Randolph Morris Faucets Review & Rating Updated: November 22, 2024
395 Oak Hill Road
Mountain Top, PA 18707
877-868-1369
Law Requirements
Warranty Footnotes:
1. "Randolph Morris faucets and fixtures are warranted to be free of manufacturing and mechanical defects for a period of five years from date of purchase provided the products are installed by a qualified licensed plumber..."2. The warranty is missing quaifying language required by the U.S. Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act.Download/Read/Print the Randolph Morris faucet warranty.Learn more about faucet warranties.
This Company In Brief
Randolph Morris is a private brand owned by Randolph Morris Incorporated, a Pennsylvania business corporation.
It is the store brand under which Vintage Tub & Bath imports and sells faucets, bathtubs, toilets, sinks, and bath accessories.
The faucets are stylish and competitively priced. The mechanics and components are good but the warranty is decidedly below par for North America.
Randolph Morris is a brand name under which VTB, Inc. trading as Vintage Tub & Bath, imports and sells faucets, sinks, bathroom and kitchen fixtures, and bath accessories. The brand is owned by Randolph Morris Incorporated, a Pennsylvania business corporation.
The private brand was launched in 2003 as a low-cost line of vintage bathroom fixtures such as bathtubs, sinks, and toilets to provide an alternative to the relatively high-priced name-brand products sold by the company.
The Company
Founded in 1992 (or 1993, accounts vary) by Norman A. Dick, the sole owner and current CEO of VTB, Inc.
The company is an online retailer that sells bathtubs, drains, faucets, showers, sinks, toilets, furnishings, lighting, and personal care products.
It also offers kitchen appliances' cabinet hardware' home décor products' garden furniture, accessories, and accents – even radiant floor heating.
Sales are primarily through the company's proprietary website Vintage Tub & Bath but also at sites that host third-party sellers such as Amazon and Wayfair.
They are not sold in plumbing supply stores or in any brick-and-mortar retailer that we could find.
The company's chief competitors, with very similar business models, are
- Clawfoot Supply, LLC, trading as
- Northern Central Distributing, Inc., of Fresno California trading as
These companies sell similar home décor products including their own private-label lines of faucets, showers, tubs, and accessories.
Faucet Manufacturing
Vintage Tub & Bath devotes a considerable amount of space on its website touting its "selection of American-made bathtubs and fixtures." It does offer a selection of American-made bathtubs but it is a very small selection.
HA quick search for "Made in U.S.A." items turned up a bare dozen acrylic bathtubs out of its over 350 bathtub models offered for sale. Using the site's filters, forty-eight were found, still a small fraction of the bathtubs offered for sale.
The company imports most of its bathtubs, sinks, toilets, shower components, lighting fixtures, and bathroom furniture primarily from China but also from Spain, Taiwan, Italy, Vietnam, Saudi Arabia, and South Korea. Its copper bathtubs are made in India.
The company receives 70% of its shipments from Asia, 30% from Europe.
No Randolph Morris faucet is made in North America. All are manufactured in Taiwan by Rin Shing Metal Co., Ltd..
Rin Shing is a well-known and well-respected faucet manufacturer. It supplies
It designs its own faucets, owning numerous design patents in both Taiwan and the U.S.
Faucet Construction
The faucet quality is average to above average. Our inspection of a selection of the faucets showed no obvious manufacturing issues.
Most Randolph Morris faucets are of conventional construction in which the body and spout of the faucet carry water and are also the decorative elements of the faucet, giving it its distinctive looks.
Although the company commonly identifies the facets as "solid brass", they are not. Brass is the material used for the faucet body in most instances, but handles, baseplates, and are usually a less expensive zinc-aluminum alloy called ZAMAK. The use of a zinc alloy in these components does no harm to the quality of the faucet and may save buyers a few dollars.
Brass
Traditional (alpha) brass is a blend of copper and zinc with a small amount of lead added to make the material more malleable, less brittle, and easier to machine. However, lead is now all but banned in North America in any drinking water component due to its toxicity to humans, particularly children.
According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), lead, even in small amounts, causes slowed growth, learning disorders, hearing loss, anemia, hyperactivity, and behavior issues.
Before 2014, a faucet could contain as much as 8% lead and still call itself lead-free. Now the maximum lead content of those parts of a faucet that touch water is 0.25% (1/4 of 1%), basically just a bare trace. In fact, there may be more lead in the air you breathe than there is in a modern faucet that has been certified lead-free.
To comply with the restrictions on lead, today's lead-free brass replaces lead with other additives. One of the most common is bismuth to reduce brittleness without adding toxicity.
Bismuth is similar to lead – right next to lead on the periodic table of elements – but it is not harmful to humans.
It is, however, very expensive. It is 300 times rarer than lead, even rarer than silver, which is the reason that bismuth-brass alloys are considerably more expensive than leaded brass.
This increased cost has encouraged many faucet manufacturers to adopt novel methods of construction and use substitute materials in their faucets where possible.
Zinc & Zinc/Aluminum Alloys
A more common adaptation to control the cost of lead-free brass, however, is just to minimize brass by using a less expensive secondary metal, typically zinc or a zinc-aluminum alloy, the most common being ZAMAK, a composition containing 4% aluminum developed and patented in the 1920s by New Jersey Zinc Company.
Zinc alloys, however, are not as strong as brass and do not resist water pressure as well as brass. But the use of zinc in non-pressurized parts of a brass faucet such as handles and base plates is common even among manufacturers of luxury faucets.
It does no harm when used in these components, and may save consumers a few dollars.
Plastics
Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene (ABS), a low-cost, easily manufactured, non-toxic, impact-resistant plastic is also a commonly used substitute material for brass. It can be safely used in incidental faucet parts like base plates and has been largely trouble-free in aerators and as casings for ceramic cartridges, but otherwise, its use is suspect, especially if under constant water pressure.
Among those suspect uses is in the spray heads of Randolph Morris kitchen faucets.
Proponents of the material give three reasons for the use of plastic:
- Plastic does not get uncomfortably hot in use like metal wands;
- Plastic is not as heavy and is more comfortable to hold for long periods of time; and
- Plastic is a lot cheaper than brass or stainless steel – even cheaper than zinc.
However, ABS plastic degrades over time from exposure to ultraviolet and is not dimensionally stable. It expands and contacts more than most other plastics with temperature changes making tight tolerances challenging to maintain.
The Sure Cure for Too-Hot Spray Wands: The simple cure for spray wands that get too hot is to reduce the temperature of the water. Dishes do not need to be rinsed in scalding water.
These characteristics make plastic wands suspect for long-term use in faucets – products that most consumers consider lifetime products.
Although engineers have made significant improvements to their reliability over the decades, the problems have not been entirely solved.
The general view in the faucet industry is that better wands are made of metal — brass, zinc, or stainless steel — insulated against excessive heat transmission.
For the complete scoop on faucet construction, see Faucet Basics, Part 1: How Are Faucets Made?
Randolph Morris Faucet Collection
The Randolph Morris faucet collection includes a few contemporary designs but is heavily weighted toward traditional faucet styles as befits a company that sells "vintage" products. It has been assembled by someone with an eye to coordinating styles but there is nothing unique or original about the individual faucets themselves.
These are relatively inexpensive, generic Asian faucets. They are not custom faucets, designed by or especially for the Randolph Morris brand. They are selected from Rin Shing's
For example, the Randolph Morris RMNAB830 kitchen faucet is in the Rin Shing catalog as the 791 8" single-handle kitchen faucet. The RMNAB511ML bridge-style kitchen faucet is listed by Rin Shing as the 728-1 faucet.
The collection is relatively small, under 25 bathroom sink and kitchen base model faucets. These are expanded to nearly 100 faucets on the company website by assigning each finish a separate model number. The collection is not limited to faucets. It includes showers, tub fillers, and a very limited number of accessories.
(Faucets are being added to and discontinued all the time, however, and may include many more or many fewer faucets by the time you read this.)
Randolph Morris Faucet Finishes
The company website shows seven faucet finishes available on Randolph Morris faucets.
The company does not disclose the technology used to produce the finishes.
However, from examination, we believe that Chrome and the Nickels are . Brushed and Polished Brass are probably (PVD) finishes while Oil-Rubbed Bronze and Matte Black are most likely . (But, one of both may be PVD. It's hard to tell the difference without destructive testing.)
No one faucet is offered in all seven finishes. The most we have found is six, but typically the faucets are limited to just three finish choices: Chrome, Brushed Nickel, and Oil-Rubbed Bronze.
The next most common is Matte Black. Polished Brass seems largely limited to bathroom faucets while Brushed Brass appears on Kitchen faucets. We found Polished Nickel on just one faucet but there may be more.
Finish Durability
Some finishes are more durable than others. Some, the so-called , are intended to fade, discolor, and otherwise show the effect of use and wear over time.
Here are common types of faucet finishes and their durability from most to least durable.
- (PVD) finishes are 10 to 20 times more scratch-resistant than electroplated chrome.
- 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.
- 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 resistance to scratches and mars as the finish on your car.
According to the company, all finishes other than PVD finishes are considered that are not expected to retain their new look forever. The website explains:
"Atmospheric conditions can cause staining and alkaline etching that varies by geography. In addition, frequent use will cause the finish to gracefully age in appearance. These finish changes are not considered manufacturing defects ….
It is not universally true, however, that discoloration is inevitable on non-PVD finishes.
Living finishes will "gradually age in appearance." That's what they are designed to do.
While some powder coats may be true living finishes, most are not. Powder coatings, which are essentially a very tough paint, will, like all paints fade over many years from the effects of UV rays, especially in darker hues. However, fading is gradual and usually not noticed.
The company website does a good job of indicating the finishes available for each faucet but a poor job of identifying which are what the company considers living finishes and does not even attempt to identify the processes used to produce the finishes.
The process is important information. It tells you how durable a particular finish is, how much work will be required to maintain it, and how susceptible it is to damage in ordinary use in a bath or kitchen.
Physical Vapor Deposition (PVD) finishes are the most durable – 10 to 20 times more scratch-resistant than electroplated chrome according to some estimates. They are also not affected by most household chemicals. In our experience, they are largely invulnerable to harm. (However, keep Scotch Brite® and Brillo® pads away for any faucet.)
Electroplating is also a tough finish that will stand up to most abuse, but its durability depends on the metal used as the finish.
Chrome is durable, nickel less so because it is inherently a softer metal (the reason chrome replaced nickel as the faucet finish of choice early in the 20th century).
A powder coating is a dry paint applied in a powdered form and then heated in an oven to cure. It is considered no better than semi-durable, slightly more durable than the finish on your car.
Rough treatment can irrevocably damage the finish.
Randolph Morris Website
The Vintage Tub website is very visual and well-designed with intuitive, menu-driven, navigation that is fairly easy to master.
The site search function is a bit finicky, however, and the site;s filters are of limited help in finding Randolph Morris faucets.
Site Searching
Much of the problem is the website's terminology. It describes shower controllers as shower faucets and tub fillers as tub faucets. Technically, this is correct terminology. A "faucet" is defined as
"A device for controlling the flow of a liquid from a pipe by opening or closing an orifice, also tap or cock,"
and the terms "shower faucet" and "tub faucet" are widely used inside the industry. But, outside the industry, in the common vernacular, the word faucet is generally limited to devices that control water at a sink. Its use to describe shower valves and tub fillers is confusing to most consumers and makes accurate searching more difficult.
| Specification, Property, or Document | Score | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| ADA Compliance (Yes/No) | 0 | |
| Aerator Source | 0 | Not stated. |
| Certifications | 0 | Not Stated. |
| Country of Origin | 0 | Not identified. |
| Dimensions | 5 | |
| Dimensioned Drawing | 3 | For some faucets, not all. |
| Drain Included (Yes/No) | 0 | Not Stated |
| Faucet Images: Dynamic images, Multiple images, and 360° rotating images or video | 5 | Multiple, dynamic images. |
| Finish(es) | 5 | |
| Finish Type | 0 | Not Stated. |
| Finish Images | 5 | |
| Flow Rate(s), Maximum | 5 | |
| Installation Instructions | 3 | For some faucets. |
| Material, Primary (Brass, Stainless, etc.) | 5 | |
| Materials, Secondary (Zinc, Plastic, etc.) | 0 | Not identified. |
| Mounting Holes, Number of | 5 | |
| Parts Diagram | 3 | For some faucets, not all. |
| Spray Head Material | 0 | Not identified. |
| Spray Hose Source | 0 | |
| Spray Hose Type | 0 | |
| Supply Connection Size/Type | 5 | |
| Supply Hose Included (Yes/No) | 0 | Not stated. |
| Supply Hose Source | 0 | Not identified. |
| Valve/Cartridge Type | 5 | |
| Valve/Cartridge Source | 0 | Not identified. |
| Warranty Online | 5 | |
| Warranty Link in Listings1 | 5 | |
| WaterSense® Listed (Yes/No) | 5 | Lavatory Faucets only. |
|
Scale:
90+ A Excellent, 80+ B Good, 70+ C Average, 60+ D Poor, 59- F Fail
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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.
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| Download/Read/Print the minimum content required in an online faucet listing to permit an informed buying decision. | ||
Searches on common faucet features proved fruitless: Terms like "watersense" to identify bathroom sink faucets that are WaterSense® listed, and "ADA" to find faucets suitable for persons with physical limitations produced no results.
Searching for finishes was more effective (and useful to find all items in a matching finish). "Randolph Morris Polished Brass", for example, pulled up every Randolph Morris product available in that finish.
Filters
Filters have never been particularly useful on the Vintage Bath website. In the past, the filter list did not display properly. It was truncated and obscured by text leaking over from adjacent parts of the page.
None of those problems have been fixed. The list is still often obscured and truncated at the bottom of the screen. The list has its own vertical scroll bar that should prevent this problem, but it seems to work properly only sometimes.
Filters have a few other oddities. The filter on kitchen faucet "Material" offers three choices: Brass, Brass/Zinc, and Solid Brass. Only one Randolph Morris kitchen faucet is displayed for "brass", two for "Brass/Zinc", and one for "Solid Brass." We wonder what the rest of the kitchen faucets are made from.
Incomplete Information
The information provided about each faucet is comprehensive but incomplete – not adequate for a fully informed faucet-buying decision.
For most faucets, specifications include the faucet's primary material, available finishes, cartridge type (but not source), and several views of a faucet to help the reader fully visualize the faucet.
Faucet listings link to downloadable specification sheets, installation instructions, an exploded parts diagram, and a dimensioned drawing.
Some, however, don't include one or more of these links and quite often the "specification sheets" are nothing more than a drawing. Where they contain actual specifications, these are often a repeat of the same specifications already displayed with the faucet listing with nothing added.
We have identified 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. Similarly, the material used in a spray head and spray hose generally applies only to pulldown or pullout sprays usually found only on kitchen faucets.
Some specifications, however, apply to all faucets. Secondary materials, country of origin, and finish type are examples.
Understanding Finish Warranties
A finish warranty does not protect against everything that can go wrong with a faucet finish.
It covers defects caused by faulty materials or errors in the finishing process, generally subsumed under the rubric "manufacturing defects."
Blistering, delaminating, peeling, and spalling are the usual manufacturing defects. These are very rare – almost unheard of, and if present in the finisha are usually caught before they leave the factory. 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, Randolph Morris pays. But, if you scratch it or it turns a funny color after you polished it a few times with Wham-X All Purpose Miracle Cleanser, you are on your own.
Some information is required by law. A link to the full text of the warranty that applies to a faucet is required by the pre-sale availability rule of the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act. (16 CFR &§702)
More than half of the needed specifications are missing from the Vintage Bath website. The site scored 42 out of a possible 100 and was rated F (Fail) for the lack of the minimum basic faucet specifications.
Randolph Morris already has all of the necessary information. It just needs to be willing to share.
Faucet Warranty
The 5-year warranty offered on Randolph Morris faucets is one of the weakest among faucet companies that import from Taiwan.
The warranty is poorly drafted, clearly not written by a lawyer. A lawyer would not have omitted nearly every single one of the provisions required in a consumer warranty by the federal Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act (15 U.S.C. §2301) This is a cut-and-paste warranty in which provisions from other warranties were cobbled together without understanding their full legal import or even whether they are consistent.
Almost the first thing our lawyer panel noted is that it is never disclosed which company is offering the warranty, Randolph Morris Incorporated or VTB, Inc., or both. The identity of the company providing the warranty is one of the things that must always be disclosed in the warranty document. Here it is not.
The warranty starts with
"All Randolph Morris items are warranted to the original owner to be free of manufacturing and mechanical defects.
leaving the length or duration of the warranty a mystery.
Scrolling down the page past several banners, we find one that mentions faucets (shown at right or below).
It hints at but does not actually state that faucets are limited to a five-year warranty.
Hinting is not enough. Magnuson-Moss requires a "clear and readily understandable"
"… description of products … covered by [the warranty] … and the time period or other measurement of warranty duration." (16 CFR § 701.3(a))
The banners are conspicuous without a doubt, but the import of their content is anything but clear.
Another oddity in the warranty is its requirement that all products be installed by a "qualified licensed plumber."
We can appreciate the benefit of having plumbing products installed by a plumber. Improper installation is one of the leading causes of warranty claims. But, the advantage of having a "qualified licensed plumber" install a vanity cabinet or lighting fixture is much less obvious.
A cabinetmaker or electrician might be a more appropriate choice. In fact, in most localities, a "qualified licensed electrician" is the only tradesman who can legally install electrical fixtures.
The warranty does not indicate what penalty, if any, applies if a product is not installed by a plumber.
Randolph Morris promises only to mail the parts required to fix a faulty faucet or "make an appropriate adjustment", whatever that is.
It specifically excludes any responsibility for the labor cost to uninstall, repair, and reinstall the faucet. A plumber's charges may be many times the cost of a few parts.
The company provides a link to the warranty on every faucet page of its website, so at least the warranty is easy to find. Other faucet companies should adopt this sensible practice (especially since it is now required by federal regulations).
A faucet is, however, a product that has utility only when installed. A company providing a full warranty on such a product has a legal "Duty to Install" under Federal law and must "provide such installation without charge …(16 CFR §700.9)
Other companies that sell Rin Shing faucets offer much stronger warranties.
Huntington Brass, for example, warrants its Rin Shing faucets for a "lifetime", as long as the original buyer "owns their home [sic]." Signature Hardware guarantees them for twenty-five years, and Kingston Brass for 10 years.
Evidently, these companies have more faith in Rin Shing's faucet quality than does Randolph Morris.
There is a message for you in the anemic Randolph Morris faucet warranty.
The company's management is telling you very clearly that it has little confidence in the longevity of Randolph Morris faucets. The company is not willing to bet its own dollars that the faucets will last for more than five years. If they do, great. But, if not, the company does not want to pay for it.
So, if six years down the road your valve cartridge drips, the finish peels, or the side spray no longer sprays, the problem is yours and yours alone to deal with. Randolph Morris will do no more than sell you the parts to fix it — if it has the parts, and replacement parts may be a problem.
Replacement Parts
The company does not have an organized in-depth replacement parts program. According to a customer agent, its only source for parts is to scavenge parts from other faucets as needed, order the part from its supplier in Taiwan, or if the faucet is no longer being made, to replace the entire faucet during the warranty period with a "comparable" faucet (assuming there is a comparable faucet available).
After the warranty period, you can forget about parts unless the company happens to have a left-over faucet from which it can scrounge. In consequence, the odds are good that if your Randolph Morris faucet breaks years in the future there will be no parts to fix it.
Customer Service
The company's pre-sale customer service is very good, as one would expect from a company that sells most of its merchandise online.
Post-sale support, however, is not quite as good, not because agents are not willing and ready to help, but because they don't actually know that much about Randolph Morris faucets.
They can help with warranty claims and replacement parts, but not much else. If you need technical support, for example, with an installation problem, you are on your own. Customer service representatives have little technical knowledge and cannot provide the needed assistance.
We found that the best source of information is not sales but the section that supports sales to trade professionals. The agents seem to know a little more about the products.
The company is accredited by the Better Business Bureau and is pledged to the Bureau's high standards of business ethics. It is rated A+ by the BBB on a scale of A+ to F for its prompt response to customer issues.
Testing & Certification
Comparable Faucets
Imported TAiwan-made faucets comparable to Randolph Morris faucets include
Conclusions
Despite the weak warranty and questionable availability of replacement parts, We judge these faucets to be a reasonable value and worth a look if you need an economy faucet for a little-used guest bath or powder room sink. The faucets are just what the company advertises them to be: reasonable quality economy faucets.
For the main faucet in a busy kitchen, we suggest another choice from a company that has the confidence to provide a lifetime warranty, but they would be fine at a prep station.
They are certainly not the world's best faucets but they are priced accordingly and, in general, priced somewhat below similar faucets sold by other importers of legal Taiwanese and Chinese faucets.
But, bear in mind that if you buy one of these faucets you are taking a chance on its long-term reliability. After five years, the risk of a faucet failure is all yours. If you accept that risk, then these faucets may be a viable option for you. If not, you should look elsewhere.
We are continuing to research the company. If you have experience with Randolph Morris faucets, good, bad, or indifferent, we would like to hear about it, so please contact us or post a comment below.