Jörger Faucets Review & Rating Updated: February 27, 2023
Seckenheimer Landstraβe 270-280
68163 Mannheim
Germany
Trading As
Jörger Design
Distributed by
Decorative Plumbing Distributors
4200 Business Center Drive
Fremont, CA 94538-6356
(800) 660-4690
sales@dpdonline.com
Law Requirements
Warranty Footnotes
1. Lifetime is undefined and means, therefore, the actual lifetime of the original owner.3. Some finishes have a 5-year warranty, Antique Gold is specifically excluded from any warranty. See the main report for more detail.Download/Read/Print the Jörger warranty.Learn more about faucet warranties.
This Company In Brief
Jörger is a German manufacturer of luxury faucets. It is one of the few German faucet companies still manufacturing Germany. The faucets are of good to excellent quality, using top-of-the-line cartridges and aerators.
Not all of Jörger's extensive range of products are available in North America. Its impressive kitchen faucets are not sold at all, and just 15 of 25 bathroom faucet collections are offered to North American buyers.
The faucets are expensive. Prices start at the price point at which most faucet lines top out and climb rapidly. North American pricing is on average about 15% higher than prices for the same Jörger faucets inside the European Union.
Jörger's warranty is provided to the original consumer owner only. It covers defects in material and workmanship as long as the original owner remains alive.
Jörger Armaturen- und Accessoires-Fabrik GmbH was founded in 1909 by Alfred Jörger Sr. and Bernhard Jörger in Mannheim, Germany. It is a family-owned company now managed by the fourth generation of Jörgers in the person of Oliver M. Jörger.
Until 2022, Jörger products were distributed in North America by LLC.
Rohl was purchased by Fortune Brands Home & Security, Inc. – the company that owns faucet – in 2016.
In the resulting shakeout, Rohl and Jörger parted ways. Distribution and customer support have been taken over by Decorative Plumbing Distributors (DPD) of Fremont, California.
DPD is an experienced distributor of high-end European faucets. In addition to Jörger, it handles North American distribution for
Jörger has refashioned itself as "Jörger Design" for the North American market rather than "Jörger Armaturen," with a new, as yet unregistered, logo.
Construction & Materials
Jörger faucets are made in Germany. Since Jörger is a German company, that should not be a surprise. But, the fact is that most German faucets are no longer made in Germany.
faucets imported into the U.S., for example, arrive directly from China and Mexico where they are made. They never see Germany and are never touched by a German.
Jörger is one of the last of the German faucet manufacturers – are the other two – to actually manufacture its faucets in Germany.
The faucets are constructed conventionally. The body and spout of the faucets, as well as being decorative, are the components that channel water within the faucet.[1]
Jörger Faucet Materials
Brass is the primary material used to make Jörger faucets. It does not manufacture from stainless steel.
The company describes its brass as a "high quality, specially alloyed brass", but provides no further details. The description does not distinguish Jörger brass from the brass used by other faucet companies. Faucet-brass is typically a "specially alloyed brass" that does not include lead in its composition.
Where are "German" Faucets Really Made?
Jörger makes its faucets in Germany in contrast to most German faucets that are no longer made in Germany. Here is where they are really made:
Donbracht
considers the faucet finishing to be the "hi-tech," strategic part of manufacturing that it needs to do in-house; and the part that the company has "perfected."
It assembles and finishes its faucets in Iserlohn, Germany but manufactures none of the components used in the faucets.
These are, according to the company, manufactured inside the European Union (but not necessarily in Germany) by other companies.
In2aqua
the German company located in Bavaria since it founding in 2014 assembles its faucets in Germany. Most of the components used in its faucets are sourced in Europe.
Hansgrohe
the German company owned by Masco (the U.S. company that also owns still manufactures some of its faucets in Germany but, as of our last report on the company, has shifted almost half of its Hansgrohe faucet manufacturing to China.
Grohe
now owned by the Japanese building products corporation, LIXIL, manufactures almost entirely in China and Mexico. Its former faucet factory in Lahr, Germany has turned to making shower components.
Blanco
has not manufactured its faucets for many years. Its faucets are made in Israel by and in China by Solex High-Tech Industries Co., Ltd.
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 machine.
Lead, however, is now all but banned in North America in any houshold 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.
Bismuth has replaced lead in faucet brass to provide the needed malleability without toxicity. 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, much rarer than lead – rarer even than silver – and much more expensive, meaning that lead-free brass is much more costly than leaded brass.
To save on material costs, Jörger does not use lead-free brass where it is not needed. Its secondary materials are common (alpha) brass and a zinc-aluminum (ZA) alloy. We don't know the exact alloy used. However, the most commonly used alloy is called , prized for its ease of precision casting.
Buying Rule for
Smart Faucet Buyers
Valve Cartridge
Never buy a faucet until you know the type of cartridge used in the faucet and who made it.
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 be robust and durable, lasting for many years.
For more information on faucet vales and cartridges, the differences among them, and the history behind each technology, see Faucet Basics, Part 2: Faucet Valves & Cartridges.
Zinc alloys are not as strong as brass and are not as suitable as brass for the parts of a faucet under water pressure. but in ancillary parts of the faucet, zinc is acceptable and does not diminish the quality of the faucet.
Components of a faucet in which secondary materials are most commonly used include handles, base plates (escutcheons), wall plates (for wall-mounted faucets), and .
Some of the components of Jörger faucet require specialized manufacturing capabilities that Jörger, like most faucet manufacturers, does not have.
These are designed and made by outside companies. Chief among these are ceramic valves and .
Jörger Cartridge Valves
Modern faucet valves use ceramic discs rather than rubber seals to control water. Rubber (now mostly nitrile and silicone) seals wear out fairly quickly and have to be replaced. Ceramic discs wear out not at all.
Technical ceramics are one of the hardest substances manufactured by man. Their use in faucet valves dates to the 1970s when patented the technology separately within a few months of each other.
Ceramics manufacturing is a whole separate industry. Its products are used in applications as diverse as supercomputers, nuclear reactors, the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, and heat shields for NASA's re-entry capsules.
Even faucet companies that pride themselves on making their own cartridge valves like rely on ceramics produced by specialist subcontractors.
Jörger Aerators
Faucet are another specialized faucet component but not one that is especially hard to make. Specialized manufacturing is not required. Most are plastic, commonly ABS, and can be manufactured by almost any company with plastic molding capability.
What is needed, however, is very specialized engineering.
Originally, aerators were simple devices that merely infused a little air to soften the water stream so it would not splash out of the sink. Many early aerators were just several layers of aluminum window screen.
Today, however, they are precision products also used to shape and moderate the water stream emitted from the faucet, limit water volume to the lower flows required by conservation laws, and prevent back-flow that could contaminate household drinking water.
It is important, therefore, that this little device, about the size of a U.S. or Canadian penny, be the best available.
Jörger Component Sources
Jörger does not make its own valves or aerators but buys some of the best of each component available on the world market.
The ceramic cartridges in Jörger's two-handle faucets are manufactured by Flühs Drehtechnik, GmbH in Lüdenscheid, Germany.
Flühs (often spelled Fluehs for English speakers), is world-renown for its precision machining and is generally regarded as the manufacturer of the world's best stem cartridge for two handle faucets.
The mixing cartridges in single-handle faucets are from Kerox Kft, a Hungarian manufacturer that makes only mixing cartridges.
The Shape of Water
Faucets can provide any of several types of water streams. Here are the most common:
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Aerated Flow:
To create an aerated stream, a device located at the end of the faucet's spout called an aerator introduces air into the water flow. Air softens the stream, making it less likely to splash. The aerator was invented by Greek engineer, Elie Prodromou Aghnides in 1943. -
Laminar Flow:
Laminate flow is a less common process for producing a water flow that is splashless. Water droplets are constrained to travel along smooth, parallel paths without any intermixing or disruption between the adjacent layers. This softens the water flow without introducing air. - For home use, laminar flow is most often found in trough-style faucets, sometimes called "waterfall faucets."
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Spray:
To create a spray, aerators re-route the water through tiny apertures that separate the single stream into dozens of tiny streams and simultaneously cut off air intake so the water is no longer aerated, making the spray more powerful. - Sophisticated sprays also increase the water volume, usually from 1.8 to 2.2 gallons per minute (the legal maximum flow) to give even more power to the spray for rinsing dishes.
The company is well known for its high-quality ceramic discs which it sells to other cartridge manufacturers, including for its Diamond Seal Technology® cartridges.
Kerox cartridges are regarded by most in the industry as one of the best mixing cartridges on the market.
The faucets also include Neoperl® aerators from the Swiss company of the same name.
The Swiss-engineered Neoperl® aerator is generally acknowledged to be the most advanced aerator in the industry, and the precision product that other companies strive to copy.
Neoperl is also Jörger's source of risers – the supply hoses that connect the faucet to the shut-off valves under the sink.
The hoses are braided stainless steel surrounding a cross-linked polyethylene (PEX) hose. PEX, unlike the typical rubber hose, is very strong. It is approved by most plumbing codes as a replacement for copper pipe in residential plumbing.
Jörger Design & Styling
Jörger manufactures several striking kitchen sink faucets, but they are not for sale in North America. Only its bathroom sink faucets are sold here, and not all of these. Of the 25 Jörger collections that include bathroom sink faucets (one collection contains showers only), only 15 appear for sale on the North American website.
Bathroom sink faucets are part of larger collections that generally include coordinating tub fillers, showers, and bathroom accessories (towel bars and rings, robe hooks, soap dishes, lotion dispensers, drinking glass, toothbrush and toilet tissue holders, sponge baskets, shelves, mirrors, lamps, and even guest towel baskets).
Jörger faucet designs range from frilly romantic to ultra-modern industrial. The company can provide at least one design to match any decor preference from Victorian to contemporary urban chic.
For that romantic Hollywood boudoir look, Jörger offers the fluted Aphrodite faucet, the Minarett with its Middle-Eastern flair, and the Florale Crystal and Palazo Crystal faucets with their faceted handles made of Slavia crystals.
For a Victorian bath, Jörger has the Delphi, Florale, and Albano collections.
The Victorians invented the modern sanitary bathroom, and to reward themselves for their cleverness, built baths that were often luxurious retreats, richly appointed and decorated with fanciful fixtures and fittings. Jörger's Victorian faucets fit perfectly in these elegant settings.
The Delphi Deco and Series 1909 faucets represent the overlapping Arts & Crafts and Bauhaus design periods as does the Charleston Royal.
The Belledor faucet with its sculpted, hand-painted porcelain handles from Porzellanmanufaktur Fürstenberg is described by the company as an Art Deco design. Our resident designers think it also at home in the earlier and more fanciful Art Nouveau period.
For the contemporary bath, Jörger offers the minimalist look of the Empire Royal, Acubo, Plateau, Charleston Square, and Turn collections; and the Valencia with its natural stone crystal-inset handles.
Gerhard Jörger is credited by the company as the designer of much of the early Jörger line including the Aphrodite, Florale, and Moonlight collections.
Oliver Jörger, the current CEO, designed the Plateau, Turn, Cronos, Valencia, Belledor, Eleven, and Exal collections. As to the remaining collections, Jörger is silent.
(The Eleven, Moonlight, and Plateau Collections are not sold in North America.)
Jörger Faucet Finishes
Jörger faucets come in a wide variety of finishes.
Almost every faucet collection can be ordered in a basic set of 13 metallic finishes.
Some faucets are also available in seven standard color finishes. These do not appear to be RAL colors, which is unusual for a European faucet company.
Jörger identifies six of these colors as Candy Violet, Copper Bronze, Matt Black, Matt White, Black Relief, and Bronze. For reasons known only to Jörger, the seventh color, whatever it is, is not identified on its website and our request that the company disclose the identity of the finish has gone unanswered.
RAL Colors
RAL is a collection of color standards administered by RAL GmbH.
RAL is used (primarily in Europe) to define colors for paints and powder coatings, allowing manufacturers to specify exact colors using a four-digit RAL code (i.e. RAL 2002 Red
).
The advantage of the RAL system to consumers is its precise color matching. You can buy a RAL faucet from Jörger, towel bars from another company, and a shower rod from a third, and as long as the RAL color codes are the same, the colors will be an exact match.
A few faucets are available in in which a base finish is paired with an accent finish. The Ramses collection is an example. Ramses faucets are available in Chrome/Gold, Mink/Gold, and Platinum/Gold. Chrome/Gold seems to be the most common split finish, available in several collections.
Electroplating uses an electric current to move molecules of the plating metal to the faucet in an acid bath. It was the finish of choice throughout most of the history of the modern faucet.
It produces a durable finish, but only as durable as the metal used for the finish.
Jörger metallic finishes are .
The gold in Jörger finishes, for example, is actual gold. It is a soft metal that scratches easily. Rose gold, an alloy of gold and copper is slightly more durable.
Chrome is the hardest of all electroplated finishes. It is not, however, scratch-proof.
Jörger does not use the newer (PVD) process to apply its finishes.
PVD is a process of heating the plating metal until it vaporizes into individual atoms which are deposited on the faucet in a very thin (less than 5 microns) but very dense film of metal.
PVD is very durable, nearly impossible to accidentally scratch or mar, never fades or changes color, and resists all forms of soiling. It can usually be maintained with just an occasional wipe from a damp cloth.
Jörger's color finishes are – color pigments applied to a faucet in powder form using a low-velocity spray gun.
The powder is drawn to the faucet by giving the faucet a negative electrical charge. Once applied, the finish is baked in an oven at over 400°F (220°C) to melt the powder and harden the finish.
Powder coats need to be applied in fairly thick layers to avoid imperfections in the finish like . The thickness of the coating can obscure fine detail, so they are not suitable for very detailed faucets.
They are not as robust as metallic finishes – usually described as "semi-durable" – requiring more care in daily use than electroplated or PVD finishes to maintain a like-new appearance. They do not bond to the underlying metal of the faucet at a molecular level like metallic finishes, so they can chip.
In addition to its standard finishes, Jörger will custom finish a faucet to match the finish of another brand or any of the hundreds of RAL colors.
There is, of course, a charge for this service, and the charge is fairly steep. So, unless you are equipping a hotel, resort, or casino with hundreds of faucets, you may find custom finishes cost-prohibitive.
Antique Gold, Gold, Sunshine, and Matt Sunshine are . They are expected to show signs of wear and age over time. The industry does not usually guarantee living finishes or, if a warranty is provided, it is for a very short time.
True to form, Jörger specifically excludes Antique Gold from any warranty protection. The warranty on the other two finishes is five years.
For more information on faucet finishes including the advantages and disadvantages of each method of application, see Faucet Basics, Part 5: Finishes and Coatings. Jörger provides very specific care and cleaning instruction for each finish. The instructions should be carefully followed to preserve your finish warranty.
Sources & Pricing
Jörger faucets are sold by high-end boutique showrooms. A few sellers provide them over the internet, but these are generally available only in Jörger's standard finishes. For any special finish treatment, a brick-and-mortar showroom is your best bet.
Thin Film Ceramic Coatings
Relatively fragile powder coatings are falling out of favor in the faucet industry as PVD is coaxed by engineers and materials chemists into reliably producing the colors and finish effects that were once available only as powder coats.
Also promising is a new type of liquid paint called thin film ceramic (TFC) which is making inroads into the faucet industry.
Initially used to protect hard-use items like firearms and military field equipment, TFC has begun appearing on faucets (see ).
Its advantage over powder coatings is its microscopic ceramic particles. Embedded in the material, these nano-ceramics make it nearly as resistant to scratches and other environmental hazards as PVD coatings, and by some accounts, even more resistant.
Its advantage over PVD is that it does not require a large upfront investment in specialized equipment that may cost upwards of $100,000 to produce a super-durable finish.
It needs only a standard spray booth and a low-temperature industrial oven to cure the paint – equipment that most coatings applicators already own.
These are pricey faucets. Jörger is more craft shop than it is factory. Faucets are produced one at a time as ordered rather than on an assembly line.
A lot of hand work is required to manufacture the faucets and apply Jörger's superb finishes. Germany has some of the highest labor costs in the European Union and the cost of this expensive labor is reflected in the price of Jörger faucets.
However, there is a substantial price difference between Jörger faucets sold in Europe and those sold in North America that is not explained by these factors.
Our research showed that Jörger faucets sold in North America are street-priced at an average of 15% higher than the same faucets sold in the European Union (based on the exchange rate as of the date of this report).
There are some costs associated with converting faucets from metric to U.S. customary units (inches and fractions of inches) so they will fit U.S. plumbing. Testing and certifying faucets to North American standards is also costly.
However, the principal factor behind the price difference is the degree to which U.S. companies can control the prices at which their faucets are sold at retail.
DPD vigorously discourages authorized retailers from discounting by enforcing a strict advertised price protection policy. No authorized retailer is permitted to advertise a discount greater than 25% below the DPD's list price.
In Europe, such price controls are illegal, which makes the European faucet market more competitive. They were equally illegal in the U.S. until the U. S. Supreme Court in Leegin Creative Leather Products, Inc. v. PSKS, Inc., 551 U.S. 877 (2007) reversed 100 years of prior law.
European Jörgers: Before you contact cousin Helmut in Dusseldorf to send you a European Jörger faucet, you should know that faucets sold in Europe (1) are on the metric system and will not fit U.S. plumbing and (2) are not certified to U.S./Canadian lead-free standards and are illegal to install in a drinking water system anywhere in North America.
A dealer locator on the company website will help you identify your nearest retail source, which for those who live outside of major cities may not be very near.
Jörger Website
The Jörger website is available in German (DE), Russian (RU), and two English language versions, English (US) for the United States and Canada, and English (EN) for the rest of the English-speaking world. Each site shows details and specifications for only those products available in the indicated market.
Site navigation is fairly intuitive, but not particularly easy.
More often than not a user has to scroll through a bunch of unlabeled images to get to any useful information.
The images add to the aesthetics of the site, and we certainly like pretty pictures as well as the next guy, but not when they don't convey much information and just get in the way.
The site search function is very limited. You can search for a faucet by name or model number (which Jörger calls an "article number") and some finishes. "Bronze" produces results but "Candy Violet" does not. A search by faucet feature ("widespread" for example, or "vessel") produces no results.
Once you get to a faucet listing, the information about the faucet is summarized in a brief description and the available finishes are nicely displayed. But, for detailed specifications, you will have to download technical specifications in .pdf format.
Technical data downloads are not linked to the faucet listing and are not all that easy to find. You need to click "Service" on the main menu, then "Technical Data."
Once the "Technical Data Sheets" page displays, you then have to find the collection that contains the faucet of your choice, open that sheet, then scroll down to the information about your faucet.
The data sheet has information not just about the listed faucet, but every faucet in the collection as well as showers, tub fillers, and accessories.
Charleston Square Faucet
Jörger single handle lavatory faucet in chrome from the contemporary Charleston Square collection.Most of the data sheets are in English, but a few are German language sheets. We had no trouble reading them with a little help from Google translate, but they should be in English for the English sites.
There is much about the listing/data-sheet combination to like, including:
Dynamic Finish Selection: Clicking on a finish icon on the listing pops up an image of the faucet (or some part of the faucet: usually a handle) in the selected finish and a gallery of all other available finishes. This feature is very helpful for visualizing the faucet in the specified finish.
Contextualizing: Both the web listing and the Jörger catalog put the faucet in the context of its entire collection by displaying all of the other fittings and accessories that coordinate with the faucet. The primary purpose of the display is to encourage the purchase of additional products, but if you are of a mind to do that anyway, it's nice to find everything in one place.
Dimensioned Drawing: The catalog contains a dimensioned drawing of the faucet with dimensions in inches (not metric like so many other European faucets). A measured drawing is very useful in determining whether a faucet will fit your sink. It may not help you but will help your plumber.
However, even with the additional information about the faucet in the catalog, critical information is missing. This includes the following:
Faucets' Certifications: Jörger does not list a faucet's certifications or even whether it is certified at all to North American standards. (The faucets are certified. We checked. See more below.)
Since most consumers do not know how to look up faucet certifications, they should be identified in the faucet listing if for no other reason than reassurance since so many uncertified contraband faucets are being offered for sale in North America.
Ceramic Cartridge: The ceramic cartridge used in the faucet should be identified by manufacturer name. Jörger identifies them as "cartridge with ceramic discs." Not at all helpful
All but the very cheapest modern faucets use "cartridges with ceramic discs". There are, however, very good ceramic disc cartridges and some that are not so good. Since Jörger cartridges are some of the best made, it should have no issue with identifying them on its website.
Faucet Warranty: New rules under federal warranty law require that a faucet's warranty or a "conspicuous link" to the faucet's warranty be displayed in every faucet listing on the English (US) website.
Since this particular website is aimed at U.S. consumers, the link needs to be added as the law requires. It is not optional.
Buying Rule for
Smart Faucet Buyers
Faucet Warranty
Never buy a faucet until you have read the faucet warranty.
Warranties tell you more about a faucet company and its faucets than the company wants you to know.
To learn how to interpret faucet warranties and better understand what they can tell you about the level of confidence company management has in its faucets and the likelihood of replacement parts availability, see Faucet Basics, Part 6: Understanding Faucet Warranties.
Installation Instructions: There are no installation instructions in the downloadable catalog or a link to installation instructions on the website.
These instructions help the plumber determine whether any problem with the installation may develop in the location chosen for the faucet and are a valuable pre-sale resource.
Faucet Images: Only one 3/4 view of the faucet is displayed in the faucet listing. It would be more helpful in visualizing the faucet if multiple views were shown, or better yet a 360° rotatable view such as is provided by companies such as Clicking on the 360° icon displays the faucet in a box that allows the viewer to rotate the faucet with the mouse to view it from any angle.
Warranty and Customer Service
The warranty on Jörger faucets is rather wordy, containing provisions that are not needed in a warranty.
After several careful readings, however, our panel of warranty lawyers decided that it meets the standard for faucet warranties in North America. It provides limited lifetime warranty protection to the original buyer with the usual exception for living finishes.
It also meets the minimum requirements of the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act (15 U.S.C. §2308) and is, therefore, a legal warranty under U.S. law. (The Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act does not apply in Canada.)
Understanding Finish Warranties
A finish warranty does not protect against everything that can go wrong with a faucet finish.
It covers 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, Jörger 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.
"Lifetime" in the 2018 Jörger warranty was for as long as "the product remains in its original installation." In the 2022 warranty, that limitation has been removed.
The new warranty lasts, therefore, for the actual lifetime of the original owner, one of the very few actual lifetime warranties we have seen in the faucet business.
An oddity in the warranty is the lack of the usual ownership requirement. No provision in the warranty requires the original purchaser to continue to own the faucet for the warranty to remain in effect.
As a result, it is possible for the buyer to retain all rights under the warranty even after he or she transfers ownership of the faucet to someone else.[2]
See our Model Limited Lifetime Faucet Warranty, for definition of lifetime that does require the buyer to continue to own the faucet for the warranty to remain in effect..
Customer and warranty service in North America is handled by DPD. Because DPD handles so many imported brands, we test DPD's service fairly often.
In our last tests, DPD performed well, scoring 4.4 out of a possible 5 points. Any score above 4.0 is satisfactory. Agents are well-versed in the various products they support and seem to do their best to accommodate any reasonable request.
Testing & Certification
German faucet companies are meticulous about ensuring their products are certified compliant with the complex maze of laws, rules, and regulations that govern the composition and function of drinking water faucets sold in North America.
Jörger is no exception.
For more information on the laws and regulations governing the sale and installation of drinking water faucets, see Faucet Basics Part 3: Keeping Faucets Safe & Reliable.
Comparable Faucets
Faucets sold in North America comparable to Jörger in price and quality but not necessarily in design or strength of warranty, include
Conclusions
Our bottom line is that Jörger makes well-designed, well-finished, high-quality faucets fitted with excellent ceramic cartridges and state-of-the-art aerators that should give many years of trouble-free service. The faucets are well-supported after the sale by a strong warranty and better than average customer and warranty service.
The downside is that the faucets are very expensive, on par with But, for a luxury bathroom or that one scrumptious luxury touch in a more modest bath, Jörger faucets are well worth your consideration if only because it is the only company at its level that has enough confidence in the quality of its faucets to provide a true lifetime warranty.
We are continuing to research the company. If you have experience with Jörger faucets, good, bad, or indifferent, we would like to hear about it, so please contact us or post a comment below.
Footnotes
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The newer faucet construction method, and almost certainly the wave of the future, is called "core and shell". The water channel is provided by the core components, typically consisting of copper or composite tubes that are guaranteed to be lead free. This core is then concealed inside the decorative outer shell that provdes the faucet's shape and style. Because it never touches water, the shell can be made of leaded brass, and because it is not subject to water pressure, it does not need to be structural and can be made of much thinner matrial.
The technology is actually not all that new. Wall-mounted faucets have always been core and shell. The core (usually called the "valve") is mounted in the wall and the shell (called the "trim") conceals the core. What's new is that the technique is now being applied to faucets other than wall-mounts, and the core, rather than being brass is some other lead-free metal, usually copper, and some companies are experimenting with composite cores, eliminating metal altogether.
faucets are already all core and shell construction with a zinc alloy shell.
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Consider the following scenario:
The original owner sells his or her house to Cousin Nell. The warranty does not end at the sale because the original owner is still alive, the only requirement for the warranty to remain in effect.
The ownership of the faucet passes to Cousin Nell with the house but not the warranty. By its terms, the warranty is not transferable to subsequent owners. Since Cousin Nell cannot inherit it, warranty rights are retained by the buyer.
If the faucet develops a defect, could the buyer make a warranty claim for Nell's benefit?The short answer, according to our panel, is "yes." Here is the legal reasoning:
- The original owner being alive is the only requirement for the warranty be remain in effect. So, the warranty is still in force and the original owner still owns it.
- A party to a contract (a warranty is a contract) can, under common law, enforce the terms of the contract for the benefit of a person who is not a party to the contract. So, the original owner can require Jörger to honor its warranty for Nell's benefit. In fact, under the law in most of the United States and a good many Canadian provinces, Nell herself can make a warranty claim on her own behalf as what is known to the law as a "third-party beneficiary" of the contract.
- Jörger would be legally bound to honor the claim under the terms of its warranty.
An odd result indeed, but that's the way Jörger has chosen to write its warranty. The warranty's lack of a limiting definition of the term "lifetime" probably needs to be reconsidered.