Rubinet Faucets
Review & Rating
Updated: 06/04/24
Our panel of consumers and industry professionals has recognized Rubinet faucets as a Best Value in luxury faucets made or assembled in North America. Read the Best Faucet Value Report for more information.
Summary
10 Corstate Ave.
Concord, ON L4K 4X2
(800) 777-9762
(905) 851-6781
info@rubinet.com
Law Requirements
Warranty Footnotes:
1. "Product Function: All Rubinet products are guaranteed against factory defects or poor workmanship and will be repaired or replaced at no charge."2. Product Finishes: Any product found to be defective due to blemishes or discolouration will be refinished or replaced at no charge.Read the Rubinet faucet warranty.Learn more about faucet warranties.Read our Model Limited Lifetime Faucet Warranty.
This Company In Brief
The Rubinet Faucet Company is a Canadian corporation that designs and produces distinctive up-scale sink faucets, tub fillers, shower assemblies, and coordinating accessories sold in Canada, parts of the U.S. and exported to other countries.
Most of the brass faucets are the company's proprietary designs. All are assembled in Canada by Rubinet from components supplied by outside manufacturers.
Faucets are supported after the sale by a strong warranty and top-notch customer service.
We judge Rubinet faucets to be an excellent value in a luxury faucet.
For an upscale bath, or as that one touch of immodest luxury in a more budget-minded bath, consider Rubinet. You can buy a more expensive faucet. But we doubt you will find a much better faucet at any price.
The Rubinet Faucet Company, Limited, formed in 1981 in Ontario, is owned and managed by Domenic Luisi, the company's CEO and designer-in-chief.
It designs, finishes, and assembles.[1] striking and unique faucets, shower assemblies, and coordinating accessories sold in Canada, parts of the U.S., and overseas.
For you English speakers, the name is pronounced rubiNAY, not rubiNET, and is a play on robinet, the French word for faucet.
The faucets are, for the most part, its own creations designed and assembled in Canada from components manufactured in-house and by overseas suppliers. Rubinet's known off-shore suppliers include
- Camel Products, Inc. of Taiwan,
- Docol Metais Sanitários Ltda. in Brazil, and
- Gallazzini S.p.A of Varallo, Italy.
These are all first-class manufacturers, recognized worldwide as preeminent in their respective fields.
Camel Products manufactures faucet components. It does not make whole faucets. Its top North American customers include all sellers of luxury faucets assembled in the U.S.
Docol Metals is one of Brazil's largest manufacturers of faucets for commercial installations such as hospitals, hotels, and public restrooms as well as high-quality faucets for home use.
Gallazzini manufactures kitchen and bathroom faucets. It provides several designer faucets from its that appear with minor differences in several Rubinet collections.
Import records suggest that the faucets are not supplied fully assembled, but in parts and compoents that are then finished and assembled in Canada.
Made in Canada
Rubinet faucets are about as Canadian as faucets can get.
Most are designed and all are finished, polished, assembled, inspected, and packaged in Canada — a fact that the company has not vigorously promoted in the past except for a modest and barely noticeable "Made in Canada" or "Assembled in Canada" on its faucet boxes.
The company is getting more active on social media, however, so perhaps the word is finally getting out. It should.
We expect a great many Canadian buyers would be interested in the fact that most of the labor of producing Rubinet faucets is by Canadian workers in a Canadian factory in Canada.
With all of the manufacturing that has fled Canada in recent years — including a faucet assembly plant in Mississauga that was moved lock, stock, and light-switch plates by Grohe's new Japanese owners to Mexico in 2016 — eliminating 300 high-paying Ontario factory jobs, Canadian homeowners might find it encouraging that there is still one excellent faucet line produced in Canada by Canadians.
Rubinet Faucet Designs
Also deserving of much wider recognition are Rubinet's innovative and distinctive faucet designs.
Ten of the collections, according to the company, were designed in-house. The others are designs licensed from other companies.
They are fresh, exciting, and certainly worth a mention or two, yet Rubinet seems to do less than it should to draw attention to its design acumen.
There is next to nothing about its designers or design process on its website or in any company literature. Nor can we find any instance in which a Rubinet ha entered a design in a major international design competition anywhere — not even in the U.S. or Canada.
Competition in international events is how faucet companies make their design bones, earning nearly instantaneous worldwide recognition for originality and design excellence among the communities that matter: architects, interior designers, and internet influencers.
Companies like routinely win design contests with faucets that are, in many instances, much less creative or original than any number of Rubinet's creations.
Why Rubinet is reluctant to showcase its design acumen is something that we simply do not understand, especially as one collection was created with the help of noted kitchen and bath designer: Atlanta-based Michael Quinn.
We are aware of the widely accepted profile of Canadians as being modest about their many accomplishments and reticent about tooting their own horn.
Nonetheless, some horns deserve tooting: Canada's national health system, the Royal Highland Regiment, Unibroue Trois Pistoles, and the Calgary Stampede are just a few that come immediately to mind.
Rubinet's design originality, obsessive attention to quality, and strong ties to Canada should be some of the others.
So, let's hear a little more tootin', guys. It's OK, really!
Rubinet Faucet Collections
Rubinet arrays its products in fifteen collections.
- The ICE, Genesis, H2O, LaSalle, Matthew Quinn, Nouveau, R7, and R10 collections are starkly contemporary.
- The Jasmin, Hexis, Raven, and Romanesque are more traditional.
- Etruscan and Flemish collections are somewhere between the two, or what faucet designers call "transitional" faucets.
All but the Jasmin collection include kitchen and bath faucets, tub fillers, shower assemblies, and coordinating accessories. (The Jasmin collection does not include kitchen faucets.)
The fifteenth "collection", the Essentials, is a grab bag of accessories that do not usually require stylistic coordination, such as grab bars, curtain rods, shower seats, floor drains, and the like.
Our designers' favorite collection is a toss-up between the R10 and the Ice, both of which are "wow".
The R10 is a contemporary styling adventure. It may be a little too "out there" for some buyers but the design community is going to fall in love with it.
The Ice is similarly angular and industrial but is softened by inlays of clear Swarovski Crystals — the "ice" in the faucet.
Rubinet Faucet Construction
Rubinet's faucet construction is conventional.
The body and spout give the faucets their appearance and are the components that carry and direct water.
Except in its wall-mounted faucets, the company does not use core and shell construction in which an internal core structure channels and directs water flow while a separate shell conceals the core and provides the aesthetics.
Most companies use core and shell construction for their wall-mounted faucets, so Rubinet's use of the technology is not at all unusual. (The core in wall faucets is usually called a "rough-in" or "rough-in valve" and the shell is the "trim" that hides the valve.)
The company's primary faucet material is lead-free brass. For parts of the faucet not under water pressure such as handles, baseplates, and , the Rubinet uses , a zinc/aluminum alloy commonly used by nearly all faucet manufacturers to fashion these ancillary parts.
ZAMAK saves a few dolars in manufacturing costs and does no harm to the overall quality of the faucets.
Some if not all of Rubinet's spray heads are plastic.
Upscale faucet companies like that make their spray heads out of plastic give three reasons for their use of the material:
- 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 rinsing in scalding hot water. Water heaters should be set to 120° F (49° C) to avoid scalding, especially if children are in the household.
The downside of plastic spray heads (the industry term is "wands") is that they fail much more often than metal wands. And although engineers have significantly improved their reliability over the past decade, the problems with the material have not been entirely resolved.
Insulated metal is the material of better wands, despite its weight. (Weight, however, is really more of an excuse than an actual problem. We know of no person who has ever actually struggled with the weight of a metal spray wand.)
Buying Rule for
Smart Faucet Buyers
Valve Cartridge
Never buy a faucet until you know the type of cartridge used in the faucet and who made it.
Its cartridge is the heart of a modern faucet and should be your very first consideration when making a buying decision.
It is the component that controls water flow and temperature. Its finish may fail, and the faucet will still work. It may be discolored, corroded, and ugly but water still flows.
If the cartridge fails, however, the faucet is no longer a faucet. It is out of business until the cartridge is replaced. It's important, therefore, that the cartridge be robust and durable, lasting for many years.
For more information on faucet vales and cartridges, the differences among them, and the history behind each technology, see Faucet Basics, Part 2: Faucet Valves & Cartridges.
Rubinet Faucet Components
Rubinet uses top-tier ceramic disc cartridges in its faucets.
The company's two-handle faucets include stem cartridges manufactured by Flühs Drehtechnik, GmbH in Lüdenscheid, Germany, (often spelled "Fluehs" for English speakers), considered by most in the faucet business to be one of the best, if not the best, European faucet cartridge made for two-handle faucets.
Mixing cartridges for Rubinet single-handle faucets are made by Kerox, Kft. of Hungary, and CeramTec of Luft, Germany, both world leaders in high-performance technical ceramics.
Kerox mixing cartridges are the preferred brand of many European manufacturers of premium faucets. CeramTec's Triduon® performance cartridges are instantly recognizable by the black color of their high-density EMS-Grivory plastic cases, originally developed for aerospace applications.
For more in-depth information on faucet valves and cartridges, visit Faucet Basics: Faucet Valves and Cartridges.
Rubinet faucets also include Neoperl® aerators engineered in Switzerland.
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-engineered products that shape the weter stream, limit water volume to the lower flows required by federal and state water conservation laws, and in faucets with pull-out sprays, prevent back-flow that could contaminate household drinking water.
It is important, therefore, that this little device, often smaller than a dime, be the best available. And that, almost by definition, is the Swiss-engineered Neoperl® aerator.
Rubinet Faucet Finishes
Rubinet faucets are available in 25 finishes.
Finishing is done to order in Canada, so the company has a great deal of flexibility in its finishes making its stunning variety of finishes possible. This flexibility is something not usually available in faucets assembled and finished overseas..
However, since the faucets are usually finished and assembled only when ordered, there may be a lead time of several weeks between order and delivery.
The company's specialty is in which one or more accent finishes are added to a base finish. It seems that just about every faucet is available in a two-finish split and some in a three-finish split. As far as we know, Rubinet is the only faucet company to offer a triple finish.
We counted 600 finish combinations available on two-split faucets and more on triple finishes. Three-split finishes are special order, and costly.
Some combinations would, of course, be drop-dead ugly, but most would be pleasant and some striking enough for a reasonable number of ohs
and ahs
from friends and neighbors.
Chrome is the basic finish and the base price of a faucet assumes a chrome finish. Any finish other than chrome adds to that price. A split finish adds even more.
An $800 chrome faucet can quickly become a $1,600 faucet in a split finish.
Non-metallic finishes are .
Powder coatings are considered semi-durable finishes, slightly more scratch- and mar-resistant than the paint on your car. Tough stuff but not nearly as tough as the metallic finishes.
They require more care and attention to keep their like-new appearance year after year.
The company has not yet adopted the more durable thin-film ceramic coatings for its non-metallic finishes.
Its advantage over powder coatings is its microscopic ceramic particles. Embedded in the material, these nano-ceramics make it nearly as resistant to scratches and other environmental hazards as PVD coatings, and by some accounts, even more resistant.
Rubinet metallic finishes are applied with (PVD). It no longer uses .
A PVD finish is almost indestructible.
In standard abrasion tests, PVD finishes were 10-20 times more mar- and scratch-resistant than electroplated chrome.
In our admittedly less formal tests, a Scotch Brite® pad mildly scratched a PVD chrome finish, bur it took work. a Brillo® pad had no effect at all. (Don't try this at home! Keep all scouring pads far, far away from your faucets.)
A few finishes (including Oil Rubbed Bronze, Tuscan Brass, and uncoated Brass) are what the industry calls finishes.
Living finishes are expected to show tarnish, stains, and fingerprints, and develop a patina of age through regular use by reacting to the oils in our skin as well as to chemicals in the natural environment. The longer they are in use, the more patina you get.
The Rubinet lifetime warranty covers metallic and non-metallic finishes equally (except living finishes), so even Rubinet's powder-coated finishes are evidently thought by company management to be very durable, lasting the life of the faucet.
Living finishes are guaranteed only against manufacturing defects such as peeling, spalling, and delaminating – extremely rare defects. Any that do occur are usually caught in final inspection and rearely leave the factory.
Blemishes or discoloration that appear in these finishes are not considered defects and are not covered by Rubinet's warranty or that of any other faucet company.
So, if blemishes and discoloration are not your cup of tea, be careful not to select one of Rubinet's living finishes.
Where to Buy Rubinet Faucets
Rubinet sells primarily through independent brick-and-mortar showrooms, mostly in major cities in Canada and on the U. S. coasts. Its U.S. retail locations are expanding inland, but slowly.
A showroom locator is on the Rubinet website under the "Where to Buy" tab. If you intend to order an exotic or we strongly suggest you work with a showroom designer, even if you have to work over the telephone.
If buying online, you may want to buy through a showroom's website rather than an internet-only site to ensure that all your selections coordinate for finish and style and that the order includes any needed ancillary components.
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, Rubinet pays, but if you scratch it or it turns a weird color after you polish it a few times with Wham-X All Purpose Miracle Cleaner, you are on your own.
Sorry!
On the other hand, if you are after just a faucet and a few coordinating accessories, an online site such as Decor Planet or Quality Bath may work for you.
Do not expect substantial discounts, however, no matter where you buy. Rubinet enforces a minimum advertised price policy that prohibits authorized retailers from advertising a price more than 25% below Rubinet's list price.
Rubinet Faucet Warranty
The company's written "lifetime" guarantee promises to replace any defective part and refinish or repair any finish that is "defective due to blemishes or discolouration' (except living finishes). It is "applicable to the original purchaser with a bill of sale."
It is a "full" or "unlimited" warranty as those terms are used in the U.S. Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act (15 U.S.C. § 2301 et seq — Canada has no equivalent law).
Our volunteer lawyers think it is poorly drafted and could be better written for improved clarity and to comply with federal warranty law.
Many provisions are ambiguous at best, and the warranty's definition of "lifetime" is flawed. A good case could b made in U.S. courts for continuing warranty coverage even after a faucet is sold or gifted by the oruginal purchaser to a subsequent owner.[2]
Other provisions unnecessarily void the warranty, which we suspect is not Rubinet's intention, but that's how its warranty reads.[3]
The warranty badly needs to be redrafted by a lawyer that understands U.S. warranty law just to keep the company out of legal trouble.
However, despite mulitiple problems plaguing the warranty language, the warranty provides very good customer protection (probably even more protection than Rubinet intends.)
We rate the warranty as proving somewhat better consumer protection than the standard North American lifetime. It is a "full" rather than a "limited" warranty under U.S. law, which gives the purchaser more rights, invalidating many of the restrictions Rubinet has written into its warranty.[4]
In Canada, however, most of the restrictions may still apply depending on the warranty requirements of the several Provinces.
Only a few companies have rated four stars or better in our warranty scoring, including which puts Rubinet in some rarified company.
Rubinet's Customer Service
Our warranty rating depends not just on with the warranty itself, but on a company's warranty service.
Even a very good warranty can be undone if the company does not honor the warranty in practice. Rubinet's post-sale and warranty service, however, is excellent, contributing to its better-than-average warranty score.
Agents are Canadian-friendly (which is even friendlier than Nebraska-friendly, believe it or not), knowledgeable about their products, and ready to help solve problems.
We did not test Rubinet's customer service with out usual test schedule. Small companies like Rubinet usually realize they are being tested. What we did do, however, was as a series of questions intended to guage the accuracy of the answers. We records wait times and judge courtesy, responsiveness, and product knowledge.
The results were favorable. Rubinet appears to be more interested in taking care of customer concerns than with minor niceties of who is or is not covered by its warranty.
Our judgment is confirmed by the Better Business Bureau which rates Rubinet A+ on a scale of A+ to F for its handling of customer issues. Rubinet is a BBB-accredited business and pledged to abide by the high standards required by the BBB for continued accreditation.
Rubinet Website
The company recently updated its website to a responsive architecture that works equally well on large-screen desktop monitors and small-screen smartphones.
It is colorful, fairly easy to navigate, and filled with professionally styled images of Rubinet products.
Available in English or French, it displays pricing in either U.S. or Canadian currency.
Unfortunately, however, it does not come even close to providing all of the essential information about its faucets necessary for an informed faucet-buying decision.
Finding a Faucet
The site search feature is limited to searching by model number – a restriction that assumes you have already selected a faucet. It does not permit a word search, so it is of little help finding a suitable faucet.
Searching on a collection name, like "Seven", a finish such as "Gold", or a common faucet feature such as "widespread" produces no results.
The search algorithm is very slow, taking up to 20 seconds to display search results which in computer time is a near eternity.
Finding a suitable faucet can be an involved process.
Clicking on "Poducts" at the main menu a the top of each page displays drop-down menus that allow the user to select by collection or by category (kitchen or bath).
Products are displayed in model-number order. There is no particular rhyme or reason to Rubinet's model numbers (at least, none that are immediately evident), so the result is a jumbled mess that does not group like items together. Faucets, showers, accessories, and components are intermixed, making the search for a suitable faucet tedious at best.
Rubinet provides filters to help refine the search. To display sink faucets only, select "Lavatory Faucets" or "Kitchen and Bar." From there, the user can select certain filters: "ADA approved", "WaterSense®", "deck mounts", "single handle", and so on.
Filters have a basic limitation. They are hardwired – always limited to just those options provided by the web designer.
No matter how cleverly structured or how complete, filter options cannot include all possible choices. For example, if what is wanted is just wall-mounted lavatory faucets, the user is out of luck. "Wall-mounted" is not a filter option on the Rubinet site.
A powerful site search feature offers much more flexibility.
If a user wants to display only "single-handle wall-mounted faucets in a gold finish", or only "pre-rinse kitchen faucets in Matte Black", he or she can do so using a sophisticated site search.
In the Google age, searching is familiar to most users. Google provides a site-search add-in for use on websites, as do other companies, but the Google algorithm is the most familiar to users.
Collection Identification
The faucet listings do not identify the collection of which the faucet is a part.
Using the 8IMQ kitchen faucet as an example, if you arrived at the listing page for the 8IMQ by scrolling through the items in the Seven collection, you already know the faucet's collection. But if you arrived by some other path, through "Kitchen and Bar Faucets" for examaple, you may not.
We didn't and had to rummage through the product collections until we found it.
A faucet's collection is valuable information. It allows the user to coordinate with other products in the same style.
Other faucet websites offer a link from each faucet's listing page to the full collection. It is not only more convenient for the user, but also a great marketing tool, stimulating additional sales.
Faucet Images
Rubinet listings display faucet images in a single 3/4 view.
Multiple images, or, better yet, a 360° viewing feature such as is used by faucets, which allows the mouse to rotate the faucet to any viewing angle, are invaluable in fully visualizing the faucet.
The site's faucet listing pages include a mechanism by which multiple images could be easily displayed.
Rubinet's single image, however, is dynamic and very sophisticated, changing to display a user's selection of base and accent finishes and handle choice (where a faucet offers more than one handle).
Faucet listings initially show the faucet in a default finish, almost always chrome.
Two finish charts display the company's 25 available finishes, one chart for the base finish, and a second for the accent finish.
Clicking on a base finish re-displays the faucet in the selected finish. Clicking on an accent finish adds that accent to the image.
For the Ice collection, the accent "finish" may be a crystal or mother of pearl inlay. Selecting an inlay displays the faucet with that inlay.
If the faucet is available in more than one handle, the same process re-displays the faucet in the alternate handle(s).
For example, the 8ILA kitchen faucet set is shown as having an alternate handle. But clicking on the alternate handle did not display the faucet with the selected handle. It re-displayed the faucet in a gold finish.
Selecting an accent finish for some faucets had no effect.
Many faucet companies use dynamic imaging to display their faucets in alternate finishes but only a few show alternate handle styles and none that we know of displays an accent finish. This level of sophistication in dynamic imaging is unusual and one that we would like to see more of elsewhere.
Minimum Faucet Information
Some, but very few, Rubinet faucet listings contain links labeled "Installation Instruction" [sic] and "Spec Sheet". For most faucets, these .pdf downloads are not available.
The "Soec Sheet" link displays a .pdf document that is nothing more than the same image of the faucet already displayed and a measured drawing — useful in determining whether a faucet will fit your sink. But not an actual detailed specification sheet.
Score: 14 out of 100
- ☐ ADA/ACA: Whether the faucet is suited for operation by persons with disabilities.
- ☑ Brand Name & Model Name or Number: The name or number must be the same as the name or number that appears on the certificates that confirm its compliance with North American standards.
- ☐ Certifications: Indicate whether the faucet has been tested and certified to North American standards.
- ☐ Dimensions: Overall height, Depth from front to back, Spout reach, Clearance from countertop to spout.
- ☑ Drain Included: Lavatory faucets only.
- ☐ Exploded parts diagram: Generally provided as a link to a portable document format (.pdf) document.
- ☐ Faucet Images: Multiple images, a 360° rotating image, or video link.
- ☐ Faucet Material (Primary): Brass, stainless steel, plastic, zinc/ zinc alloy, etc.
- ☐ Faucet Material (Secondary): Aluminum, plastic, zinc/zinc alloy, etc.
- ☑ Finishes: All of the finishes in which the faucet is available.
- ☐ Finishing Process: Electroplate, PVD, powder coat, etc. specified for each finish available.
- ☐ Flow Rates: Maximum flow rate(s) in gallons per minute (GPM).
- ☐ Installation Instructions: Generally provided as a link to a portable document format (.pdf) document.
- ☐ Mounting Holes: The number of sink holes required to mount the faucet.
- ☐ Mounting Hole Diameter: Required minimum diameter of the mounting hole(s).
- ☐ Spray Head Material: Faucets with sprays only. Brass, stainless steel, plastic, Hybrid (brass/plastic, steel/plastic), etc.
- ☐ Supply Hose Included: Whether or not supply hoses are included with the faucet.
- ☐ Spray Hose Type/Material: Braided nylon, PVC, stainless steel, polymer coated, etc.
- ☐ Warranty Link: A conspicuous link to the warranty that applies to the faucet. (Required by Federal warranty law (16 CFR 702))
- ☐ Valve/Cartridge Type: Compression, washerless, or ceramic cartridge.
- ☐ Valve/Cartridge Identification: The company providing the valve (unless the valve is proprietary).
- ☐ WaterSense: Watersense® listed. Lavatory faucets only.
(Checked boxes indicate specifications usually, but not always, provided on the Rubinet website.)
For specifications other than dimensions, you will need to display the "Installation Instruction", if there is one.
The instructions include an exploded parts diagram and some additional specifications for the faucet. These may include some or all of flow rates, the cartridge (identified generically), and certifications.
We found these links on only a very small fraction of Rubinet's faucet listings, mostly kitchen faucets. Most listings provide very little hard information, typically only available finishes, and whether a drain is included with the (bathroom) faucet. Nothing else.
For bathroom sink faucets, there is no indication of whether the faucet is WaterSense® listed. We did not find Rubinet faucets in the WaterSense® listed products database but did find a current WaterSense certification document issued by the CSA group showing that most, if not all, Rubinet faucets are WaterSense qualified.
There is also no indication whether a faucet is ADA- or ACA-qualified and suitable for operation by persons with physical limitations.
We tried using the site;s filters to display only those faucets that are WaterSense or ADA qualified,
Only one faucet was displayed as WaterSense listed, the 1AHX two-handle widespread bathroom faucet from the Hexis collection.
No faucets were displayed as ADA compliant.
Testing & Certification
Comparable Faucets
Faucets roughly comparable to Rubinet in quality and strength of warranty include
Conclusions
If you are Canadian (or Canadien) and in the market for a luxury faucet for your new bathroom or kitchen, especially one produced in Canada, give Rubinet a good, hard look.
Luxury Faucet Street Price Comparison
In U.S. Dollars
The quality and style of its faucets rival that of many other better-known upscale faucet brands, and its prices are competitive and often considerably lower than competing brands. (Be aware, however, that exotic finishes can add considerably to the final price.)
If you are a resident of the U.S., then ditto, except you may not care that the faucet is largely produced in Canada. But even if you don't give a hoot about the origin of Rubinet faucets, you will be impressed with their quality. And, let's face it, no one else in your social circle is likely to own one.
We consider them an excellent value in a luxury faucet. For an upscale bath, or as that one touch of immodest luxury in a more budget-minded bath, consider Rubinet.
Our rating panel was unanimous in its view of Rubinet faucets. All would buy a Rubinet for their own kitchen or bath "without reservation."
We are continuing to research the company. If you have experience with Rubinet faucets, good, bad, or indifferent, we would like to hear about it, so please contact us or post a comment below.
Footnotes:
- Original Purchaser gives his Rubinet faucet to Cousin Nell who installs it in her house.
- The warranty does not end at the sale because the Purchaser is still alive and still has a bill of sale. Having a bill of sale is the only requirement for the warranty to remain in effect. Original Purcher does not have to own the faucet for the warranty to remain in force.
- The ownership of the faucet passes to Cousin Nell but not the warranty. By its terms, the Original Purchaser is the only person to whom the warranty "is applicable." It is not transferable.
- But nohing in the warranty prevents Cousin Nell from enjoying the benefits of the warranty without necessarily having rights under warranty.
- If the faucet develops a leak, could Original Purchaser make a warranty claim for Cousin Nell's benefit?
- The answer is probably "yes". In most states (and most Canadian provinces), a party to a contract (a warranty is a contract) can enforce the terms of the contract for the benefit of a person who is not a party to the contract. The Original Purchaser, bill of sale in hand, could make a valid claim that Rubinet would be legally bound to honor.
"… for as long as the original consumer purchaser owns the faucet and resides in the home in which the faucet is first installed …"
"The warranty is not valid if: … [c]leaners containing chemicals or abrasives are used …"
"Rubinet is not responsible for labour charges …",is not valid. It is null and void, and has no force or effect whatsoever. (This, by the way, is a correct use of "not valid.")
"If the warranted product has utility only when installed, a full warranty must provide such installation without charge regardless of whether or not the consumer originally paid for installation by the warrantor or his agent". (16 CFR § 700.9)