WEWE Faucets Review & Rating Updated: December 5, 2023

Imported

China

Kaiping Dipin Hardware Products Co., Ltd.

No.8,51 Building 4th Floor

Xianglong Middle Road

Sanbu District

Kaiping City

Jingmen

Guangdong 529300 China

trading as

Aonecer

sales@wewe-faucet.com

Rating

Business Type

For more information on the five faucet company business types, see Faucet Companies

Product Range

Kitchen and Prep Faucets

Certifications

Brands

WEWE

Street Price

$59-$94

Warranty Score

Cartridge

5 years

Finishes

5 years

Mechanical Parts

5 years

Proof of Purchase

Required¹

Transferable

Yes

Meets U.S. Warranty
Law Requirements

No

Warranty Footnotes:

1. WEWE warranties must be "activated" from the WEWE website before it will be honored.

Learn more about faucet warranties.

This Company In Brief

Kaip­ing Dip­in Hard­ware Prod­ucts is a Chin­ese plumbing products distributor that sells fau­cets in the U.S. and Canada under the WEWE brand.

It sells only through internet venues that host third-party sellers primarily Ama­zon where it maintains a Sstorefront under the name Aonecer.

The company claims a five-year warranty on the faucet, but the terms of the warranty are not published and to be honored by the company, the warranty has to be "activated" on the WEWE website.

The faucets are stainless steel of average to above average quality. There is nothing distinctive about faucets that commends them for use in an American or Canadian kitchen except the price, which is remarkably low.

The company has certified eight different faucet models to North American standards but, as of the date of this reports, sell just three of them in North America.

Kaip­ing Dip­in Hard­ware Prod­ucts Co. is a distributor of decorative plumbing products such as faucets and showers, and the accessories that often accompany faucets, including towel bars and rings, robe hooks, and toilet paper holders.

The company is very elusive. Its public profile is exceptionally sparse. China has no record of its corporate registration under that name. It does not maintain a corporate website and does not appear in any of the usual directories of China-based manufacturers and distributors. It does not have a social media presence. It appears only in a U.S. trademark registration database as the owner of the WEWE name and logo.

Its WEWE products are sold only on the internet through websites that host third-party sellers. The most prominent of these is Amazon. It sells as an Amazon storefront called Aonecer in both the U.S. and Canada.

Aonecer has even less of a public presence. It is not an entity. It is just a name under which WEWE products are sold. There is no actual body behind the name, not even a tradename filing.

It is not even the actual owner of the WEWE Amazon storefront. Its owner, according to Amazon, is Nie Jun, an agent who fronts for Dip­in Hard­ware from time to time. It was Nie Jun who originally filed for the WEWE name trademark in the U.S. in 2016. (The name was not transferred to Dip­in ownership until 2017.) And Nie Jun is the only poster on Aonecer's Instagram page.

All WEWE sales transactions are handled in North America by hosting websites.

Ama­zon in particular takes care of inventory, warehousing, sales, payment processing, and delivery.

Dip­in's sole role in the process is to ship fau­cets to Ama­zon warehouses from time to time, ensuring that Ama­zon does not run out of inventory.

Dip­in Hard­ware attmpts to handle post-sale matters from China by email. These include warranty claims and purchases of replacement parts other than the few sold on Amazon.

The process is slow and com­ber­some, comp­licated by language issues and made slower by the time difference of 13 to 16 hours between North America and China.

Anything but very simple requests usually get an puzzled response from the company. A reply to an email typically takes a minimum of 8 hours often as long as 48 hours. If your WEWE fau­cet is malfunctioning and you need replacement parts, that is far too long.

Construction & Materials

The fau­cets are constructed conventionally. The body and spout of the fau­cets, as well as being decorative, are the components that channel water within the fau­cet.^[1]

Stainless Steel

The primary material from which the kitchen faucets sold by WEWE in North America are made is stainless steel. Stainless steel is a good choice for faucets since, unlike brass, it does not contain any lead that might leach into drinking water passing through the faucet.

The stainless steel is, according to the company, 304 stainless, an alloy that includes chrom­ium and nickel. The nickel gives the steel a crystalline structure which increases its strength. The chromium helps the steel resist corrosion.

Why Stainless Steel Does Not Rust: Properly alloyed stainless contains at least 10% chromium (which gives stainless its slight yellowish tinge) and a dollop of nickel. These form a coating of oxides and hydroxides on the outer surface of the steel that blocks oxygen and water from reaching the underlying metal, preventing rust from forming. The coating is very thin, only a few atoms thick, so thin that it is invisible to the eye under ordinary light but thick enough to protect the fau­cet.

Stainless 304, also known as "food-grade" stainless, is by far the most common alloy used to make kitchen utensils, silverware, cookware, and fau­cets.

Steel is harder than brass. It can be made in thinner profiles that use less material and still have more than adequate strength. But, steel is more difficult to fabricate and generally requires heavier machinery, so there usually is no cost savings over brass.

The stainless steel used in WEWE fau­cets is 304 stainless. This "food-grade" 304 steel is the stainless used to make kitchen utensils, flatware, and cookware. It includes chrom­ium and nick^shy;el with the steel. The nickel gives the steel a crystalline structure that increases its strength. The chromium helps the steel resist corrosion.

Why Stainless Steel Does Not Rust: Properly alloyed stainless contains at least 10% chromium (which gives stainless its slight yellowish tinge) and a dollop of nickel. These form a coating of oxides and hydroxides on the outer surface of the steel that blocks oxygen and water from reaching the underlying metal, preventing rust from forming. The coating is very thin, only a few atoms thick, so thin that it is invisible to the eye under ordinary light but thick enough to prevent the fau­cet from rusting.

Zinc & Zinc/Aluminum Alloys

Another cost-saving practice is to replace the primary material with even lower-cost materials where practical. The most frequent substitute is zinc or a zinc-aluminum (ZA) alloy. One of the most common is called ZAMAK, a composition containing 4% aluminum.

Zinc is not as strong as steel and does not resist water pressure as well as steel. But, its use in non-pressurized parts of a brass fau­cet such as handles, base and wall plates, and is common even among manufacturers of luxury fau­cets.

It does no harm when used in these components, and may save consumers a few dollars on the price of the faucet.

Plastics

Plastic is the other commonly used substitute material. It may be safely used in incidental parts like base plates and has been largely trouble-free in aerators and as casings for ceramic cartridges but otherwise, its use is suspect especially if under water pressure.

WEWE kitchen fau­cet sprays are plastic and the use of plastic for spray heads (called "wands" in the fau­cet industry) is one of the suspect uses of the material.

Un­fort­un­ate­ly, plastic wands have become the standard for many manufacturers, including some that sell upscale fau­cets such as

Manufacturers give three reasons for their use of plastic:

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

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

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

However, plastic wands also fail much more often than metal wands. And although engineers have made significant improvements to their reliability over the past decade, the problem has not been entirely solved.

Better wands are made of metal, insulated against excessive heat transmittal.

The Sure Cure for Too-Hot Spray Wands: The simple cure for spray wands that get too hot is to reduce the temperature of the water. Dishes do not need to be rinsed in scalding hot water.

Faucet Design & Styling

WEWE fau­cets are primarily modern designs, crisp and clean, without added decoration. Just one faucet in the WEWE collection is arguably a traditional style. The designs are conservative – fairly common Chinese designs, attractive enough but exhibiting no particular design originality.

The goal of Chinese fau­cet manufacturers is to sell as many fau­cets as possible, which means keeping their designs well within the mainstream to appeal to as many potential buyers as possible.

Although some Chinese manufacturers have begun producing original designs, some of which have won awards in international design competitions, Dipin's suppliers are not some of those companies.

Designs are usually adopted from Eur­ope and North Amer­ica.

A style that sells well in these major markets will often be imitated by Asian factories (with minor changes to avoid patent infringement). The lag time is usually 3 to 5 years, so by the time a design appears in a Chinese fau­cet it is no longer new.

WEWE's fau­cet designs fit this pattern. They are pleasant and often smartly styled, but all are over a decade old.

WEWE Faucet Components

The critical components used in WEWE fau­cets are ceramic valve cartridges and aerators.

The cartridges used in WEWE faucets are made by Feng­hua Man­dun San­it­ary Ware Co., Ltd., a technical ceramics manufacturer since 2000.

Its ceramic valve cartridges are not widely used in Chin­ese faucets made for export to NOrth Amer­i­ca, but are fairly popular in Eur­ope. They have a respectable reputation for long-term leak-free service..

WEWE Faucet Finishes

WEWE offers six finishes on its fau­cets: Brushed Nick­el, Chrome, Gold, Matte Black, Matte Gray, and Oil-Rubbed Bronze.

One fau­cet is available in a in which a base finish, Chrome, is paired with an accent finish, Black.

Two of the six finishes. Chrome and Brushed Nickel are electroplated. Matte Black, Matte Grey, and Oil-Rubbed Bronze are powder coatings. Gold may also be a powder coating, but is more likely applied using physical vapor deposition (PVD).

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

Usually, multiple coats are applied, one or more undercoats and then two or more coats of the finish metal.

The process is potentially hazardous to the operator and the environment. It involves toxic and corrosive chemicals that must be disposed of safely. No other coating technology even comes close to the dangers involved in electroplating.

The top coat may be polished or brushed. Chrome, a relatively hard metal, is usually polished to a high shine. Nick­el, a softer metal, is usually brushed to help hide the inevitable minor scratches.

or PVD is one of the latest space-age fau­cet finishing technology, rapidly replacing electroplating as the finish of choice.

Although the technology was discovered in the 19th century, it was not used in industry until the 1950s and then only rarely due to its great expense. Its first use was in nuclear reactors. Today,the technology is everywhere and the machinery required is getting smaller, faster, and cheaper all the time.

The process itself was discovered hundreds of years ago, but its commercial use originated in NASA labs where it was developed to coat nuclear reactor and rocket parts.

Load a chamber with unfinished fau­cet components, remove all the air, and add back a carefully calculated mix of nitrogen or argon and reactive gases.

Add a rod of the metal to be used for the coating. Heat that rod to a temperature so high that the metal dissolves into individual atoms. The atoms mix with the various reactive gases to get the color and finish effects you want and are then deposited in a very thin layer – 2 to 5 microns – on the fau­cets.

A micron is one-millionth of a meter or 1/26,000 of an inch. The average human hair is 83 microns thick. The smallest the human eye with excellent vision can see without magnification is about 5 microns.

Despite being just microns thick, a PVD coating is extremely dense and, in consequence, very hard and durable. By some estimates, it is up to 20 times more scratch-resistant than electroplated chrome.

From long experience, we know that PVD is nearly impossible to accidentally scratch or mar, never fades or changes color, and resists all forms of soiling.

It can usually be maintained with just an occasional wipe from a damp cloth to remove water spots. (And some PVD finishes are given a final chemical coating that resists water spots, so even the damp wipe is made largely unnecessary. A dry buff will do.)

is usually described as semi-durable, not as robust as electroplated or PVD finishes, about as durable as the finish on your car, and requiring more care to maintain a like-new appearance.

It is essentially a dry paint in powder form applied using a special low-velocity spray gun that disperses the powder while giving it a positive electrical charge. The particles are drawn to the item to be finished which has been given a negative charge.

Once the powder is applied, the item being coated is baked in an oven which melts and bonds the powder and changes the structure of the coating into long, cross-linked molecular chains.

These chains are what give the coating its durability, reducing the risk of scratches, chipping, abrasions, corrosion, fading, and other wear issues.

Finish Care Instructions: Always read and follow the fau­cet seller's care instructions. Careful cleaning and maintenance not only preserve the good looks of your fau­cet but also your finish warranty.

The WEWE Faucet Warranty

Dip­in purports to offer a five-year warranty, but it's not in writing. At least, it is not in any recognizable warranty document we could find. The only thing the WEWE website says about the warranty is:

"WEWE aims to provide 100% satisfaction to our customers, our customer support stands by for your installation help, warranty or other issue within 24 hours.

Who is covered by the warranty?

To avoid any counterfeit product in the market, our warranty is only for original buyer and item is sold by Aonecer on Amazon."

Unfortunately, this abbreviated statement of the company's warranty does not comply with the minimum requirements for consumer product warranties in the U.S. contained in the federal Mag­nu­son-Moss War­ranty Act (15 U.S.C. §2301). In particular, it does not …

1. Provide a "clear description and identification of products, or parts, or characteristics, or components or properties" Absent this clear description and identification, it is assumed that every part of the fau­cet is covered by the warranty.

2. Explain what Kaip­ing Dip­in Hard­ware Prod­ucts Co., Ltd. will do to remedy a defect under warranty. If no explanation is offered, it is assumed that the company will do whatever is necessary, even sending a plumber to your door if required.

4. Provide "A step-by-step explanation of the procedure which the consumer should follow" to make a claim under the warranty including the mailing address or telephone number to use.

5. Include the following statement, required to be in every consumer warranty:

   "This warranty gives you specific legal rights, and you may also have other rights which vary from State to State"

In addition to the legal issues, there are practical business issues with the warranty.

It does nothing to limit the company's liability. Dip­in's exposure is not just the cost of repairing the fau­cet. It is responsible for all of the harm that might be caused by a defect in the fau­cet. Consider this more or less standard law school problem:

A WEWE faucet leaks, flooding the kitchen and doing great damage to the cabinets and flooring. The water also leaks through the floor damaging the ceiling and walls, carpet, and most of the furnishings of the rec room in the basement below. The cost of repairing and replacing the damage will run to several thousand dollars.

Because all the damage can be traced directly back to the leaking faucet, Dip­in is liable for the entire cost of repairing the damage to the kitchen and rec room, probably several thousand dollars.

WEWE Customer Service

A warranty is not limited to just the document on which it is printed. It also includes the warranty services offered by the faucet company.

It has to be willing and able to honor the promises made in its warranty. Dip­in seems willing enough, but its ability is compromised by the fact that it tries to handle warranty claims from China.

As we indicated above, it often takes several days just to establish a warranty claim due to the enormous time difference between China and North America. And once the claim is admitted by the company, it may take several weeks, even months, for the company to deliver replacement parts. Most buyers cannot do without a working kitchen faucet for weeks or months.

We also found that the information provided by WEWE customer support is not always accurate.

When we inquired about the source of the cartridges used in WEWE faucets, we were first told that they were made by WEWE, a fact we already knew was not true. When confronted, the WEWE agent then identified a cartridge manufacturer. But, our research again found that the identification was also false.

Our conclusion, after multiple inquiries to WEWE customer service, is that its agents are not well-informed about the company's products and cannot be relied upon for accurate information.

The WEWE Website

Amazon encourages its third-party sellers to create a website and provides a template for doing just that. We see the same website format over and over again. It's actually a good template but most sellers do not take full advantage of its potential.

WEWE certainly has not.

It provides very little hard information about its faucets. Twenty products are listed in its inventory of kitchen faucets. Two are taps for filtered drinking water. The eighteen remaining faucets turn out to be just three basic faucet models. Each model comes in several finishes and each finish is listed separately.

The information provided about each faucet is extremely sparse. Here, for example, is all of the information WEWE provides about the A1001 faucet shown above at left:

• Sleek Design-Tulip kitchen faucet design make your kitchen room simple and fresh, easy to match most sink.

• Multifunctional Outlet Water Effect-3 way spray setting (STREAM, SPRAY, PAUSE), stream for filling water, spray for rinsing, pause for avoiding splashing in multitask mode.CEC listed. Flow Rate: 1.8 Gallons Per Minute.

• Easy to Install-Pull down hose and water Line hose altogether preinstalled in kitchen faucet to save much time under the sink,no require plumber,finish DIY installation less than 30 minutes.

• Easy to Operate-Single handle control water temperature and flow volume easily,high arc 360 degree swivel spout supply full range washing access, sprayer head always retract back to spout after each use.

• Easy to Maintenance-Superior corrosion & rust-resistant finish prevent dirty from sticking to faucet surface, clean faucet by cloth is enough in Daily Use.

Almost all of the specifications critical to an informed faucet buying decision are missing. Among the most critical are:

• Faucet Valve:

  No information id provided about a faucet's valve, not even the fact that it is a ceramic cartridge valve.

• But, in addition to this basic specification, the buyer needs to know the name of the cartridge manufacturer. There are good ceramic cartridges and not-so-good ceramic cartridges.

• To make an informed buying decision the buyer needs to know the manufacturer. Otherwise, there is no way to judge the quality of the cartridge.

• Type of Finish:

  The type of finish is not disclosed. The type of finish (electroplated, powder coating, PVD, etc.) is important to the long-term durability of the finish.

• If the top (wear) coat of the faucet finish is a lacquer, a powder coat, or anything other than a non-reactive metal, long-term wearability is substantially reduced.

• Certifications:

  Certifications are not noted. As all of the faucets offered for sale in North America are certified to the basic North American faucet standards, WEWE should have not problem disclosing that fact. We also recommend a link to the listing document that proves the faucet's certification.

• Please Note: The kitchen faucets listed on the WEWE website and sold on Amazon have all been certified to basic North American standards including lead-free and drinking water safety standards as of the date of this report. We checked and confirmed all certifications. See "Testing & Certification" below.

• Warranty:

  The WEWE warranty is mentioned on the website with an opportunity to "activate" the warranty. But, the warranty document is nowhere to be found.

• U.S. law requires a consumer product warranty be made available to the buyer prior to the sale of the product.

• For faucets sold only online, this means the warranty must be on the seller's website and a conspicuous link to the warranty provided from every place on the internet the faucet is sold. WEWE does not comply with either requirement.

These are just some of the many gaps in the basic information that should be provied on a faucet company website that is not included on the WEWE site. The rest are listed in the accompanying table.

Testing & Certification

Comparable Faucets

Faucets made in China comparable to WEWE in quality with the same or a better warranty, but not necessarily comparable for design or price, include

Conclusions

WEWE fau­cets have been certified safe, reasonably durable, and lead-free. They do not pose a potential hazard if installed in your kitchen.

From disassembly and inspection, we conclude that the fau­cets are well made. The cartridge used in the faucets has a reputation for long-term, leak-free service. It is a standardized cartridge, widely available in Europe, but sources for replacement cartridge in North America are limited. WEWE, however, sells the cartridge on Amazon.

We would not hesitate to install the faucet as the main faucet in kitchen, subject to the following caveats:

• The company does not provide any U.S.-based after-sale support. The process of getting replacement parts or making a warranty claim is managed from China and is, at best, cumbersome and lengthy – weeks if not months.

• The availability of replacement parts in the long run is suspect, especially for discontinued faucets.

• The company could pull out of the North American market at any time, taking its 5-year warranty with it. The absence of a substantial physical presence in the U.S. suggests that it is not in the North American market for the long haul.

We are continuing to research the company. If you have experience with WEWE fau­cets, good, bad or indifferent, we would like to hear about it, so please starcraftreviews@yahoo.com or post a comment below.