Fluid Faucets Review & Rating Updated: November 20, 2024

Imported

China

Vietnam

Sustainable Solutions International, Inc.

Canada
8395 Riverbend Ct.
Burnaby, BC V3N 5E7

U.S.A.
Office
3325 South Garfield Ave.
City of Commerce, CA 90040

Warehouse
6947 Salashan Parkway
Ferndale, WA 98248

(800) 460 7019
(604) 430-2020
info2024@sustainablesolutions.com

Rating

Business Type

Product Range

Kitchen and Bath Faucets

Certifications

Brands

Fluid

Street Price

$195-$537 CAD
$195-$512 USD

Warranty Score

Cartridge

lifetime¹

Finishes

Lifetime

Mechanical Parts

Lifetime

Proof of Purchase

Required

Transferable

No

Meets U.S. Warranty
Law Requirements

No²

Footnotes:

1. "For as long as the original consumer/purchaser/owner owns his or her home."

2. Not applicable to sales in Canada.

---

Read the Fluid Faucet warranty.

Learn more about faucet warranties.

Read our Model Limited Lifetime Faucet Warranty.

This Company In Brief

Sustainable Solutions International, Inc. (SSi) is a Canadian company that imports water-saving fau­cets designed, engineered, and manufactured in China that it sells in Canada and the U.S.

The fau­cets are of good to very good quality, made with heavy brass and stainless steel construction and top-of-the-line ceramic cartridges.

Designs are mostly contemporary with a sprinkling of traditional styles. Finishes are limited.

The company supports the fau­cets with excellent customer service.

Sustainable Solutions International (SSi) is a company that imports and sells water-saving fixtures (sinks, toilets, bidets, and bathtubs) and decorative fittings (fau­cets, showers, and tub fillers) from two facilities: one in Canada and the other in California with a warehouse in Washington state.

The fau­cets are manufactured in its factory in China. They are stylish without being particularly innovative, but they are very well made with excellent components including top-drawer valve cartridges from Europe.

The Company

Sustainable Solutions International, Inc. (SSi) was formed by David Morris and Douglas Sproule in 2007. It was reorganized as a Canadian business corporation in 2009. A California stock company of the same name was also formed to sell SSi products in the U.S.

As the name suggests, the company's focus is on water-saving plumbing products and it has built its business around fixtures and fittings that help conserve water, including low-flow fau­cets, showers, and water-sparing toilets.

For more on conserving water, see Saving Household Water.

It sells three brands of sanitary wares: Caroma, Fluid, and SSi by Fluid. Faucets are sold only under the Fluid brand.

Caroma

Caroma is an Australian company founded in 1941 by Charles Rothauser. It is now part of GWA Group, Limited, Australia's largest domestic bath wares company.

SSi entered into a long-term licensing agreement in 2011 to become the sole distributor of Caroma products in North America including its well-regarded dual-flush toilets.

At one time GWA was a manufacturer and most of its manufacturing was done in Australia. However, it closed its last Australian factory in 2014 and now contracts all manufacturing to Chinese factories.

SSI by Fluid

SSi or SSi by Fluid was intended to be a brand used to sell very high-efficiency NO-CLOG^® toilets designed, according to SSi, "for maximum flush performance, water savings and affordability."

As of the date of this report, only one toilet was available in two styles: elongated and round front. We do not expect the offerings to be expanded. The company informed us that it intends to discontinue this line of products, merging it into the Fluid brand.

Fluid

Fluid is SSi's brand used to sell the widest variety of products including sinks, toilets, bidets, showers, tub fillers, accessories, and, of course, fau­cets.

The name "Fluid" is a registered trademark in Canada entitled to use the ® mark. In the U.S., however, the company's application for registration, filed in 2008, was deemed abandoned by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in 2009 and the trademark was not awarded.

Although not registered, the name is protected as a common-law tradename under state trademark statutes.

Originally selling only bathroom products, the Fluid lineup has expanded into kitchen sinks and fau­cets, although its current offerings are somewhat limited as of the date of this report.

We believe the product offerings will rapidly expand once SSi's contract factory in Vietnam begins to produce stainless steel products, an event scheduled for December 2024.

Faucet Manufacturing

Sustainable Solutions is an importer and distributor, not itself a manufacturer.

It originally acquired its fau­cets from Yatin Bath Corp., an sanitary wares and bath furnishings manufacturer that makes fau­cets, showers, bath cabinets, and bathroom accessories (towel racks, tissue holders, robe hooks, etc.) in its several factories in mainland China.

Yatin is one of China's most creative manufacturers. Its fau­cet designs have won awards in international competitions all over the world.

Jiujiang Fluidtech Manufacturing Co., Ltd.

In 2010, however, SSi established its own factory in China together with two China-based partners, Edward and Cici Zhang, to design, engineer, and manufacture its products, including fau­cets.

The company, originally Suz­hou Pre­ci­sion Man­u­factur­ing Co., Ltd. has expanded, relocated, and been renamed several times.

Recently it was Jiu­jiang Flu­id Man­u­factur­ing Co., Ltd. and now it is Jiu­jiang Flu­id­tech Man­u­factur­ing Co., Ltd.

Fluidtech does not have a website but does have at least one other customer in the U.S. It supplies "plastic foam balls" to Doc­zac En­ter­pris­es, Inc., a health and fitness equipment supplier in Wash­ing­ton State and Bri­tish Co­lum­bia. The products are evidently used for hand-strengthening exercises.

Fluid­tech is also a trading company and is frequently found in import records under the name, Jiu­jiang Flu­id­tech Trad­ing Co., Ltd.

Vinox Manufacturing Ltd.

According to a source within SSi, a Taiwanese company, Vinox Manufacturing Ltd., will begin producing some of Fluid's stainless steel products, including fau­cets, in its Vietnamese facility sometime in late 2024.

Vinox, established in Taiwan in 1975, owns factories in China and Malaysia as well as Vietnam.

Faucets are a novel product for Vinox.

Although it is an experiened manufacturer of stainless steel products, most of its production consists of simple metal components that do not require extensive assembly.

Fluid Collections

SSi gathers its bathroom fau­cets in collections that it calls "Series."

A Series usually includes fau­cets, along with coordinated showers, tub spouts and fillers, and may include sinks, toilets, and accessories such as soap and lotion dispensers, towel racks, and toilet tissue holders.

Each Series is illustrated in its own downloadable catalog that is usually linked from the online fau­cet listing for each fau­cet in the Series.

At present, the nine bathroom collections contain 26 fau­cets. Some, like, the Vancouver collection, boast just a single fau­cet. Quad, the largest bathroom fau­cet collection includes five fau­cets.

However, the company is aggressively expanding its product lines, so we expect these numbers to grow. By the time you read this, they will undoubtedly have changed.

Kitchen fau­cets are not as numerous – just seven fau­cets in total.

Kitchen products are new to SSi and we expect they will be expanded and very possibly divided into Series as time goes by.

Faucet Designs

Most Fluid fau­cets are contemporary styles. Just three bathroom fau­cets might be considered either traditional or transitional styling.

The designs are often striking but exhibit no particular design distinction. Most are close copies of styles already in existence.

Design originality is usually not the province of companies selling mid-priced fau­cets. It is the domain of luxury fau­cet companies that can afford to experiment.

Most novel designs are aimed at the design glitterati, people who can afford a $1,500+ fau­cet – at best a niche market.

Very few reach widespread acceptance. However, a design that is successful in the wider market will eventually filter down to lower-priced fau­cets although the process may take up to a decade.

The goal of companies like SSi with lower markups and less generous profit margins is not to astound with novel designs but to to sell as many fau­cets as possible by keeping their styling well within the mainstream to appeal to the greatest number of potential buyers.

Old Plumber's Trick

Put the paperwork for your fau­cet, sink, disposer, hot water dispenser, etc., including receipts, installation instructions, user manuals, and warranties, along with any leftover hardware and special tools, in a plastic bag and tape it to the inside of the sink cabinet under the sink.

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

SSi's fau­cet styles are variations on designs that have a proven market success.

Faucet Quality & Features

The quality of the Fluid fau­cets we examined was very good.

These are heavy brass and stainless steel fau­cets with close-tolerance machining and impeccable finishes. In short, they are at or slightly above the quality of construction one would expect of fau­cets at their price level.

The fau­cets include features that indicate well-thought-out products by a smart company that understands what is important in a fau­cet and what is not.

Well-chosen features add to the value of the fau­cets without necessarily adding much to the price.

The most important of all fau­cet components are valve cartridges.

The price difference between a top-quality cartridge and an also-ran is a matter of a few dollars, but the improvement in durability and longevity is substantial – a boatload of extra value at very little additional cost.

It would be hard to find better valve cartridges than those used in Fluid fau­cets. (See more about valve cartridges below.)

Cartridges are not alone, however. There are other features, not as important perhaps, but offering improved convenience and value to the user.

• Longer Risers:

  We especially like the extra-long risers (the flexible hoses that connect the fau­cet to the shutoff under the sink), which make installation easier and cheaper by reducing the number of trips to the plumbing supply house.

• Our plumbers had no difficulty installing our test fau­cets and rated their installation "Very Easy" on a five-point scale from "Very Easy" to "Very Difficult." Of course, "Very Easy" to a plumber does not necessarily mean very easy for you, if you are a DIYer.

• But, whether installed professionally or from a home toolbox, the long risers will make the job go more smoothly than it would otherwise especially if you have to snake around the hot water dispenser, drinking water filter, and the extra piping the plumber seems to have added for no obvious reason.

• Drain Included:

  Fluid bathroom sink fau­cets are shipped with a matching drain. The Quick Clean^™ drain is almost worth the price of admission all by itself.

• It features an internal basket that catches hair and assorted particulates to prevent a clogged drain line but also snags small items like rings and toothpaste caps before they disappear into the void to be lost forever.

• A toothpaste cap is no big deal but a ring can be an expensive loss, financially and emotionally.

• The entire drain pulls out for cleaning without any tools. Very cool!

• Swivel Aerator:

  Another nice feature of the company's bathroom fau­cets is the Eco Care swivel aerator manufactured by Neoperl AG. It allows you to direct water into the sweet spot of the sink which avoids splashback.

• Aerators can be easily removed using a special tool included with the fau­cet.

• We are not big fans of special tools. They always seem to be missing when you need them. However, this one is so slick we are motivated to overlook our usual prejudice.

• But, don't lose it. (See Old Plumber's Trick, above) You can remove the aerator without it, but it's a chore.

• Temperature Delimiter:

  Some lavatory fau­cets feature a temperature limit stop built into the valve cartridge that allows the maximum hot water temperature to be adjusted – a necessity for families with small children.

Faucet Construction

The construction of Fluid fau­cets is conventional. The body and spout of the fau­cet carry water as well as provide the fau­cet's appearance.

Wall-mounted fau­cets are made with core and shell construction in which the element that carries the water (the valve assembly core) is divorced from the decorative trim (the shell), the design element that gives a fau­cet its appearance. This is the way wall-mounted fau­cets are traditionally made.

Due to the continuously rising cost of the lead-free brass required for fau­cets, many companies (see e.g. ) are moving their entire fau­cet lines (both deck- and wall-mounted) to core and shell construction in which the core, composed of copper or PEX tubing, channels the water inside the decorative brass shell which gives the fau­cet its appearance.

Core & shell offers several substantial advantages over conventional fau­cet construction.

• Lower Material Costs: Because water never touches the shell it can be made of thinner material using much less expensive leaded brass.

• Reduced Development Time and Costs: One core can support multiple shells. It is much less costly and much faster to design decorative shells than it is to engineer, prototype, and test whole fau­cets.

• Fewer Certification Requirements: Only the core valve needs to be certified as the decorative shell never touches water and has no role to play in controlling the delivery of water.

• Shells generally do not need to be tested and certified but if certification is required the process is less involved. Certification is expensive, so less certification saves money.

• Improved Design Flexibility: A cunstomer can change the look of his or her fau­cet by merely replacing the shell, generally much less expensive than buying a whole new fau­cet.

Fluid Valve Cartridges

Its valve cartridge is the most important part of a modern fau­cet.

It's what makes the fau­cet work, dispensing metered amounts of temperature-controlled water on demand. If a fau­cet fails, ordinarily it is the cartridge that is the culprit. It is important, therefore, that the cartridge be the best available.

Fortunately, Fluid fau­cets are equipped with some of the best ceramic valve cartridges made.

Two-Handle Cartridges

Two-handle Fluid fau­cets such as the Vancouver need two valves, one for the hot handle and one for the cold. These are called "stem cartridges" in the industry (for historical reasons that are not at all important).

SSi uses the excellent single-function stem cartridges made by Flühs Drehtechnik located in Lüdenscheid, Germany since 1926 in all of its two-handle fau­cets.

Flühs is world-renowned for its precision machining and is generally thought of as the manufacturer of the world's best stem cartridges. Flühs (sometimes spelled Fluehs for English speakers) valves are heavy-duty products with an established reputation for leak-free reliability.

Faucet lines known to use Flühs cartridges include fau­cets, to name just a few.

Single-Handle Cartridges

Valve cartridges for single-handle fau­cets are generally of the same high quality.

Single-handle fau­cets have only one cartridge called a "mixing cartridge" or "mixer."

In addition to controlling the volume of water, a mixing cartridge also controls the blending of hot and cold water, so it is a more complicated device.

Fluid single-handle fau­cets are controlled by Kerox, Kft ceramic mixing valve cartridges made in Hungary.

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

Unlike Flühs which started as a precision machining company, moving into making valve cartridges only in the 1980s, Kerox's original products (back when Hungary was still a Warsaw Pact county in the orbit of the Soviet Union) were dental ceramics.

Kerox still makes dentures but it also makes excellent mixing cartridges that are preferred by many upscale fau­cet companies in Europe and North America.

Faucets sold in North America known to use Kerox cartridges are too many to mention, but we'll mention some anyway, including

Ker­ox also makes the ceramic disks used in some including

Faucet Aerators

Neoperl AG, a Swiss company, supplies the used in Fluid fau­cets.

Faucet aerators used to be simple devices, often no more than a few layers of window screen, that merely infused a little air to soften the water stream so it would not splash out of the sink.

Today, however, they are precision products carefully engineered to shape the water stream and limit water volume to the lower flows required by federal and state water conservation laws, and in fau­cets with pull-out sprays, to prevent back-flow that could contaminate household drinking water.

It is important to long-term fau­cet functionality that these be the best available, and with the Swiss-engineered Neoperl, Fluid has one of the best.

Faucet Flow Rates

Before 1975, the U.S. had no maximum flow rate for fau­cets. The flow rate was the maximum rate possible with a 1/2" pipe, about 4 gallons per minute (gpm) and double that witha 3/4" water pipe.

Toilets also had no limit on the amount of water required to flush and typically needed 5 to 7 gallons per flush.

That changed with the Energy Policy and Conservation Act that mandated the nation's first water conservation standards including the maximum water use of 1.6 gallons to flush a toilet, 2.5 gpm for showers, and 2.2 gpm for sink fau­cets.

Canada imposed a national maximum flow rate of 1.8 gpm in 1995. Kitchen fau­cets, however, may temporarily increase the flow rate to a maximum of 2.2 gpm but must default back to the 1.8 gpm maximum after the momentary surge. After July 1, 2025, fau­cets will be required to meet California water flow maximums.

Manufacturers objected to the imposition of conservation standards, loudly complaining that the standards were unrealistic, too radical, and impossible to meet, then set about meeting them.

Today, the highest MaP-rated toilets easily flush using as little as one gallon of water and every new fau­cet in the U.S. flows at or below, sometimes far below, the 2.2 gpm maximum.

All fau­cets offered for sale in any U.S. state or territory are required to meet the federal limit and the seller is required to register the fau­cet with the Department of Energy attesting that the limit has been met.

Many early conservation standards have been strengthened over the intervening years, becoming even more restrictive.

Not the water-saving fau­cet standards, however. The maximum legal water flow rate for sink fau­cets in the U.S. has resolutely remained at 2.2 gpm at a water pressure of 60 pounds per square inch (psi).

After 50 years, some states and localities believe the federal standards to be much too generous in the age of global warming and have imposed even lower flow rates.

California limits bathroom sink fau­cets to 1.2 gpm and kitchen fau­cets to 1.8 gpm and requires fau­cets sold in the state to be registered with the California Energy Commission.

Failure to comply can result in a whopping fine of $2,500 per fau­cet sold or offered for sale in violation. And California is not kidding around. Fines of over $100,000 have become almost routine.

For a bathroom fau­cet to be Watersense^® listed, its maximum flow may not exceed 1.5 gpm. The maximum in most of Europe is 6 liters per minute (1.58 gpm) for fau­cets in domestic use. (Watersense does not list kitchen, laundry, or utility fau­cets.)

How to Clean a Ceramic Valve Cartridge

Even the best ceramic valve cartridges require routine maintenance. The notion of a totally maintenance-free cartridge is nonsense. Ceramic valves require less care than other types but still require periodic cleaning, especially in hard water areas.

If your fau­cet starts to drip after several years, the problem is most likely in the valve cartridge.

The cartridge is probably not defective. It is just clogged up with mineral deposits accumulated over the years from hard water.

The two ceramic discs that shut the water off no longer mesh perfectly, allowing a few drops of water to slip through.

To return it to full functionality, removing the lime scale deposits is all that is required.

Here is how that can be done:

• Remove the cartridge following the instructions in your fau­cet manual.
• Soak the cartridge for up to 30 minutes in a solution of 50% household vinegar and 50% water.

• While you are waiting, take a toothbrush soaked in the vinegar/water mixture and clean the cavity in the fau­cet that holds the cartridge. Wipe it dry with a clean cloth.
• Rinse the cartridge thoroughly in clean cold water.
• Lubricate the O-ring(s) and rubber washers, if any, with silicon plumber's grease.
• Reinstall the cartridge.

If the mineral build-up is substantial, you may have to do this more than once.

Depending on the mineral content of the water in your locality, clean the cartridge every year or two.

To achieve its water conservation objectives, SSi fau­cets are set to an even lower water flow. Kitchen fau­cets flow at a maximum of 1.6 gpm and bathroom sink fau­cets at 1.0 gpm.

Not only are lower water flows saving water, they also save energy.

It takes energy to pump water so the less water pumped the less energy used. And, because the water delivered through sink fau­cets is often heated water, reducing the flow rate reduces the energy used to heat water.

Less energy used means a reduction in the greenhouse gases that cause global warming.

Lower flows also save you money on water and heating bills.

But lower and slower is not always better.

At some point, the water flow becomes so slow that it ceases to be useful. Flow rates in public restroom sinks, for example, are limited by law to 0.5 gpm in North America, barely a trickle, and too slow to be practical for a household fau­cet.

To overcome the drawbacks of a lower flow rate, fau­cet engineers have gotten creative.

Because the lower flow rates reduce the effectiveness of fau­cet sprays, most have been redesigned to produce a harder spray from lower water flows. This seems to be the approach used in Fluid fau­cets. Some Neoperl aerators produce a spray that is almost capable of peeling a potato.

Other brands include a variable flow rate mechanism that can increase the flow rate to the 2.2 maximum rate for rinsing dishes or filling pots, then revert to the normal lower rate when the selector is released.

An example is the Multi-Flow^™ spray wand. We are not aware of a similar feature on Fluid fau­cets, however.

Lower flow rates do require some getting used to.

If you are moving from a fau­cet with a flow of 2.2 gpm to one with a flow of 1.0 gpm, expect a period of adjustment. However, in a few weeks, the lower flow rate will begin to feel normal.

All of us old-timers went through the same adjustment in the 1980s and '90s, getting accustomed to a flow rate down to 2.2 gpm down from as much as 7.0 gpm. It was quite the change but now the lower flows are taken for granted.

Fluid Faucet Finishes

Originally, Fluid fau­cets were available in Pol­ished Chrome and Brushed Nick­el finishes. These have now been augmented with Matte Black and Stain­less Steel (on kitchen fau­cets).

SSi does not disclose the processes used to produce its finishes on its website, but on inquiry, it was very forthcoming.

According to the company, Flu­id's Pol­ished Chrome is , Matte Black is a , and Brushed Nick­el and Stain­less Steel are produced using a process.

The finish process is important. It contributes significantly to the durability of the finish. (See the sidebar Finish Durability for more information.)

Electroplating

is the time-proven standard. The process was discovered by an Italian chemist, Luigi Valentino Brugnatelli, in 1805. It has served the fau­cet industry well for nearly 160 years.

Plating involves immersing fau­cet components and the metal to be used as plating in an acid bath, then applying an electrical charge to both objects so metallic ions are drawn from the plating metal to the components.

Chrome is the most commonly used plated met­al, followed distantly by nickel.

Lots of other metals could be used as fau­cet finish but rarely are. Gold and silver, for example, are too expensive (and silver tarnishes). Tin and zinc are usually considered too ugly (but see fau­cets for a contrary viewpoint.)

The durability of an electroplated finish largely depends on the hardness of the metal used in the plating.

Chrome, a relatively hard, scratch-resistant metal, is usually polished while nickel, a much softer metal, is typically brushed to hide the inevitable minor scratches resulting from ordinary use.

Its softness is one of the reasons SSi's Brushed Nickel is applied using a PVD process rather than electroplating. PVD nickel is many times harder than electroplated nickel because the PVD process creates a denser, harder coating.

Undercoating

In most applications, electroplating is a multi-coat pro­cess. Un­der­coats of copper, zinc, or nickel usually precede the final decorative coating.

The undercoats serve two purposes.

Some metals, chrome being one, do not adhere very well to naked brass. One or more nickel undercoats are usually used before the chrome is applied so the finish does not flake or peel over time.

In the early days of Chinese fau­cet manufacturing, flaking and peeling chrome finishes were a real problem. Eventually, the Chinese figured out undercoating so that the so-called "China Chrome" problem is a thing of the past.

Undercoats also help smooth out any small imperfections in the fau­cet material.

It is not uncommon for fau­cets to be electroplated with nickel and chrome and then highly polished before a final PVD coating is applied.

PVD has no properties whatsoever so this process eliminates any potential flaws in the surface so they don't telegraph through to the final PVD finish.

Environmental Concerns

The electroplating process can pose environmental and safety hazards. Procedures to minimize risks are essential as is the proper disposal of waste materials.

Used electroplating solutions are highly corrosive and contain dissolved metals and cyanide, which can be harmful to the environment and human health. The process can release hazardous air pollutants including heavy metals such as cadmium, chromium, zinc, copper, nickel, and lead, as well as volatile organic compounds and cyanide.

The wastewater produced by electroplating can contain high levels of metals and chemicals that can contaminate water sources. This can harm aquatic ecosystems and wildlife, and pose a risk to public health.

Physical Vapor Deposition

(PVD) is the newest coating technology in common use.

Load a vacuum chamber with unfinished fau­cet components. Remove all the air and add back a carefully calculated mix of inert and reactive gases.

Insert a chunk of the metal to be used for the coating, usually in the form of a rod then heat it to a temperature so high that the rod dissolves into individual atoms.

The atoms mix with the various gases to get the color and finish effects you want and are then deposited in a very thin – 2 to 5 microns (.00008-.0002") – but extremely hard layer on the fau­cets.

Most likely, SSi's PVD Brushed Nickel uses actual nickel to produce the finish. The same may be true of the company's PVD Stainless Steel. The process could use stainless steel to create the finish or it could use titanium or zirconium, both of which are much harder than steel.

Titanium is so hard that they build warplanes, missiles, rockets, and submarines out of it. Zirconium is used in jet engines and as cladding for fuel rods in nuclear reactors. Cubic zirconia can be substituted for diamonds.

It may seem to make little sense to use PVD to produce a nickel finish when plated nickel has the same look at less cost. A PVD stainless steel coating on a stainless steel faucet makes even less sense. Both metals are non-tarnishing in their native states and make perfectly adequate faucet finishes without PVD.

However, nickel is a relatively soft metal that scratches easily. Stainless steel is hard but tends to show fingerprints readily. Both problems are solved using PVD, producing finishes that are a big step up from adequate.

PVD nickel, for example, is so densely packed by the PVD process that it is many times harder than native nickel, (Rockwell HRC-80+ and Vicker HV-2600+), much harder than any electroplated finish, and bonded to the fau­cet at a molecular level, essentially becoming an integral part of the fabric of the fau­cet. In standard abrasion tests, PVD finishes are regularly found to be 10 to 20 times more scratch-resistant than electroplated chrome.

In our admittedly less scientific tests, a Scotch Brite^® heavy-duty scouring pad was able to damage a PVD finish slightly, and it still took considerable effort. Brillo^® pads had no effect at all. (Nonetheless, keep all scouring pads and powders far, far away from your fau­cet finish.)

Powder Coats

are paints applied in powder form. They are characterized by a fau­cet company that uses a lot of them, as "semi-durable", requiring more care than electroplated or PVD finishes to keep that like-new appearance.

The process was invented by Daniel S. Gustin during World War II as a replacement for slow-drying liquid paints to speed up the production of war materials. He was awarded a patent for his "Electrostatic Coating Method and Apparatus."

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."

Damage from improper cleaning is not covered by any fau­cet warranty.

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, SSi pays but if you scratch it or it turns a weird color after you polish it a few times with Wham-X All Pur­pose Mir­a­cle Clean­er, you are on your own.

Sorry!

The "apparatus" is 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.

Power coats will not stand up to gross misuse. Brillo^® pads will do not just some damage, but substantial damage to the finish as will many harsh household cleaners. But, with reasonable care, the finish will last a lifetime.

Follow SSi's care and cleaning instructions to the letter, however, to avoid harm to the finish.

Powder coatings are falling out of favor 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.

Complex, multi-coat, painted finishes are, however, still the province of powder coatings. No other process can produce these striking, often multi-layered, finishes.

Thin Film Ceramic Coatings

The most likely replacement for powder coatings in the long run, however, is thin film ceramic (TFC).

TFC is a liquid coating (effectively a paint) armored with microscopic ceramic particles. It has the simplicity, flexibility, and color range of powder coatings but produces a rugged finish with most of the imperviousness of PVD.

Fau­cet companies including are already using the process to produce simple color finishes. As the technology evolves, we expect to see a wider range of colors and more use by fau­cet manufacturers.

SSi Finish Warranty

Whatever the finishing technology used, however, SSi guarantees all fau­cet finishes for a lifetime against manufacturing defects, indicating a very high level of confidence in the durability of its finishes.

Be aware, however, that scratches and other damage resulting from improper care, cleaning, or maintenance are not included in SSi's warranty (or any fau­cet warranty for that matter). Nor is ordinary wear and tear. (See the sidebar, Understanding Finish Warranties)

SSi Website

The company's website is intuitive and easy to use.

The search function is reasonably accurate but does not include the fuzzy search capability built into Google-based search algorithms. Fuzzy search allows the search routine to correctly interpret a search on a term such as "Oceansde" to mean "Oceanside" and often comes up with the right answer even with misspellings.

It is also somewhat limited and does not handle certain obvious product searches. A search on "black," for example, lists every product in SSi's inventory with a black finish. However, narrowing the search to just fau­cets using the term "black fau­cets" produces no result.

Most fau­cet listings are accompanied by a specification sheet and installation instructions, both in .pdf format. The links, however, are displayed far down-page, making them harder to find, and in small light blue type that is difficult to read for over-30-year-old eyes and does not have any of the usual visual indicators of a link, such as an underline.

Specifications include dimensioned drawings, the fau­cet's certifications, available finishes, warranty, and features.

The installation guide contains a sort of parts list that includes an exploded drawing and numbered parts but a legend table listing and identifying the parts is not provided. So, you can distinguish all the components of the fau­cet, but you don't necessarily know what they are. A legend should definitely be provided.

Despite this minor shortcoming, however, we feel that the site provides adequate information to permit an informed buying decision.

There are a few improvements that could be made, however.

On many fau­cet websites, a fau­cet image is redisplayed to show the fau­cet in the chosen finish when a different finish is selected. The SSi website has no such feature. Faucets are displayed in chrome and rarely in any of the other finishes.

We would also like to see:

• The processes by which the different finishes are produced: electroplating, powder coating, etc.

• The material from which kitchen fau­cet spray heads are made. A company spokesperson informed us that they are a mix of ABS plastic, brass, and stainless steel. ABS spray wands are found on F827 and F829 pulldown kitchen fau­cets.

• MSRP prices listed with every fau­cet, not just some of them.

Some features of the website are still in development. The "Help" tag under "Resources" leads to seven help categories of which three are "coming soon" and have been "coming soon" for quite a few months.

Where to Buy

Fluid fau­cets are available in the U.S. and Canada primarily through brick-and-mortar plumbing supply showrooms and interior design studios. Some of these retailers offer the fa­cets for sale on their websites.

A small number of online-only retailers like Plumbing Overstock also sell the faucets.

The SSi website includes a brick-and-mortar dealer locator under the tab "Where to Buy", but it may not always be accurate.

A search for dealers in California, for example, found one showroom in Walnut Creek while a search of "San Diego" produced two, "Los Angeles" listed three, "San Francisco" had one, and "Riverside" yet one more. As far as we know all of these cities are still in California.

Physical retail outlets are not evenly dispersed. Most are clustered on the West Coast of the U.S. and and in around large cities in Canada. The Ame­rican Mid­west is grossly underrepresented. The nearest retailer to our hometown, Lincoln, Nebraska, for example, is hundreds of miles away, in Colorado.

You cannot buy a fau­cet directly from SSi. As a distributor, it wisely does not sell in competition with its retail outlets.

The SSi website includes a main menu item entitled "Shop," but it is a source only for replacement parts and it does not appear to be finished. The default text provided for the website template is still being displayed in some places.

Fluid Warranty

The Fluid lifetime limited warranty is standard for fau­cets sold in North America.

The lifetime fau­cet warranty was first offered by fau­cet in the 1960s in an attempt to offset the marketing advantage of Moen's (then very new) single handle fau­cets with its patented washerless cartridge.

The attempt did not work very well. quickly adopted its own lifetime warranty and the lifetime warranty became the standard North American faucet warranty within a few years.

The Fluid fau­cet warranty has problems, however, including a lot of ambiguity and several violations of the Mag­nu­son-Moss War­ranty Act indicative of less-than-skillful drafting,

We doubt it was written by a lawyer. It is likely a cut-and-paste effort – taking language from other companies' warranties without understanding whether the language actually works or even whether it is legal.

It is a continuing mystery why so many MBA graduates think themselves competent to write warranties.

Consumer warranties are highly technical, complex legal contracts that need the attention of attorneys with substantial warranty drafting experience. Otherwise, a warranty is almost certain to contain traps that could easily get a company into considerable legal difficulty.

Here are some of the more egregious drafting problems with the Fluid warranty.

Who is the Warrantor?

Let's start with exactly who is issuing the warranty.

According to the warranty,

"…fluid^™ warrants its fau­cets to be free from manufacturing defects in material and workmanship …"

Fluid, however, cannot offer a warranty. It is not a legal entity. It is a brand name and other than as a common-law tradename, it has no legal existence in the U.S.

The actual warranty issuer (or "warrantor") is Sus­tain­able So­lu­tions In­ter­na­tion­al, Inc. and that's how the warranty should be written:

"Sustainable Solutions International, Inc. warrants its fluid^™ fau­cets to be free from manufacturing defects in material and workmanship …"

Warranty Duration

How long does the warranty remain in effect?

According to the warranty document, it lasts …

All of these limitations have problems.

Consumer/Purchaser/Owner

Exactly who is the consumer/purchaser/owner?

The term implies that for the warranty to apply, the purchaser must be a consumer. But what if your plumber buys the fau­cet? Who then owns the warranty?

The plumber doesn't because he or she is buying the fau­cet for resale to you, not for his or her own use, and is not, therefore, a consumer.

You don't because you were not the purchaser.

Apparently, no one does.

Much better phrasing is just "original consumer owner" as in

"as long as the original original consumer owner owns his or her home."

This simple change eliminates that particular problem. The warranty does not attach to the plumber because he or she is not a consumer. You are the first "consumer owner", so it attaches to you.

Owns his or her home

However, the revised language still does not deal with the problems caused by "owns his or her home."

This is very common warranty wording, taken from the limited lifetime faucet warranty where it has been the same for most of 50 years. Its longevity notwithdatanding, however, the wording is problematic.

The first and most obvious issue with this phrasing is that it eliminates buyers who are not homeowners from all warranty coverage.

Granted that very few renters buy fau­cets for homes they don't own but it does happen, especially in urban upscale rentals, and when it does, the buyer has no warranty.

The second issue is that the consumer is required to own a home to keep the warranty in force, but, oddly enough, not his or her current home. The consumer is not, however, required to continue to own the fau­cet. This odd construction is rife with unexpected results.

You buy a new home and sell your original home, leaving the fau­cet behind in its "original installation location.' Is the warranty still in force?

It definitely is.

You may no longer own the fau­cet but you still own a home. Does this new home qualify as the "his or her home" that satisfies the requirements of the warranty?

It certainly is your home, and that's all that is needed for the warranty to remain in full force and effect. The warranty contains not even the slightest suggestion that the home referred to must be your original home, the one in which the faucet was first installed. So, it can be any home that you own.

One result that SSi certainly did not anticipate is that you are allowed to make a warranty claim for the benefit of the new owner of the fau­cet that SSi would be legally bound to honor. Odd, but true. As long as you own a home, any home, even if it's merely a cabin in the woods, the warranty remains in force and you can make an enforceable claim.

If the new owner sells to a newer owner, your warranty protection extends to this owner as well, and the next, and the next. It continues until you no longer own a home, which may not be until the day you die, possibly most of a century.

Original Installation Location

You replace your kitchen cabinets, a project that requires the removal and reinstallation of your Fluid kitchen fau­cet. The new installation is close to but not exactly in its original location, and your warranty, unfortunately, is over.

It ended when you moved the fau­cet from its "original installation location."

What we think SSi is trying to convey is that if the fau­cet is relocated to another residence – for example, you sell your house and move, taking the fau­cet with you – the warranty ends.

So why not say just that?

Here is language that takes care of all of these issues adapted from our Model Limited Lifetime Faucet Warranty:

Sustainable Solutions International, Inc. ("we, us, our") warrants our Fluid fau­cets to the original consumer owner of a Fluid fau­cet ("you, your") to be free of defects in materials or workmanship from the date of sale and for as long as you own the fau­cet and live in the residence in which the fau­cet is first installed.

This wording requires you to continue to own the fau­cet for the warranty to remain in effect but does not require that you own the home in which the faucet is originally installed, merely live in it. It can be a rental.

The warranty ends when you cease to own the fau­cet or no longer live in your original residence, no matter the reason. Any new owner of the faucet does not inherit any of your benefits under the warranty.

The warranty does not end if you merely move the faucet from its original location as long as it remains in your original residence. So, remodel your kitchen or bathroom at will.

Improper Care and Cleaning

The warranty succinctly provides that …

"improper care and cleaning will void the warranty"

It does not explain exactly what constitutes "improper" care and cleaning that "voids" the warranty but we assume it means care and cleaning contrary to the company's care and maintenance instructions packaged with each fau­cet.

These limit cleaning to soap and water using a soft cloth followed by rinsing and drying with a soft cloth.

You, however, having great faith and confidence in Kohler Co., decide to use Kohler's very popular K-EC23723-NA Faucet Cleaner on your brand new Fluid fau­cet. The product is, unsurprisingly, strongly recommended by Kohler for cleaning its fau­cets, so it must also be safe for Flu­id fau­cets.

The result is a visual marvel, a sight to behold. The fau­cet sparkles, it shines, it almost glows – and your SSi fau­cet warranty just ended.

The warranty does not require any "improper care and cleaning" do actual damage to the fau­cet. It is the mere act of improper cleaning that voids the warranty, damage or no damage.

"Void" is grossly overused in writing warranties, even by lawyers who should know better.

The word "void" means exactly what you think it means. A voided warranty is finished, ended, terminated, kaput, invalid, canceled, nullified, and inoperative – and all of that just for using a time-tested commercial cleaning product that did no harm to the fau­cet.

SSi's language is a sterling example of the improvident use of the word.

What SSi means to say is that damage to the fau­cet finish from care or cleaning contrary to its instructions is not covered by its warranty, and that's what it should say.

Voiding the entire warranty is massive overkill.

Here is wording, again adopted from our Model Limited Lifetime Faucet Warranty, that neatly handles damage to faucet finishes without voiding the warranty.

Notice that it does not limit defects to only finish defects. Other types of defects can result from failure to follow instructions.

"This warranty does not cover defects caused by failure to follow our cleaning, maintenance, or installatiion instructions …"

Violations of Federal Warranty Law

The company's 2014 Fluid fau­cet warranty massively violated Mag­nu­son-Moss. Its 2018 warranty was an improvement. Its current 2019 warranty is better still but a few Mag­nu­son-Moss problems remain.

As the law has been around since the 1970s, there is no excuse for not knowing and following its directives, even those that are somewhat arcane in the 21st century.

Conflicting Remedies

The warranty provides that …

"[i]f a defect is found in normal residential use, fluid^™ will, at its election, repair, provide a replacement part or product, or make the appropriate adjustment."

This largess is largely undone, however, a few lines later by this provision:

"This warranty is limited to replacement of defective parts only."

Okay, so exactly what remedy is SSi promising?

• Will it "repair, provide a replacement part or product, or make the appropriate adjustment"
• or
• is the remedy "limited to providing replacement parts only?"

It can't do both.

If the remedy is limited to providing replacement parts only, then SSi is clearly not going to repair the fau­cet, provide a replacement fau­cet, or make an appropriate adjustment.

But, if it is going to repair the fau­cet, provide a replacement fau­cet, or make an appropriate adjustment, then the remedy is clearly not limited to providing replacement parts only.

The two provisions conflict and it is not possible to determine which one actually applies and to what extent. They create an ambiguity and ambiguities violate the bedrock Mag­nu­son-Moss requirement that …

"[T]he terms and conditions of written warranties on consumer products be clearly and conspicuously stated in simple and readily understood language" (15 U.S.C. § 2302(a)) (Emphasis supplied)

By "simple and readily understood", the Act means "readily understood" by the average consumer, not just the average lawyer. Ambiguity, conflict, and confusion are not allowed.

These discordant provisions, however, are anything but "clearly stated" or "readily understood." They are a bafflement to anyone: lawyer or consumer.

At its Election

A second problem with the language is the statement that the remedy for a defective fau­cet will be determined by SSi "at its election."

A company never has the sole right to elect a warranty remedy. Mag­nu­son-Moss provides in very clear language that a company that offers a warranty (the "warrantor") …

"… shall not indicate in any written warranty … either directly or indirectly that the decision of the warrantor is final…" (16 CFR § 700.8)

The language would almost certainly lead a reasonable person to falsely believe that the choice of remedy would be entirely the company's and that is the very definition of an act or practice defined by the Federal Trade Commission as deceptive:

"[A]cts or practices … that are likely to mislead consumers acting reasonably. (FTC Policy Statement on Deception, 103 F.T.C.10, 174 (1983))

We don't think that SSi is being intentionally misleading. No doubt whoever wrote the warranty found the language in some other warranty and copied it, unaware that it creates a very serious problem.

Under Magnuson-Moss, however, deliberate deception is not required to incur liability for misrepresentation.

The Act imposes an affirmative duty on SSi of reasonable care "to make the warranty not misleading." (15 U.S. Code §2310(c)(2))

However, the very presence of the declaration in the SSi warranty evidences a lack of reasonable care and, therefore, potentially culpable misrepresentation.

In any lawsuit, SSi's liability could well include punitive or exemplary damages for deception that could far exceed any award for actual damage.

Warranty Scoring

You might ask how, with all these problems, can we reasonably score the company's limited lifetime warranty as "standard" for fau­cet warranties in North America?

The simple answer is that, unfortunately, it is about the standard for lifetime fau­cet warranties. Most warranties are not all that much better. Many are much, much worse.

The typical faucet warranty contains several drafting issues and more than one Mag­nu­son-Moss problem.

Faucet companies tend to copy their warranties from other fau­cet companies, so the mistakes appear over and over throughout the industry.

The saving grace is that almost all of the problems with the SSi warranty (and most other fau­cet warranties) toll against the company and for the buyer.

Illegal provisions are ignored and not enforced, and ambiguity, conflict, or confusion are all required to be held against the issuer of the warranty by virtue of the ancient legal doctrine of – a principle of law that dates from the Roman Empire.

The defects in SSi's warranty generally result in better and longer warranty protection for the consumer buyer than SSi intended to provide.

Of course, a buyer might have to sue in court to take advantage of the warranty's misstatements, but that's usually okay because Mag­nu­son-Moss favors the buyer in the courtroom.

When SSi loses, and it most surely will unless the consumer's attorney is a total screwup, the buyer will typically get his or her attorney fees paid in full by SSi – a little additional penalty imposed by federal warranty law on companies that don't know how to write a legal consumer warranty.

Customer Support

Fortunately, SSi does not try to actually enforce most of the restrictions and limitations written into its warranty and avoids the problems created by its warranty by simply doing what is reasonable under the circumstances to handle warranty problems.

No one is asked if they own their home or if they have cleaned their fau­cet improperly or if they moved the fau­cet from its original installation – no one that we know of, at least.

If you can produce a receipt, and sometimes even if you can't, customer service will do what it needs to do to fix the problem with your Fluid fau­cet.

SSi is among that very small group of fau­cet companies about which we have never had a complaint about a warranty issue. Our search of the internet also revealed a complete absence of consumer problems and the Better Business Bureau has no record of the company, meaning that it has also received no complaints about SSi. If it had, SSi would have a BBB file.

An enviable record for a company that has been in business for well over a decade and a half.

Which of course, begs the question: if the company does such a good job handling warranty issues, why the long-winded, nit-picky analysis of its warranty problems?

That answer is easy.

The fact that SSi does not appear to enforce its warranty restrictions at present does not mean it will not sometime in the future.

Our analysis of its warranty focuses on what it could do. In this section, we focus on what it actually does as of the date of this report.

What it actually does is handle problems with its fau­cets very capably and with dispatch.

Support and warranty service passed our formal tests with flying colors. Our testers contact customer support with (largely imaginary) problems with Fluid fau­cets from all over North America over a four-month period to see how they are handled.

They were, without fail, resolved capably by representatives who were very well-versed in the company's fau­cet products and treated customers with Canadian Congeniality which is often even friendlier than Nebraska Nice or California Cordial. That's pretty darn friendly.

The only problem we found was the occasional hold time that exceeded 5 minutes. Anything over 5 minutes is unacceptable.

We scored SSi customer service at 4.7 out of 5.0. Any score above 4.0 is acceptable and above 4.5 is exemplary.

Testing & Certification

Comparable Faucets

Faucets comparable to Fluid with the same rating and a warranty at least as strong include

Many of these fau­cets are in the luxury fau­cet category and are much more expensive than any Fluid product.

Conclusions

The one serious impediment to buying Fluid fau­cets in the U.S. is that they cannot be legally sold in the U.S.

The sale of a fau­cet is allowed by federal law in the U.S. if and only if all of the following requirements are met.

• ☑ It bears "a permanent legible marking to identify the manufacturer" located where it can be viewed after installation. (16 CFR § 305.24,

• ☑ It has a flow rate of 2.2 gpm or less. (10 CFR § 430.32.

• ☑ It does not contain lead in the waterway of the fau­cet in a "weighted average" greater than 0.25% (1/4 of 1%) by volume. (SDWA 1417(a)(1)(A)), and

• ⌧ It is registered with the Department of Energy. (10 CFR §430),

Fluid fau­cets meet all of the requirements except the last. They are not registered with the Department of Energy.

The odd thing is that the requirement is easy to meet. The others cost a lot of money and may take a lot of time for testing and certification. Registration, by contrast, is free and takes just a few hours at the computer.

The company has informed us that it is, after 20 years in the faucet business, finally in the process of registering its fau­cets with the Department of Energy. However, as of the date of this report, they do not appear in the DOE registry.

The fact that a fau­cet cannot be legally sold, however, does not mean it is illegal for you to buy.

SSi's illegal selling is its problem, not yours. It is risking massive fines, not you. You can legally buy a Fluid fau­cet. Strange to be sure, but one of those frequent legal anomalies that defy all logic, even lawyer logic, which is in a class by itself.

With its top-line valve cartridges, generally good-quality construction, innovations such as the Eco Care swivel aerator and Quick Clean drain, a lifetime warranty, and excellent customer service, we judge the fau­cets to be a "good" to "very good" value for the price.

The fau­cets have been certified as meeting all required North Ame­rican standards and may be legally installed in any drinking water system, public or private.

All but two members of our rating panel would install a Fluid fau­cet in their busy family bathroom or kitchen "without reservation." The two holdouts had concerns about buying illegal products.

Continuing Research

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