Lowe's Store Brand Faucets Allen + Roth • Project Source • AquaSource Review & Rating Updated: 10/22/23
A Division of
Lowe's Companies, Inc.
1000 Lowe's Blvd.
Mooresville, NC, 28117
(800) 445-6937
custcare@lowes.com
customercare@lowes.com
Allen + Roth Service
(866) 439-9800
Project Source Service
(866) 389-882
info@proj-source.com
Law Requirements
Warranty Footnotes:
1. Allen + Roth: Lifetime guarantee on all parts and finishes. Project Source: Lifetime guarantee against leaks.2. Finishes on Project Source faucets are guaranteed for 5 years..Download/Read/Print the Allen + Roth faucet warranty.Download/Read//Print the Project Source faucet warranty.Learn more about faucet warranties.
This Company In Brief
Allen + Roth, and Project Source are the in-store brand names under which Lowe's sells its house faucets. AquaSource was until recently also one of the company's in-house brands, but it is being phased out.
The faucets are purchased in wholesale lots from several different manufacturers in China, Taiwan, and Malaysia. For the price, we judge the faucets to be a good value.
The faucet warranties, however, are deficient and fail to comply with the federal law that controls the form and content of consumer warranties.
Post-sale support is good but not excellent. We have received remarkably few complaints about the faucets.
Allen + Roth and Project Source are the in-store brand names under which Lowe's sells its house faucets.
AquaSource was for years also a Lowe's in-house brand but it is being phased out. As of the date of this report, only a bare handful of AquaSource faucets appear on the Lowe's website, and most of those are identified as "unavailable."
The Company
Lowe's was launched in 1921 as a general store in Wilkesboro, North Carolina by Lucious Smith Lowe.
In addition to hardware and building materials, the store sold dry goods, horse tack, groceries, sewing notions, and produce.
The company was incorporated as North Wilkesboro Hardware in 1942. During the Post-War home-building boom, Lowe's focused on building materials, dropping its other products.
A second Lowe's store opened in Sparta, North Carolina in 1949.
The company was not taken public until 1961 when it was reorganized as Lowe's Companies, Inc. At the time it operated 12 stores.
It had expanded to 21 locations by 1962 and to 86 stores in 14 states by 1972.
In 1979 the company operated 209 stores and its stock was listed on the New York Stock Exchange.
Today, with 1,745 retail locations, Lowe's is the second largest big box lumber store in the U.S. after Home Depot. It also operates as an internet merchandiser of building materials and home decor products at Lowes.com.
Store Brands
Lowe's formerly sold faucets under three in-house brands: AquaSource, Allen + Roth, and Project Source. The AquaSource brand has now been discontinued.
The Allen + Roth brand is used on everything from faucets to floor tile, including lighting fixtures, mirrors, kitchen cabinets, countertops, vanities, ceiling fans, and closet organizers.
Project Source is also used to brand everything from kitchen cabinets, window blinds, and shelving to pastic totes. Project Source faucets are generally less expensive builder-grade fittings — the lower end of the Lowe's family of faucets.
Still of reasonable quality but generally lacking in style. Some are equipped with old-style washerless valves invented by Moen in the 1940s rather than the more durable ceramic cartridges used in most faucets today.
Lowe's faucets are sold through venues other than those owned by Lowe's including through web-based general merchandising venues such as Amazon and Wayfair.
It is clear, however, that Allen + Roth and Project Source are, in fact, Lowe's proprietary products. The brands are trademarked, according to U.S. Patent and Trade Mark records, by LF, LLC. a subsidiary of Lowe's Companies, Inc. that seems to own all of the copyrights and trademarks used by Lowe's including the copyright on the Lowe's website.
The Faucet Manufacturers
Lowe's, of course, does not manufacture faucets. The faucets are purchased in wholesale lots from many different manufacturers and packaged for sale under one of the Lowe's trade names.
It's not always easy to discover who makes what Lowe's faucet. Lowe's, which is pushing the brand identity, is not exactly forthcoming about actual manufacturing sources.
With the end of the AquaSource brand, the number of faucet suppliers can be expected to decline. However, as of the date of this report, according to import and customs records, companies manufacturing faucets for Lowe's include:
- one of the largest faucet manufacturers in Asia, headquartered in Taiwan but with all of its factories in China.
- a Japanese-owned faucet company headquartered in New Jersey but manufacturing in Mexico and China and selling in North America under its own American Standard brans,
- Long Tai Copper Corp, a Taiwanese manufacturer.
- Zoje Kitchen & Bath Co., Ltd, of China.
- Roddex Bath Hardware Co., Ltd. also from China.
- Joliet (Faucet) Company, Ltd. of Malaysia.
This is substantially the same group of companies that manufacture which goes a long way to explaining why so many of the faucets in the three big box stores look so very much alike.
Lowe's buys some faucets from It also sells under the Homewerks brand through a variety of internet retailers and independent brick-and-mortar hardware and plumbing stores.
Homewerks buys its faucets primarily from Yuh Chang Hardware Co., Ltd. in China and manufacturer that makes faucets for many well-known faucet brands sold in North America including,
Homewerks provides the warranty and customer support for faucets that Lowe's buys through Homewerks, and Homewerks customer support is very good.
Faucet Styling
Both faucet lines are largely middle-of-the-road, generic Chinese designs right out of each manufacturer's The faucets are neither designed by nor created expressly for Lowe's.
True design originality is emerging in East Asia, and some regional Chinese designs have won international design awards. But, these are the exception.
The general rule is that few design adventures take place in China. Most designs are adopted from Europe and the U.S. faucet styles that have sold well in the marketplace. It does not take long for a successful Western design to be imitated by Asian factories. The lag time is usually 3 to 5 years, by which time, of course, the "new" design is no longer new.
Styles run from very contemporary to very traditional.
Allen + Roth appears to be Lowe's upscale brand. Its styling includes the full rand of traditional, transitional, and contemporary, but is alated slightly toward contemporary. The collections include other bathroom fittings such as matching showers and accessories, ensuring that the entire bathroom is well-coordinated.
Project Source is the company's economy line. Many of its styles are dated – right out of the 1960s – but the collection also includes some more contemporary designs.
Buying Rule for
Smart Faucet Buyers
Valve Cartridge
Never buy a faucet unless you know the type of cartridge used in the faucet and who made it.
Its cartridge is the most critical part of a faucet. It is the component that actually controls water flow. Without a working cartridge, a faucet is no longer a faucet.
Companies that use good-quality cartridges in their faucets usually disclose the cartridge source on their websites. Those that don't will happily identify the cartridge in a call to customer service.
If the company refuses to reveal the sources of its cartridges (because it is a "trade secret"), you can confidently assume it is not one of the better brands.
Valves and Cartridges
Lowe's mixing cartridges for single-handle faucets are the standardized configurations modeled on the cartridge designs pioneered in the 1980s by Galatron Plast S.p.a., an Italian technical ceramics company.
Galatron's cartridges were simple, inexpensive to manufacture, very reliable, and so widely copied that they quickly became the de facto industry standard, particularly for Chinese-made cartridges.
None of Lowe's cartridges is made by Galatron, however. All of the mixing cartridges for single-handle faucets that we examined were made in China. They are not considered top-drawer brands, but they are good enough to last many years with reasonable care.
China has dozens if not hundreds of ceramic cartridge manufacturers. Most of what they produce is used in the domestic market for faucets sold in China. For use in faucets to be exported to Europe or North America, cartridges have to meet much higher standards.
We found a number of well-known ceramic cartridges including KGC cartridges made by Kuching International, Ltd., Quore cartridges from Ningbo Wanhai Cartridge Technology Co., Ltd., and Yizhan cartridges from Kaiping Yizhan Valve Core Co., Ltd..
We did not find any of the better Asian cartridges such as those made by Geann Industrial Co. in Taiwan or any of the premium European cartridges like the Kerox Kft ceramic cartridges made in Hungary. But since we have not examined every faucet sold by the company, we cannot swear that some of its faucets are not fitted with these better cartridges.
We did find a quantity of unidentified cartridges – cartridges that did not show the maker's marks necessary to identify the cartridge. Since makers of good cartridges generally mark them, we have to assume these cartridges are from lesser-known manufacturers that have not established a track record of reliability.
However, all of these cartridges have passed the 500,000 on/off life-cycle test and the 500 psi burst test required for faucets sold in North America, and are approved for faucets destined for export to Western markets. If they were of poor quality, they would have failed one or the other of these mandatory tests.
A few Project Source faucets are equipped with old-style washerless cartridges invented by Al Moen in the 1940s. An example is the Dover two-handle kitchen faucet. These were excellent valves for their time, but are now very dated. Even no longer uses them in its faucets.
Washerless valves are reliable but require periodic maintenance to replace rubber washers and O-rings. The repair kits are widely available.
The replacement usually takes 15 minutes or less and is well within the capability of a homeowner or average DIY skills. But it is a nuisance that most homeowners prefer to avoid.
Project Source faucets are aimed primarily at multi-family dwellings rather than owners of single-family residences.
Faucet Finishes
Lowe's does not publish finish charts for its in-house faucet brands, primarily because the finishes change with fair frequency.
However, we dug through the company website to identify the available finishes as of the date of this report and created our own finish chart for both faucet lines.
Allen + Roth faucets are available in eight finishes, but only one faucet comes in all eight finishes. Almost all are finished in Polished Chrome or Stainless Steel, most are also available in Matte Black, and a few in Bushed Bold and Oil-Rubbed Bronze. We found only one faucet finished in Rose Gold or Brushed Bronze, the Eliza vessel faucet.
Project Source faucets are usually sold in just one finish, most commonly Polished Chrome, but also in Stainless Steel or Matte Black. Other available finishes are White and Oil-Rubbed Bronze.
Be careful trying to match any finish across manufacturers unless it is chrome. Chrome is chrome, but oil-rubbed bronze, for example, varies widely from almost black to a dark copper.
Lowe's does not disclose the technology used to produce its finishes. The technology determines the expected longevity of the finishes and the extent of regular care and maintenance required.
From physical examination, however, we believe that all of the finishes are produced by (PVD) except chrome which is , and the colored finishes, Matte Black, Oil-rubbed Bronze, and White, which are probably a .
PVD finishes are highly scratch- and mar-resistant and impervious to most chemicals, and absolutely will not tarnish.
Although they may look like brass or gold, they are actually a more durable and non-reactive (i.e. non-tarnishing) metal, usually titanium or zirconium, treated in a PVD chamber to look exactly like brass or gold.
Electroplating, invented by Italian chemist Luigi Brunatelli in 1805, is the oldest process still being used to finish faucets.
It involves immersing the faucet and the metal to be used as plating in an acid bath, then applying an electrical charge to both objects so metallic ions are drawn from the plating metal to the faucet.
Finish Durability
Some finishes are more durable than others.
Some, the so-called , are expected to fade, discolor, and otherwise show the effect of use and wear over time. These results are built into the finish.
Other types of finishes, however, are expected to be more durable. They are not expected to fade, discolor, or show undue wear.
Here are common types of faucet finishes and their durability from most to least durable.
- (PVD) finishes are 10 to 20 times more scratch-resistant than electroplated chrome. They are also not affected by most household chemicals. In our experience, they are largely invulnerable to harm.
- is the old standby. It is a tough finish that will stand up to most abuse, but its durability depends on the metal used.
- Chrome is durable, nickel less so because it is inherently a softer metal – the reason chrome replaced nickel as the faucet finish of choice in the early 20th century.
- is essentially a paint applied in powdered form then heated in an oven to cure. It is considered semi-durable with about the same durability as the finish on your car.
It is considered a durable finish, but not as durable as PVD.
Colored finishes like White, and Matte Black, are usually powder coatings – essentially a paint applied in powder form, then cured in an oven.
They are not nearly as hardy as metal finishes, damage more easily, and require more care and maintenance to retain their good looks.
Faucet Warranties
Each of the faucet brands has its own warranty. Both warranties have major problems and neither complies with the federal law that controls the form and content of consumer warranties, the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act (15 U.S.C. §2301).
The errors are blatant and of the sort that no experienced lawyer would make, which leads us to conclude they were probably pieced together by someone in the Lowe's organization who thinks a business school degree is sufficient preparation to write a legally binding warranty. He or she is wrong.
Allen + Roth Warranty
The Allen + Roth faucet warranty is a lifetime warranty on all parts of the faucet guaranteeing it to be "free from leaks or drips during domestic use for as long as the original purchaser owns" the faucet.
All states and provinces in North America have laws requiring that consumer products be fit for their ordinary purposes and conform to an ordinary buyer's expectations.
This is the implied warranty of merchantability. It derives from English Common Law and is the law in both Canada and the U.S. It automatically attaches to every sale of a consumer product by a merchant.
A product is merchantable if it serves its ordinary purpose. A faucet, for example, is merchantable if it dispenses controlled amounts of water.
A merchantable product must remain merchantable for a reasonable amount of time. How much time varies with the product.
A faucet that leaks after one or two years is probably not merchantable. One that doesn't leak until its 20th anniversary probably is – a faucet is not expected to be leak-free forever.
Leaks or drips are required to recover under the warranty. Any defect that does not result in a leak or drip is not covered. This includes defects to finishes. Problems with finishes caused by defective workmanship or materials are not covered. Nor are defects such as a handle that breaks off or a pop-up drain that does not pop up since neither of these problems is likely to cause a leak.
In the event of a defect that causes a leak or drip, Lowe's will replace "the entire unit or any part(at our option) which proves defective in material and/or workmanship under normal installation, use, and service."
As defined by the Magnuson-Moss, the warranty is a full as opposed to a limited warranty. A full warranty is not permitted to exclude labor charges necessary to repair a defective product (15 U.S.C. §2303(a) and 16 CFR §700.6). So this provision
"[a]ll costs of removal and installation of the faucet, including the replacement of warranty parts are the responsibility of the purchaser."
will be treated by a court as if it does not exist.
Where the repair or replacement of a product (like a faucet) requires the product to be uninstalled and reinstalled, a full warranty requires the labor needed to repair the product to be free to the consumer. (16 CFR § 700.9) The company has to pay these costs.
The warranty also seeks to exclude consequential and incidental damages, something that can be done but if and only if the warranty also includes the following disclaimer (16 CFR § 701.3(8)):
"Some States do not allow the exclusion or limitation of incidental or consequential damages, so the above limitation or exclusion may not apply to you."
The Allen + Roth warranty does not include the disclaimer. Without it, the attempted exclusion of incidental and consequential damages has no effect.
Consequential and incidental damages are those other than the defect in the faucet itself. For example, your Kohler faucet leaks and damages your cabinets.
The leak is a "direct damage" to the faucet. The damage to the cabinets is consequential damage. It is a consequence of and results from the defect in the faucet but is not the defect itself.
Incidental damage is your cost of proving your warranty claim. If you need to hire an appraiser to assess the amount of your cabinet damage, the appraiser's fees are an incidental damage.
Collectively, consequential and incidental damages are called "indirect" or "special" damages;
Another problematic provision of the warranty is this one:
"Any damage to this faucet as a result of misuse, abuse, neglect, accident, improper installation or any use violating instructions furnished by us WILL VOID THIS WARRANTY." (Emphasis in the original.)
Let's say you accidentally scratch the finish on your Allen + Roth faucet. According to Lowe's, that "accident" means your warranty is now gone. That's what void means. The warranty is over, kaput, finished. If the faucet starts to leak a month later, you are on your own. You no longer have a warranty. It ended when you scratched your faucet. So sorry!
Is this result something that Lowe's intends? Probably not. But that's the way it has chosen to write its warranty.
What the warranty should say is
"Any damage to this faucet as a result of misuse, abuse, neglect, accident, improper installation or any use violating instructions furnished by us is not covered by this warranty."
Project Source Warranty
Unfortunately, the Project Source faucet warranty is no better written.
The Project Source faucet warranty is not a full warranty. It falls under the Magnuson-Moss definition of a "limmited warranty." As the name implies, it provides less protection for the customer than a full warranty.
The warranty guarantees that Project Source faucets will
"… be free from defects in material and workmanship under normal use in residential applications."
Understanding Finish Warranties
A finish warranty does not protect against everything that can go wrong with a faucet finish.
It covers defects caused by faulty materials or errors in the finishing process, generally subsumed under the rubric "manufacturing defects."
Blistering, delaminating, peeling, and spalling are the usual manufacturing defects. These are very rare – almost unheard of. Modern processes seldom produce these defects and any that do result are caught in the final inspection and never leave the factory.
Most finish problems these days are caused by overzealous cleaning and ordinary wear and tear, neither of which is covered by a finish warranty.
If it peels, Jaclo pays. But, if you scratch it or it turns a funny color after you polished it a few times with Wham-X All Purpose Miracle Cleaner, you are on your own.
The warranty does not, however, indicate how long the guarantee against defects in material and workmanship lasts.
The word "lifetime" in the caption is a clue but not a definition. As courts have repeatedly warned, lifetime is not self-defining. Which lifetime is meant: the lifetime of the faucet, the lifetime of the buyer, or perhaps the lifeime of the company. We don't know because the warranty does not say.
The law is clear, however, how ambiguous terms like lifetime are to be treated. The rule of contra proferentem requires lifetime to be interpreted in a way that most favors the customer.
Faucet finishes are guaranteed for five years, and unlike the lifetime guarantee on the rest of the faucet, the finish warranty is limited to the '"original purchaser."
The law considers a warranty to be transferable to subsequent owners of a faucet absent specific warranty language specifically that says it is not. The Project Source warranty is silent on the issue, making the lifetime portion of the warranty transferable while the five-year finish warranty is not.
Labor charges are excluded as are consequential and incidental damages. A limited warranty, unlike a full warranty, permits labor exclusions and consequential and incidental damages can be excluded, as indicated above, if the required qualifying language is included in the warranty. In this case, it is.
But the warranty also states that it is
"… in lieu of and excludes all other warranties, conditions and guarantees, whether expressed or implied, including without restriction those of merchantability or fitness of use."
This exclusion is specifically prohibited by Magnuson-Moss (15 U.S. Code § 2308 (a)).
A seller's warranty is intended by Magnuson_Moss to supplement implied warranties. They are "in addition to" not "in lieu of." So the language in the Project Source warranty that seeks to substitute Lowe's written warranty for state law implied warranties has no legal effect whatsoever.
Lowe's Warranty Score
Neither warranty meets the requirements of the standard North American faucet warranty.
The standard warranty guarantees all parts of a faucet, including finishes, against manufacturing defects for as long as the original buyer owns the faucets and resides in the dwelling in which the faucet is first installed. It also complies in all respects with the legal requirements of Magnuson-Moss.
The Lowe's faucet warranties fail to meet either requirement.
For an example of a faucet warranty that meets the requirements of the standard North American warranty, see our Model Limited Lifetime Warranty.
Lowe's Customer Service
Unlike which started selling its in-house faucet brands before it had an after-sale support organization in place, Lowe's started with pretty good house brand support and has improved on it over the years.
Getting warranty help and replacement parts is just a matter of having the Lowe's item number (which is what Lowe's calls its in-store SKU numbers, the more common faucet model number does not always work) of your faucet, the date of purchase, the name of the part and calling the customer support number we have listed above.
If you don't know what part is causing the trouble, the customer service rep will do his or her best to help you out but without the item number, there is little they can do. All of the customer service representatives we talked to during our customer service test seemed very well-trained and had access to detailed information about our test faucets.
Customer service does have one problem, however, extremely long wait times to talk to a representative – up to 40 minutes in our test calls. We consider any wait time over 5 minutes to be unacceptable.
The Better Business Bureau grades the company's customer service an A+ on a scale of A+ to F, indicating exceptional handling of consumer problems. Lowe's is accredited by the BBB and has been since 1977.
Testing and Certification
Comparable Faucets
Imported faucets comparable to Lowe's faucets include
Conclusions
For the price, we judge the faucets to be a good value, Post-sale support is good, and we have received very few complaints about the faucets — just three in 24 months. Before you buy a Lowe's faucet, however, find out what sort of cartridge or valve is included. If you don't want to be involved in periodic maintenance, opt for a ceramic cartridge.
We are continuing to research the company. If you have experience with Lowe's faucets, good, bad, or indifferent, we would like to hear about it, so please contact us or post a comment below.