Watch Out Before Buying Fancy Custom Faucets Online

It's a common scenario: you are browsing for inspiration photos for your remodel or home project and come across the perfect unique item that is the ideal final touch to your space — the cherry on top, or the crown jewel, if you will. For some, it's a stunning light fixture, ideal wallpaper print, one-of-a-kind tile, or jaw-dropping art piece. For others, it is that incredibly unique custom faucet that is the sparkling centerpiece of a kitchen or bath. When you click on the must-have fancy faucet, perhaps it brings you to an individual seller site like Amazon or Ebay, or to a handmade marketplace like Etsy. While they may be beautiful, are these faucets safe to buy?

Major name brand plumbing manufactures are certified by rigorous testing to ensure their plumbing fixtures are safe to use, perform well, and are in compliance with the country's codes, regulations, and standards. If you opt to purchase a faucet manufactured in another country outside of those certifications or use an artisan-made fixture, you skip the peace of mind knowing your product will operate safely and effectively. This is important for all plumbing parts (such as shower fixtures or tub fillers that have essential valves buried inside the wall), but it is particularly crucial for bathroom and kitchen faucets that are in direct contact with your drinking water supply. So before you start clicking the "add to cart" button, take a deeper look at the safety, performance, and even aesthetic risks you might be up against if you purchase that no-name custom faucet.

One of the most important things to ensure is that you're purchasing plumbing that's safe for your family. Kitchen and bathroom faucets are associated with your home's drinking water and therefore are held to a higher standard of safety requirements than other plumbing, such as outdoor spigots or shower fixtures. These standards and certifications, as set forth by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and National Sanitation Foundation (NSF), are put in place to regulate the use of unsafe or substandard materials used to manufacture drinking water faucets.

The rigorous quality testing of the product material helps to ensure that the faucet is operating under the maximum amount of impurities it can legally contribute to the drinking water. This can include, among other things, metals like lead, BPAs, VOCs, and other scary chemicals when not properly regulated. Tests also monitor material quality over time, meaning how well it holds up to corrosion, which can also introduce additional harmful chemicals such as copper and lead.

So what does this all mean when it comes to that custom faucet you saw online? Because manufacturers from other countries (as well as individual artisans on sites like Etsy) are not put through U.S. regulated testing requirements, you may be getting a faucet made with unsafe material or poor quality that will corrode and cause drinking water contamination issues in the future. So, if for no other reason than protecting the safety of your family's drinking water, skip the unknown brands or unregulated artisans you find online and opt for a certified and reliable brand name when it comes to your kitchen and bathroom faucets.

If safety alone wasn't concerning enough to make you change your mind, know that non-brand name faucets from a non-regulated entity may have performance and longevity issues that could end up costing you a lot of money in the long run. Faucet performance standardized tests assess consistent water flow and pressure, as well as the durability of the fixture over time. This is to make sure it can withstand wear and tear without breaking or developing leaks. If you purchase a faucet that skipped or used a watered down (pun very much intended!) version of this process, you could end up with a leaky faucet that causes costly water damage to your home. And if your faucet stops performing properly, good luck dealing with a likely non-existent warranty or availability of replacement parts and support. You could end up having to eat the bill for replacing the entire faucet and repairing water damage.

If this faucet is "just for looks" in a rarely-used space and you think you can get away with not worrying about safety or performance, think again! Aesthetics of these no-name manufactured faucets can also be a major issue. While regulated performance testing will include the durability of the finish, unregulated faucets will not, meaning your once-beautiful custom faucet is now scratched, chipping, flaking, or discolored. So as tempting as those gorgeous, one-of-a-kind custom faucets can be, remember how the product safety, performance, and aesthetics can be significantly compromised by straying away from established brands. The safety of your drinking water and performance of your home's plumbing is simply not worth the risk.