Goldkey Intelligent Technology Review & Rating Updated: November 10, 2024

Brands

Avola
Bzoosiu
Cakiong
Delle Rosa
EKRTE
Fonveth
Heouty
ICREEH
Kmeino
Leetcp
Mekoly
Pirooso
Qeemee
Rzoeox
TUTEW
UEKPOE
Ximlike
Zexzen

Imported

China

Guangdong Goldkey Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd.

24 Room 219

1 Xuefu Road

No. 90 East Houjie Ave.

Songshan Lake Park

Dongguan City

Guangdong 523808 China

Rating

Business Type

For more information on the five faucet company business types, see Faucet Companies

Product Range

Kit­chen, Bath, Prep, and Utility Faucets

Certifications

Street Price

$86-$238

Warranty Score

Cartridge

None

Finishes

None

Mechanical Parts

None

Proof of Purchase

N/A

Transferable

N/A

Meets U.S. Warranty
Law Requirements

N/a

None of the companies working under Goldkey offer any sort of warranty. If your Goldkey faucet has a defect, you are on your own after the standard 30-day Amazon return period.

This Company In Brief

Guang­dong Gold­key In­tel­li­gent Tech­nol­ogy Co., Ltd., is a Chin­ese trading company that sells faucets, primarily on Ama­zon.com through a collection of e-retailers most of which are furniture companies located around Dongguan City in Guangdong, China.

The faucets are of average quality and virtually indistinguishable from the hoard of Made-in-China faucets sold through internet venues in the U.S. and Can­ada. They have no warranty of any kind.

Contraband Faucets: These faucets are not legal for sale in the U.S. and not legal for installation in a drinking water system in the U.S. or Can­ada. For more information on contraband fau­cets sold through Amazon, please visit Amazon's Contraband Faucets.

The Company

Guangdong Goldkey Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd. is a Chinese trading company. It sells several lines of prroducts. One is sex toys or what in more delicate times were called "marital aids." For this purpose, it has registered five tradenames in the U.S.: Mekoly, Qeemee, Rzoeox, Ximlike, and Zexzen.

It does not sell these products in the U.S. but does in other countries.

In the U.S. it uses these names, and thirteen others, to sell faucets, shower compoents, drinking water taps, and accessories such as soap and lotion dispensers. Goldkey holds a U.S. design patent on a soap/lotion dispenser.

It has an interesting business plan. It does not sell faucets at retail under its own name. It acts as a distributor, selling faucets through a network of independent retailers, most of which are located in or near Dongguan City in China.

Goldkey helps its retail affiliates get started then supplies them with products to sell.

• Goldkey recruits a Chinese retailer—usually a furniture store — to sell its products.

• It registers a tradename in the U.S. that the retailer can use and helps create an appropriate logo.

• It assists the new retailer to set up an Amazon storefront and possibly a separate website.

• Once the retailer is all set up and ready to sell, it wholesales the faucets to the retailer, sending them to Amazon fulfillment warehouses in the U.S. and Canada under the retailer's name.

The company makes its money on the difference between the price it pays for the faucets and the price it charges its retailers.

The plan has the advantage of built in redundancy. If one seller gets outed for selling illegal faucets or otherwise stops selling, there are still plenty more. At this moment, eighteen different retailers are selling Goldkey-supplied faucets on Amazon.

At least three Goldkey brands are no longer active: Shcasa, Sucasa, and WENKEN, but they may be reactivated in the future.

Goldkey prizes its anonimnity and makes every effort to remain quitely in the background.

It does not have a website under either its English or Chinese names and it does not ship products under its own name. It uses shipping brokers so its name does not appear on import records. In short, it remains as invisible as possible to the faucet buyer.

The Manufacturers

We don't know where Goldkey gets its faucets.

Certainly it does not make them. It is not a manufacturer. The only manufacturer to which we can find a link in business records is Wenzhou Weibao Electronics Co., Ltd., a manufacturer of electronic faucets and Yaoli ceramic valve cartridges since 2001.

Most likely it sources from several manufacturers at any one time and changes manufacturers from time to time. We do know, however, that all of the manufacturers are located in China.

Since Goldkey purchases its faucets within China, and we do not have access to internal documents from that country, it is unlikely that we will be able to identify the manufacturers.

The faucet designs are much too common to be identified to a single provider using image matching. Many models, very similar to each other if not identical, are produced by up to 22 different Chinese-based manufcturers.

The Retail Sellers

Goldkey faucets are sold only on the internet through websites that host third-party sellers. The primary outlet is Ama­zon, a small part of the over 850 or so illegal faucet brands sold through Amazon Marketplace.

Goldkey Faucet Sellers
Brand	e-Retail Seller	Selling As	Product Line
Avola	Dongguan Jinpai Furn­i­ture Co., Ltd.	Avola Kit­chen Fau­cets	Kichen Faucets
Bzoosiu	Dongcheng Yongteng Furn­i­ture Firm	Cakiong Home	Kichen & Bath Fau­cets
Cakiong	Dongcheng Yongteng Furn­i­ture Firm	Cakiong Home	Kichen Fau­cets
Delle Rosa	Henan Songde Furn­i­ture Co., Ltd.	Refin Kit­chen Faucet	Kichen Fau­cets
EKRTE	Dongt­guan Dongt­cheng Zhant­duo Furn­i­ture Firm	EKRTE	Kichen Fau­cets
Fonveth	Dongt­guan Feit­hongt­da Techt­nolt­ogy Co., Ltd.	VEKEVO	Kichen Fau­cets
Heouty	Dongt­guan Keyt­out­bao Nett­work Techt­nolt­ogy Co., Ltd.	Heouty Home	Kichen & Bath Fau­cets
ICREEH	Dongt­guan Jint­pai Furn­i­ture Co., Ltd	Avola Kit­chen Faucets	Kichen & Bath Fau­cets
Kmeino	Xint­yang Yingt­jia Int­telt­lit­gent Techt­nolt­ogy Co., Ltd.	Kvadrat Kit­chen Fau­cets	Kichen & Bath Fau­cets
Leetcp	Dongguan Peru Drinking Water Co., Ltd.	LEETCP HOME	Kichen & Bath Fau­cets
Mekoly	Dongt­guan Wangt­niut­dun Xut­li Plast­tic Prot­ducts Fact­tory	PIROOSO HOME	Kichen & Bath Fau­cets
Pirooso	Dongt­guan Wangt­niut­dun Xut­li Plast­tic Prot­ducts Fact­tory	PIROOSO HOME	Kichen & Bath Fau­cets
Qeemee	Dongt­guan Qunt­fei Autot­mat­tion Equipt­ment Co., Ltd.	Qeemee	Kichen & Bath Fau­cets
Rzoeox	Dongt­guan Hongt­hui Prot­pert­ty Mant­aget­ment Co., Ltd.	Rzoeox	Kichen & Bath Fau­cets
Shcasa	Jiahe and Bidibao Trading Co., Ltd.	Shacasa	Kichen Fau­cets
TUTEW	Dongcheng Yongteng Furn­i­ture Firm	TUTEW	Kichen Fau­cets
UEKPOE	Dongguan Dongcheng Qunjie Network Technology Operation Department	Bzoosiu Home	Kichen Fau­cets
Ximlike	Foshan Municipal Party Committee Stanley Home Furnishing Co., Ltd.	Ximlike	Bath Fau­cets
Zexzen	Guangdong Weijia Technology Co., Ltd.	Zexzen	Kichen & Bath Fau­cets

Goldkey's sellers on Amazon are also very reticent about disclosing their true identities.

To learn more about illegal and contraband faucets sold on Amazon, read our investigative report on Amazon's IContraband Faucets.

Amazon now requires owners of its storefronts to identify themselves, but all Goldkey sellers do so in Hanyu Pinyin (or just Pinyin), a phonetic rendering of the company's Chinese name in the Roman alphabet.

For example, Dongguan Jinpai Furniture Co., Ltd., the seller of Avola and ICREEH faucets, discloses its legal name as

dongguanshijinpaijiajuyouxiangongsi.

We had the name translated into English for this report.

North American Facilities

Goldkey runs its trading business from China. It has no functioning presence in North America, nor do its retail sellers.

The sellers have very little if any involvment in the selling process.

All of the details of faucet sales in the U.S. and Canada are delegated to Amazon and the other intrnet platforms that hosts the retailers. The host takes care of warehousing, inventory, payment processing, and delivery.

All the sellers do is collect a check for the selling price minus the host's "modest" fees and charges. A tidy profit, nontheless for doing almost nothing.

It's not impossible to sell faucets in North America without a physical presence on the continent.

Other faucet comapnies do it very well. The Ger­man fau­cet companies, , for example, sell thousands of faucets in the U.S. and Canada from Germany.

Their approach takes advantage of the fact that with smartphones and the Internet, physical proximity to a market is no longer absolutely necessary to sell in that market.

To a plumber or homeowner located in Miami, Memphis, or Montreal, technical or customer support provided from Germany is just as useful as help from California or Connecticut.

But to be successful, the time difference between customer and company must be overcome, and both warranty service and replacement parts must be readily available.

In2aqua and Jörger have ensured that their technical and customer support is available during North Amer­i­can business hours by telephone and replacement parts are cached in the U.S.

Goldkey, on the other hand, has not provided convenient customer service at the other end of a North American telephone number or an email address that is answered promptly.

In fact, neither Goldkey or any of its retailers provide any sort of contact information. The only contact is through Amazon, and it is rarely satisfactory. Replacement parts, if any, are thousands of miles away, in China, if there are any at all and all of our research suggest there are none to be had.

The difference is in philosophy.

In2aqua and Jorger are in the North American maarket to stay. Their objective is to build a loyal customer base by selling excellent products and supporting the products with a strong warranty, responsive customer service, and readily available replacment parts.

Goldkey and its affiliate retailers are looking for quick sales and instant profits. They have no interest whatsoever in building long-term relationships with their North American customers. Once they have sold you the product and collected their money, they never want to hear from you again. And, to ensure they don't, they make themselves nearly unreachable.

The likelihood that any one of them will last five years in this market is very small—two or three yers is more probable. Then they are either gone entirely or recreated under an entirely different business name.

Construction & Materials

Most Goldkey sellers claim that their fau­cets are made from brass. They are, however, by no means of "solid" brass, and there is no independent verification that the brass is lead-free as required by law.

Brass

Brass is the preferred material for faucets for two reasons:

• Brass is strong but easy to work with. It casts, forges, and machines with relative ease.

• Brass is naturally anti-microbial. The copper in brass kills bacteria, retarding the buildup of potentially hazardous microbes inside a fau­cet.

But brass has one serious drawback. It may contain metallic lead.

Traditional (Alpha) brass is a blend of copper and zinc with a small amount of lead added to make the material more malleable, less brittle, and easier to fabricate.

Lead, however, is now all but banned in North America in any drinking water component due to its toxicity to humans, particularly children.

According to the En­vir­on­ment­al Prot­ec­tion Agen­cy (EPA), lead, even in small amounts, causes slowed growth, learning disorders, hearing loss, anemia, hyperactivity, and behavior issues.

Before 2014, a fau­cet sold in the U.S. or Can­ada could contain as much as 8% lead and still call itself lead-free.

Now the maximum lead content of those parts of a fau­cet that touch water is 0.25% (1/4 of 1%), basically just a bare trace.

In fact, there may be more lead in the air you breathe than there is in a fau­cet that has been certified lead-free.

To comply with the restrictions on lead, today's fau­cet brass replaces lead with other additives to reduce brittleness without adding toxicity. The most common is Bis­muth.

Bis­muth is similar to lead—right next to lead on the periodic table of elements—but it is not harmful to humans.

It is, however, very expensive. It is 300 times rarer than lead, even rarer than silver, which is the reason that Bis­muth-brass alloys are considerably more expensive than leaded brass.

This increased cost has encouraged many manufacturers to use substitute materials in their fau­cets where possible.

Zinc and Zinc/Aluminum Alloys

The common substitute is zinc or a zinc-aluminum (ZA) alloy. One of the most common is called ZAMAK, a composition containing 4% aluminum.

Zinc is not as strong as brass and does not resist water pressure as well as brass. But its use in non-pressurized parts of a brass fau­cet such as handles, base and wall plates, and is common even among manufacturers of luxury fau­cets.

It does no harm when used in these components, and may save consumers a few dollars.

Plastics

Plastic is the other commonly used substitute material. It may be safely used in incidental parts like base plates and has been largely trouble-free in aerators and as casings for ceramic cartridges, but otherwise, its use is suspect especially if under water pressure.

Among those suspect uses is its use in the spray heads of kitchen fau­cets. Plastic spray heads (called "wands" in the fau­cet industry) have become the standard for many manufacturers, including some that sell upscale fau­cets such as

Manufacturers give three reasons for their use of plastic:

• Plastic does not get uncomfortably hot in use like metal wands;

• Plastic is not as heavy and is more comfortable to hold for long periods of time; and

• Plastic is a lot cheaper than brass or stainless steel—even cheaper than zinc.

However, plastic wands also fail much more often than metal wands. And although engineers have made significant improvements to their reliability over the past decade, the problem has not been entirely solved.

All of the Goldkey kitchen fau­cet sprays we examined were ABS plastic. We did not, however, test every kitchen faucet, so there is the possibility that some sprays are metal. However, it is impossible to find out prior to buying a faucet simply because there is no one to ask. We tried asking the various sellers through Amazon but either got no answer or an answer to the effect of "we don't know."

The Sure Cure for Too-Hot Spray Wands: The simple cure for spray wands that get too hot is to reduce the temperature of the water. Dishes do not need to be rinsed in scalding hot water.

Better wands are made of metal, insulated against excessive heat transmission.

Faucet Design & Styling

Goldkey fau­cets are contemporary designs. It offers no transitional or traditional styles. The styles are conservative—fairly common designs, attractive enough but exhibiting no particular design originality. Similar styles are available from nearly every faucet company that sells Chinese-made faucets.

The goal of Chinese fau­cet manufacturers is to sell as many fau­cets as possible, which means keeping their designs well within the mainstream to appeal to as many potential buyers as possible.

Designs are usually adopted from Eur­ope and North Amer­ica.

A style that sells well in these major markets will often be imitated by Asian factories (with minor changes to avoid patent infringement). The lag time is usually 3 to 5 years, so by the time a design appears in a Chin­ese fau­cet, it is no longer new.

Goldkey's fau­cet designs fit this pattern. They are pleasant and often smartly styled but many are over a decade old, some are well past voting age, and a few are looking at their thirtieth anniversary in the rear-view mirror.

Goldkey Faucet Components

The critical components used in Goldkey fau­cets are ceramic valve cartridges and aerators. We examined these components from several faucets acquired for examination and testing and found that they were generic.

Valve Cartridges

The faucets we examined contained generic, standard configuration ceramic cartridges made in China. By generic we mean cartridges that were devoid of the markings required to identify the manufacturer.

Dozens of Chinese companies manufacture ceramic valves, most of which do not export, so we never encounter them.

What we do know about the cartridges is that they are not one of the better cartridges like those manufactured in China by Sedal S.L.U. that have established a solid reputation as quality products and have been proven by having passed the North Amer­ican certification stress tests.

The standard North Amer­ican life-cycle test requires operating a cartridge through 500,000 cycles under 60 psi of water pressure without a single failure. At one cycle per second, the test takes six twenty-four-hour days to complete.

The cartridge is also subjected to a burst test under water pressure of 500 pounds per square inch—many times normal household water pressure of 40-60 psi.

A cartridge that deforms in any manner under this enormous pressure fails the test and is not certified for use in the U.S. or Can­ada.

In other countries, the standards are much less rigorous. The European durability standard (EN 817) requires 70,000 cycles, and the Chinese (GB18145-2014) test is just 30,000 cycles.

Goldkey cartridges are probably certified to the Chinese standard, but they are not certified to the much tougher North American standards, so we have no idea how well they will hold up to use in a normal kitchen.

Better cermic valves will last 10 to 20 years and more. Lower quality cartridges can have a lifespan of just two years or even less.

Aerators

Goldkey are also generic. We could not identify them as being made by one of the better manufacturers such as Neoperl or Amfag S.r.l. There are dozens of companies in China that manufacture aerators and spray-head assemblies. None, however, have attained an international reputation for excellence.

Faucet aerators used to be simple devices that merely added a little air to soften the water stream so it would not splash out of the sink.

Today, however, they are also used to limit water volume to the lower flows required by federal and state water conservation laws and, in some cases, to prevent backflow that can result in the contamination of household drinking water.

It is important, therefore, that this little device, often smaller than a dime, be the best available.

The manufacturer or manufacturers of aerators and spray heads are not identified by Goldkey sellers, and our examination of several aerators and spray heads did not disclose any markings on the devices that would allow us to determine where they are made.

All we can say is that in our testing they modified the stream of water just as they are supposed to so it did not splash out of the sink.

We do not know how resistant they are to mineral accumulation that causes clogging, how easy they are to clean, or how long they will last in ordinary household use.

Goldkey Faucet Finishes

We found five finishes on Goldkey fau­cets: Chrome, Brushed Gold, Brushed Nickel, Copper, and Matte Black. Polished chrome, the standard finish in most faucet lines, is limited to commercial faucets in the Fonveth collection.

Some faucets are available in a in which a base finish is accented by a trim finish. The most common combination we found was black and copper.

Goldkey does not disclose the type of finish used on its faucets. However, from examination, we believe Chrome and Brushed Nickel are electroplated. Black and Oil Rubbed Bronze (an older finish that may no longer be available) are probably powder coatings. Gold and Copper are likely a physical vapor deposition (PVD) finish.

However, we could be completely wrong. Without destructive testing, it is not possible to determine with certainty the process used to produce a finish.

The upshot, however, is that all of these finishes may well be physical vapor depositions, a process that is favored among Chinese manufacturers, or they may be a combination of powder coating and electroplating. We just do not know for certain.

Electroplating

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

Usually, multiple coats are applied, one or more undercoats and then two or more coats of the finish metal.

The process is potentially hazardous to the operator and the environment. It involves toxic and corrosive chemicals that must be disposed of safely. No other coating technology even comes close to the dangers involved in electroplating.

The top coat may be polished or brushed. Chrome, a relatively hard metal, is usually polished to a high shine. Nickel, a softer metal, is usually brushed to help hide the inevitable minor scratches.

Physical Vapor Deposition

or PVD is one of the latest space-age fau­cet finishing technologies, rapidly replacing electroplating as the finish of choice.

Although the technology was discovered in the 19th century, it was not used in industry until the 1950s and then only rarely due to its great expense. Its first use was in nuclear reactors. Today, the technology is everywhere, and the equipment required is getting smaller, faster, and cheaper all the time.

The process itself mixes art with science.

Load a chamber with unfinished fau­cet components, remove all the air, and add back a carefully calculated mix of nitrogen or argon and reactive gases.

Add a rod of the metal to be used for the coating. Heat that rod to a temperature so high that the metal dissolves into individual atoms. The atoms mix with the various reactive gases to get the color and finish effects you want and are then deposited in a very thin layer—2 to 5 microns—on the fau­cets.

A micron is one-millionth of a meter or 1/26,000 of an inch. The average human hair is 83 microns thick. The smallest the human eye with excellent vision can see without magnification is about 5 microns.

Despite being just microns thick, a PVD coating is extremely dense and, in consequence, very hard and durable. By some estimates, it is up to 20 times more scratch-res­ist­ant than electroplated chrome.

From long experience, we know that PVD is nearly impossible to accidentally scratch or mar, never fades or changes color, and resists all forms of soiling.

A PVD finish can usually be maintained with just an occasional wipe from a damp cloth to remove water spots.

Powder Coating

is usually described as semi-durable, not as robust as electroplated or PVD finishes, about as durable as the finish on your car, and requiring more care to maintain a like-new appearance.

It is essentially a dry paint in powder form applied using a special low-velocity spray gun that disperses the powder while giving it a positive electrical charge. The particles are drawn to the item to be finished, which has been given a negative charge.

Once the powder is applied, the item being coated is baked in an oven to melt and bond the powder and modify the structure of the coating into long, cross-linked molecular chains.

These chains are what give the coating its durability, reducing the risk of scratches, chipping, abrasions, corrosion, fading, and other wear issues.

Finish Care Instructions: Always read and follow the fau­cet seller's care instructions. Careful cleaning and maintenance not only preserve the good looks of your fau­cet but also your finish warranty.

Faucet Warranties

None of these sellers offers an effective written warranty. Some claim to offer a warranty, usually something like "Our faucets are guaranteed for 5 years." This, however, does not meet the legal definition of a consumer warranty.

We could not find an actual warranty document issued by any of the sellers, and a request to the companies through Amazon for a copy of their warranty resulted in a non-responsive response, usually a repeat of "Our faucets are guaranteed for 5 years."

U.S. law requires consumer product warranties to be in writing and to specifically set out its terms and conditions in "simple and readily understood" language.

If any of these sellers does offer a warranty, it does not provide the contact information, such as an email or North American telephone number, by which a warranty claim could be made, so any claim to having a warranty is effectively nullified.

Testing & Certification

To be a fau­cet, the product must be legal to sell as a fau­cet and legal to use as a fau­cet in a drinking water system. If it is not legal to sell as a faucet and/or not legal to use as a faucet but is advertised and sold as a faucet, then something illegal is going on. The usual legal terms for the activity are "fraud" and "conspiracy to commit fraud."

And not just a little fraud, but large-scale fraud.

The sale of a fau­cet is permitted by federal law in the U.S. if and only if

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

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

• It is tested and certified to have a flow rate of 2.2 gallons per minute or less. (10 CFR § 430.32, or

• It contains lead in the waterway of the fau­cet in a weighted amount less than or equalt to 0.25% (1/4 of 1%) by volume. (SDWA 1417(a)(1)(A))

A faucet that hasn't been certified by an independent, accredited laboratory as meeting all U.S./Canadian standards cannot be legally installed in a household water system (including a private well system) in the United States or Canada.

• ASME A112.18.1/CSA 125.1, The design and performance standards for fau­cets, including durability, reliability, longevity, and ease of repair.

• ANSI/NSF 372 and ANSI/NSF 61: Standards that confirm that a fau­cet is free from lead and other toxic substances and that water flowing through a fau­cet does not pick up harmful materials. contaminenants, or pathogens.

A faucet that passes all of the many tests is listed as certified in a public database available for all to see and is legal to use in a household water system.

A faucet company cannot test and certify its own fau­cets.

To ensure that fau­cets comply with all North American standards, they must be tested and certified by an accredited independent laboratory.

The tests are rigorous—some of the toughest in the world.

Safe, Durable Faucets

How successful are the safeguards provided by certification?

Very.

The drinking water flowing from a certified fau­cet is as safe as and often safer than the bottled water you buy at the grocery.

An investigation by Consumer Reports in 2020 found several brands of bottled water with "forever chemicals" (PFAS) and arsenic above safe levels.

A four-year review by the Natural Resources Defense Council comparing bottled vs. tap water concluded that 22% of bottled water brands "contained chemicals at levels above state health limits" that "[i]f consumed over a long period of time, some of those contaminants could cause cancer or other health problems."

Certified faucets are also incredibly durable.

To learn more about how consumers are protected by fau­cet regulation at all levels of government, go to Faucet Basics, Part 3: Keeping Faucets Safe & Reliable.

If you have ever wondered why fau­cets seem to last forever, the answer is certification.

Certified fau­cets are beastly tough, unlikely to ever fail in a lifetime of use. Fewer than 2% develop a problem resulting from a design, manufacturing, or material defect. ^[6]

Leaking is now very rare due to improved valve technology that no longer relies on rubber rings and washers to control water flow. With the near-universal adoption of almost indestructible ceramic disc cartridges, the dreaded midnight drip, drip, drip is largely a thing of the past.

It is becoming even less common with the introduction of super-cartridges that use ceramic discs treated to prevent the mineral buildup — accumulated minerals from "hard" water are the usual culprit if a ceramic valve leaks.

Listing Certificates

A faucet that passes all required tests and meets all North American standards is listed in a certificate issued by the testing authority called, simply enough, a Certificate of Listing or, even more simply, a listing certificate.

The certificate must be issued before the fau­cet is placed on the market, then reissued annually thereafter for as long as the fau­cet remains for sale.

In addition, the testing authority will periodically take fau­cets from the seller's inventory, and sometimes right off the production line, for random retesting.

A certified fau­cet must be listed by brand name and model name or number. If it is not listed or the listing does not show the brand name and model under which the fau­cet is sold, it is not certified no matter how long or loudly the seller insists that it is. (Learn how to recognize a valid listing certificate.)

These certificates are public documents posted on the web.

Many sellers of contraband fau­cets listed below claim compliance with some or all North American fau­cet standards but sell fau­cets for which required certificates have not been issued.

Here are the details of Goldkey faucet certification, or, more accurately, the lack thereof.

Comparable Faucets

Faucets made in Asia comparable to Goldkey in quality with a better warranty but not necessarily comparable for design or price, include

Conclusions

There is absolutely no reason to buy a Goldkey fau­cet. The seller has ignored almost every law and regulation that applies to the sale of faucets in North America.

• The faucets are not tested and certified compliant with joint U.S./Canadian standards of reliability, durability, and safety as required by the law in both Can­ada and the U.S. Consequently, the presence of toxic substances in the faucets such as lead, arsenic, cadmium, and mercury has not been excluded. Because these fau­cets are made in China where the use of lead in faucets is not regulated, the risk of lead contamination is even greater than usual.

• The faucets are not indelibly marked with the name of the manufacturer—a requirement for the legal sale of faucets.

• Owners of Goldkey faucets are not protected against defects by a written warranty enforceable in U.S. and Canadian courts.

• The only source of replacement parts is 7,000 miles away, assuming the parts are available at all and the buyer can find some way to get in contact with the Goldkey seller to request parts.

The prices on Goldkey faucets make them attractive but, as the list above demonstrates, a great many other companies sell Chinese-made fau­cets for about the same price that are fully certified, legal to use in a drinking water system, and backed by a written warranty of some kind. Many are guaranteed for the lifetime of the buyer.

Goldkey faucets cannot be legally installed in a public or private drinking water system anywhere in the U.S. or Can­ada. A plumber probably will not install one for you, and if you do it yourself you risk, at the very least, having to replace the fau­cet with a legal product and the possibility in some jurisdictions of a fine and some jail time.

Continuing Research

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