Do faucets with ceramic valve worth the price?

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Randyj

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Wil_ thanks for your post! Any time a customer wants a high end faucet I'm just as eager to comply as when he/she wants a bargain basement deal. It has amazed me to see the cheapest plastic faucets available installed in brand new multi million dollar houses. Biggest differences between "us" plumbers and showroom salesmen... is that "we" are plumbers. It's nice to be able to give the customer a choice...but I've been on a few thousand calls and have done all the standards...never seen a "California" faucet... I guess they have yet to infiltrate the ghetto.
 

Bob NH

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I have two Moen Dialcet single knob (pull on/turn for temp/push-button diverter) shower/tub faucets installed in my house in '65 and they are still working fine with cartridges replaced in about 1990. I would replace them but I would have to tear out at least one tiled wall. They are heavy brass bodies.

I had two single lever american standard lavatory faucets installed in '65 and they lasted until about 1996 when one of them sprung an unrepairable leak. They were both replaced with Price Phister single lever. PPh gave me a free replacement when the body/shell of one exhibited finish corrosion. Just a call and they sent a new faucet.

I am on my third kitchen faucet which is a Price Phister that has been in use for about 15 years. The original was American Standard and the second was a Delta. The Delta was one of those "Big ball" models that never seemd to work smoothly.
 

hj

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faucets

when you talk about California faucets, you did not mention that for a long time, and maybe still, they were a Price Pfister faucet with expensive trim.
 

OZ

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I recently had a siezed cold water faucet that contained rare and expensive parts (Broadway, Old Dominion for those of you in the know.). The ceramic parts were fine, but considerable oxide had built up and seized the mechanism. I disassembled the parts and put them in a shallow bath of CLR and water (mixed 1 part CLR to 4 parts water) and put them in an ultrasonic bath. After 20 minutes of cleaning I rinsed and dryed all parts and reassembled the cartridge. In this case I did not replace the O-rings as they looked fine. (They are apparantly 12 yrs old.) It worked flawlessly. Often the ceramic parts are just fine in such cartridges and a good cleaning is all that is needed to restore their function. You can purchase an ultrasonic parts cleaner on **** for less than $30. Well worth the money for cleaning small parts.
 

Mike50

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final word on ceramics..?

What would the final verdict on the ceramics be?
If not too expensive--the technology is better in general...is that what I'm hearing from you guys?
I'm doing bath remodel soon.

Mike
 
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