Quote:
Originally Posted by SSM_DC5
In my own experience going through renos and picking my own fixtures. It's all expensive and larger brand name items have been pretty good.
This is my bathroom faucet, chose it based strictly on design. It's originally matte black, but the base has shiny black parts. It wasn't like that when I bought it, but after about 2 years of use, it looks like that. I also have an issue with the ball valve. I lift up the lever to turn on the water and swing it left and right for hot/cold, well when i lift it up, it falls downs a little. That happened over time. I have double sinks, so after it started to fall down, i used started to use the second sink. The second sink still stays up strong so perhaps it was just the 1 faucet? I think it's the house brand or something, but I bought it from GR Marine at Big Bend.
This is my hand towel rack from Amazon. The matte black finish is peeling off.
My Delta kitchen faucet still has a uniform matte black finish, nothing like the issues you see above. Also Delta was really good with replacing a missing mixing valve for one of my shower fixtures. They sent it to me for free. Just a phone call to do it, didn't need to show any proof of purchase.
To take it one step further, my matte black handles for cabinets. They're richelieu and the finish is scratched off pretty easily. I haven't scratched off large chunks, but the lines so far look like stainless steel underneath the matte black finish |
I have similar experience with my bath faucet.
I went with a more expensive brand (Hansgrohe) on my shower faucet which been working fine for 5+ years of daily use.
I got a cheap no name import for my bath faucet...initially I was amazed at how well it worked and looked at less than 1/3 the price of the name brand stuffs...but last year the chrome coating started flaking off from the corners...and i can see the bare iron/brass inside on the handle now...
The branded shower faucets still looks perfectly fine and the shower faucet had 10x more use than the bath faucets.
Also the linear drain I got from amazon for cheap keeps getting these rust dots, where else the other branded one I got never had them. (The rust dots can scrub off, but still looks ugly)
the cheap ikea facuets i got for vanity is great tho...so I guess prices aren't everything.