Kitchen faucets?

Now the kitchen faucet has decided to leak. I could fix it with new wax rings, but I think it is time to replace it as it looks bad/cheap, and the handle itself is broken. 

So with that in mind, I seem to recall a thread here a while back stating not to buy these from Home Depot because they'll have plastic internals that wear out. What should I look for in a kitchen faucet so that it lasts at least 10 years? Seems like something that should last forever. 

And another potential issue... This faucet has very low water pressure with hot water. It is ONLY this faucet, and ONLY hot water--all other faucets/showers have normal water pressure on hot and cold. That has to be something wrong with the faucet, right?

We put a Moen in our house 19 years ago.  Our hard water is brutal on them.  We replace them often and just put our 5th Moen in last fall.   

Moen is for life but my wife got tapped for a $40 expedite fee last time - all others were free replacements.  I’m not sure if Moen is good or bad.  

I bought two bathroom faucets from Lowe's in a brushed nickel finish when the wife got tired of looking at the builder grade chrome faucets we had on our double sinks in the master bath.  Typical silly woman.  The existing faucets would probably have lasted another quarter century at least.

So I bought a reputable brand.  Delta faucets carry a lifetime warranty, even if you buy them at the big box home center. 

Not a year out of the box, the cartridge on the hot (I think) side would squeak when you turned it on or off.  It got more frequent, and louder.  Wife says something about it, so I'm on the phone.

Delta customer service is great.  They sent two new cartridges right out.  Installation is very easy.  It hasn't squeaked yet, knock on wood.

The rod which operates the pop-up rusted through on these a couple months ago.  Inexplicably, it's plated steel, not stainless.  Again,  customer service came through with a no hassle free replacement part.

If I had to do it again, would I pay a bunch more and buy "real" Delta faucets from Ferguson?  I dunno. 

Just buy a reputable brand with a lifetime warranty and good warranty service.  I can recommend Delta.

mtn said:

And another potential issue... This faucet has very low water pressure with hot water. It is ONLY this faucet, and ONLY hot water--all other faucets/showers have normal water pressure on hot and cold. That has to be something wrong with the faucet, right?

There's usually a cutoff valve under the sink.  Is it fully open?  Gotta be either the faucet, the valve, or something obstructing the pipe!!

The big-box stores do have the good stuff, but you generally have to order it. We remodeled our kitchen in 2013 and installed a nice-looking Delta that cost around $100. We also have hard water, and by last year, it was crap, leaking, clogged, the finish looked terrible, etc. So we replaced it with this Kraus, special ordered from Home Depot. The difference in quality is obvious. It's all metal where the Delta was only metal where it had to be, and coated plastic everywhere else.

Right now, I'm avoiding delta- as we got one in our kitchen and it started to corrode- to the point I just replaced it yesterday.  Oddly, none of the other delta faucets in the home did that.  But, still, that should have not happened.  So I got a kohler from a local plumbing supply store.  More expensive than what we could get at the big boxes, but I have read for many instances, what they stock appears to be the same thing, until you look at the specific brand part number.  So they are not exactly the same.

If you can get the exact same thing, as Tom says, then compare the PN and then the price.

One interesting note- Amazon does sell all of these items, but they seem to be like the big box store quality- a lof of reviews had issues...  

As for the hot- when you take it apart, make sure you open the supply line a little just to clean it out.  

Oh, I really like the more modern ways these are installed- I had to use the special wrench to get the old one off, but the new one is a completely different design, and much better as I see it.  

Well, a quick look at prices and reviews tells me that we're ordering this from Costco. Now to get the wife to figure out which one she wants.

If you want faucets that your house will fall down around, look at Gröhe.  As a bonus, they are nicely designed, too.

Duke said:

If you want faucets that your house will fall down around, look at Gröhe.  As a bonus, they are nicely designed, too.

We were tempted by them, but every review, including the plumbing store, says they have troublesome customer service.  

Other than that, they have very competitive prices if they are that good.

As a former HD employee, yes... HD wants to sell cheaper, and if Moen, Delta, and Pfister want to sell their wares at HD they have to make them less expensively.  That is why if you look at the Moen website and choose the "Danbury" design you can find the same-looking faucet at HD but it's called "Hampshire."  (names made up, but you get the idea).  The Hampshire is a Danbury carcass with plastic guts instead of brass/rubber for $20 cheaper.

I went with Krauss for my faucet.  I love it, but it isn't full of bells and whistles.  It is pretty simple, but high quality and works great.  If you do get a brand-name like Moen or Delta, pony up and buy it from a plumber's warehouse or pro supplier.  You'll pay $30 more, but it's worth it.

Also... not sure if it's fixed or not, but Moen had a problem for a while with their braided flex lines.  The Moen in my previous house worked fine until you used the pull-down feature.  The braided hose squirted like crazy.  Similar story with my friend's Moen faucet but his leaked under the cabinet causing some serious damage.  They both had a lifetime warranty, so the part was replaced, but at your own labor.