Phylrich Faucets Review & Rating Updated: June 25, 2024
Law Requirements
Warranty Footnotes
1. "[A]s long as the original purchaser owns the house in which they are installed"2. All parts required for the faucet to function except the valve cartridge.
Download/Print the Phylrich faucet warranty.
Learn more about faucet warranties.
This Company In Brief
Phylrich faucets are made by Escalette, LLC, a California manufacturer of brass products.
The faucets are hand-crafted, high-quality bath and kitchen faucets along with showers and brass accessories such as towel bars, toilet paper holders, grab bars, and hooks that complement most of its faucet styles.
If your notion of the ideal bathroom or kitchen faucet is a little gem of fine craftsmanship made in the U.S.A., you need to take a close look at Phylrich faucets.
Phylrich is a line of hand-crafted, high-quality bathroom and kitchen faucets and accessories. Phylrich also manufactures showers and tub fillers and a complete line of bath accessories including towel bars, toilet paper holders, grab bars, and hooks that complement most of its faucet styles.
The Company
Phylrich International based in Burbank, California, was founded in 1959. Its faucets were hand-crated, very detailed, often embellised with semi-precious jewels and available in multiple finishes, including gold.
The company was purchased by in 2005 on terms that were not disclosed in the acquisition announcement. Elkay announced that the purchase was in furtherance of its goal to break into the luxury faucet market.
Elkay, a subsidiary of Zurn Elkay Water Solutions, manufactures stainless steel sinks.
It was a pioneer in that business, developing the die-drawing process now used y every manufacturer to turn stainless steel sheets into sinks.
Phylrich was never a good fit for Elkay. Its forté is faucets and other fittings of very contemporary designs in rather basic finishes. The emphasis at Phylrich on complex castings and multiple exotic finishes did not mesh well.
In 2013, its enthusiam for breaking into the luxury faucet market having cooled considerably, Elkay sold "certain assets" of Phylrich to Escalette LLC, the owner of RSS Manufacturing, LLC, a successful California manufacturer of brass fittings and fixtures for the automobile and plumbing industries as well as military and aerospace applications.
By adding Phylrich to its product line, Escalette fully capitalized on its existing capacity to manufacture high-quality brass products.
The man behind Escalette LLLC, Geoff Escalette, had already made his mark in the faucet industry as a co-founder (with his father, Ross) of BrassTech, Inc., maker of in 2002 at which time he started RSS Manufacturing to return to his roots as the manufacturer of high-quality machine parts for the military and auto industry.
With the acquisition of the assets of Phylrich, Escalette also agreed to assume responsibility for all past warranty claims and to provide customer service and replacement parts for Phylrich faucets manufactured prior to the change in ownership.[1]
Escalette stated in its acquisition announcement that it intends to "carry on the Phylrich tradition of providing high-end plumbing products for the home."
Elkay had started the process of moving Phylrich manufacturing overseas. Under Escalette, operations have been moved back to the U.S. (Tour the Escalette Factory in Costa Mesa.)
The Faucets
Except for the K8158 two-handle, single-hole kitchen/bar faucet (shown above), all Phylrich faucets are for lavatory sinks.
According to the company, its faucets are "truly made in the U.S.A."
That claim, unfortunately, is not exactly true.
Produced in the U.S.
The faucets are, without question, produced in the U.S.
Design, engineering, prototyping, casting, forging, machining, polishing, finishing, assembly, quality control, kitting, packaging, shipping, and customer support, all take place in California.
However, "produced in" does not necessarily translate to "made in."
"Made in the U.S." is an appellation controlled by federal law.
Under Federal Trade Commission (FTC) rules, to be "made in the U.S.", "all or substantially all" of the parts and components that go into the faucets must also be "made in the U.S."
Insignificant parts, "hot" and "cold" handle buttons, for example, may be made elsewhere, but if foreign content is more than what the FTC calls "de minimis" (too small to be considered), the faucets do not qualify as "Made in U.S.A."
Unquestionably, Phylrich's faucets contain much more than de minimis foreign content. All of the valves used in its faucets are imported as is much of the brass stock from which its faucet components are made.
Recent import records also show imports of additional faucet components from three Italian suppliers:
- Ottone Meloda Manufacturing, a part of WTS Group trading as OMM.
Another Italian company, FCR di Rocchi Bruno & C. Officina Meccanica trading as FCR, has supplied components to Phylrich in the recent past but is now listed by Italian authorities as "in dissolution."
These companies specifically identify the products they supply to Phyrich in their bills of lading as faucet parts and components.
There may be imports from other countries as well.
Companies in China, Dominica, Taiwan, Thailand and the Bahamas supply items described more generally as "sanitary fittings", "sanitary appliances", or "plumbing ssupplies." Any of these could easily include faucet parts.
Without doubt, Phylrich faucets are "Truly Produced in the U.S." but they are not "Truly Made in the U.S."
Faucet Design
The faucets manufactured by the pre-Elkay Phylrich International were pieces of Baroque art with finishes in everything up to and including gold and inlays of fine crystal and semi-precious stones.
Phylrich retains many of the more popular pre-2005 designs but has discontinued some of the more extreme styles. The line has been revamped to feature more traditional and contemporary designs, some of which appear to be re-runs of designs first developed at Newport Brass.
The company has continued the tradition of one-by-one craft-shop production and the exceptional finishes that have always characterized the brand.
Pre-2005 faucet designs from the old Phylrich International still available sinclude
Contemporary and industrial designs added since 2005 include
Collections with traditional and transitional design characteristics include
The Phylrich collections offer at least one faucet design to fit any décor preference.
Faucet Valves & Cartridges
RSS Manufacturing makes valves, primarily for showers, that it sells to other manufacturers. It also makes a pair of valves for lavatory faucets: the 1-109 (cold) and 1-110 (hot) valves. We have found no Phylrich faucet in which these valves are used (which does not mean there are none, just they we have not found them).
The valves in two-handle faucets are, based on information provided by the company in 2021, all-brass ceramic disk cartridges from Anton Traenkle GmbH & Co KG, one of the best in the business, also used in some faucets made by
Most mixing cartridges for single handle faucets appear to be from S.T.S.R. S.r.l., (Studio Tecnico Siluppo e Ricerche), a well-regarded Italian technical ceramics company that also supplies cartridges used in
Phylrich Finishes
Thirty-two finishes are available. They are gathered into two groups. Group 1 contains basic finishes and Group 2 special finishes.
Group 2 finishes are available at an additional cost, often a very substial additional cost, almost doubling the price of the faucet.
The list price is specified for each faucet in each finish on the company website.
Phylrich does not identify which finishes are in each Group.
A site search on the term "Group 1" resulted in an array of door knobs and one toilet tissue holder. "Group 2" produced the same result. Nor does searching on a particular finish name achieve any better outcome.
We asked the company to idetify which finish is in each group. The company declined to do so.
However, our clever boys and girls in Research sussed out which finishes probably belong in each group.
Group 1 finishes include:
Group 2 finishes are just the three golds:
The ten new color finishes are their own group, available only on faucets in the Basic, Basic II, and Transition collections.
Finish Processes
Philrich does not identify the processes are used to produce its finishes. The website hints that some finishes are . Others are coatings.
We asked the company to identify its finish processes, but the company, speaking through it general manager, indicated no interest in providing the information.
Our best guess from examining a variety of Phylrich finishes is that the chromes, nickels, and golds are probably elecroplated.
Polished Brass, Satin Brass, and possibly Antique Brass are just the material from which the faucet is made, while the rest of the finishes are . Some or all tjese finiishes may be protected by a final clear coat.
We don't think Phylrich uses the PVD process to produce its finishes but we certainly could be wrong. Some of the finishes we identify as powder coats could be physical vapor depositions. PVD technology is advancing repidly. Finish effects possible only with powder coatings just a few years ago are being produced with the much more durable PVD process.
We do think, however, that we are probably pretty close, about as close as we can get without input from the company.
Before you buy a Phylrich faucet, make sure you find out the process used to produce the faucet's finish. The process makes a big difference to durability and the amount and type of maintenance required.
Transparent Coatings
At least some Phylrich faucets are protected by a final clear coat. The coating, however, is somewhat a mystery.
According to the company:
"All Phylrich fixtures are protected with an E-coat process that invisibly shields the finish. This finishing process allows the original color and depth of the real metal finish to shine while maintaining the fixture's quality and durability …'
Finish Durability
Some finishes are more durable than others.
- is the old standby. 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.)
- (PVD) finishes are 10 to 20 times more scratch-resistant than electroplated chrome. They are also not affected by most household chemicals. In our experience, they are largely invulnerable to harm.
- is essentially a paint applied in a powdered form and then heated in an oven to cure. It is considered semi-durable with about the same scratch resistance as the finish on your car.
E-coating, EPD, or electrocoating is a relatively new process developed in the automotive industry in which color pigments suspended in water are drawn to the product to be coated by an electric current.
It is not necessarily more durable than powder coating, but it is much faster and the coating is less liely to leave gaps – a concern more applicable to automobiles that can rust than to faucets that can't.
What Phylrich's E-coating is made of, however, and how it improves finish durability is never disclosed. We have never heard of E-coating being used to produce a transparent coating but Escalette is ruthlessly inventive, so we don't discount the possibility that he has found a way.
It is proably not hydrophobic, repelling water so water spots do not form on the faucet, or oleophobic, repelling fingerprints. If it had either or both of these characteristics, Phylrich would have mentioned them somewhere.
Most likely it is an industrial clear coat, similar to the finish used on automobiles and very possibly CeraKote®, the "World's Strongest" clear coat, according to manufacturer-sponsored testing.
Living Finishes
Two finishes, French Brass and Polished Brass Uncoated, are identified by the company as , designed to fade, change color, and otherwise show evidence of age and use.
Living Finish Warranties
It is customary among faucet companies not to guarantee living finishes.
Why that should be is not at all clear. It certainly has no basis in fact. Statistically, living finishes do not fail more often than other finishes.
Most likely it is due to a fundamental misunderstanding of finish warranties.
Finishes are warranted against defects only in materials and the finishing process – so called "manufacturing defects."
Discoloration, fading, color changes over time, scratches and mars are not manufacturing defects and are never covered under warranty. These are the normal effect of use and age, what lawyers call "ordinary wear and tear."
This is especially true of living finishes that are desgined to discolor, fade, and otherwise show the cummulative effects of age and use.
There is no objective reason why living finishes cannot be treated the same as other finishes in a faucet warranty – guaranteed against manufacturing defects but not manhandling or ordinary wear and tear.
Neither finish is an applied coating. They are the raw brass material from which the faucet is made. French Brass is artificially tarnished to give it a slighly antiqued look. Polished Brass Uncoated is polished to a high gleam. It will not stay highly polished for long nor will French Brass remain just lightly tarnished.
Natural brass is a nuisance to maintain. It tarnishes when exposed to air and needs regularly polishing to retain its like-new looks.
Chose Polished Brass Uncoated only if you are in love with polishing or don't mind tarnished brass. For a polished brass faucet that will remain polished forever, choose Polished Brass not Polished Brass Uncoated.
For an aged brass look that keeps the same look over time, choose Antique Brass in preference to French Brass.
The Warranties
At least two different Phylrich warranties apply to faucets.
Some in-box warranties are for a lifetime on finishes produced by electroplating and physical vapor deposition. Other finishes are covered by a 10-year warranty on "[c]ertain metal finishes … with a clear coating …" The warranty is silent regarding finishes that are not electroplated, PVD, or clear coated.
The warranty published on its website limits finish warranties to 10 years across the board (except living finishes).
We do not know which warranty actually applies to Phylrich faucets. Nor do we know if these are the only the two warranties.
We did not examine the in-box warranty for every Phylrich faucet made, so we don't know what every box contains. There may be three, four or more different warranties.
Multiple Warranties
Multiple warranties on the same consumer product are no longer allowed and have not been since 1975. Every consumer product gets one and only one written warranty.
The prohibition seeks to prevent an old dodge called the "warranty shuffle" in which a very generous warranty was presented before the sale, then replaced by a much more restrictive warranty in the box that then becames the "official" warranty "superceding all prior warranties."
We don't believe Phylrich is engaged in that practice. Nonetheless, if the warranty accompanying the faucet in the box differs from the online warranty, the warranty most favorable to the consumer becomes by law the "official" warranty.
The Online Warranty
When reviewing multiple written warranties, we base our assessment on the warranty least favorable to the buyer. To do otherwise would be to allow the company to claim warranty benefits that it may not actually provide.
For Phylrich, that warranty is the online warranty.
It is entitled "Limited Lifetime Warranty" although the only parts of the faucet "warranted for life" are "ceramic disc valves."
All other parts necessary for the operation of a faucet are guaranteed for just 10 years.
These include the body, spout, handle, and aerator on most faucets.
These almost never malfunction.
Other parts that are not necessary for the operation of the faucets – baseplates and , for example – are not mentioned at all and evidently have no warranty.
Finishes are guaranteed for ten years against manufacturing and material defects, except living finishes which are not warranted. There is no mention in the warranty of electriplated or physical vapor deposition finishes, and no lifetime warranty provided on these types of finishes.
The warranty largely, but not completely, complies with the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act (15 U.S.C. §2308), the federal law that dictates the content and form of consumer product warranties.
Three things in the warranty, however, are problematic.
Definition of "Lifetime"
The first major problem is the definition of the term lifetime
(which is not linked to anyone's or anything's actual lifetime).
Magnuson-Moss requires
"the terms and conditions of written warranties on consumer products be clearly and conspicuously stated in simple and readily understood language" (15 U.S.C. § 2302(a))
This includes the term "lifetime", a term that the courts have repeatedly stressed, is not self defining.
In the Phylrich warraty, "lifetime" lasts only for
"as long as the original purchaser owns the house in which [the faucets] are installed."
Phylrich probably means the house in which the faucets are originally installed but that's not what the warranty says.
The existing language allows a faucet to remain covered by the warranty as long as it is installed in a house – any house – now or in the future – owned by the original buyer.
If the buyer owns the house as a rental property, the faucet is covered. There is no requirment in the warranty that the buyer live in the house iin whch the faucet is installed.
If the buyer is a corporation. the duration of the warranty could be centuries. Most corporations have a "perpetual" existence. They do not "die" until they are dissolved. The oldest still-existing U.S. corporation was formed before the Revolutionary War and is older than the country.
If the buyer is a builder, the warranty may last mere days, until the builder (the "original purchaser") sells the house. The buyer of the house has no warranty. It expired once the builder no longer owned the house.
"Owns the House"
Which brings us to the phrase "owns the house" which is its own separate issue.
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 may be legally installed in a drinking water system and dispenses controlled amounts of water.
A merchantable product must remain merchantable for a reasonable length 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 and does not allow a merchant to exclude them.
What about purchasers who rent or those who live in a condo? Not everyone lives in a house that he or she owns.
Those that don't, evidently miss out on lifetime warranty coverage because they are not owners
of a house.
Again, probably not what Phylrich intended but that's the way it wrote its warranty.
The existing definition was clearly not given adequate consideratiion. To avoid the ambiguities inherent in the existing language, the definition of lifetime need to be reconsidered and rewritten.
State Law Implied Warranties
The warranty's attempt to exclude coverage by state law implied warranties is another major problem. Here is the language:
"This Limited Warranty is expressly in lieu of any other warranties, expressed or implied, arising by law or otherwise, including without limitation, any implied warranty of merchantability or for a particular purpose."
However, implied warranties, as a matter of law, cannot be excluded. (15 U.S. Code § 2308)
The approach adopted in Magnuson-Moss is that company warranties supplement state law implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for purpose. A written warranty is "in addition to" and not "in lieu of" state law warranties.
Phylrich's attempt to exclude implied warranties fails and can be ignored. Per Magnuson-Moss, it is void and without effect.
As a consumer, you always have the protection of state law warranties in addition the company's written warranty.
Prohibited Deception
But, a second problem with the attempted exclusion can become much more serious.
The language could be considered deceptive and one of the three cardinal rules of Magnuson-Moss is that warranties must not be deceptive.
This provision would almost certainly mislead a reasonable person into believing that a defective faucet would be excluded from state-law warranty coverage — and that is the very definition of deception under the law.
We don't think that Phylrich is being deliberately deceptive. No doubt whoever wrote the warranty saw the languaage in some other warranty and copied it, unaware that it is not allowed.[2]
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.C. § 2310(c)(2))
The mere presence of the provision in the Phylrich warranty, however, evidences a lack of reasonable care.
In any lawsuit, Phylrich's liability could well include punitive or exemplary damages far exceeding any actual damages.
"Exclusive" Remedies
According to the warranty,
"The remedy of repair or replacement as provided under this Limited Warranty is exclusive."
However, if "repair or replace" does not solve the problem, what then?
In most states, the doctrine of "failure of essential purpose" comes into play and affords the consumer additional remedies that may not be offered by the warranty – most often a full refund but it could be much more comprehensive.
Warranty as Marketing Tool
The Phylrich warranty gives every indication of not being well thought out. Apart from its drafting prolems and violations of federal law, the warranty simply makes little business sense.
There are two basic philosophies of warranties in the faucet business. The first 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 it unquestionably describes the Phylrich 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.
Understanding Finish Warranties
A finish warranty does not protect against anything 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."
Delaminating, peeling, blistering, and spalling are the usual manufacturing defects. These are extremely rare. Most problems are caused by overzealous cleaning and ordinary wear and tear, neither of which are covered by a finish warranty.
Even living finishes should be guarantees against factory defects.
If it peels, the company pays, but if you scratch it or it turns a funny color after you clean with Wham-X All Purpose Miracle Cleaner – well, you should have been more careful.
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 product with 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.
Phylrich 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.
Warranty Rating
Despite its title as a "Limited Lifetime Warranty", the Phylrich warranty is actually a ten-year limited warranty with an exception for ceramic disc valves. We score it below par for faucet warranties in North America.
The standard North American warranty is a lifetime warranty protecting against all manufacturing and material defects (with exceptions for living finishes and electronic parts) pioneered by in the 1960s.
The Philrich warranty does not rise to that standard and its warranty is one factor in holding down the company's overall rating. The other is its failure to register its faucets with the Department of Energy as required by law (more about this requirement below).
More on Faucet Warranties
Read the Phylrich Faucet Online Warranty.
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
Customer Service
Phylrich customer service is adequate once you get a representative on the line.
Quite often, however, no one is available and you will have to await a callback – an indication of inadequate staffing.
Many of our test callers found Phylrich service agents rather brusk. They often could not answer basic questions and had to refer the inquiries to others in the company. On at least two occasions, an agent gave us incorrect information about a faucet – evidence of inadequate training.
However, they easily handled basic customer service tasks: warranty claims and replacement parts, usually with dispatch.
We rate the service as adequate but not exceptional. As customer service is the company's face to the world, it is important that it be more than merely adequate. An exceptional product deserves exceptional service to back it up.
BBB Rating
The Better Business Bureau grades the company a B- on its scale of A+ to F.
BBB ratings represent the BBB's opinion of how the business is likely to interact with its customers. It is based on information the BBB is able to obtain about the business, including complaints received from the public.
The BBB rating comports with our assessment of the company's service, adequate but not excellent.
The company is not accredited by the BBB and not pledged to its code of ethical business conduct.
Terms of Sale
Phylrich's terms of sale are strict and customer experience suggests they are largely inflexible.
Changes to faucet orders and order cancellations must be made within five days and will incur a fee of 35% of the faucet's price. Orders for special finishes or customized faucets cannot be canceled or changed at all.
Claims for faucets missing parts or delivered damaged must be made within 5 days of receipt of the faucet.
Returns require a return authorization issued by customer support. The customer must pay for return shipping. There is no stated exception for those instances n which the return is for a mistake in the order or a defective or damaged product.
The Website
The website is crisply designed with intuitive navigation.
It has a nice feature to facilitate visualization of available finishes. Every faucet is displayed with a finish chart. Click on a finish and the faucet is re-displayed in that finish.
Other faucet company websites have a similar feature, but this is the easiest to use we have found and the most complete, although it does not work for some faucets.
Faucet specifications are detailed in downloadable (.pdf) documents that include a dimensioned drawing, installation instructions, an exploded parts diagram, and the interactive finish display for most faucets.
Installation instructions are useful for plumbers who can anticipate any installation issues and a parts diagram makes it easy to visualize how the faucet goes together.
Specification | Score | Notes |
---|---|---|
ADA Compliance (Yes/No) | 5 | |
Aerator Brand | 0 | |
Certifications | 5 | |
Country of Origin | 5 | |
Deck thickness, maximum | 5 | |
Dimensions/Dimensioned Drawing | 5 | |
Drain Included (Yes/No) | 5 | (Lavatory Faucets Only) |
Faucet Images: Multiple images, 360° rotating image, or video | 5 | |
Flow Rate(s), Maximum | 5 | |
Installation Instructions | 5 | |
Material, Primary (Brass, Stainless, etc.) | 5 | |
Materials, Secondary (Zinc, Plastic, etc.) | 0 | |
Mounting Holes, Number of | 5 | |
Parts Diagram | 5 | |
Supply Connection Size/Type | 5 | |
Supply Hose Included (Yes/No) | 0 | The fact that supply hoses are not included is not mentioned. |
Valve/Cartridge Type | 5 | |
Valve/Cartridge Brand | 0 | |
Finish(es) | 5 | |
Finish Processes | 0 | |
Finish Images | 5 | |
Warranty Online | 5 | |
Warranty Link in Listings1 | 2.5 | The warranty is included in the link to installation instructions. |
WaterSense® Listed (Yes/No) | 5 | |
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 |
We identify 30 or so faucet specifications that are important to a fully-informed buying decision. Everything from how the faucet is presented in images to the number of mounting holes needed. The number varies slightly from company to company and from faucet to faucet.
Not every faucet listing requires every specification. For example, WaterSense® listings apply only to lavatory faucets. So, a kitchen faucet listing does not need WaterSense® information.
Most specifications, however, apply to all faucets. ADA-compliance, secondary materials, country of origin, and finish type are examples.
Phylrich's site provides most of the basic information, faucet dimensions, primary material (brass), and certifications, for example, but some basic specifications are missing. Secondary materials and the processes used to create its finishes are examples.
Overall, the information provided is not sufficient for a fully informed buying decision, but it is better than most. The website scored 81 out of a possible 100 and was rated B- (Above Average), a score that is higher than most company websites.
It could be better, however. Phylrich already has all of the necessary information. It just needs to be willing to share online.
Where to Buy
The website has a dealer locator that works only sometimes.
It correctly identified dealer showrooms in New York, Florida, and Kansas, but failed to find any in Alberta, British Columbia, California, Colorado, Idaho, or Nevada although we know from the dealer map that they exist.
There are none in the Midwest north of Oklahoma, between St. Louis and Denver. That's not a mistake in the programming. There actually are no dealers in this section of the country.
Faucets are sold on the company website but at the list price. You can always get a better price from a dealer.
The 181-02-026 widespread faucet with lever handles in Polished Chrome, for example, lists for $783.00. Online dealer prices ranged from $704.70 from Decor Planet to $543.60 from Plumbtile.
Many dealers maintain an online presence but they are not authorized to sell through hosting websites such as Amazon, Wayfair, or eBay. Some do, however, despite the prohibition. (See e.g. Faucets and More)
Be careful about buying the faucets from an unauthorized source. Phylrich guarantees only those faucets purchased from authorized dealers.
Deep discounts from the company's advertised list prices are unlikely. Phylrich enforces a Minimum Advertised Pricing policy that prohibits dealer discounting greater than 10% unless Phylrich authorizes the additional discount.
Testing & Certification
Comparable Faucets
Designer faucets that compare to Phylrich in quality, often with a stronger warranty, but not necessarily similar in price or style, include
Conclusions
These are unblushingly luxurious, high-end faucets with some incredible finishes. For what you get, prices are quite reasonable, generally below faucets of similar style and finish from competing companies.
If you are remodeling a premium bath, or just want that one indulgent luxury item to finish off a more modest re-do, Phylrich is a line of faucets you might consider.
The design and quality are excellent, and the fact that they are "truly" produced in the U.S.A. adds a little something to the line.
However, the warranty is sub-par, and customer service, while adequate, evidences a lack of training and inadequate staffing. It is not exceptional.
The website has obvious problems including searches on common topics tht don't work, a dealer locator that cannot find many of its dealers, and some oddities that point to a lack of attention to detail. An example is the claim that its finish chips (available at $6.00 per chip) are certified to all faucet standards. Really? We don't think it's even possible to get an authorized testing facility to test and certify a finish chip.
The company is run by engineers, people who are good a making things and making them well. It needs to pay more attention, however, to non-production matters: warranty, website, customer service, and compliance with laws and regulations.
Each year for the past ten years the company has been nominated as a Best Value in Luxury Faucets made or Assembled in North America, and each year it fails to make the cut, not on its products, which are excellent, but on its sub-par warranty and continuing failure to register its faucets with the Department of Energy as required by law – a chore that costs nothing and can be done online in about four hours.
The Department of Energy has an enormous backlog of enforcement actions, but someday it will catch up to Phylrich which can expect hefty penalties for years of failing to register.
All members of our rating panel agreed that while they would buy a Phylrich faucet for even a busy kitchen or main bath, they would do so on with "some hesitation" due to the ambiguous short-term warranty that makes it difficult to determine exactly what parts of the faucet are covered and for how long.
We are continuing to research the company. If you have experience with Phylrich faucets, good, bad, or indifferent, we would like to hear about it, so please contact us or post a comment below.
- How that promise works in practice is an issue. Some customers report in comments to this review and through e-mails that parts for Phyrich faucets made by Elkay are often not available, nor are replacement faucets. Others report no problem getting parts for older Phylrich faucets. Parts availability seems to be limited to whatever is on hand. Once these are gone, effective warranty and parts support ends.
- Many faucet warranties include similar language. We are not sure where it first appeared, but it has been widely copied. Its presence in the warranty suggest that the warranty was not written by a lawyer, but if it was, he or she badly needs a refresher in warranty law. This language has been prohibited since the 1970s.