Lefroy Brooks Faucets Review & Rating Updated: April 18, 2024
Trading as
Lefroy Brooks USA
1828 Troutman Street
Ridgewood, NY 11385
(718) 302-5292
info@lefroybrooksusa.com
Customer Service
212-226-2242 (Option 1)
customerservice@lefroybrooksusa.com
Lefroy Brooks Diffusion, Ltd.
Ibroc House
Essex Road
Hoddesdon
Hertfordshire EN11 0QS
Law Requirements
1. "This product is guaranteed for a period of 5 years to the original purchaser against defective materials or faulty workmanship."2. Gold finishes are guaranteed for 2 years.Read the Lefroy Brooks faucet warranty.
Learn more about faucet warranties.
Lefroy Brooks In Brief
Lefroy Brooks is a line of upscale English-style faucets, fixtures, and accessories for the kitchen and bath.
The North American distributor is Lefroy Brooks Plumbing Fixtures, Inc.
The faucets are not manufactured by Lefroy Brooks, and not manufactured in Britain.
They are made on the Chinese mainland by faucet lines in North America.
The faucets are supported by an anemic 5-year warranty that does not meet the requirements of U.S. consumer product warranty law and by customer service that we have rated "unsatisfactory" for failing to respond to requests.
Lefroy Brooks is a line of English-style faucets, fixtures, and accessories for the kitchen and bath.
The faucets were designed in England, and at one time were manufactured in the U.K. Today they are made in China.
The Company
Importing and distribution in the U.S. and Canada is managed by Lefroy Brooks Plumbing Fixtures, Inc. founded by Warren Pearl in 2009.
Mr. Pearl is also the owner of Cooper & Graham, a luxury bath brand launched in 2014 that caters primarily to the hospitality industry.
The Lefroy Brooks brand is British in origin, first registered on October 13, 1999. It has a convoluted ownership history.
At one time, there was a Lefroy Brooks, Ltd. the, according to Companies House records in London, is now dissolved.
Lefroy Brooks (Baths), Ltd., Lefroy Brooks (London), Ltd., and Lefroy Brooks (Brass Foundries), Ltd. have likewise existed at one time or another but have met the same ultimate fate: disbanded or merged into other companies.
At present, the ownership of the Lefroy Brooks product line in Britain is vested in Lefroy Brooks Diffusion, Ltd., established in 1982. It, in turn, is a subsidiary of Davroc, Ltd., a distributor of high-end European bathroom fixtures and accessories in the U.K. and parts of Europe.
Davroc's wares include bath towel rails by Bard & Brazier, Ltd., a subsidiary of Davroc. Bard & Brazier still manufactures some of its wares in the U.K. and appears to be the only Davroc subsidiary that does so.
Lefroy Brooks Diffusion, however, does not own all of Lefroy Brooks. The brand name "Lefroy Brooks" and all other intellectual property associated with the brand, including all brochures and catalogs, the websites, and various trademarks is owned by yet another entity, LBIP, Ltd., incorporated in the British Virgin Islands.
It even owns the manuals and installation instructions that accompany each faucet. (One could surmise that LBIP might be an acronym for "Lefroy Brooks Intellectual Properties" – but that's just a guess.)
These British companies have two people in common:
- Pietro Corbisiero, a U.K. resident of Italian citizenship is or has been a director of all of the various Lefroy Brooks companies and of a dozen or so other U.K. companies — all having something to do with the distribution and sale of plumbing, sanitary wares, and accessories.
- Andrew Russell Christopher is also a director and commonly the managing director, of most of these same companies.
U.K. ownership, however, is evidently an ephemeral item, so by the time you read this, the brand may be owned by entirely different companies.
C. A. Lefroy-Brooks
Who then is Lefroy Brooks?
There is an actual Lefroy Brooks, or more accurately: Christopher Alan (Christo) Lefroy-Brooks formerly of Amersham, Buckinghamshire, who was the owner-of-record of the Lefroy Brooks brand name until around 2007.
He holds several U.S. and European design patents for faucets, showers, and bath accessories but has applied for no new patents in over 20 years.
He appears to have sold his interest in Lefroy Brooks in 2012 to Corbisiero et al and moved to Italy.
Although his biography and photograph are featured on the Lefroy Brooks USA website, Mr. Lefroy-Brooks does not appear to have any active involvement in the company at this time.
We can find no indication that he has designed for any company other than Lefroy Brooks, which is unusual for a person of his talent. Nor has he designed for Lefroy Brooks for over a decade. The new XO and Kafka collections do not appear to have been designed by Mr. Brooks.
The Manufacturer
Lefroy Brooks suggests here and here on its website that it manufactures its own products. For example, this statement, found in its Terms and Conditions: "We are a Quality Assured Manufacturer to BS EN ISO 9001:2008."
In fact, Lefroy Brooks faucets are manufactured on the Chinese mainland by , an company founded in 1979 as a plumbing products and sanitary wares manufacturer.
It has since become one of the world's largest suppliers of plumbing and sanitary products to other companies.
Globe Union sells faucets in North America under a variety of brands, including
It also manufactures faucets for the who's who of faucet sellers in North America, including
Fixtures vs. Fittings
Faucets are often referred to as fixtures which is not strictly correct.
A faucet is a fitting as are showers, tub fillers, and drains. Fixtures include sinks, bathtubs, bidets, and toilets.
By definition, fittings control the flow of water. Fixtures hold and constrain water, then direct it into a drain when you are through with it.
Fixtures do not themselves move water around. That's the job of fittings.
Typical fittings are made of metal and fixtures of porcelain, acrlic, or fiberglass. That's not always true. There are ceramic faucets and stainless steeel toilets and sinks, but it works as a general rule.
In addition to faucets, Globe Union manufactures showers and bathroom accessories that complement the Lefroy Brooks faucets.
In the recent past Lefroy Books imported sinks, toilets and bathtubs from Milim G & G Ceramics Co. Ltd., a Globe Union subsidiary. We have not seen imports from Milin for the past 36 months, however, so Milim may no longer be a Lefroy Brooks supplier.
Milim is a former state-owned ceramics factory, purchased by Globe Union from the Red Chinese government in 2003. It now manufactures most of the sanitary fixtures sold in North America by Globe Union under the Gerber brand name.
Other fixture suppliers include:
- Boutique Baths (PTY) Ltd. (South Africa),
- Foshan OVS Sanitary Ware Co., Ltd. (China), and
- Anping Jixing Sanitary Ware Co. Ltd. (China).
For English faucets manufactured in the U.K., see
The Faucets
In a world where one company's collection of faucets looks very much like any other company's collection of faucets, most Lefroy Brooks faucets are definitely different.
In addition to some very good basic design, they incorporate that hard-to-define something that says these faucets are absolutely and unmistakably British in character and style.
Lefroy Brooks products are arranged in collections or "ranges" corresponding to historical design periods.
The 1900 Classic and Classic Black collections are styled to remind one of the sanitary wares available in the very late Victorian period that the British refer to as the Edwardian era (1900-1910).
The 1910 La Chapelle collection is, according to the company, inspired by the designs of 1910-1920 at the height of the English Arts & Crafts Movement.
English Arts & Crafts slightly pre-dates the American movement of the same name from 1890 to about 1935, but took a different design direction, adopting Continental design themes, particularly those of French Art Nouveau genre.
1920 Connaught collection picks up where the La Chapelle collection leaves off, heading into the early Art Deco movements. Art Deco as expressed in the U.K. differs from that of the U.S. It is softer and less angular, featuring more curves and fewer abrupt transitions.
The 1930 Mackintosh collection is English Arts & Crafts in full flower.
According to the company, it owes much of its inspiration to noted Scottish architect and textile designer Charles Rennie Mackintosh who translated French Art Nouveau into a distinctly British idiom that features more angularity.
This movement and its Art Deco cousin lasted well into the Global War period of the 1940s and is appropriate even into the post-war reconstruction restorations.
To learn more about Mackintosh's influence on the design of the Arts & Crafts period, see Arts & Crafts Interiors: The First Comfortable House.
The 1950 Belle Aire includes just one distinctly Art Deco sink and one faucet obviously inspired by the hood ornaments of 1950s American automobiles.
The 2000 XO and 2010 Kafka collections represent contemporary design since the turn of the millennium.
The Kafka is the least interesting collection, lacking as it does any distinctive qualities to set its faucets apart from the contemporary styles offered by a dozen or more other upscale faucet companies. The XO collection is more unique, featuring a starkly minimalist contenmporary design that is only rarely found in other faucet collections sold in North America. (See Sonoma Forge faucets for similar but more rustic styling.)
The Post-Modernist period of the 1960s through the 1980s is not represented in the Lefroy Brooks collections, although a lot of interesting design statements emerged during those years.
Most of the collections are complete with faucets, sinks, showers, tub fillers, bathtubs, mirrors, and other accessories. The collections include bath faucets, of course, but may also include kitchen faucets for the same era.
Some collections sold by Lefroy Brooks in Europe have not reached these shores. These include:
- The 1920s are represented by the more industrial Ten Ten collection rather than the Connought collection.
- A 1935 collection called Janey Mac is intended to represent the designs of the late Arts & Crafts movement as it began to merge into Mid-Century Modernism.
Where to Buy
Lefroy Brooks faucets are sold primarily through interior decorator studios and decorative plumbing showrooms, including dedicated showrooms that Lefroy Brooks shares with Cooper & Graham in Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York.
A complete store list is available at the Lefroy Books website under the "Stores" tab. Some of these sellers also make the products available online. See, e.g. Plumbtile.com or Quality Bath.
The list of stores is arranged alphabetically, not by location, so you may have to do a lot of looking to find the store nearest you, and then you may find that the nearest store is not very near. The stores are in major metropolitan areas, many miles from the majority of Americans who do not live in major metropolitan areas.
Construction and Materials
Even a quick look at a Lefroy Brooks faucet ought to put to rest any mistaken notion that the Chinese cannot manufacture a world-class faucet.
The premium quality of Lefroy Brooks faucets is, of course, pricey. Be prepared to fork over a handsome contribution to the company's exchequer and an even handsomer contribution for a special order finish.
Lefroy Brooks frequently identifies its faucets as "hand-crafted." Actually, they are assembly-line faucets, very possibly the world's most expensive Chinese faucets, and some of the world's most expensive production faucets from any country.
Most faucets in this price category are artisan faucets, hand-made one at a time as ordered, and sold by companies like not faucets from an assembly line.
However, the fact that they are production faucets does not in any way diminish their quality. The Chinese export a lot of junk to the U.S. and Chinese manufacturing is not highly regarded. But, Chinese manufacturing can be as good as any in the world, and Lefroy Brooks faucets are the proof of that statement.
Construction
Lefroy Brooks faucets are made using conventional construction in which the body and spout channel water as well as give the faucet its appearance.
Globe Union does not use the newer core and shell construction in which the waterway and decorative shell are divorced. The waterway is constructed of tubes inside the decorative shell that gives the faucet its appearance.[1] The advantage of core and shell is that much less expensive leaded brass can be used to make the shell with no risk of lead contamination since the water never touches the shell.
The primary materials used are brass and stainless steel. Secondary materials are zinc alloys and plastic.
Stainless Steel
Lefroy Brooks barely mentions that some of its faucets are made from stainless steel, and does not identify the type of steel used.
Most probably, however, its stainless steel faucets are made from 304 stainless, an alloy that includes chromium and nickel. The nickel gives the steel a crystalline structure, which increases its strength. The chromium helps the steel resist rusting.
Why Stainless Steel Does Not Rust: Properly alloyed stainless steel contains at least 10% chromium (which gives stainless its slight yellowish tinge) and a dollop of nickel. These form a coating of oxides and hydroxides on the outer surface of the steel that blocks oxygen and water from reaching the underlying metal, preventing rust from forming. The coating is very thin, only a few atoms thick, so thin that it is invisible to the eye under ordinary light but thick enough to protect the faucet.
Stainless 304, also known as "food-grade" stainless, is by far the most common alloy used to make kitchen utensils, silverware, cookware, sinksm and faucets.
Steel is much harder than brass. It can be made in thinner profiles that use less material and still have more than adequate strength.
Brass
Brass is the traditional primary faucet material 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 build-up of potentially hazardous microbes inside a faucet.
Kafka Contemporary Faucets
Unlike most of the other collections (or "Ranges") offered by Lefroy Brooks, the contemporary Kafka collection is not particularly distinctive. It includes faucets in designs that are common throughout the industry.
Brass has one serious drawback, however. Traditional brass contains metallic lead.
Ordinary (Alpha) brass is a blend of copper and zinc with a small amount of lead (1.5% - 3.5%) 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 why bismuth-brass alloys are considerably more expensive than leaded brass.
This increased cost has encouraged many faucet manufacturers to use substitute materials where possible.
Zinc & Zinc/Aluminum Alloys
The most common substitute metal 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. However, 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 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
Proponents of the material give three reasons for the 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.
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 water.
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.
Fortunately, it appears that Lefroy Brooks' kitchen sprays are metal. What kind of metal, we don't know. It could be the same brass or stainless steel used to make the faucet, or it may be a zinc alloy. However, the type of metal does not really make a difference to the quality or durability of the component. Either brass, strainless, or zinc works just fine.
The caveat to this statement is that we are basing our conclusions on the faucets we actually examined. We did not examine every faucet sold by Lefroy Brooks that has a spray, so it could be that some faucet sprays are indeed plastic.
If you are buying a Lefroy Brooks faucet with a spray, always ask what the spray is made of before you buy.
The Faucet Valve Cartridge
Its cartridge is the heart of a modern faucet and should be your very first consideration when making a buying decision.
It is the component that controls water flow and temperature.
Its finish may fail and the faucet will still work. It may be discolored, corroded, and ugly but water still flows. If the cartridge fails, however, the faucet is no longer a faucet. It is out of business until the cartridge is replaced.
It's important, therefore, that the cartridge is robust, durable, and lasts for many years.
Faucet Components
The critical components of any faucet are its ceramic valve cartridges and aerators. These are the parts that make the faucet work, and should be your first question about any faucet you plan to buy.
Valve Cartridges
We do not know for certain who makes the valve cartridges used in Lefroy Brooks faucets. The cartridges in the faucets we examined did not have maker marks that identify the manufacturer.
We asked the company to identify its cartridge sources.
Generally, companies that go to the expense of buying good quality valve cartridges for their faucets have no problem telling us all about them — usually more than we want to know.
Lefroy Brooks, however, chose not to respond to three email requests for its valve sources.
Valve cartridges for two-handle faucets come in pairs: one for hot (left) and one for cold (right).
The best valve cartridges for two handle faucets are made in Europe.
The premier manufacturer is probably Flühs Drehtechnik located in Lüdenscheid, Germany, world-renowned for its precision machining. Flühs (sometimes spelled Fluehs for English speakers) valves are heavy-duty products with an established reputation for leak-free reliability.
Our second choice would be Anton Tränkle GmbH & Co KG, also a German manufacturer of high-quality brass cartridges.
For single-handle kitchen faucets, the preferred cartridge is from Kerox, a Hungarian manufacturer that specializes in mixing cartridges.
How to Clean a Ceramic Valve Cartridge
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.
To return it to full functionality, removing the 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 40% 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 with silicon plumbers grease
- Reinstall the cartridge.
If the mineral build up is substantial, you may have to do this more than once.
Another good choice would be CeramTec cartridges made in Germany. CeramTec was a pioneer in technical ceramics in the early 1980s. It developed the standard cartridge designs used by most cartridge manufacturers today. Standardization makes cartridges from most manufacturers interchangeable.
Of the Asian valve cartridge manufacturers, two companies stand out for single-handle mixing cartridges.
The first is Geann Industrial Co., Ltd. in business for over 30 years, It is an established Taiwanese manufacturer of ceramic disc cartridges building a reputation for its good to excellent quality and gaining recognition as a cartridge on par with many of the best European products.
It is becoming the cartridge-make of choice for faucet companies that buy their faucets from Asian manufacturers, including
Sedal S.L.U. is somewhat behind Geann in quality but still makes a sturdy cartridge. It is a technical ceramics company chartered in Spain and headquartered in Barcelona but manufacturing in China. It is a favored cartridge of Chinese manufacturers producing faucets for the North American and European markets.
Valve Cartridge Testing & Certification
No matter where valve cartridges are made or by whom, they have to be tested and certified to minimum North American standards to be used in a faucet sold in the U.S. or Canada. Minimum North American standards are very tough and the cartridges in Lefroy Brroks faucets have passed the tests and meet the standards.
Life-Cycle Test
The North American cartridge life-cycle stress test requires operating the valve cartridges through 500,000 cycles under 60 pounds per square inch (psi) of water pressure[2] without a single failure. That's not a typo, a full half-million cycles are required.
At one cycle per second, the test takes six days to complete.
Life-Cycle Stress Testing: For a video showing the operation of the type of machine that puts faucets through life-cycle testing, go here. Warning: it's very noisy.
In other countries, the standards are much less rigorous. The European (EN 817) life-cycle test is just 70,000 cycles and the Chinese requirement (GB18145) is a mere 30,000 cycles.
Burst Test
A second stress test, informally known as the "burst test," subjects the cartridges to a water pressure surge of 500 psi – 10 times typical household water pressure for one minute. If the cartridge leaks or deforms under this pressure, it fails.
Aerators
are another critical faucet component.
Faucet aerators used to be simple devices, often just several layers of aluminum or copper mesh, that added a little air to soften the water stream so it would not splash out of the sink. The days of simple aerators, however, are long gone.
Today, aerators are precision devices engineered by companies like the Swiss-based Neoperl or Amfag S.r.l., a company manufacturing in Italy, that are also used to limit water volume to the lower flows required by federal and state water conservation laws and 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.
Lefroy Brooks does not identify the source of its aerators on its website and did not respond to three written requests for that information. We took several apart to see if the devices had any manufacturer identification, but they did not.
Buying Tip for Smart Faucet Buyers
Never buy a faucet if you don't know the manufacturer of the valve cartridge or aerator. The quality of these two components largely determines whether the faucet is a lifetime product or one that will fail within a few years. If customer service cannot provide the information, ask to speak to someone who can. If you cannot get the information, something fishy is going on. Move on to another faucet company.
If a manufacturer is unknown to you, we will be glad to send you what information we have on the company. Mail us at starcraftreviews@yahoo.com. We will respond within one business day. We do not charge for this service.
Faucet Finishes
The Lefroy Brooks faucets we examined were impeccably finished.
Finishes include Polished Chrome (which the company calls "chromium plate" in its finish chart) Silver Nickel, Brushed Nickel, Antique Gold, Brushed Brass, Polished Brass, Age Brass, Taunton, XO Geneva, and XO Mirror.
Chrome and Silver Nickel are the standard finishes. All others are special order finishes and will add to the price of the faucets, sometimes substantially.
We would like to tell you about the processes used by Lefroy Brooks to produce its finishes. However, like all of the rest of the information we requested from the company, it chose not to respond to our written requests for information.
What we do know about the finishes we got from examining the faucets and making educated guesses.
Electroplating
The Polished Chrome and Silver Nickel standard finishes are .
Electroplating is the oldest form of metal coating, using a process discovered in 1890 by Luigi Brugnatelli, an Italian chemist but it did not come into widespread industrial use until the 1840s.
It 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.
Usually, multiple coats are applied, one or more undercoats, and then two or more coats of the finish metal. The undercoats are required because many plating metals do not bond well with brass. An undercoat of zinc or nickel is usually applied as a primer. They bond well to brass and chrome bonds well to zinc or nickel.
The finish may be polished or brushed.
Chrome, a relatively hard metal, is usually polished to a high shine. Nickel, a softer metal, is often brushed to help hide the inevitable minor scratches.
Lefroy Brooks Silver Nickel is polished. so buyers should anticipate minor scratching with use over time. Although nickel alloys have improved over the years to be a little more robust, they are still softer than chrome.
Special-Order Finishes
All Lefroy Books finishes other than Chrome and Nickel are special order finishes.
Finish Durability
Some finishes are more durable than others.
Here are common types of faucet finishes and their durability from most to least durable.
- (PVD) finishes are 10 to 20 times more scratch-resistant than electroplated chrome.
-
, electroplating is a process of coating one metal with another using an electrical current to transfer the metal ions through an acid bath. `The process has been used to finish faucets since early in the 19th century.It is a tough finish that will stand up to most abuse, but its durability depends on the metal used.Chrome is durable, nickel less so because it is inherently a softer metal – the reason chrome replaced nickel as the faucet finish of choice in the early 20th century.
These finishes (except Gold) are most likely applied using (PVD) over Silver Nickel as an undercoat.
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. Today, PVD technology is everywhere, and the machinery required is getting smaller, faster, and cheaper all the time.
To create a PVD coating, a faucet is first electroplated, typically with a nickel compound, then polished and thoroughly cleaned.
An undercoat is almost always required. A PVD finish has no gap-filling properties whatsoever. It takes on the exact configuration of the object being coated, so an absolutely smooth, polished surface is needed before PVD is applied. Nickel polishes nicely and bonds well to brass, so it is a common choice.
Mackintosh tubular 3-hole Lavatory faucet with cross handles
Mackintosh lavatory faucet in Silver Nickel.The coating is applied in a sealed chamber that is loaded with unfinished faucet components. All the air is removed and replaced by a carefully calculated mix of nitrogen or argon and reactive gases.
A rod of the metal to be used for the finish is heated to a temperature so high that the metal dissolves into individual atoms. Typical plating metals are zirconium and titanium, both non-reactive metals that do not tarnish.
The atoms mix with the various reactive gases to get the desired color and finish effects and are then deposited in a very thin film – 2 to 5 – on the faucets.
Different finish colors and effects are created by varying the mix of reactive gases in the chamber.
Titanium in its natural state is a dull silver-gray color. But when combined with nitrogen gas in a PVD chamber, the result is a convincing brass finish. Adding a little methane to the mix reddens the color, resulting in rose brass. A touch of acetylene darkens the finish to an aged brass.
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.
Gold
The Lefroy Brroks website does not list Gold as one of its finishes but refers to Gold in its warranty. Presumably, therefore, it does offer gold as a special finish.
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.
No faucet company guarantees its finishes against careless cleaning.
Although a "gold" finish can be applied using PVD, the finish would be almost impervious to ordinary wear and tear. The company's concern that its Gold finish "is a soft metal and can be easily scratched or worn away particularly if incorrectly cleaned" suggests that it is actual gold that has been electroplated.
We do not know the exact alloy that is used.
Pure 24k gold is rare as a plated coating on faucets. It is much too soft for a product that will see a lot of daily use. It is most often found in plated jewelry.
More likely a 14k or 10k alloy is the plating metal. Fourteen karat gold is an alloy of 58% gold and 42% other metals like copper and silver. Ten karat gold is 42% gold and 58% other metals. (Any alloy containing less than 41,7% gold may not lawfully be advertised or sold as gold in the U.S.) These alloys are not particularly hard but are harder than pure gold.
USA Website
The Lefroy Brooks USA website is very visual, full of well-staged images. Navigation is menu-driven, intuitive, and very simple. It is a scalable site, designed to display properly on any screen from desktop monitors to smartphones.
Faucets are not sold through the web site. It is for information only. Lefroy Brooks USA is a distrbutor, not a retailer. It does not compete with its retail showrooms by selling faucets directly to consumers. Prices are not listed, not even suggested retail prices, and there is no shopping cart or checkout.
The site search function is keyword-based and is strictly limited to products. A keyword or indiex search is faster than a content search, but much less flexible.
Searches on common subjects like "ADA" to find all faucets suitable for persons with limited manual dexterity, or on "warranty" to find warranty information produced no results. Neither did general product or component searches. A search on "aerator" or "cartridge," for example produces nothing.
Lefroy Brooks Ten Ten widespread lavatory faucet (above) in a Taunton finish from a U.K. collection of the same name.
The design aesthetic is derivative of the imaginative Brooklyn 31 series (below) created by in the early 2000s.
The Ten Ten colletion is not sold in North Amerca.
A search on the two standard finishes; nickel and chrome, resulted in a display of products (not just faucets, but all products) available in the finish. A search on special finishes produced no results. The ability to search on finishes aids the process of selecting products all in the same finish for a coordinated look.
If you know the style period of your bathroom or kitchen, "by Range" is a good choice. It gets you right to the faucets that are style-compatible with the period.
For other information, a google content search is needed. Google searches on text, not keywords. For example, to find the faucet warranty, we used "warranty site:usa.lefroybrooks.com." which brought up up the "Terms & Conditions" page on the website which is where the warranty is located.
Finding faucets is easy. Opening "Products" on the main menu drops down two choices, "by Range" (by which the company means by collection), and "by Type".
If you're not sure of the style period, then "by Type" gives you access to filters on the left side of the screen that allow you to drill down on an appropriate faucet and is probably the better choice.
To display a matrix of faucet images after selecting "By type," simply click on "Basin taps" (for bathroom lavatory faucets), or "kitchen taps." A "tap" is just British for "faucet."
The Lefroy Brooks USA website goes a little overboard emphasizing its Britishness, using British terminology throughout. Some of it may be unfamiliar to Americans.
A "cistern," for example, is just a toilet tank (without the bowl), and a "Pan" is the toilet bowl (without the tank) and sometimes the name given to a modern one-piece toilet. A "bath tap" is what we call a tub filler.
Perhaps if Lefroy Brooks is going to sell in America, it might consider speaking American.
We are not sure what Lefroy Brroks means by "Lavatories," In British it means a room that contains a toilet. In North America, it is a bathroom sink. But, when we filtered for "Lavatory" on the website, we got a display of toilets (cisterns and pans), two toilet seats, a pair of metal brackets, and a toilet flush lever (cistern handle).
| British to American Plumbing Dictionary |
|
|---|---|
 |
 |
| Basin | Bathroom Sink Lavatory Lavatory Sink |
| Basin Tap | Bathroom Faucet Lavatory Faucet |
| Bath | Bathtub |
| Bath Tap | Tub Filler |
| Cistern | Toilet Tank |
| Cistern Handle | Toilet Flush Lever |
| Kitchen Tap | Kitchen Faucet |
| Pan | Toilet Bowl |
| Tap | Faucet |
| Waste | Drain |
Filtering on "Basin Taps" brings up ten pages of lavatory faucet pictures that are large enough to be of help in identifying an appropriate faucet.
Page selection at the bottom of the page, however, displays just the next five pages. To get to page 10, you have to click & scroll-down, click & scroll-down, five or so times. There is no reason not to display all page selector tabs at once to make page navigation easier.
Another feature that our testers found annoying were the constant popups. Each time the mouse passes over a faucet image, the same image appears in a popup about 20% larger.
Popups are fine if used with discretion. But the image enlargement in these popups is not enough to see more faucet detail, so the popups do not improve visualization, thus serving no purpose. They are intrusive without being helpful.
Click on a faucet image to display the listing page for that faucet, and prepare to be underwhelmed. The hard information provided about the faucet is not nearly sufficient for an informed buying decision.
You will see a larger version of that same image of the faucet and a banner on the right that shows the finishes available for the faucet, the number of mounting holes required, and the style of faucet handle(s) (if applicable).
Then comes something called "Tags." This is a list of indexing keys. Something of interest to the site's developers, but of no value whatsoever to a potential buyer.
The site was obviously designed by someone with twenty-year-old eyes. Most luxury faucet buyers, however, are in their 30s and beyond. Text like this is hard to read for thirty- and forty- and fifty-something eyes.
It's okay to be colorful, but not at the cost of being readable.
On some faucet websites, a user can select a faucet finish and the image will redisplay in the selected finish. This feature is not available on the Lefroy Brooks site.
It shows one 3/4 view of the faucet and only that one biew, and it is always in polished chrome. It may be big or it may be small but it is always the same image. (The U.K. site shows the faucets in Silver Nickel, for those interested in that finish.)
Document Links
The "Downloads" area is where the interesting stuff is.
Links to various documents are displayed in this area. The links are not always the same, however. Some listings display as many as five linked documents, some have none.
Much of the information is repeated from document to document. The dimensioned drawing and parts list contained in the Technical Specification Sheet is usually repeated in the Installation Guide and again in the Cleaning and Maintenance Guide along with a repeat of the installation instructions. The reasoning behind this double redundancy is not immediately evident.
The typical download choices are:
- Brochure: The sales brochure promoting the collection of which the faucet is a menber. These are essentially advertisements that contain lovely images and identify some features of the faucets in the collection, but do not include any hard specifications. The available brochures are:
- (We did not find a brochure for the 2010 Kafka Collection on the Lefroy Brooks website, but did find a Kafka Specification Catalogue on the ArchiExpo website.)
-
Technical Specifications Sheet: The document contains some specifications, but is not what we usually think of as an actual spec sheet. It displays
- a dimensioned drawing of the faucet (useful in determining if the faucet will fit your sink),
- an exploded parts diagram (particularly useful if you need to order a replacement part),
- a list of the faucet's certifications (sometimes), and
- the faucet's flow rate displayed as a chart. The chart shows flow rates at different water pressures, interesting, but not all that helpful. What would be helpful is a hard number indicating the faucet's maximum flow rate so a potential buyer could compare it to the maximum flow rate allowed in his or her locality.
| Specification | Score | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| ADA Compliance (Yes/No) | 0 | Never. Some faucets show hospital blade handles that are probably ADA suitable, but they are not ifentified as such. |
| Aerator Manufacturer | 0 | Never |
| Certifications | 3 | A few faucets,, in linked documents only. |
| Country of Origin | 0 | Never |
| Dimensions | 5 | Most faucets, in linked documents only |
| Drain Included (Yes/No) | 5 | Lavatory Faucets Only. |
| Faucet Images: Multiple images, 360° rotating image, or video | 1 | Single 3/4 view image in one finish |
| Finish(es) | 2 | In a chart, but not displayed in each listing |
| Finish Type | 0 | Never |
| Finish Images | 2 | On website as a chart but not with listing. Chart is difficult to find and seems out of date. |
| Flow Rate(s), Maximum | 3 | Stated in chart form that is hard to decipher |
| Installation Instructions | 4 | Some faucets |
| Material, Primary (Brass, Stainless, etc.) | 0 | Never |
| Materials, Secondary (Zinc, Plastic, etc.) | 0 | Never |
| Mounting Holes, Number of | 5 | |
| Parts Diagram | 4 | Some faucets |
| Spray Head Material | 0 | Pulldown or pullout sprays only. |
| Spray Hose Manufacturer | 0 | Never |
| Spray Hose Type | 0 | Never |
| Supply Connection Size/Type | 0 | Never |
| Supply Hose Included (Yes/No) | 0 | Never |
| Supply Hose Manufacturer | 0 | Never |
| Supply Hose Type | 0 | Never |
| Valve/Cartridge Type | 0 | Never |
| Valve/Cartridge Manufacturer | 0 | Never |
| Warranty Online | 3 | Burried in Terms and Conditions. No link from any faucet listing. |
| Warranty Link in Listings[1] | 0 | Never |
| WaterSense® Listed (Yes/No) | 0 | Never |
|
Scale:
90+ A Excellent, 80+ B Good, 70+ C Average, 60+ D Poor, 59- F Fail
| ||
|
Table Notes:
[1] A link from a faucet listing to the full text of the applicable warranty is required by pre-sale availability of the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act.
| ||
| Download/Read/Print the minimum content required in an online faucet listing to permit an informed buying decision. | ||
- DWG and DXF files: These are CAD graphics files of interest to architects, designers, and decorators.. They are 2D drawings rather than the 3D models that would be more useful.
- Installation Guide: The installation instructions are of use to your plumber in identifying any problems with the installation in your home. A pipe might be in the way or a supprt beam may interfere. The Guide will usually repeat the same dimensioned drawing and exploded parts diagram as the Technical Specification Sheet.
- Cleaning and Maintenance Guide: This is typically the only document you will need to look at.
- It contains the same installation instructions, the same dimensioned drawing, and the same exploded parts diagram as the prior documents.
- The only additional information is the "Fault Finder' which helps identify the causes of typical faucet problems and in some cases a "Guarantee" which appears to be a warranty that differs substantially from the warranty the company posts on its website. (Read more about this Guarantee, below.)
Not every faucet links to all of these documents. Some faucets have links to just one or two, some have a link to just the sales brochure, others have no links at all.
The only consistency in the type and number of linked documents is the inconsistency in the type and number of linked documents.
A Link to the Warranty
The sole and only document link that is required by law — a link to the faucet's warranty — is missing.
The "pre-sale availability rule" of the federal Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act. (15 U.S.C. §2308) requires the either (1) the full text of the warranty or (2) a "conspicuous link" to the warranty document be displayed in a faucet listing so a potential buyer can read the warranty before making a buying decision.[3]
If the warranty is not made available for the buyer to read before a sale, then the company's warranty does not apply and any restrictions in the warranty will not be enforced.
The Lefroy Brooks faucet listing displays neither the warranty text nor the conspicuous link.
ADA Faucets
Most faucet sellers have at least a few faucets suitable for use by persons with diminished manual dexterity.
These are typically identified as "ADA" faucets (a reference to the Americans With Disabilities Act.) Lefroy Brooks does not identify any of its faucets as conforming to ADA requirements, even though some of its faucets almost certainly do.
Faucets with what the website identifies as a Connaugh
handle (and the rest of the faucet world calls a "wrist blade" or "hospital handle") seem obvious candidates.
Minimum Website Faucet Listing Information
We identify 30 or so faucet specifications that are necessary for a fully-informed buying decision. Everything from how the faucet is presented in images to the number of mounting holes needed.
The number and type of specifications vary slightly from from faucet to faucet. Not every faucet listing requires every specification.
For example, WaterSense® listings apply only to lavatory faucets. Similarly, the material used in a spray head and spray hose information generally applies only to pulldown or pullout sprays usually found only on kitchen faucets.
Some specifications, however, apply to all faucets. Primary and secondary materials, country of origin, finish type, and certifications are examples, none of which is disclosed by Lefroy Brooks.
Our volunteer researchers spent several hours identifying the information provided on its website for each Lefroy Brooks faucet and found it is woefully deficient. A summary of their findings is displayed in the Minimum Website Faucet Listing Information table, elsewhere on this page.
LefroyBrooks' score is one of the lowest we have ever recorded, indicating that almost 75% of the needed information about its faucets is missing.
The company has all of the necessary information. It just needs to be willing to share.
All states and provinces in North America have laws requiring that consumer products be fit for their ordinary purposes and conform to an ordinary buyer's expectations.
This is the implied warranty of merchantability. It derives from English Common Law and is the law in both Canada and the U.S. It automatically attaches to every sale of a consumer product by a merchant.
A product is merchantable if it serves its ordinary purpose. A faucet, for example, is merchantable if it dispenses controlled amounts of water.
A merchantable product must remain merchantable for a reasonable amount of time. How much time varies with the product. A faucet that leaks after one or two years is probably not merchantable. One that doesn't leak until its 20th anniversary probably is – a faucet is not expected to be leak-free forever.
Magnuson-Moss refines state warranties of merchantability by providing uniform national standards for form and content, but it does not supersede them.
The Warranty
The company's faucet warranty is on its website but tucked away under "Terms and Conditions". Not where we would expect to find it. In fact, we did not find it until a helpful customer service agent told us where to look.
We also found another, different warranty packaged in the box with the faucets as part of "Installation, Operating & Maintenance Instructions."
The website warranty is for five years. The in-box warranty for for the same 5 years but with different provisions.
Having two different warranties on the same products is not permitted under U.S. law due to a scam that was fairly common in the days before Magnuson-Moss.
A company would publish an apparently generous warranty to encourage a consumer to buy a product, then replace it with a much more restrictive warranty packed in the box once the consumer has bought the product.
The practice is called a "warranty shuffle" — a form of bait and switch
. It is now very illegal. But, the law has a cure. It simply enforces the warranty provisions that are most favorable to the consumer.
We don't think a warranty shuffle is in play here, if only because the two warranties are not that different. Lefroy Brooks uses the same "Installation, Operating & Maintenance Instructions." in the U.S. as it does in the U.K., and the in-box warranty is probably intended for U.K. customers.
However, the two different warranties are still a violation of Magnuson-Moss.
Sub-Par Warranty
The American (online) warranty is well below par for the North American market.
The standard North American faucet warranty pioneered by nearly 60 years ago is for the lifetime of the buyer in which the company agrees to replace defective parts without charge.
From our examination of Lefroy Brooks faucets, we can find no obvious reason that a lifetime warranty could not be offered on the faucets Globe Union manufactures for Lefroy Brooks.
Are Lefroy Brooks Faucets Guaranteed?
It may be that Lefroy faucets have no U.S. warranty.
By its terms, the company's U.S. warranty applies only to "Brass & Stainless Steel Bathroom Fittings made in the UK." As all of the company's faucets are made in China, there is not a single faucet sold in North America to which the warranty would apply.
That may be just another inadvertent mistake or it may be part of the company's studied practice of never admitting that its relatively expensive faucets are made in China. It never comes right out and claims that its products are manufactured in the U.K., but hints around at it a lot. This may just be one of the hints.
As far as we know, the company does not actually enforce the "made in UK" requirement.
Compliance with Warranty Law
The Lefroy Brooks U.S. faucet warranty is a truly excellent example of why consumer product warranties should not only be written by a lawyer but by a lawyer with a very good understanding of the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act. (15 U.S.C. §2308)
The warranty does not even come close to complying with the requirements of this federal law that dictates the minimum content of and sets the rules for consumer product warranties in the United States. Conformity to Magnuson-Moss is the bedrock requirement for a consumer product warranty to be legal in the U.S.
The Lefroy Brooks faucet warranty has not one or two but many compliance issues, most of them serious. Some of the more egregious issues are outlined in the sidebar Lefroy Books Warranty Law Compliance, elsewhere on this page.
Lefroy Books Warranty Law Compliance
The Lefroy Books warranty fails to comply with U.S. warranty law contained in the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act. and its regulations. Here are a few of the most egregious issues.
Sole Option
The first legal misstep in the warranty is this provision:
"Under the guarantee we will repair or replace at our option this product or any component found to be defective."
Under Magnuson-Moss, however, a company never has the only option to decide what remedy is appropriate.
The Act 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 or binding in any dispute concerning the warranty." (16 CFR § 700.8)
Any statement indicating or implying that the company has the sole or final say over any matter contained in a written warranty is considered deceptive, will not be enforced, and can lead to serious liability.
We don't think for a minute that Lefroy Brooks is being deliberately deceptive. No doubt whoever wrote the warranty saw the provision in some other warranty and copied it, unaware that it is prohibited. (Many faucet warranties include similar language. We are not sure where it first appeared, but it has been widely copied.)
But, under Magnuson-Moss, deliberate deception is not required to incur liability. It is sufficient that the company has not taken "reasonable care to make the warranty not misleading." (15 U.S. Code § 2310(c)(2)) The very presence of his language in the Lefroy Brooks warranty shows a lack of reasonable care.
In any lawsuit, Lefroy Brooks's liability could well include punitive or exemplary damages for deception that would far exceed any actual damages.
Illegal Exclusion
Lefroy Brooks can exclude consequential and incidental damages from coverage by its warranty, if and only if the warranty includes the following qualifying language: (16 CFR § 701.3(8))
"Some States do not allow the exclusion or limitation of incidental or consequential damages, so the above limitation or exclusion may not apply to you."
The required language is missing from the Lefroy Brooks warranty, so the attempted exclusion has no legal effect.
Missing Required Provision
The Lefroy Brooks warranty does not include the following statement, required to be in every consumer warranty: (16 CFR § 701.3(9))
"This warranty gives you specific legal rights, and you may also have other rights which vary from State to State."
Improper Captioning
By far, however, the overarching legal mistake in the drafting of the warranty is its defective designation of the document's caption.
To be a limited warranty, the document must be clearly designated
limited with the magic word "limited" in its "caption, or title.:
The caption language can take on many acceptable forms: "Limited Warranty,", "Limited Gurantee," "Lefroy Brooks Limited Warranty," and so on.
So long as the word "limited" is included, the caption gives "fair warning" to a potential buyer, right at the very top of the document, that the warranty provides less than full warranry coverage.(16 CFR § 7000.6(a))
Unfortunately, the Lefroy Brooks warranty is captioned just
Lefroy Brooks 5 Year Guarantee
The magic word "limited" is nowhere to be found.
Although it is clear from the text of the warranty that Lefroy Brooks intends to provide no more than a limited warranty, the missing "limited" in its caption automatically converts the warranty to a Full Warranty, disregarding Lefroy Brooks's intentions. (15 U.S.C. §2303(a), 16 CFR §700.6(a))
This one simple drafting omission completely changes the entire nature of the Lefroy Brooks warranty.
A full warranty gives a buyer many more rights, voiding almost all of the restrictions and limitations written into the Lefroy Brooks "guarantee."
Here are a few examples:
- Notification of a Defect: A full warranty "may not impose on consumers any duty other than notification of a defect as a condition of securing remedy of the defect or malfunction." (16 CFR §700.6)
- Consequently, Lefroy Brooks's requirement that "claims should be made through the original supplier" is not an enforceable provision.
- A customer is free to notify Lefroy Brooks of a defect in any reasonable manner. After receiving notification, Lefroy Brooks is required to accept and act on the notification. (15 U.S.C. §2304(b)(1)) It cannot refuse to accept the claim because the customer did not make the claim "through the original supplier."
- Nor may the warranty require the purchaser to submit "a copy of the original invoice." According to federal warranty law, the person making a warranty claim has no duty to …
-
"… submit … proof of purchase and proof of the date of purchase of the product claimed to be defective. … The burden is on the warrantor to prove that a particular claimant … is not the original purchaser or owner of the product." (16 CFR 700.6(b))"
- The warranty's requirement that a warranty claim "be accompanied by a copy of the original invoice," therefore, is void and of no consequence.
- Limitation of Remedies: The sole remedy for a defective faucet in the Lefroy Brooks warranty is the repair or replacement of the "product or any component found to be defective."
- A full warranty, however, does not allow the company to limit what it will do to fix a defective faucet. It deems the company offering the warranty to have committed to doing whatever it takes to remedy the problem without charge to the customer. This requirement includes any necessary and reasonable labor charges.
-
In consequence, this provision of the Lefroy Brooks warranty is null and void:
"No costs for replacements or labour will be repaid under this guarantee unless prior written agreement has been obtained from Lefroy Brooks."
As is this provision:"[Lefroy Brooks is] "not liable for any re-fitting difficulties or installation charges"
- A faucet is in the class of products that "has utility only when installed," meaning that the company is responsible for the labor costs associated with uninstalling and reinstalling the faucet as well as the cost of its repair. (16 CFR § 700.9)
- The company must also pay all the costs of proving a warranty claim. If that faucet is to be returned to Lefroy Brooks for inspection, any packaging or shipping charges are Lefroy Brooks's responsibility. Likewise, any costs of investigating or assessing the defect are charged to Lefroy Brooks. (15 U.S.C. §2304(a)(1))
- Refund Option: The warranty does not offer the option of a refund, If a defective faucet is out of production and cannot be replaced with the exact same faucet, the company will replace it with "the nearest equivalent from the ten current range."
- Unfortunately, that's not good enough. If Lefroy Brooks cannot repair the faucet after several attempts within a reasonable timeframe, the customer has the choice of receiving a replacement or "a complete refund." It is the customer's choice, not the company's. (15 U.S.C. §2304(a)(4))
The company can avoid almost all of these issues by merely captioning its warranty correctly.
How to Interpret the Lefroy Brooks Warranty
Generally, the length of a faucet company's warranty is a very good indicator of how long a company's management thinks its products will last without breaking.
A warranty is a risk. It requires the company to bet with its dollars on the longevity of the faucet and its components.
Faucet companies not completely comfortable with the duratility of their faucets tend to hedge that bet with a short-term warranty that reflects a safe estimate of how long it can be reasonably certain that its faucets will perform without a warranty claim.
The Lefroy Brooks faucet warranty suggests that the company does not actually believe that its faucets will provide more than five years of trouble-free service.
Why that should be is not at all clear. Our examination of the faucets found that the manufacturing was very good, as expected of Globe Union and gave us no cause to believe the faucets are less than lifetime products.
Globe Union's warranty on its own faucets sold in North America is for the lifetime of the buyer. And, they are certainly of no better quality than Lefroy Brooks aucets.
As a potential buyer, however, you should be aware of the implications of the short-term warranty.
While we think that the tepid warranty is a reflection an overabundance of caution by a timid management rather than any serious concerns about the durability of Lefroy Brooks faucets, we could be wrong.
Lefroy Brooks's management may know things about its faucets that we don't know and cannot find out short of long-term destructive testing.
So, management's opinion about the longevity of its faucets expressed through its faucet warranty may be something to pay attention to.
Warranty as Marketing Tool
Or, maybe Lefroy Brooks just needs to look at its warranty in a different light.
There are two basic philosophies of warranty in the faucet business. The first tries to narrow the cost of warranty service to its irreducible minimum and insulate the company as much as possible from liability for a failed product.
This is the bean-counter approach, the tack favored by accountants and chief financial officers, and it unquestionably describes Lefroy Brooks's warranty.
The other, and better, approach is to use the power of a good warranty to drive sales – figuring (correctly) that any additional cost of providing a first-class warranty will be more than offset by the increased sales revenue that a first-class warranty generates.
This is the Moen marketing approach.
Moen, one of the first major faucet companies in the U.S. to offer a lifetime warranty on its products (the other was now just Pfister), figured out early that a good warranty and strong back-end support would substantially increase sales on the front end.
It worked.
Its warranty helped boost Moen from a little-known bit player in the 1950s to the second-largest faucet company in the U.S., behind Delta Faucets, by the 1970s.
(The companies are now tied for the top slot, each having roughly an equal share of the U.S. faucet market. Which one is number one on any given day is a coin toss.)
The loyalty of Moen customers is legendary. It is nearly impossible to talk a Moen customer out of a Moen faucet, shower, or tub filler – not that we try.
Lefroy Brooks needs to take a leaf from Moen's playbook and start looking at its warranty as an opportunity to build sales and forge customer loyalty rather than strictly as a nuisance liability to be minimized as much as possible.
More on Faucet Warranties
Download, read, and print the Lefroy Brooks Faucet Warranties.
For more information on how to interpret faucet warranties, see Faucet Basics, Part 6: Faucet Warranties.
To learn how to enforce a product warranty, read The Warranty Game: Enforcing Your Product Warranty.
Read our Model Limited Lifetime Warranty and compare it to the Lefroy Brooks warranties.
Customer Support
Customer service at Lefroy Brooks is spotty – good in some areas, not so good in others.
We did not test the company's service using our battery of structured tests. Small companies like Lefroy Brooks usually have no more than one or two representatives who often realize they are being tested and change behavior accordingly.
What we do instead is ask a series of questions typical of the inquiries that would be made by consumers about the products. To disguise the fact that the service is being tested, the questions are spaced over a ninty-day period and appear to originate in various parts of the U.S. and Canada.
Most questions are very basic pre-sale inquiries: "Does Lefroy Brooks have any kitchen faucets with metal sprays," for example. Or simple questions about installation, returns, or special finishes.
Agents handled simple inquiries with ease but largely failed more technical questions such as the type of valve used in a faucet or whether a faucet is available with a 1.2 gallon per minute maximum flow rate in California. In far in too many instances coplicated requests sent by email were simply ignored.
Lack of information about technical issues usually means that agents simply do not have the necessary training, and that's on the company, not the agents, but failing to respond to requests is simply unacceptable
We rated customer service overall as "unsatisfactory." It can use considerable improvement.
Testing & Certification
Comparable Faucets
For faucets comparable to Lefroy Brooks' qulity with the same or better warranty but almost certainly not of the same unique style, see:
Conclusions
Our impression of the company is that it handles the basics of selling faucets very well, but bungles the finer points.
It sells a high-quality product, well designed and well made. But then substantially lowers its value to the buyer with a warranty that may or may not actually apply to its faucets and, if it does apply, is far below par for the North American market, poorly drafted, and in violation of U.S. warranty law.
It maintains an attractive website, well illustrated and easily navigated, but fails to provide most of the basic information necessary for an informed faucet buying decision.
It provides some very striking special order finishes but does not picture its faucets in those finishes and tells a prospective buyer almost nothing about them. Even the finish chart is difficult to find on the company's website.
It carefully ensures that all of its faucets are fully certified and compliant with U.S. law, but never even mentions its certifications on its website — something certainly worth mentioning considering the hundreds of faucet brands sold in North American without certifications. (See, e.g. Amazon's Contraband Faucets.)
W could go on, but that's enough to illustrate the problem: Somebody is not looking after the fine points.
All but one member of our rating panel would buy the faucets "without hesitation" but only with a better warranty. With the current warranty, however, none of the panel members would buy the faucets.
We are continuing to research the company. If you have experience with Lefroy Brooks faucets, good, bad, or indifferent, we would like to hear about it, so please contact us or post a comment below.
-
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 provides 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 material.
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 or a zinc alloy, and some companies are experimenting with composite cores, eliminating metal entirely.
faucets are already all core and shell construction with a zinc alloy shell.
- Normal household water pressure in North America is between 40 and 60 psi. This test is conducted on the high side of household pressure.
- The Code of Federal Regulations at 16 CFR §702 requires "any supplier, manufacturer, or other person who gives or offers to give a written warranty" on a consumer product costing more than $15.00 to make the text of the warranty available to a consumer purchaser prior to the sale of the product. "[A] warrantor may provide the warranty terms in an accessible digital format on the warrantor's Internet Web site," provided the that the "warranty terms are posted in a clear and conspicuous manner and remain accessible to the consumer on the Internet Web site of the warrantor."