful curves that are characteristic of American/Canadian faucet design.
For a true designer faucet from Masco, you might have to step up to its higher-end faucet line. Same first-class customer service, recise engineering, and quality manufacturing, just more style.
Unlike Delta faucets which win awards for advanced technology such as an Adex award for its Temp2O faucets, Brizo wins awards for its designs.
Brizo faucets have won numerous awards in international design competitions. These include a prestigious Red Dot award for its Artesso™ collection and the even more esteemed Good Design award for the Articulating™ kitchen faucet and the Kintsu™ bath collection.
Limitations on Discounts
No matter where you buy a Delta faucet, do not expect a substantial discount. The company maintains a . Dealers may sell below the minimum advertised price, but may not advertise the price.
A dealer that violates the policy is at risk of losing its authorization to sell Delta products.
Counterfeit Delta Faucets
If you buy from a source that is not authorized, then most likely you are getting a counterfeit Delta faucet.
The counterfeiting of popular faucets seems to be a cottage industry in China, helped along by "entrepreneurs" in former Soviet Bloc countries, especially Russia. (See Delta Faucet Company sues Russian Counterfeiters.)
Delta regularly sues unauthorized sellers, most notably storefront operators on e-commerce hosting sites like Amazon.com, for trademark infringement pursuant to 15 U.S.C. §§ 1116 and 1117(a) and unfair competition under the Lanham Act 15 U.S.C. § 1125(a).
Bit, this is like playing whack-a-mole. The offenders simply go out of business and reappear under another name and storefront. Amazon and similar hosting websites do almost nothing to ensure hosted sellers are authorized to sell their products, and the products are safe and not fake.
Illegal and Black Market Faucets:
For more information on the problem of uncertified, counterfeit, and other illegal faucets in North America and the role played by Amazon and other hosting websites, see Illegal Black Market Faucets in North America.
For a list of illegal and contraband faucet brands sold on Amazon, read Amazon's Contraband Faucets.
The Chinese B2B website, Alibaba.com, offers numerous copycat Delta faucets some of which are fairly good imitations. But, they are not certified lead-free to North American standards and are not legal to install in a drinking-water system in North America.
It is not a simple matter to identify a counterfeit faucet. Delta suggests the following clues, but even these are not always sufficient:
"Most of the Delta faucets will have the name on the faucet, usually on the escutcheon plate or drain cap. However, it is not uncommon for someone to replace the lavatory faucet without replacing the drain assembly. Some of the older models may not say Delta, but may indicate MASCO on the aerator. If the internal parts have not been changed from the Genuine Delta parts, the seats will have Delta on them and two handle stems that are "D"-shaped."
Delta will not honor a warranty on non-genuine Delta faucets and no replacement parts are available. So, if you end up with a counterfeit Delta faucet, you are on your own. There is no help when it breaks, as it most assuredly will.
The Delta Website
The Delta website is well-designed, informative, and easy to navigate using a menu-driven paradigm. The site is multi-national. It allows instant switching to the sites for Canada (English and French), Brasil, India (English), and China (still under construction as of the date of this report).
Faucets can be displayed by room (kitchen or bath). Filters permit further discrimination by configuration (centerset, pulldown, vessel, hands-free, etc.), price range, flow rate, number of handles, and finish.
The filter options are not complete, however. In selecting kitchen faucets, for example, you can filter on "single-handle", but a filter for two-handle kitchen faucets is not available.
The site search function is fairly robust. It does well on product searches. A search for "Cassidy sink faucets" turned up all of the sink faucets in the Cassidy collection, but the term "sink' was crucial. Otherwise, everything in the Cassidy collection is displayed: faucets, showers and shower components, tub fillers, tub spouts, and bathroom accessories such as towel racks, robe hooks, and toilet paper holders – 257 products in all.
Once you arrive at a suitable faucet the information about the faucet is comprehensive but not sufficient for an informed buying decision. An informed decision requires that all of the specifications needed to determine the suitability and longevity of a faucet be provided by the seller.
Faucets are briefly described and downloadable technical specification sheets with more detailed information are provided. These typically include a measured drawing that is very useful in determining whether a faucet will fit your sink.
Other downloads include installation instructions and an exploded parts diagram.
The installation instructions are detailed and complete with diagrams and illustrations that make the installation process very clear.
Delta Faucet Installation:
Our plumbers rated the installation of Delta faucets "Very Easy" on a four-point scale of Very Easy to Very Hard.Certain essential information is missing from the website, however.
Neither the primary nor secondary materials from which the faucet is made are identified.
We assume most Delta faucets are made of brass, but we can't be sure because the company website does not identify any faucet's material.
We do know, however, that some Delta faucets including those in the Leland, Lenta, and Vesna collections, are made from a zinc alloy, which leads us to suspect that others may also be zinc.
Specification, Property, or Document | Score | Notes |
---|---|---|
ADA Compliance Stated | 5 | |
Aerator Manufacturer Identified | 0 | Never identified. |
Baseplate Included, Yes or No | 5 | If applicable. |
Certifications Identified | 5 | |
Dimensions/Dimensioned Drawing | 5 | |
Drain Included, Yes or No | 5 | (Lavatory Faucets Only.) |
Flow Rate Maximum Stated | 5 | |
Installation Instructions | 5 | |
Material, Primary (Brass, Stainless, Aluminum, Zinc etc.) | 3.5 | Specified for some but not all faucets |
Materials, Secondary (Zinc, Plastic etc.) | 0 | Never identified. |
Mounting Holes, Number | 5 | |
Multiple Faucet Images, 360° Display, or Video Link | 2.5 | Some faucets are shown in multiple images. Most re not. |
Parts Diagram | 5 | |
Spray Head Material Identified | 0 | (Kitchen faucets only.) Never identified. |
Spray Hose Type Identified | 0 | (Kitchen faucets only.) Never identified. |
Supply Connection Size/Type Identified | 5 | |
Supply Hose Included. Yes or No | 5 | |
Supply Hose Type Identified | 5 | |
Valve/Cartridge Type Identified | 4 | Most of the time but not always. |
Valve/Cartridge Manufacturer Identified | 4 | Most of the time but not always. |
Finish Type Identified | 5 | |
Finish Images Provided | 5 | |
Warranty Link Provided | 0 | The warranty is online, but not linked from faucet listings. |
Watersense, Yes or No | 5 | (Lavatory Faucets only.) |
SCALE:
90+ A Excellent, 80+ B Good, 70+ C Average, 60+ D Poor, 59- F Fail
| ||
Download/Read/Print the minimum content required in an online faucet listing to permit an informed buying decision. |
Zinc and its alloys are suitable for those parts of a faucet not under water pressure.
In faucets that are made with Innoflex technology, the outer shell is not pressurized, so zinc is entirely adequate, generally less expensive, and does not detract from the quality of the faucet.
Delta explains its use of zinc in its faucet shells as follows:
"The thin zinc cover is much more uniform than brass; it provides near net shape die casting with tolerances of 0.005 in., requiring less polishing. … After machining, minor polishing, and buffing, the faucet shells are copper-nickel-chrome electroplated."
While this explanation is definitely in engineer-speak rather than regular English, what it means is that zinc can be die-cast more precisely than brass and takes finishes just as readily after being undercoated with copper (which adheres well to zinc), then nickel (which bonds well with copper), and, finally, with chrome (which attaches well to nickel).
Faucets with Diamond Seal Technology cartridges are identified by the letters "DST" that are part of the model number. But, of course, you have to know that DST means the faucet includes a Diamond Seal Technology cartridge.
Delta mentions the association at various places on its website, but not with each faucet listing, so, the association is easy to miss.
For faucets that do not include DST cartridges, the identity of the cartridge is not provided, and sometimes not even the type of cartridge. Some older Delta faucets, including those in the Classics and Foundations collections, are still fitted with Delta ball valves – a good valve for its time, but now severely dated.
These are usually identified only as "washerless" cartridges, but the faucet industry term, "washerless", is not one that is familiar to the general public and is never explained. Most readers would not understand that it refers to a non-ceramic cartridge or that the cartridge requires periodic maintenance.
Two-handle faucets are fitted with stem cartridges, but the type of stem cartridge, ceramic or washerless is not indicated.
From inspection, we believed most of these to be plastic body ceramic cartridges. Some collections include faucets with a washerless cartridge.
Most homeowners do not want the bother of replacing seals and springs periodically and should be allowed the opportunity to make an informed choice by being advised of the type of cartridge in a faucet and the periodic maintenance required, if any.
We give the website an A- for design and navigation, but only a C for the completeness of the faucet information provided.
Download/Read/Print the minimum content required in an online faucet listing to permit an informed buying decision.
Delta's Warranty
Delta faucet offers a residential lifetime warranty on the mechanics and finishes of its faucets to the original buyer of a faucet, and this includes its cartridges. Lifetime for warranty purposes is defined as
"… for as long as the original consumer purchaser owns the home in which the faucet was first installed …"
That definition is defective and may result in consequences not anticipated by Delta. Fortunately, the defect benefits Delta's customers more than it benefits Delta.[12]
Despite this minor flaw, our panel of lawyers judged it to be equivalent to the standard North American "lifetime" warranty on faucets.
The warranty complies with the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act (15 U.S.C. §2308) (the U.S. federal law that dictates the minimum content of and sets the rules for consumer product warranties in the United States, but not in Canada) except in one particular.
The company claims (in bold print) that its warranty is the "exclusive remedy" for faucet defects.
The Federal Trade Commission, the agency that oversees consumer warranties in the U.S., has repeatedly warned that claims that a written warranty is the sole or exclusive remedy for a defective consumer product are deceptive under Secton 5 of the FTC Act but has so far not taken any action against violators.
The law in most states and territories of the United States provides multiple remedies for consumer product failures, so a manufacturer's written warranty is never the exclusive remedy, and Delta's warranty is no exception.
Delta's Customer Service
Delta's warranty service more than makes up for most minor deficiencies in its warranty, however.
Certified: J. D. Power
In 2022 J.D. Power awarded Delta's U.S. customer service its certification for providing an "outstanding customer service experience."
The award was based, according to J.D. Power, on a "comprehensive survey of customer satisfaction and operational excellence."
We routinely test Delta's customer and warranty service in both the U.S. and Canada. In our most recent tests, the U.S. service scored 4.6 out of 5.0, and the Canadian service 4.8.
Any score over 4.0 is acceptable and over 4.5 is exceptional indicating a high degree of helpfulness, courtesy, problem resolution, and product knowledge.
Its only failing is the occasional long wait time to speak to an agent, as long as 20 minutes. However, over 90% of the time the wait is less than a minute, if any.
The Better Business Bureau shares our high opinion of Delta's post-sale problem resolution, consistently grading the company A+ on its scale of A+ to F for as long as we have been reviewing Delta, and probably for much longer.
The BBB does not publish historical ratings, so we have no way of finding out how long Delta has held an A+ rating, but it is at least for the 15 years over which we have been reviewing the company.
Testing and Certification
Delta Faucet Company is recognized by the Environmental Protection Agency as a WaterSense® Partner. EPA Watersense Partnership is limited to companies that manufacture, assemble, or import water-saving products that are certified to meet exacting WaterSense specifications.
Comparable Faucets
Faucets comparable to Delta in quality and warranty protection but not necessarily in price or design ininclude
Conclusions
Delta offers a good, solid, reliable, durable, dependable, and increasingly stylish lifetime faucet well supported by a strong warranty and a responsive and effective customer service organization.
Most Delta faucets are no longer produced in the U.S. or Canada, but that transition does not seem to have affected the quality of the faucets. Those who insist on buying American may be put off, but it should not be for lack of quality.
Our rating of the company's products has improved over time with the widespread adoption of the Diamond Seal cartridge and InnoFlex waterways in its faucets. The new cartridge is proving to be something of a phenomenon, with very few reported problems since its introduction. The Innoflex waterway is equally impressive. It seems to be living up to its promise of lead-free water delivery using the fairly inexpensive but reliable PEX material.
If you are considering the purchase of a Delta faucet, choose a faucet that has a Diamond Seal Technology cartridge in preference to one that does not. DST is the 21st-century technology with the promise of an actual lifetime cartridge
Also, give preference to a rilliance® PVD finish. PVD is the most worry-free of all finish technologies. The finishes will keep their like-new looks for a very long time with minimal care.
All members of our panel of reviewers indicated that they would have no hesitation buying a Delta bath or kitchen faucet for their own homes "without reservation."
We are continuing to research the company. If you have experience with Delta faucets, good, bad, or indifferent, we would like to hear about it, so please contact us or post a comment below.
Footnotes
- Masco was the largest faucet manufacturer in the world for most of the last 30 years but it may have been overtaken by LIXIL Group Corporation, a Japanese building products conglomerate that has since 2013 purchased the U.S.-based faucet line.
- Masco and LIXIL are now head-to-head competitors in the North American and European faucet markets and it is a toss-up as to which company sells more faucets worldwide. It's not a toss-up in North America, however, where Masco is the hands-down winner.
- The name Masco was derived from the initials of the original partners: [M]anoogian-[A]djemian-[S]aunders [CO]. Adjemian and Saunders, however, left the company in its first year. Brothers Charles and George Manoogian joined the company in 1934 and 1936 respectively, and son Richard, later Masco's second president, in 1959.
- Ken Roberts, an engineer with an MBA, has been Delta's president since 2018 after a variety of executive positions in the company, including three years in Asia, developing Delta's Chinese operations.
- Both Landis Perry and Al Moen invented versions of the washerless valve at about the same time and under the same circumstances. Both were serving in the wartime U. S. military when they came up with the idea and began designing a prototype. Both applied for patents upon leaving the military.
- Moen got his into production first in 1947, having persuaded Ravenna Metal Products of Seattle to finance and produce faucets using his revolutionary valve. Perry's invention did not go into production at Delta until 1954.
- Because he was first-to-market, Moen is generally credited as the inventor of the washerless valve.
- Delta and is in a distant third place with about 15%. All of the other hundreds of faucet companies share the remaining 25%.
- Delta's commercial website, https://deltacommercialfaucets.org appears to be out of business. Commercial products are now displayed on the main Delta website and there seem to be far fewer of them than in earlier years.
- A basic model is a faucet without handles and other swappable parts. Delta can create as many as dozens of different variations to the basic model using different finishes, handles, and sometimes spouts. Each of these is given a separate model number in the Delta catalog. For purposes of our research, we counted only the basic model and not the multiple variations on the basic model.
- For a product to be labeled "Made in USA", the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) requires that "all or virtually all" of the components of the product must also be made in the U.S.A. The product may contain "negligible" foreign content but that content cannot be "significant" – meaning critical to the product.
- If the "hot" and "cold" buttons on a faucet are made in China, that insignificant foreign content would probably not affect its "Made in USA" status. But, if the faucet cartridge is made in China, it would. Its cartridge is a critical component of a faucet.
- The only faucet products we can identify in the Delta inventory that are known to be made in its Mexican facility are rubber o-rings. We could not identify any fully finished Delta faucets as originating in Mexico.
- Every sink faucet cartridge legally sold in North America has been tested through 500,000 on/off/hot/cold cycles for durability. The life-cycle testing of faucet valves is completely automated. A laboratory robotic arm moves the faucet handle from full-off to full-on, then all the way to the cold side, then all the way to the hot side, then to full-off again; and it repeats this cycle 500,000 times. The European/Asian test is 60,000 cycles. The DST cartridge was tested to five million cycles.
- 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.)
-
PEX is a material made from polyethylene, a form of plastic that has been dosed with radiation to make it more pliable. It is widely used as a replacement for copper water supply piping.
Invented in 1968 by Thomas Engle, a German chemist, it was introduced to North America in the 1980s, initially as piping for radiant floor heating systems.
Its use as a replacement for copper water pipes increased throughout the following decades as the processes for installing it became more familiar. Today, it is used in over 60% of water supply systems in new residential construction. It would have wider use except for archaic plumbing codes in many localities that still specify copper for residential water systems.
It is faster, easier, and cheaper to install, is less likely to leak, and resists freezing better than copper. It is also a lot cheaper, especially as copper becomes harder to find and more expensive.
- Zamak 3 (ASTM AG40A), or Zinc Alloy 3, is the most widely used zinc alloy in North America and is usually the first choice when considering zinc for die casting.
- According to our legal panel, the definition of "lifetime" in the Delta warranty – "for as long as the original consumer purchaser owns the home in which the faucet was first installed …" – has two problems.
- The first problem is that buyers who do not own their home (renters, lessees, and tenants) do not get a warranty because they do not "own the home in which the faucet was first installed." Homeownership is required for the warranty to attach.
- The second is that the warranty does not require the buyer to continue to own a Delta faucet for the warranty to remain in force. One unexpected result of that omission is that the buyer can retain all rights under the warranty even after he or she no longer owns the faucet.
-
Consider this example:
- Buyer sells his Delta faucet to Cousin Nell who installs it in her house.
- The warranty does not end at the sale because the buyer still owns the house "in which the faucet was first installed." Owning that house is the only requirement for the warranty to remain in effect.
- The ownership of the faucet passes to Cousin Nell but not the warranty itself. The warranty, by its terms, is not transferable. But, nothing in the warranty prevents Cousin Nell from enjoying the benefits of the warranty without necessarily having to actually own the warranty.
- If the faucet develops a leak, could Buyer make a warranty claim for Nell's benefit?
- The answer is probably "yes". In most states, a party to a contract (a warranty is a contract) can enforce the terms of the contract for the benefit of a person who is not a party to the contract, and in many states, Nell could enforce the warranty herself. As the person benefiting under the warranty, she has what is called a "beneficial" interest that can be enforced in a lawsuit.
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These are odd results indeed, and probably not what Delta intends, but that's the way the company has chosen to write its warranty. A better definition, and one that takes care of both problems, would be:
"… for as long as the original consumer purchaser owns the faucet and resides in the home in which the faucet is first installed …"
- To be fair to the company, so far as we know, Delta has never denied warranty coverage to a buyer that does not own the home in which the faucet is installed, or even asked whether the buyer owns the home, but it could, and that's what we must look at when evaluating a written warranty.