Paini Faucets La Toscana • Fortis Review & Rating Updated: June 26, 2025 Our panel of consu­mers and industry pro­fes­sion­als has rec­ognized Paini's La Tos­cana fau­cets as a Best Val­ue in mid-priced fau­cets made or as­sem­bled in Eur­ope. Read the Best Fau­­cet Val­ue Re­port for more in­for­ma­tion.

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Imported

Italy

Paini USA
1571 Main Rd
Newfield, NJ 09344
(856) 881-7890
info@paini-usa.com

Paini S.p.A. Rubinetterie
Via Cremosina 43
Pogno N.
R.E.A. NO 110073
Italy

Rating

Business Type

Product Range

Kitchen, Bath, Prep and Bar Faucets

Certifications

Brands

La Toscana
Fortis

Street Price

La Toscana: $169.00 - $485.00
Fortis: $165.00 - $735.00

Warranty Score

Cartridge

Lifetime

Finishes

Lifetime

Mechanical Parts

Lifetime

Proof of Purchase

La Toscana: Required
Fortis: Not Required

Transferable

No

Meets U.S. Warranty
Law Requirements

No

Download the La Toscana faucet warranty.

Download the Fortis faucet warranty.

Learn more about faucet warranties

This Company In Brief

Paini is an Ital­i­an manufacturer of good to excellent quality fau­cets, distributed in North Amer­ica through its U.S. subsidiary, Pa­i­ni USA.

Its North Amer­i­can brands are La Tos­ca­na and For­tis, just two of the large number of Pa­i­ni fau­cet brands sold in Europe.

Fortis, the more upscale brand, was formerly sold by Spectrum Brands. It is now sold directly through Pa­i­ni USA. La Toscana is the company's mid-priced brand.

We judge these faucets to be a good to very good value for the price, well designed and well made using high-quality components for years of trouble-free service; and supported with a lifetime warranty.

Post-sale customer and warranty service is responsive and scored well in our informal tests of responsiveness and effectiveness.

Paini (pie-EE-nee) S.p.A. Rubinetterie is an Ital­i­an manufacturer of good to very good faucets that sells some but not all, of its many lines of designer faucets in North Amer­ica.

Paini is one of the few Ital­i­an companies that balance high style with quality manufacturing at a price most people can afford.

The Company

According to Paini, the company

"… began in 1954 as a small artisan company with roots in Pogno, Ita­ly — the heart of the Ital­i­an design tradition. Here, … founder and president Mario Pa­i­ni began apprenticing at a small workshop producing fau­cet components."

Paini is the of Ita­ly, manufacturing faucets under several brand names at every price point from discount to grand design.

Its North Amer­i­can brands, La Tos­ca­na and For­tis, are just a small part of the 30 or so collections that Pa­i­ni offers in Europe.

For example, the He­go Wa­ter­de­sign line of high-style (and high-priced) ul­tra-con­tem­po­rar­y faucets is not (with one exception) sold in North Amer­ica, nor are faucets from Argo Rubinetterie s.r.l., a Pa­i­ni subsidiary that specializes in easy-to-install DIY faucets.

In 2024 the company purchased KWC's Home Group, including the residential fau­cet lines, from Equistone, an investment group that had previously acquired the venerable Swiss faucet company along with the rest of Franke's Water Division from Franke Group AG in 2021.

The purchase is expected to enhance Paini's historically weak penetration into Northern European markets with designs and technologies that better fit the preferences of Nordic and Germanic buyers.

Paini USA

Paini has had a long and somewhat convoluted history of selling its fau­cets in North Amer­ica.

It seems that as soon as the company settles into a groove, something happens to force it to change direction, sometimes drastically.

Very early in the 21st century, Paini got a foothold in the North Amer­i­can market by manufacturing store brand

From that modest beginning, it expanded into manufacturing for other North Amer­i­can fau­cet sellers.

Over the years, hese have included

La Toscana faucets were first introduced to North Amer­i­can buyers through Home Depot's World Imports, Inc. (now Barnett handles Home Depot's non-store sales primarily to trade professionals.

However, the company's association with Home Depot ended in 2017, forcing Pa­i­ni to strike out on its own outside the protection of the Big Orange umbrella.

Paini already had its own U.S. subsidiary, Pa­i­ni USA, formed on August 4, 2004, as a Del­a­ware corporation. Its New­field, New Jer­sey facility initially provided warranty and parts support for Pa­i­ni-made store-brand fau­cets sold by Home De­pot and other North Amer­i­can retailers.

After 2017, it also became the locus of the company's U.S. marketing of La Tos­ca­na fau­cets.^[1]

The Fortis brand is a more recent addition. It was originally a private brand sold by Spec­trum Brand Hold­ings, Inc., a company that, at the time, owned and sold fau­cets.

Fortis, positioned as Spec­trum's upscale designer fau­cet line, was grouped with Pfis­ter in Spec­trum's Hard­ware and Home Im­prove­ment (HHI) division.

In 2021 the situation changed again when Spec­trum announced it was selling its HHI division to ASSA ABLOY Group, a transaction that was completed in mid-2023. (See the sidebar for more details.)

ABLOY is a lock and security hardware company. Faucets and other decorative plumbing products are nowhere on its corporate radar. We fully expect that it will divest itself of Pfister faucets and showers just as soon as it can find a buyer ready to pay a fair price.

With the anticipated sale of HHI to ABLOY, Pa­i­ni had the choice of continuing For­tis sales without Spec­trum or discontinuing the brand.

Fortunately, it opted to keep the brand, initially partnering with Fer­gu­son En­ter­pris­es to sell For­tis products on Fer­gu­son'sonline retail venues, Build.com", Fau­cets.com, and Fau­cets­Di­rect.com.

It is now gearing up to sell For­tis fau­cets directly under the Pa­i­ni USA banner and increasing the online venues that sell theFau­cet. As of the date of this report, the reorganization is still far from complete but rapid progress is being made..

Hopefully, Paini has seen the last of surprises.

Paini Designs

Having faucets modified to fit North Amer­ican plumbing connections, then tested and certified for the North Amer­ican market, and, finally, registered as required by federal and state authorities, can be a very expensive proposition.

Paini has wisely limited the faucets it sells here to just those it feels are price- and style-competitive.

North Americans like Eur­o­pe­an fau­cets as long as they are not too Eur­o­pe­an. The fau­cets that sell best are those that are "Amer­i­can­ized." These are the fau­cets Pa­i­ni sells in North Amer­i­ca.

Most Paini fau­cets are contemporary designs. The company offers few traditional or transitional styles. Those looking for a fau­cet to fit an Arts & Crafts or Vic­tor­i­an kitchen or bath redo may have to look elsewhere for a fau­cet that complements their vintage decor.

But, if contemporary is your preference, Pa­i­ni may sell your dream fau­cet.

Both La Toscana and For­tis fau­cet brands are stylish, but, for the most part, somewhat conservative to appeal to the majority of North Amer­i­can buyers.

We have to give For­tis an edge in design, but it is very slight.

Paini has a staff of in-house designers, but never mentions them on its websites. So, we know nothing about their backgrounds or accomplishments except what we can see in the designs they have produced.

The company also uses outside designers but is equally tacturn about their contributions. We have identified four of these, however.

• Davide Vercelli who works out of a studio in Varallo, Ita­ly has won dozens of awards in international design competitions. He has designed several faucets for Pa­i­ni.

• Marco Pisati, an architect and product designer from Flor­ence, designs faucets for Tre­em­me Ru­bi­net­ter­ie, another Ital­i­an fau­cet manufacturer, but also at least one fau­cet for Pa­i­ni.

• Sei Cho is a product designer in Los An­ge­les who started his career designing toys. His designs for Pa­i­ni include a wall-mount pull-down kitchen fau­cet and a very futuristic single-handle bathroom sink fau­cet that, as far as we can tell, has never been produced by Pa­i­ni but should be.

• Davide Diliberto a designer from Mi­lan who describes himself as a "refiner of shapes," designed the Aqua­pla­no lavatory fau­cet sold by He­go Wa­ter­de­sign in Europe.

Like most fau­cet companies, Pa­i­ni introduces most of its new designs in its upscale faucets which for Pa­i­ni is its He­go Wa­ter­de­sign line.

Hego faucets are not sold in North Amer­ica with the single exception of the For­tis glass and chrome Uf­fi­zi fau­cet (sold by He­go as the Flower fau­cet), but we can see the design elements in many For­tis fau­cets that have migrated from the He­go line.

Paini Collections

Fortis bathroom faucets are members of collections that can include showers, tub fillers and spouts, and coordinating accessories like robe hooks, towel bars, and toilet paper holders.

La Tocana fau­cets are also often grouped with showers and tub fillers but no accessories, not yet at least.

Kitchen faucets are solo purchases, not coordinated with anything except a pot filler of a universal design that more or less matches most fau­cets.

Paini Valve Cartridges

As an Italian manufacturer, Pai­ni has a preference for Ital­i­an valve cartridges.

The cartridges used in the faucets we examined were made by Gal­a­tron Plast S.p.A based in Cas­tig­lio­ne delle Stiv­iere, Ita­ly. Gal­a­tron is mildly famous in the industry as the company that developed most of the standard cartridge configurations used in modern valve cartridges. Its designs were simple, durable, and inexpensive to manufacture and have been adopted by most valve cartridge manufacturers.

Galatron makes an excellent valve, which is important. Its ceramic valve is the heart of a modern fau­cet. It is the device that actually controls water flow and (in single-handle faucets) temperature. If the valve fails, the fau­cet is out of business until it is replaced, so it is important that the valve is a good one. With Gaal­a­tron, Pai­ni has one of the best.

Paini Faucet Finishes

Paini has several finishes for its Eur­o­pe­an faucets that are not available on this side of the Big Blue Pond. These include PVD Gold, French Earth (a very tarnished brass look), White, Matt White, Black, Brass, Aged Brass, Aged Cop­per, and Aged Nick­el PVD.

In North Amer­i­ca, however, the only finishes available on La Tos­ca­na fau­cets are Chrome, Brushed Nick­el, Matte Gold, and Matte Black. For­tis offers the same finishes with the addition of Brushed Black.

Matte Black is, as the name suggests, a flat black with no shine. Brushed black is similar but with a slight sheen. It is very hard to tell the difference unless the two finishes are examined side-by-side, then the difference is obvious.

Paini does not identify the processes used to produce its North American finishes. However, in its European catalog, it identifies painted finishes (the blacks) as epoxy coatings. Epoxy is a tough finish but not the equal of a metal finish like Chrome and Brushed Nickel for durability.

Chrome is electroplated. Brushed Nick­el and Matte Gold may be electroplated but are equally likely to have been produced using Physical Vapor Deposition. It is not possible to tell the difference through visual examination.

Since the finishing technology makes a big difference in the durability of a finish, Pai­ni should identify the process used to produce each finish. We have noted (see more below) that the processes are not identified on its websites. This information is needed for a fully informed buying decision.

Paini Prices

Faucets are typically advertised as economy, mid-priced, and premium or luxury. Obviously, these price bands change over time. At present, we consider fau­cets under $250 to be in the economy range. Fau­cets over $900 are in the premium band and mid-priced fau­cets check in between $200 and $950 (Yes, there is some overlap in the price bands).

La Toscana faucets are positioned by Pai­ni as its mid-priced line while For­tis fau­cets are promoted as "high-end luxury faucets."

Both faucet brands, however, are in the mid-price band. All For­tis faucets, even the striking chrome and glass Uf­fi­zi faucet (a rebranded He­go Wa­ter­de­sign faucet) are street priced at less than $800.00.

The Uffizi is an outlier, $300 more costly than the next most expensive For­tis faucet. Disregarding Uf­fi­zi, the prace range of the two Pai­ni brands is almost identical: between $190.00 and $490.00.

La Toscana prices are, on average, slightly below its domestic competition and Fortis prices are so far below the average of Ital­i­an Luxury brands like that there is no real comparison.

Most For­tis faucets cost less than Zuc­chet­ti's charge for a replacement spout.

We rank both brands as "excellent values" in Ital­i­an-made fau­cets with For­tis being the slightly "more excellent."

What you won't get is the wide range of custom finishes offered by these other Italian manufacturers or some of the more "out there" contemporary designs. What you will get are stylish, well-made faucets fitted with quality components, a lifetime warranty, and time-tested U.S.-based customer support.

Where to Buy

Paini sells La Tos­ca­na fau­cets on its website at its list prices. Authorized dealers generally discount the list price, often quite substantially. For example, on the day we checked prices, the Bot­ti­cel­li kit­chen fau­cet in Chrome listed at $410.82, but we found it at the Home De­pot for $254.52, a nearly 40% discount.

Paini prefers that you buy For­tis faucets at a showroom and to aid in the process has a showroom locator on the For­tis website. Most of these are Fer­gu­son showrooms. Fer­gu­son has a marketing aggrangement with Pai­ni and a showroom in just about every city, town, village, and hamlet in North Amer­i­ca, even in our town, Lincoln, Ne­bras­ka.

If you are planning a coordinated bathroom using Fort­is products, a showroom with its helpful design counselors may be your best bet. They can help you avoid some very costly mistakes.

However, if all you want is to buy a faucet, you can do that online, usually for less than you will pay at a showroom (but without the good advice.)

Online sources include Fer­gu­son Home, Fau­cet Di­rect, and Build.com, all of which sound like different businesses. They aren't. All are owned by Fer­gu­son. La Tos­ca­na fau­cets are also sold on Ama­zon, Way­fair, Bed Bath & Be­yond, abd The Home De­pot as well as at specialized outlets like Qua­li­ty Bath and the Sink Bou­tique. Pai­ni is still in the process of expanding its online retail outlets.

Unfortunately, the "where to buy" on the La Tos­ca­na website was not working on the date of this report, so for the moment you will have to goo­gle for retailers. However, according to Pai­ni, the website retailer directory "will be available soon."

Paini's Websites

Panini's websites are well-designed and easy to navigate. Both the For­tis and La Tos­ca­na sites provide considerable information about their faucets but still fall short of the minimum technical information needed for an informed fau­cet-buying decision.

A PDF specification sheet identifies the fau­cet's certifications, certifying organizations, available finishes, and a dimensioned drawing of the fau­cet.

The La Toscana site labels the specifications link "Specification submittal," a term we have not previously seen used. For­tis calls it by its usual moniker, "Spe­ci­fi­ca­tions."

The Fortis site has links to an exploded parts diagram and installation instructions. The La Tos­ca­na site does not.

Neither site links a fau­cet's listings to the online warranty that applies to the faucet. The warranties are on the site, just not linked to the fau­cet listing. A "consp;icuous link" is a requirement of federal warranty law. (16 CFR 702.3)

Both sites have a link to "Col­lec­tions," which is a listing of all the products available in the collection of which the fau­cet is a part. This is a very useful feature that helps a user identify the other items he or she may want to consider. It would be more useful, however, if it provided links to those other items.

Paini's listings do not usually identify the primary material from which a fau­cet is made. If it does, the usual description is "solid brass." We know from our inspection of the Pa­i­ni faucets we acquired for testing that some parts of the fau­cets are a zinc alloy, others are plastic, so the term "solid brass" is, in the opinion of our rating panel, somewhat misleading.

Paini's Warranties

Paini's "lifetime" fau­cet warranties do not even remotely comply with the requirements for consumer warranties set out in the federal Mag­nu­son-Moss War­ranty Act (15 U.S.C. §2308). None­the­less, in spite of their legal flaws, they appear to meet the standard for North Amer­i­can lifetime fau­cet warranties pioneered in the 1970s by

The original la Tos­ca­na warranty period was just 10 years.

Paini increased it to 20 years after it had had a few years of experience selling faucets in North Amer­ica under its belt and felt more comfortable moving away from the standard short-term European warranties.

We criticized both of these warranties, suggesting that the company could do a much better job supporting its good-quality faucets.

It revised its warranties once again to offer a "lifetime" term. For fau­cet finishes, lifetime is defined as "for as long as the original purchaser owns their (sic) home." For the mechanics of a fau­cet, the term is not defined.

As several courts have already warned, "lifetime" is not self-defining. Without a definition, we don't know which lifetime applies: the lifetime of the buyer, the lifetime of the product, or even the lifetime of the company.

When "lifetime" is not defined, courts apply the common law interpretation rule, con­tra pro­fer­en­tem, which requires the court to impose the longest warranty duration reasonably applicable which usually means the longer of the buyer's actual lifetime for the life of the fau­cet.

Even when Pai­ni defines lifetime, however, the definition it uses ("for as long as the original purchaser owns their (sic) home.") is inherently flawed.

It has two problems.

• For the lifetime warranty to attach to the sale of a fau­cet, the buyer has to own a home. Bu­yers who do not own their homes (renters, lessees, and tenants) do not get the lifetime warranty. (Yes, that really is what it says!)

• The warranties do not require the buyer to continue to own the fau­cet for the warranties to remain in force. They require only that the buyer continue to own "their" home.

One unexpected result of that omission is that the buyer can retain all legal rights under the warranty even after he or she no longer owns the fau­cet, and can claim under the warranty for the benefit of all subsequent owners of the fau­cet.^[2]

Probably not what Paini intends.

This definition of "lifetime" is often used in fau­cet warranties. It appears to have originated with and is still the definition in the current Mo­en warranty. It has been widely copied on the assumption that Mo­en, one of the pioneers of the lifetime fau­cet warranty, must know what it's doing. In this case, however, it doesn't.

A better definition, and one that takes care of these definitional problems, is:

"… for as long as the original consumer owner owns the fau­cet and resides in the home in which the fau­cet is first installed …" (See, e.g. the "Go-Pro" limited lifetime faucet warranty.)

Neither warranty attempts to disclaim implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for purpose created by state law.

Many fau­cet companies (See e.g. ) try to disclaim implied warranties, evidently blissfully unaware that theMag­nu­son-Moss Act prohibits a company that offers a written warranty from disclaiming implied warranties, and any attempt to do so is simply void ( 5 U.S.C. § 2308(c)).

Nor do the warranties disclaim consequential or incidental damages. This means that if your Pa­i­ni fau­cet leaks and damages your kitchen cabinets, Pa­i­ni is obligated not only to pay to have the fau­cet fixed but also to restore or replace the damaged cabinets.

Mag­nu­son-Moss requires that a warranty be written in a single document and in simple language that is clear and easy for the average consumer to understand. (16 CFR § 702.3

We applaud the clarity, and simplicity of the Pa­i­ni warranty documents. Their language avoids most legalese. They are brief and to the point. Unfortunately, however, they are a little too brief and a tad oversimplified, leaving out some things that Mag­nu­son-Moss insists must be included a consumer product warranty.

These are outlined in the regulations that support Mag­nu­son-Moss which may be found in the Code of Fed­er­al Reg­u­la­tions at 16 C.F.R. § 701.3(a) – a document well worth reading by anyone proposing to write a consumer product warranty.

Paini Customer Service

Fortunately, Pai­ni does not enforce the oddball provisions of its warranties.

The company is not particularly fussy about minor issues of who gets warranty and parts support. If you own a Pa­i­ni fau­cet, you will get help from customer service on the sensible basis that you would not be asking for help with a Pa­i­ni fau­cet if you did not actually own a Pa­i­ni fau­cet.

In our tests of customer service, the company scored well. Service representatives are intimately familiar with the details of Pai­ni products and able to answer even the most arcane questions. Our (purely imaginary) installation problems were handled with dispatch.

The Better Business Bureau agrees with our assessment, grading Pa­i­ni's product support A+ on a scale of A+ to F, its highest score representing an outstanding response to customer issues.

Testing & Certification

Enforcement Actions

The California Energy Commission sued Pa­i­ni US Corporation for illegally selling unapproved faucets, showers, and diverters in California from January 2015 to July 2020.

The company paid a penalty of $30,000.00 to settle the suit in 2021 and agreed to sell only approved products in Cal­i­forn­ia.

Comparable Faucets

European-made faucets comparable to Pa­i­ni include

Most of these faucets are pricier than La Tos­ca­na or Fortis, some much pricier. Most do not provide a lifetime warranty.

Conclusions

Fortis and La Toscana faucets are well designed featuring a broad range of fau­cet styles created by Ital­i­an designers, the best in the business. They are well made and robust enough to use in even a busy kitchen or main bath with confidence that they will give many years of reliable, trouble-free service.

Fortis prices are well below below Pa­i­ni's Ital­i­an competition and consistent with the better brands of domestic mid-priced faucets such as

You can buy a faucet from domestic companies for a price below La Toscana's least expensive $169.00 faucet, as low as $30.00, but what you will usually get is an economy fau­cet short on design or quality or both. Not always, of course, some bargain fau­cets from companies like Mo­en, Del­ta, and Pfis­ter are of exceptional quality and an excellent value, but these are few and far between and you have to know what to look for.

Paini warranties meet the North Amer­i­can standard for lifetime warranties even though they do not entirely comply with federal warranty law. Non-compliance, however, is Pai­ni's problem. It can either fix its warranties or expect to pay out big dollars if the warranties ever end up in a lawsuit.

Customer service is very good, but sparsely staffed which can lead to harried agents amd long wait times or leaving a message for a callback. The company is very flexible about extending warranty coverage even where it, technically, should not be available. Agents are familiar with Pa­i­ni products and can offer effective help.

In the judgment of our rating panel, For­tis and La Tos­ca­na faucets are truly excellent values. All of the panel members would buy a Pai­ni faucet "without reservation" for a busy kitchen or main bathroom.

Continuing Research

We are continuing to research Pa­i­ni and its products. If you have experience with For­tis or La Tos­ca­na faucets, good, bad, or indifferent, we would like to hear about it, so please post a comment below or email us at starcraftreviews@yahoo.com.