Moen Faucets Review & Rating Updated: August 6, 2024 Our panel of consu­mers and industry pro­fes­sion­ssals has rec­ognized Moen fau­cets as a Best Val­ue in mid-priced fau­cets made or assembled in North Amer­ica. Read the Best Fau­­cet Val­ue Re­port for more in­for­ma­tion.

Made In The

U.S.A.

from domestic and imported parts and components

and

Imported

China

Taiwan

Moen, Inc.
A Division of
Fortune Brands Water Innovations LLC
25300 Al Moen Dr.
North Olmsted, OH 44070
(800) Buy-Moen (289-6636)

Moen Canada
2816 Bristol Circle
Oakville, ON L6H 5S7
(800) 465-6130

Rating

Business Type

Product Range

Kitchen, Bath, Prep, Bar, Laundry, Utility, & Specialty Faucets

Certifications

Brands
Moen

Street Price

$129 - $1,125

Warranty Score

Cartridge

lifetime¹

Finishes

Lifetime

Mechanical Parts

Lifetime

Electronic Parts

5 years

Proof of Purchase

Required

Transferable

No

Meets U.S. Warranty
Law Requirements

Yes

Warranty Footnotes:

1. " [F]or as long as the original consumer purchaser owns their home …"

Download the Moen warranty.

Learn more about faucet warranties.

Read our Model Limited Lifetime Warranty.

This Company In Brief

While other North American companies have shifted most if not all of their manufacturing overseas, Mo­en continues to produce most of its residential sink fau­cets in the U.S.

It maintains two plants in the U.S. at New Bern and San­ford, North Car­o­lina, and employs over 2,000 American workers.

The company backstops its very good to excellent quality fau­cets with s strong warranty and a customer support operation that is the model other fau­cet companies aspire to.

If a plumber in this neck of the woods chooses a fau­cet for you, you will most likely get a Mo­en simply because plumbers, after years of experience, know Mo­en to be a good, reliable fau­cet that almost never breaks – a pretty good reputation for a company that aims most of its advertising at consumers ("Buy it for looks, buy it for life") rather than the pros.

We don't believe that Mo­en is the only good value in U.S.-based fau­cets. are, at the very least, strong contenders but Mo­en may have a slight edge, if only for its exceptional customer service.

The Company

Moen invented the single-handle faucet, or, more accurately, Alf­red M. "Al" Mo­en in­vent­ed^[1] the mix­ing valve that made the single-handle Fau­cet possible.

A tinkerer by inclination, Mo­en spent most of eight years creating and discarding ideas for a single-handle fau­cet valve before he came up with a reliable working model.

After returning from wartime service with the U. S. Navy in 1945, he persuaded Kemp Hiatt at Rav­en­na Metal Pro­ducts of Seat­tle to finance and produce the fau­cet.

The Moen tradename was registered in 1946 and the first Mo­en fau­cets were manufactured in 1947. They sold for $12.00 each, which is about $170.00 in today's inflated dollars. You can still buy a reliable Mo­en fau­cet for $170.00 or less.

By 1950, Moen's one-handle mixing fau­cet was becoming the kitchen fau­cet of choice in the hundreds of thousands of new homes built during the Post-War housing boom.

In 1956, Stand­ard Screw Co. (later renamed Stan­a­dyne) of Chi­ca­go acquired Ra­ven­na.

Moen got another new owner in 1986 when Stan­a­dyne sold out to the New York investment firm of Forst­mann, Lit­tle & Co. The new management shed most of Stan­a­dyne's other businesses to concentrate on growing Mo­en.

In 1990 Stanadyne was sold to Fortune Brands and renamed Mo­en, Inc.

In 2011 Fortune Brands sold its spirits division (Jim Beam, Mak­er's Mark, Can­a­dian Club, Cool­ey-Kil­beg­gan, Ard­more, Laphro­aig) to Japan's Sun­tory Hold­ings, Ltd. for $16 billion.

The rest of the company was renamed For­tune Brands Home & Se­cu­ri­ty, Inc. with Mo­en as its core business.

Other Fortune brands include Mas­ter Lock, Master­Brand cabinets, Si­mon­ton windows, Ther­ma-Tru Door, and Water­loo tool storage products.

In 2015 For­tune Brands began a period of expansion by purchasing of Canada.

The following year it acquired Rohl, LLC now trading as House of Rohl , a ccompany that distributes upscale fau­cets including its own

All fau­cet brands, including Mo­en, have been combined into a new division of For­tune Brands, originally the Glo­bal Plumb­ing Di­vis­ion but recast in 2022 as For­tune Brands Wat­er In­no­va­tions LLC.

Al Moen

Al Moen's "one-handle mixing fau­cet" was named by Fort­une Maga­zine in 1959 as one of the top 100 best-designed mass-produced products of all times, alongside inventions such as Hen­ry Ford's Mod­el T and Ben­ja­min Frank­lin's stove.

Moen continued with the company as chief engineer until 1982, accumulating 75 U.S. patents and a nomination to the National Inventors Hall of Fame

He invented

• The removable cartridge valve that is the model of all modern cartridges. It allowed worn valves to be replaced by simply removing the old cartridge and installing a new one.

• The Swing n Spray^™ fau­cet aerator that allowed the water flow to be changed from stream to spray at the push of a button.

• Moentrol^® pressure-balanced shower valve that controls both water temperature and volume in a single control.

The durability of Moen's technical innovations can be judged by the fact that every one of them is still in use.

Most were copied by nearly every other fau­cet company as soon as the Mo­en patent expired (and sometimes even before, although that's a no-no, and several violators got sued.)

His stream of innovations and inventions powered the company's rise from a niche player in the fau­cet industry to tied for first place in the North Amer­ican marketplace with Mas­co's

Moen Faucet Country of Origin By Collection
Collec­tion	Mo­del	Ori­gin
90 Degree	S6700
	S6701
	S6710
	S6711
	S6712
	TS6720
	TS6721
	TS6731
Adler	84603
	87046
	87201
	87202
	87203
	87233
	87530
	87603
	87604
	87605
	CA87016
	CA87526
	CA87530
	CA87534*
	CA87554
	CA87603
	CA87604
	CA87605
	CA87685
	CA87865
	WSL84502
	WS84503
Align	5923
	6190
	6191
	6192
	7165
	7365
	7565
Ana­belle	CA87003
	87650
	CA87003
Arlo	C87087
Arlo	5995
Arlys	84770
Arris	S43001
	TS43002
	TS43003
Ayda	84728
	84748
Ban­bury	7050
	7051
	7051
	87017
	CA87000S*
	CA87527*
	CA87553*
	WS84912*
	WS84912*
	WS84913
	WS84924
Bay­hill	87301*
	CA87094
Bel­field	6401
	6402
	7240
	7245
	7250
	7255
	7260
	T6405
Bex­ley	87403
Bex­ley	87205
Board­walk	WS84800
	WS84805
	WS84820
Bo­man	87162
Bo­tique	84162
	CA87006
Brant­ford	5985
	6600
	6610
	7185
	7295
	7735
	84162
	87102
	87557
	T6620
Breck­lyn	84162
	87102
	87557
Ca­dia	87869
Cald­well	87859*
	87976
	CA87060*
	CA87888
	WS84440
	WS84666
	WS84667
Cam­er­ist	4905
	7545
	7825
	7835
	7840
Can­ada	87528
Car­is	87402
Chat­teau	4903
	4925
	4945
	4975
	7423
	7425
	7430
	7434
	7906
	7907
	74998
	L4601
	L4605
	L4621
	L4925
	WS84666
Cia	6221
	T6222
Co­li­net	S44101
	TS44102
	TS44103
	TS44104
	TS44105
Con­neaut	87801
Con­way	WS84922
	WS84923
Cor­et­ta	87997
Dan­ika	WS84633
	WSL84733
Dar­cy	WS84550
	WS84551
Dart­moor	6802
	6803
	T6805
Doux	S6910
	TS6925
Edi­son	87042
Ed­wyn	87028
El­li­cott	84092
Es­sie	84128
	84716
	87014
	87814
Etch	S72608
Eva	6400
	86410
	T6420
Fin­ney	84722
	84722
Fla­ra	S6981
	S6982
	TS6985
Gen­ta LX	5926
	6702
	7882
	T6708
	WS84760
Geor­gene	87912
Gib­son	6145
	6150
	T6142
	WS84228
	WS84229
Gil­mour	84755
	84756
Glen­shire	87731
Glyde	6170
	6172
	T6173
Grae­den	84137
	84138
Ha­ber	84768
Had­ley	87245
Hae­lyn	87627
Halle	84971
Ham­den	84300*
	84302*
Hays­field	87879
Hens­ley	WS84411
	WS84414
Hill­iard	84532*
	84535
	84537
	84539
Hutch­in­son	87048
	87239*
Idora	84115
In­di	87090
	87194
In­te­gra	67315
Ir­vine	87355
Ka­den	87966S
Ka­ris	84346
Kin­zel	87035S*
Kip­ton	87910
Ki­ran	87599S
Kleo	CA87011
Ko­rek	CA87011
Kurv	9126
Level	6100*
Lind­ley	CA87009
Lin­dor	84504
	84505
	84506
Lu­ci­ra	87699
Mar­brook	87377
Mar­i­etta	87601
Mech­an­ical	87869
Med­ina	87039
Mik­ah	84310
	84311
	84312
Mil­ton	87114*
Mor­a­do	87394
Nel­lis	87794
Morado	S75005
Notch	6124*
	9124*
Muir­field	CA87520
	CA87524
No­ell	87506
	87791
No­ri	87066
Ox­by	WS84660
	WS84661
Pat­er­son	S72003
	S72103
(Pull­down)	198971
	87627
Ren­zo	CA87316
Reyes	87932
Riley	7402
Rin­za	84627
	84629
Ri­zon	6900
	T6920
Ro­nan	84021
	84022
	84023
Sarai	87836
Sar­ona	84144
Sin­ema	S5235
	S7235
Sleek	5925
	7871
Sol­i­dad	CA87015*
Som­bra	87701
	87702
Sper­ry	87696
Stable­ton	87161
Ste­vie	87292*
STo	S72308
	S62308
Su­rie	87395S
Ter­race	CA87055
Tif­fin	WS84876*
Til­son	84565
Torrence	CA87480
	CA87484
Tul­lis	87235
Var­ese	WS84944
Var­ese	87113
Via	S8000
	S8001
	TS8002
Vi­chy	6710
Voss	6901
	6903
	T6905
	T6906
Water­hill	S711
Wave	87869
Wells­ley	87022
Well­ton	84980
Weth­erly	87999
	WS84850
	WS84855
Wey­lon	84790
	87303
Wey­nouth	S72101
	S73004
	S73104
	TS42106
	TS42107
	TS42108
	TS42112
	TS42114
Whit­more	87044
Wyn­ford	4500
	4505
	4507
	T4520
	T4524
Zabelle	87126
Zar­ina	L84533
	WSL84533
Zar­ina	87272
* Faucets that Mo­en has discontinued or plans to discontinue in the near future.

Innovation at Mo­en did not end with Al Mo­en's retirement in 1992. Today's Mo­en fau­cet may include:

• Power Clean^™ spray technology in kitchen fau­cets provides a more powerful concentrated spray at the push of a button for faster rinsing.

• Power Boost^™ performance temporarily increases the volume of water flow with the push of a button for faster filling and better spray performance. When the Power Boost button is released, water flow returns to the fau­cet's normal water-saving mode.

• Reflex^™ spray heads that retract automatically and dock securely when released.

Nor was Mo­en innovation limited to technology.

Moen and were the first major fau­cet companies in the world to offer a lifetime warranty on their fau­cets.

The lifetime warranty was such a resounding sales boost that all other major U.S. fau­cet companies were compelled to follow suit.

As a result, the standard North Amer­i­can fau­cet warranty is for your lifetime, while the standard Euro­pean warranty is just two to five years.

Mar­ket Share

For years Mo­en was the number two fau­cet maker in the U.S., trailing Mas­co's

Mo­en has moved up.

Currently, the two companies are neck-and-neck for first place, each having about 30% of the North Amer­i­can fau­cet market. Which company is in the lead on any given day is a coin toss.

has another 15% of the market, leaving just 25% to split among other three hundred or so faucet companies selling in the U.S. and Canada.

In plumber polls, Mo­en is usually the first or second preferred fau­cet. Plumbers also identify Mo­en as one of the easiest fau­cets to fix if it does break. Only Delta fau­cets get a higher score on the easy-to-fix scale, and then by just a cat's whisker.

Between 34% and 38% of American readers responding to our "top-of-mind" surveys over the years have identified Mo­en as the first brand that came to mind when thinking "fau­cet".

According to Sta­tis­ta, homebuilders also like Mo­en. Its fau­cets constituted almost one-quarter of the fau­cets installed in new homes in 2018, trailing Delta and Kohler by a few percentage points.

Coun­tries of Ori­gin

Mo­en maintains two fau­cet fabrication plants in the U.S. at New Bern and San­ford, North Car­o­lina, and a distribution center in Kingston. It employs over 2,000 American workers.

Very few of Mo­en's other products are produced in the U.S., however.

Mo­en closed its last sink fabrication plant in Pine Grove, Penn­syl­van­ia in 2019, eliminating 50 Amer­ican manufacturing jobs. All of its sinks are now imported.

Most, if not all, of its showers, are assembled in Mexico and China and all of the components and parts that go into its showers are imported.

Dozens of vendors from all over the world supply Mo­en's accessories for the bathroom (towel bars and robe hooks, etc.) and kitchen (cabinet handles, air gaps, and lotion dispensers), none of them, as far as we can tell, are in the U.S. or Canada.

We did a little research to find out the countries that supply Mo­en. The results for the past 12 months are shown in the Mo­en Imports by Country table elsewhere on this page.

Faucet Origin Survey

While we were reasonably certain that most Mo­en fau­cets were still produced in the U.S., it had been several years since we had done an actual count.

To find out exactly where Mo­en fau­cets originate, we asked our researchers to track down the origin of every basic residential fau­cet model^[2] offered for sale by Mo­en in North Amer­ica.

We excluded Mo­en's commercial line of M-PRO fau­cets and fau­cets that have been discontinued and can no longer be found in retail inventories. ^[3].

In determining origin, we used the criteria employed by the U.S. customs service to identify country of origin for tariff purposes.

ICE considers a fau­cet made in a country if

• The final assembly of the fau­cet takes place in that country, and

• The final assembly was transformative. Its result must be a product that is identifiable as a fau­cet where before assembly there was no fau­cet, just parts and components.

Our researchers poured through Mo­en's public documents, interviewed company insiders, checked internet and brick-and-mortar retail sites, and, as a last resort, went into stores to examine country-of-origin labels on Mo­en fau­cet boxes.

The results are tabulated in the Mo­en Faucet Country of Origin table elsewhere on this page. In summary, well over 2/3rds of Mo­en fau­cets are produced in the U.S. The rest are made in China and Taiwan.

Assembled in U.S.A.

Moen's U.S.-produced fau­cets do not meet the criteria for a "Made in USA" product. To claim that designation under Fed­er­al Trade Com­mis­sion (FTC) regulations, "all or substantially all" of the parts and components going into a Mo­en fau­cet would have to be made in the U.S.^[4]

Mo­en is an of the fau­cets it produces in the U.S., not a true . It assembles and finishes fau­cets from parts and components manufactured for the most part by other companies, primarily in Asia.

Component Suppliers

Moen goes to extraordinary lengths to conceal the identity of its fau­cet component suppliers, but we have found a few of them. The most important appear to be:

• Run­ner Group was founded in Tai­wan in 1976 as Run­ner Tech­nol­ogy Co. It relocated to mainland China in 1989 once the communist party began allowing foreign investment.

• The Group owns ten subsidiaries in Asia that manufacture kitchen and bathroom fixtures, fittings, water, and air purification devices, and health care equipment.

• Runner also manufactures fau­cets or fau­cet components for several other North Amer­i­can fau­cet companies. These include

• Sunspring Metal Corp., of Tai­chung, Tai­wan is a manufacturer of fau­cet components made of zinc and zinc alloys. It is the world's largest consumer of , the zinc/aluminum alloy commonly used in fau­cets.

• With a large factory in Taiwan and two more in China, Sunspring is a major supplier of fau­cet components and fittings to such diverse fau­cet manufacturing companies as the

• Italisa Co. Ltd., despite its name, is not Italian. It is a Vietnamese manufacturer located in Bac Giang Pro­vince, northeast of Hanoi. Its modern factory, opened in 2010, is a state-of-the-art manufacturing facility.

• A number of

• Fine Metal Co., Ltd., established in 1980 is a South Korean manufacturer of fau­cet parts. Its principal market is the United Kingdom. It claims to supply over 90% of U.K. fau­cet manufactures with fau­cet spouts.

Moen Guangzhou

Moen also manufactures fau­cets and fau­cet components at its Chin­ese subsidiary: Mo­en (Guangzhou) Faucet Co. Ltd. in Guangdong, China.

Moen Guangzhou was founded in 1995 as a joint venture between Fortune Brands (80%) and Guangzhou Building Materials Enterprise Group Co., Ltd. (20%). It started operations in 1996 with 12 employees, a number that had grown to 600 by 2005.

We were unable to find an official Mo­en figure for the number of Guangzhou employees in 2022 but sources outside of Mo­en estimate the number at between 1,000 and 1,200.

The plant is frequently lauded by Chinese writers as one of the most modern factories in the country.

It includes a computerized production management system as well as the latest in automated fabrication machinery.

Its production is estimated by some observers at being between 50,000 and 75,000 units per day. Between 80% and 90% (estimates vary depending on the source) of its production is exported, primarily to North America,^[5]. The rest is produced for the Chinese domestic market.

Relatively few of these exports are finished fau­cets. Most products exported to the U.S. are components and parts used by U.S. assembly plants to fabricate finished fau­cets.

Moen has established a large and growing presence in the People's Republic of (mainland) China where it enjoys a sterling reputation for quality to the extent that other Chinese manufacturers have pirated the Mo­en name – a practice that has resulted in several lawsuits in Chinese courts.

The company has authorized retail sites in over 300 Chinese cities and is one of the top ten plumbing product sellers in the country. After North America, China is Mo­en's largest market.

The M-PACT Common Valve System

Moen is moving away from conventional faucet construction in which the body and spout of a faucet carry and direct the flow of water as well as providing the aesthetics of the fau­cet.

Almost all of its newer two-handle faucets are built using core and shell technique in which the core of the fau­cet is separate from the decorative shell.

The technology is not new. Every company's wall-mounted fau­cets have almost always used a construction in which the core (the "rough-in" or "valve") of the fau­cet hidden in the wall is separate from the exposed decorative shell (the "trim").

What's new is that Moen is applying the same technique to deck-mounted (countertop) faucets.

Moen's has refined its rough-ins so that they will work with several trims and has applied the technology to some of its deck-mounted fau­cets. Mo­en calls this system of common rough-ins its M-PACT Common Valve System.

If you examine the Mo­en Faucet Country of Origin table elsewhere on this page, you will see model numbers beginning with "T". The T stands for "trim" and identifies a shell intended to be paired with an M-PACT rough-in core component.

The rough-in is designed to be installed in the wall or under the countertop, out of sight. It is all pipe-grade copper with plastic tubing. Since it contains no brass, it is entirely lead-free.

Its advantages are several.

• Water never touches the shell so it does not need to be lead-free brass. It can be made of conventional leaded brass or even a zinc alloy.

• It eliminates the shell as a structural component. It is no longer under pressure. Water is entirely contained within the core. Not being under water pressure, the outer structure of the faucet can be a thin-walled skin, reducing the amount of material required to make the faucet.

• It creates an air gap between the core and the outer shell of the fau­cet, virtually eliminating heat transfer to the shell so it does not get uncomfortably hot in use.

• It reduces many of the constraints on faucet design.

• In traditional faucet construction, the design of the faucet can affect how the faucet works. Designers have to be constantly aware of the interplay between their design and the operation of the faucet.

• With core and shell, the function of the faucet is almost entirely contained within the core. The outside shell has nothing to do with the operation of the fau­cet. Designers are free to concentrate on how the shell looks rather than how it works, giving them more design flexibility.

So far, M-PACT is available only on widespread lavatory faucets. All of Moen's other deck-mounted faucets are still made using conventional construction.

Its chief competitor, however, has gone all out and is in the process of converting all of its faucets to the core and shell construction that it calls Innoflex.

As older Del­ta fau­cets made with conventional construction are discontinued and new fmodels based on Innoflex are added, all of Delta's lineup will eventually be core and shell construction.

Innoflex does not use the same core for all faucets. There is some overlap, but generally, each fau­cet has its own custom Innoflex core.

Moen's common core approach in which one rough-in can be used with many different decorative shells allows a buyer to replace just the shell rather than the entire fau­cet to get a new look. Just unscrew the old shell and attach the the new one.

Moen Faucet Materials

Common yellow or "alpha" brass is about 60% copper and 30% zinc the rest being small amounts of other metals to give the brass specific properties. Not more than 3.5% lead is added to most brass alloys to make the metal more malleable, less brittle, and easier to form.

Leaded brass, however, is no longer allowed in the parts of a fau­cet that touch water. Water passing through brass channels can pick up small amounts of lead from leaded brass. Ingested lead is harmful to humans, especially 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.

Lead-Free Brass

The current North American lead-free fau­cet standards are the strictest in the world – so strict that lead in fau­cet brass has effectively been banned and has been replaced by substitute materials, the most common being bismuth.

Bismuth is next to lead on the periodic table but unlike lead, it is harmless. Also unlike lead, which is plentiful, bismuth is a rare metal, rarer than silver, and priced accordingly. Its use in no-lead brass has been a major contributor to the dramatic rise in the price of sink fau­cets over the past 20 years.

The cost of lead-free brass has forced fau­cet companies to search for ways to minimize its use.

Moen's solution, like that of most other fau­cet companies, is to use lead-free brass only where it can touch water, essentially the body and spout.

Otherwise, some other metal is used, the most common of which is ^[4], a zinc/aluminum alloy.

Zinc & Zinc Alloys

Zinc is not as strong as brass and does not resist water pressure as well as brass. But, its use in non-pressurized parts of a brass fau­cet such as handles, base and wall plates, and does no harm and may save consumers a few dollars.

Moen goes a step further by making many of its faucets from a zinc alloy rather than the usual brass.

Moen does not, however, identify which fau­cets are still brass and which are zinc. Our research, however, discovered fau­cets in nearly 40 collections in which the primary material in at least some fau­cets is a zinc alloy. These collections are:

Adler
Align
Arbor
Ayda
Banbury
Belfield
Birchfield
Boman
Brecklyn
Chateau
Cia
Coretta
Essie
Etch
Eva (Metal)
Genta
Gibson
Glenshire
Glyde
Haelyn
Hensley
Idora
Indi
Kaden
Kleo
Korek
Marietta
Nellis
Nio
Noell
Paterson
Reyes
Sarona
Sinema
Sleek
Weymouth

We do not believe that this list is exhaustive.

Collections other than those listed may include zinc alloy faucets. Further, both brass and zinc fau­cets may coexist in a collection.

Plastic

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 as casings for the casings of ceramic valve cartridges and . In these components, the material has a good record, rarely causing a problem.

Neoperl^® supplies many of the aerators used in Mo­en fau­cets. These are almost always plastic.

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

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

It is important that these be the best available, and Neoperl is one of the best. What we do not know, however, is which fau­cets are equipped with Neoperl aerators and which, if any, are otherwise equipped.

Plastic aerators seldom cause problems. Plastic used in other parts of a fau­cet, however, especially parts under water pressure, is suspect.

Among the most suspect of those 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 Brizo as well as

Manufacturers give three reasons for their use of plastic:

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

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

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

The Sure Cure for Too-Hot Spray Wands: The simple cure for spray wands that get too hot is to reduce the temperature of the water. Dishes do not need to be rinsed in scalding hot water. Water heaters should be set at a temperature no hotter than 120° F to avoid scalding, especially if there are children in the household.

All of Moen's spray wands are plastic.

The company uses what it calls Reflex Technology to retract its spray wands into a secure docking position when the spray is not in use.

According to Mo­en,

"The hose effortlessly returns to its original position, docking smoothly and securely."

For Reflex to work, however, the wands must be very light which means they must be made of plastic.

Plastic wands fail much more often than metal wands. And although engineers have made significant improvements to their reliability over the past decade, the problems with the material have not been entirely resolved.

Moen Valves & Cartridges

Al Mo­en's revolutionary washer­less sleeve cartridge, now embodied in Mo­en's 1200 and 1225 cartridges for sin­gle-han­dle fau­cets and the 1224 for two-handle fau­cets, equipped all Mo­en fau­cets for three-quarters of a century.

As a testament to the durability of the technology, fau­cets using these cartridges are still in use and still working perfectly in thousands of Amer­ican and Ca­nad­ian homes.

The rubber seals on a washerless cartridge routinely last 3-7 years before minor maintenance is required, then they last another 3-7 years.

The speed at which they wear out is determined primarily by frequency of use and water hardness. Hard water containing lots of dissolved minerals erodes rubber seals faster than soft water.

Replacing a washerless cartridge is an easy DIY project, well within the abilities of a homeowner with even modest skills and a box of basic tools.

Repair kits are available from Mo­en and at most hardware stores. Mo­en has published several how-to videos detailing the replacement of its cartridges. (See Cartridge Replacement.)

Rarely do we replace the entire cartridge, just the rubber seals.

Moen stubbornly clung to its washerless cartridges until long after most other faucet companies had adopted the more durable ceramic valve cartridges invented by in the 1970s. But, it has now moved on from its washerless cartridges.

According to Mo­en, every new fau­cet is equipped with either the 1234 (for two-handle fau­cets) or the 1255 (single-handle fau­cets) Dura­last^® ceramic cartridges.

Ceramic valves are a better technology.

Moen Motion

The Moen washerless valve is a cylinder. The faucet handle moves the cylinder up and down inside the faucet to control the volume of water and rotates it from side to side to control the water temperature.

This is done by aligning strategically placed holes in the cylinder with matching holes in the faucet body. When the holes are aligned, water can flow, when not aligned, water stops flowing.

When the handle is rotated left (clockwise), the hot water inlet is aligned so hot water flows, when rotated right (anti-clockwise), the cold water inlet is aligned, and cold water flows.

In any position other than far left or far right, the hot and cold water is mixed to varying degrees of warm water.

This is "Moen motion" which has become the standard for all single-handle fau­cets, even those equipped with ceramic disc cartridges.

No matter the style, source, brand, or manufacturer of a single-handle fau­cet, moving the handle up or back turns the water on. Down or forward turns it off. Right delivers cold water and left supplies hot water.

No one has to relearn how to operate a new single-handle fau­cet each time they buy a new one. They all operate the exact same (Moen) way.

They use nearly indestructible ceramic discs rather than vulnerable rubber seals to control water flow and temperature. Two ceramic discs stop water flow when pressed together. The discs are so highly polished that the space between them is smaller than a water molecule, keeping water out.

Moen's proprietary Dura­last^® ceramic valves are assembled by Mo­en in North Carolina. No faucet company makes its own ceramic discs and Moen is no exception. They are made for Mo­en by specialist technical ceramics manufacturers.

Over the past 60 months, Mo­en has imported discs from:

• Maruwa Sdn. Bhd., is a Japanese firm that manufactures in Malaysia.

• Zhuhai Mingshi Ceramics Value makes some replacement cartridges for Mo­en and also supplies with some of its cartridges.

• Kerox of Hungary supplies ceramic discs for Duralast cartridges and the Mo­en 4000 ceramic mixing cartridge. This cartridge is no longer used in new Mo­en fau­cets but is stocked as a replacement part.

Moen is promoting the 1234 and 1255 cartridges as "revolutionary" with an improved "handle feel," but we don't see much in the way of actual revolution in the cartridge.

More accurately, it is a well-made plastic and stainless steel mixing cartridge, of good quality to be sure but nothing revolutionary like the

The 1255 cartridge requires a non-soluble lubricant between the ceramic discs for smooth operation. Over time, however, the lubricant can be scrubbed away by the friction of water passing between the discs, which makes the fau­cet harder to operate, and in extreme cases, it ceases to operate altogether.

Chemists and engineers are constantly improving the lubricants, searching for formulas that are more durable and last longer. But, there is a limit to this technology, and no matter how erosion-resistant the lubricant, the abrasive effect of water and minerals in the water will ultimately wear it away. It may take longer. It may, in fact, take many years. But it will happen.

The super cartridges used by Delta and In2aqua eliminate the need for lubricant altogether by coating the ceramic discs: Delta with a diamond powder and In2aqua with diamond-like carbon. These coatings not only make the discs harder and more resistant to wear but also make them slippery so lubricant is not needed.

MotionSense^™ and Smart Faucet^™

Moen has three varieties of electronic automatic fau­cets.

• MotionSense^™ technology allows a fau­cet to be turned on and off just by passing a hand over a sensor.

• MotionSense Wave^™ is a little smarter. It interprets the direction of hand motions to turn water on and off and adjust water temperature.

• Smart Faucet^™ with Mo­tion­Sense, however, is Mo­en's ultimate in automation. It adds voice commands to hand motions to not only turn water on and off and adjust temperature but also to specify the amount and temperature of the water you want the fau­cet to dispense – any volume from a teaspoon to several gallons.

Touchless technology for fau­cets has been around for decades. Its original home was in commercial lavatories where the technology was perfected over the years. It uses an electronic sensor that activates devices that turn the water on or off and adjust water flow.

It differs from the touch systems used by other companies such as that require some part of the fau­cet to be physically contacted to activate the feature.

Moen and sellers of other touchless systems claim that the advantage of touchless is that it helps prevent the spread of germs. All true but really, how much of a problem is germ transfer when tapping a fau­cet with a wrist or elbow?

Mo­tion­Sense works well. The only problem we found was that it can be inadvertently activated in the ordinary course of working in a kitchen or washing up. Triggering the fau­cet by opening a nearby cabinet door or flapping a dish towel is a little disconcerting.

Moen's Smart Faucet is a much more complex technology. It requires either Google Assistant or Amazon Alexa installed in the home, so most buyers will already have some degree of digital literacy.

Still, just two of our five testers were able to install the system on the first try.

The process is complicated and requires switching back and forth between the Mo­en installation app and your home system.

The best results flow from watching one of the several installation videos on YouTube before attempting the installation.

Using voice commands, you can ask a Smart Fau­cet to dispense a cup of water at a specified temperature.

The fau­cet turns on until water temperature reaches the desired temperature then turns off to allow you enough time to place a container under the spout.

A second wave of the hand or voice command then dispenses the hot water.

The technology is amazingly accurate. If you ask for one cup, you get exactly one cup within a few degrees of the specified temperature.

The array of measurement units Smart Faucet understands is impressive: fluid ounces, cups, pints, quarts, gallons, liters, and milliliters.

It also comprehends fractions such as "one quarter" cup or "one half" quart, and it allows you to preset custom amounts, such as the precise quantity needed to fill a baby bottle, coffee pot, or rice cooker.

The downsides to the technology, however, are several.

• The technology is relatively expensive. Smart fau­cets with voice control and wave technology list at around $1,000. (Street prices, however, are usually 15-20% lower.) And, you must already have a Google or Alexa smart home system installed.

• The smart features run on a plug-in AC adapter or D-cell batteries (not included). The adapter is preferred.

• The batteries, while reasonably long-lasting have to be replaced every once in a while. Mo­en says they will last as long as two years. How long they last is primarily a function of how frequently the fau­cet is used. In our test setup, they lasted six to eleven months.

• The Google or Alexa control unit must be fairly close to the fau­cet to avoid intermittent errors. If your bathroom and kitchen are fitted with Smart fau­cets, the smart feature may not understand which faucet is to be activated. The same is trur for two faucets (primary and prep) in the same kitchen.

• Commands have to be precise. Voice commands must begin with "Tell Mo­en" or "Ask Mo­en." To request a specific fill amount, the keyword is "dispense" as in "Dispense one-half cup." For a custom container, such as a coffee pot, the required command is "Fill."

• And, of course, you must first wake up Google Assistant or Alexa with "Hey Google" or "Alexa."

• A child can have an amazingly good time putting the system through its paces. Alexa has no means of locking out specific users. Google has a function called Voice Match that helps to prevent unauthorized use but it is a challenge to set up and is anything but infallible. If you catch a cold, you could find yourself locked out.

We are somewhat skeptical of electronic technology of all kinds in a residential sink fau­cet.

It seems to us to be rather gimmicky – a solution in search of a problem. Yes, it's rad, cool, awesome, and all the other usual pre-pubescent hyperboles. But is it needed?

They key selling points of the technology are two:

1. It reduces the transfer of microbes from faucet to hands and vice-versa, and
2. It enables the faucet to be operated when hands are covered in cookie dough or some other even gooier substance.

However, there is absolutely no scientific evidence that electronic hands-free faucets are actually safer than their manually-operated cousins.

The only reported study conducted by John Hopkins Medical Center in 2011 found exactly the opposite.

The hands-free electronic faucets studied were found to harbor twice as much bacteria as the manual fau­cets. The result was the replacement of all electronic faucets in the Medical Center with manual faucets.

A btter option for doughy-hand operation may be a faucet with wrist-blade handles of the type used in hospitals for nearly 100 years. The handles are expressly designed to be operated with a wrist or elbow.

Another possibility is foot-pedal operation, a technology birthed in commercial kitchens that has now migrated to residential use.

At this point in its evolution, MotionSense^™ does nothing more than turn the water on and off. It does not regulate flow rate or water temperature. So it's not a true hands-free operation.

MotionSense Wave^™ and Smart Faucet^™ are a little more capable. They can also regulate water temperature. But, and it's a big but, only if the fau­cet handle is left on and in the full hot position.

This looks to us like the recipe for an accident waiting to happen, especially with young children in the household.

Most importantly, however, the current digital electronic technology is just not very robust.

In public restroom fau­cets where the technology was first tried and is at its most mature, the electronics are usually the first component of an automatic fau­cet to fail.

The technology needs to get a lot more reliable – almost to a level of robustness – before its use in fau­cets becomes everyday practical.

At present, we have little confidence in its long-term durability.

Neither does Mo­en.

While Mo­en provides a lifetime warranty on all of the other parts of its fau­cets, the warranty on the electronic components of its hands-free fau­cet technologies is just 5 years – longer than the 1-3 year warranty offered by many other fau­cet companies on their electronics but still considerably short of a lifetime guarantee.

Moen Faucet Finishes

Moen fau­cets are available in 15 finishes and several .

Only one finish, Chrome, is . Six finishes – Brushed Gold, Brushed Nic­kel, Clas­sic Stain­less, Pol­ished Brass, and Pol­ished Nic­kel – are (PVD) finishes. The rest are .

No Moen fau­cet is available in all 15 finishes. Some fau­cets offer seven finish options. The usual number is one to three.

The most common finish on bathroom fau­cets is Chome followed by Brushed Nickel. On kitchen fau­cets, chrome is the universal finish on older fau­cets and Stainless on newer collections.

Some fau­cets, such as those in the STo and Sinema kitchen collections, can be ordered in a . A base finish is paired with a trim finish. For STo, the finish pair is Matte Black and Chrome.

An exotic finish (which means any finish other the chrome or stainless) increases the price of the fau­cet, as do split finishes. Most of the increase, however, is modest.

Electroplating

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

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

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

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

The undercoats serve two purposes.

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

If finishing a zinc component, undercoats of copper then nickel are commonly used. The copper sticks well to zinc, nickel adheres tightly to copper, and chrome bonds securely to nickel.

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

It is not uncommon for fau­cets to be electroplated with nickel and chrome and then highly polished before a final PVD coating is applied. This process eliminates any potential flaws in the surface so they don't show up in the final PVD finish.

Physical Vapor Deposition

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

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

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

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

PVD is commonly used to simulate metals that tarnish or corrode using metals that do not.

Moen's Pol­ished Brass, for example, is not brass. Most likely it is tarnish-resistant titanium alloy.

Titanium in its native state is a dull gray. But, when vaporized in an atmosphere of nitrogen gas, it turns brass-like. A little methane may be added for a slightly rosier brass or a soupçon of acetylene for a darker antique brass.

The very dense PVD coating is very thin but also very hard (Rockwell HRC-80+ and Vicker HV-2600+) and bonded to the fau­cet at a molecular level, essentially becoming an integral part of the fabric of the fau­cet.

In standard abrasion tests, PVD finishes are regularly found to be 10 to 20 times more scratch-resistant than electroplated chrome.

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

Powder Coats

are a paint applied in powder form. They are usually described as "semi-durable", requiring more care than electroplated or PVD finishes to keep that like-new appearance.

The process was invented by Daniel Gustin during World War II as a replacement for slow-drying liquid paints to speed up the production of war materiel. He was awarded a patent for the process in 1945.

The powder is applied using a special low-velocity spray gun that disperses the powder while giving it a positive electrical charge. The powder particles are drawn to the fau­cet which has been given a negative charge.

Once the powder is applied, the fau­cet is baked in an oven at about 400^°F (204^°C) which melts and bonds the powder and changes the structure of the coating into long, cross-linked molecular chains. These chains are what give the coating its durability.

Power coats will not stand up to misuse. Brillo^® pads will do not just some damage, but substantial damage to the finish as will most harsh household cleaners.

Follow Mo­en's care and cleaning instructions to the letter to avoid harm to the finish.

Powder coatings are falling out of favor as PVD is coaxed by engineers and materials chemists into reliably producing the colors and finish effects that were once available only as powder coats.

Understanding Finish Warranties

A finish warranty does not protect against everything that can go wrong with a fau­cet finish.

It protects against defects caused by faulty materials or errors in the finishing process, generally subsumed under the rubric "manufacturing defects."

Blistering, delaminating, peeling, and spalling are the usual manufacturing defects. These are very rare – almost unheard of. The bad old days of peeling China chrome are long gone.

Most finish problems these days are caused by over­zeal­ous cleaning and ordinary wear and tear, neither of which is covered by a finish warranty.

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

Sorry!

But, the most likely replacement, in the long run, is thin film ceramic (TFC).

TFC is a coating armored with microscopic ceramic particles that has the simplicity of powder coatings but produces a rugged finish that has most of the imperviousness of PVD.

Complex, multi-layered finishes are still the province of powder coatings and may be for some time yet. But all of Moen's color coatings are simple mono-color finishes for which TFC would be the ideal alternative.

Other faucet companies including are already using the process to produce color finishes.

Spot Resist^® Coatings

Some Moen fau­cet finishes are given a final coating to combat water spots and fingerprints. Mo­en calls these Spot Resist^® finishes. With Microban^® added, the coating also protects against the accumulation of mold, mildew, and bacteria on the surface of a fau­cet.

According to the company:

"Spot Resist lets you maintain a brilliant finish by preventing the unsightly build up of fingerprints and water spots… Microban^® technology works 24/7 for durable antimicrobial protection that won't wash off or wear away."

These are what are known as – formulated at the molecular level to shed water. Because water does not stock, it does not dry on the fau­cet leaving waterspots.

The coatings are also . They repel oil such as the oil on your fingers which makes them fingerprint-resistant.

Typically these coatings are very thin, as thin as 2-4 , so thin that they do not obscure the finish under the coating or change its appearance.

Faucets available in Spot Resist and Microban^® Spot Resist finishes are identified on Mo­en's website.

We have seen no data on the durability of the coatings. Mo­en undoubtedly has such data but has not seen fit to make it public.

As a general rule, however, hydrophobic and oleophobic coatings are not very robust. Harsh cleaners can damage or even remove the coating. Mo­en warns against cleaning Spot Resist coatings with

"… cleaners containing abrasives (including abrasive sponges or steel wool), ammonia, bleach or sodium hypochlorite, organic solvents (e.g., alcohols) or other harsh chemicals (e.g., lime scale removers) …"

Whatever the finishing technology used, however, Mo­en guarantees all fau­cet finishes for a lifetime against manufacturing defects, indicating a very high level of confidence in the durability of its finishes, including those with Spot Resist coatings.

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

Moen's Design Revolution

Guided by Al Mo­en, the company was engineer-driven. Its approach was to sell very reliable, very durable, well-made fau­cets at a reasonable price that homeowners could afford.

Styling was not much of a concern since its chief rivals were Masco's also engineer-driven and just as unconcerned with style.

But, after the company began losing market share to well-designed European fau­cets like Moen finally woke up to the fact that impeccable engineering was no longer enough to satisfy its increasingly sophisticated core market of middle-class residential fau­cet buyers.

The size and shape of the tall, narrow 1220 and 1225 washerless cylinder cartridges gave older Mo­en fau­cets a distinctive look but also placed severe limitations on the company's design reach.

The smaller and more compact 1255 ceramic cartridge has opened up many more stying possibilities, and Mo­en has not been shy about taking advantage of the opportunity.

Moen is now in midst of a style revolution.

It is no longer your grandfather's fau­cet company. Mo­en has now warmed to the idea that good engineering needs to be married to good design that will appeal to increasingly style-conscious buyers.

Computerized design and prototyping software allows Mo­en's designs to be shared with potential component manufacturers, electronically and instantly, with any place in the world, permitting its subcontractors to suggest revisions and improvements early in the process.

The result has been a design regimen that can complete a new fau­cet in a month or two compared to up to a year without the software.

The company's revamped design department, now relocated to China, is turning out new fau­cet designs each year, many good enough to win international design awards.

It received a prestigious Good Design Award award sponsored by the Chicago Ath­e­nae­um Mus­eum of Arch­itect­ure and Des­ign for its Arris^™ bathroom collection in 2013, the Vichy collection of related products in 2015, and the Via bath collection in 2016.

The company has also received honors in the Interior Design Magazine "Best of Year" competition for its STo^® pull-down kitchen fau­cet.

Moen's Faucet Warranty

Moen offers a residential lifetime warranty on the mechanics and finishes of its fau­cets against leaking or manufacturing defects to the original buyer of a fau­cet, and this includes its cartridges. Lifetime for warranty purposes is defined as

"… for as long as the original consumer purchaser owns their home …"

That has been Moen's promise ever since it first offered a lifetime warranty in the 1970s.

Unfortunately, that definition is defective and may result in consequences not anticipated by Mo­en. However, the defect benefits Mo­en's customers more than it benefits Mo­en, so it does not detract from the company's warranty score.^[6]

Our panel of lawyers judged Moen's warranty to be equivalent to the standard North American "lifetime" warranty on fau­cets – which is a good thing because Moesn along with invented and were the first to offer the North American lifetime warranty

The warranty complies with the Mag­nu­son-Moss War­ranty Act (15 U.S.C. §2308) (the U.S. federal law that dictates the minimum content of and sets the rules for consumer product warranties in the United States but not in Canada) except in one important particular. Here is the offending language:

… this warranty is in lieu of and excludes all other warranties, conditions and guarantees, whether expressed or implied, statutory or otherwise, including without restriction those of merchantability or of fitness for use.

Magnuson-Moss Act requires a manufacturer's written warranty to supplement state law warranties. It can not replace them.

Faucet companies are reasonably free to offer any sort of warranty they wish or no warranty at all. But, if they choose to offer a warranty, it must comply with the federal law.

One thing a warranty absolutely cannot do is exclude state law warranties – something the language in the Mo­en warranty is attempting to do.

The law in most states and territories of the Unit­ed States provides multiple remedies for consumer product failures, so a manufacturer's written warranty is never the exclusive remedy, and Mo­en's warranty is no exception.

Magnuson-Moss's solution to illegal provisions like this is to simply void them.

"Any attempted disclaimer, modification, or limitation made in violation … is deemed to be ineffective for purposes of the [Magnuson-Moss Act] and state law." ( 5 U.S.C. § 2308(c))

Furthermore, under Section 5 of the Fed­er­al Trade Com­mis­si­on Act, the language undoubtedly constitutes a "representation, omission, or practice [that] misleads or is likely to mislead the consumer", in other words, a deceptive trade practice.

It gives the impression and appears intended to give the impression, that a consumer's only recourse if a fau­cet proves defective are the remedies provided in the Mo­en warranty, a claim that is absolutely not true.

Mo­en's Customer Service

Moen's warranty service goes a long way toward making up for minor deficiencies in its warranty.

We have not sampled the after-sale customer services of every single major fau­cet manufacturer in the world but we will take a chance and proclaim Mo­en's to be the very best customer service of any major fau­cet company selling in North America. It is absolutely a first-class act.

Moen's process for quickly getting you a replacement part for a broken fau­cet is nearly as painless as can be. A quick call to 1-800-BUY-MOEN puts you in touch with a customer service representative who has been well-trained on Mo­en products, and you will usually get the part by express delivery in about four working days.

One Man's Moen Customer Service Experience

Our kitchen sink faucet wand started to drip slowly a few months ago. After trying to fix it unsuccessfully using crazy glue, I discovered Moen product has a Lifetime Limited Warranty.

I hoped Moen would help, but truth be told, I wasn't sure since we had no purchase receipt as it came with the house.

To my surprise and delight, it took me just a quick 1-800 call, and a helpful Moen customer service rep soon promised to send me a new replacement wand, free of charge.

And a few business days later, a brand new and nice looking wand arrived as promised in the mail.

Of course, it would have been better if products never fail, but when products fail, it would be great to see companies behave honourably and stand firmly behind their products like Moen.

How does Moen determine over the phone that you are the original purchaser entitled to free replacement parts? They ask you and take your word for it.

Mo­en figures that being conned by a few is much better than irritating everyone with excessive paperwork and burdensome procedures.

And, it works. Moen customers tend to stay Moen customers, more so than for any other fau­cet brand.

We routinely test Moen's customer and warranty service. In our most recent tests, the service scored 4.6 out of 5.0, one of the highest scores ever.

Any score over 4.0 is acceptable and over 4.5 is exceptional indicating a high degree of helpfulness, courtesy, problem resolution, and product knowledge.

Our opinion of Moen's after-sale service is confirmed by the Better Business Bureau which rates Mo­en A+, its highest rating on a scale of A+ to F. The score represents the BBB's opinion of how well customer issues are handled by the company.

Moen's Philosophy of Warranty

There are essentially two approaches to warranties in the fau­cet business or any business.

The first approach tries to reduce 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 is the philosophy adopted by most fau­cet companies.

The other, and better, approach is to turn warranty service into a marketing tool, using the power of a good warranty backed by exceptional warranty service to drive sales – figuring that any additional cost of providing a first-class warranty will be more than offset by additional sales revenue that a first-class warranty generates.

This is the Mo­en approach.

Mo­en, one of the first major fau­cet companies in the U.S. to offer a lifetime warranty on its products, figured out early that a good warranty and strong back-office support for that warranty 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 one of the two largest fau­cet companies in the U.S.

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.

Other companies need 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.

Unfortunately, however, most other companies are not as smart as Moen.

The Moen Website

The Moen website is well-designed, informative, and easy to navigate using a menu-driven paradigm.

Our sole objection to the site's architecture is the main menu drop-down which is easy to trigger inadvertently and is so large that it often blocks the entire screen.

Faucets can be displayed by room (kitchen or bath). Filters permit further discrimination by configuration (centerset, pulldown, vessel, hands-free, etc.), price range, flow rate, number of handles, and finish.

The site search function is fairly robust. It does well on product searches. A search for "Adler fau­cets" turned up all of the sink fau­cets in the Adler collection but the term "sink' was crucial. Otherwise, everything in the Adler collection is displayed: fau­cets, showers and shower components, tub fillers, and tub spouts – 31 products in all.

It also performs well on finish searches. Despite Mo­en's rather powerful filters, searching for all of the products in a specific finish is often faster than selecting multiple filters.

Once you arrive at a suitable fau­cet the information about the fau­cet is comprehensive but not quite sufficient for an informed buying decision.

An informed decision requires that all of the specifications needed to determine the suitability and longevity of a fau­cet be provided by the seller. Moen lists most of the needed information, but not all of it.

Moen faucets are briefly described and .pdf technical specification sheets with more detailed information are provided. These typically include a measured drawing that is very useful in determining whether a fau­cet will fit your sink.

Listings also include links to installation instructions and an exploded parts diagram. The installation instructions are detailed and complete with diagrams and illustrations that make the installation process very clear.

Moen score above average for the information about its fau­cets that it provides in its website fau­cet listings. Nevertheless, Certain necessary information is missing.

A listing generally illustrates each Moen fau­cet with one 3/4 image. The image is clear and crisp, and updates as different finishes are selected displaying the fau­cet in the newly selected image. But there is just the one image. It's hard to fully visualize a fau­cet from just one view. Moen should provide several additional images, displaying the sides and back of the fau­cet as well as the installed fau­cet in a normal setting.

Even better would be a 360^° view that the user can rotate with the mouse to examine every aspect of a fau­cet such as is provided by fau­cets.

Adding a link to a short video would be best of all.

The site is silent about where a fau­cet is made. The county of origin is central to many buying decisions and should be noted.

Neither the primary nor secondary materials from which the fau­cet is made is identified.

We know that the primary mterial used in many Mone fau­cets is a zinc/aluminum alloy, probably and Moen spray heads are plastic, but this information is not disclosed.

The process used to produce each finish is missing from the faucet listings. These are identified on the site, but not on the listing itself. A link to the page that discusses types of finishes should be provided from each listing to help a buyer understand just how long a finish is expected to last and the care and maintenance needed.

Minimum Website Information: Download/Read/Print the minimum content required in an online fau­cet listing to permit an informed buying decision.

Testing and Certification

Where to Buy

Moen fau­cets are sold just about anywhere fau­cets are sold, plumbing supply houses, hardware stores, big box lumber stores, and independent internet plumbing retailers. The Mo­en website has a "Where to Buy" tab next to the price on all fau­cet listings.

Exclusive Faucets

Some Mo­en fau­cet models are exclusive to certain retailers. Home De­pot, Lowes, Men­ards, and Fer­gu­son En­ter­pri­ses all sell exclusive fau­cet models in stores and on their websites.

Mo­en does not identify these fau­cets on its website, but if you click on "Where to Buy" only the exclusive retailer will be listed.

Minimum Advertised Price

No matter where you buy a Mo­en fau­cet, however, do not expect substantial discounts. Mo­en enforces a Minimum Advertised Price (MAP) policy for fau­cets sold in the U.S. and Canada.

Moen establishes the minimum price at which a fau­cet may be advertised. Dealers are prohibited from advertising the fau­cet at a price below the MAP price. Violators are subject to a cascading array of increasingly stiffer penalties and may ultimately lose the right to sell Mo­en products.

The usual effect is that dealers will not sell below the minimum price confident that no other dealer can easily undercut the price.

Comparable Faucets

Faucets roughly comparable to Mo­en for quality and warranty but not necessarily for price or design include

Most of these companies sell fau­cets at average prices much higher than Mo­en. The exceptions are

Conclusions

We judge Mo­en fau­cets to be some of the best values in the North American market.

Moen quality is very good to excellent up and down the price range of the fau­cets but the value is slightly better for fau­cets retailing at a street price of less than $600.00 USD. Above this price, you are paying for some or all of (1) a high-style design, (2) an exotic finish, or (3) a special feature such as hands-free electronic technology.

Moen's warranty is strong and complies (mostly) with federal warranty law. Its fairly minor legal defects, however, benefit the consumer more than the company.

The company's pre- and post-sale customer support is the model for other companies to follow.

The rating panel was united in its opinion of Moen faucets. All members indicated they would have "no reservation" about installing a Mo­en fau­cet in their own kitchen or bath and more than half of the plumbers on the panel identified Mo­en as a fau­cet they already own. All would prefer either Chrome or a PVD finish for its durability over any other finish choice.

For a bathroom lavatory fau­cet, most would prefer an M-PACT fau­cet for its ease of installation and design flexibility. It's fairly easy to swap out the trim to get a whole new look without having to replace the guts of the fau­cet contained in the M-PACT core mechanism.

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