Cheap Amazon Faucet disection and my thoughts

[PWC Repair]

Let me start by saying my son is on a shoestring budget and plumbing fixtures can get super expensive. He didn't really like the looks of any at the local big box stores so he started looking online. WELL.......now he has 2 tub/shower fixtures with accessories for about $100 each!! Seems a common complaint is leaking so I figured I'd go through them to see if anything stands out or if most of those are simply installer error. Here are a couple pics and a screenshot from Amazon. Right off the bat, better than I expected. The hanging sprayer diverter is plastic but the rest of the parts are all metal. The valve assembly is stainless and the casting is VERY smooth with no noticeable grinding marks. Solid brass cartridges that seemed to turn smoothly.

 

[PWC Repair]

This one for the tub already had fittings screwed in for the supply lines. I found a big 'ol allen wrench and took the fittings out. They had an o'ring seal and a TINY amount of.........something.......on the threads. Some of it was sticky and some was hard like dried up glue. The casting and the threaded adapters (also stainless) were nicely machined. I cleaned that **** up and reset those with high temp silicone gasket maker...........YA, I KNOW......think what you want but I've been doing metal threaded fittings like this for years with ZERO leaks. Just let it cure for 24 hours before pressureizing. I got tired of messing with paste, dope, or tape and having a drip! The valves in my house, and shop,....even the stubs on my water heater are all sealed like this for many years now and NO LEAKS. Anyway. I put them back in for good.

 

[PWC Repair]

The brass cartridges unscrewed easily but one set felt a bit 'crunchy'. It had some of this dried glue type stuff on it. Maybe this poor or lack-of sealant is causing leaks?? After removing the clip I could NOT shove the guts out of the cartridge. I found a large deepwell and fit it into my arbor press.......that's a ratcheting wood floor jack welded under a piece of angle on the side of my shop press. It's CHEAP and works like a CHAMP!!!! With a bit of pressure it popped loose. The bottom has this little lip that holds it in.

 

[PWC Repair]

I was sort of amazed to find standard looking ceramic discs and silcone o'rings inside. Surely this must be a knockoff of some regular name brand. Again, machining in all this brass seems to be really nice. The seats down in the cast stainless manifold also had nice smooth machining. i DID find one assembly to have the hot and cold cartridges reversed. There was also a bit of corrosion on the end of the stems that cleaned off easily with a brass brush. Maybe these were actually water tested?

 

[whateg01]

Nice eval!

I've bought several faucets off of Amazon. I don't know if I would buy one for the tub/shower since it's a little more invasive to replace, but the ones for the kitchen, utility room, and bathroom sinks have been better than expected. The bathroom faucet has some calcium deposits around the lever, so it's obviously leaked a little there.

The kitchen and utility room sinks are still fairly new, but work nicely and so far don't leak. Installation has gotten super easy nowadays, though I did 3D print a "socket" to take off the nuts of the old faucets.

They were all bought as temporary use while I finish a remodel, but I wouldn't hesitate to buy them again so far. In 10 years, I might change my mind, but the temp bathroom one has been in use for about 5 years now. (Yes the remodel has taken that long. I travel a lot!)

 

[PWC Repair]

Finally I reassembled the cartridges and put a bit of Teflon paste on the threads. Two reasons for that......ONE, cause the cartridge threads into a dissimilar metal, and TWO, for a bit of extra sealing insurance even though the o'ring appears to sit real nice in the machined area on the manifold.

FINAL THOUGHTS.......possibly these are a decent quality faucet for the money and just a bit lacking in final assembly prep from the factory?? I guess my son is taking one for the team and we'll find out!!

 

[dscheidt]

My kitchen faucet is some sort of no-name Chinese thing, installed by the previous owners. given the quality of workmanship, fittings, and attention to detail on the rest of the work they did, I'm sure it's the absolute cheapest thing they could find, but it's pretty well made. I had it apart recently, because we replaced a bunch of galvanized pipe, and there was sediment clogging it. I was surprised, it's got lots of metal where most things are plastic these days. I've had a couple problems with it, the hose for the spray head split, but the fittings are 3/8" compression, so I was able to replace it with a faucet supply line. I probably should have found one that's more attractive than what's on the shelf at the Borg, but it works fine. The other problem was that one of the o-rings that seal the spout swivel failed. It's a size in the iso standard for metric orings, but a goofy one, and not one in the o-ring kit I have, nor was it in stock at the local place that is the source for faucet bits. McMaster-Carr supplied it, and now I've got 48 spares...

I've actually got a replacement for it, which I've not been allowed to install.

 

[nadogail]

Occasionally I am very pleasantly surprised by inexpensive products; most of the time I am reminded that High Quality and Low Price are mutually exclusive.

 

[dscheidt]

Occasionally I am very pleasantly surprised by inexpensive products; most of the time I am reminded that High Quality and Low Price are mutually exclusive.

More often these days, I'm reminded that you don't get what you paid for. Lots of legacy western companies are selling the same ****, but charging a substantial premium for the name. Remember, no one moves production from the US or Europe to SE Asia because they want to make something better.

 

[jmdirk]

For any of this kind of offshore vs western made comparison I always try to consider what it is and where it's made.

First, making a comparison to what is available in the regular retailers is maybe not a great comparison. They have brands made in China and elsewhere. I'd guess that even some of the well known western brands have certain products made overseas as well. Or "assembled in USA with foreign and domestic components" kind of thing.

For something like a faucet, this isn't some weird electronic gadget made strictly for export. They have faucets showers etc in those countries where they are made. About 50% of the people in the world live in Asia. Sure, not all have access to running water, but I doubt that there is a billion plus people dealing with chronically leaky faucets etc. And a lot of these area aren't using wood frame and drywall construction where it's relatively easy to open up a wall. It's brick and mortar, so plumbing is even less accessible

I installed a couple shower valves about 5 years ago and haven't had an issue. Seemed to be solid and well made. I think the biggest concern with some of these would be how long the finish holds up.

 

[The Cobbler]

good work

 

[zendriver]

It wasn't Amazon, but we purchased an inexpensive imported bath vanity faucet from Menard's.

The thing is fantastic and works/looks great for over 5 years now. The drain was plastic, using the plastic push to close/open spring mechanism. The whole stopper thing just pulls out for simple cleaning. Don't recall ever seeing USA made like it.

IMO the Chinese have discovered, it does not really take that much more effort, to make quality product.

 

[The Cobbler]

this thread made me recall a situation... years ago I bought a brad nailer ( pre-internet) by mail order. it was crazy inexpensive compared to the brand names back then.
it didn't work very well but looked to be decently made .
upon taking it apart it was full of machining chips . cleaned them up & it worked fine.
I no longer have it, if I recall correctly it was stolen out of one of the vans when I got robbed.