Rona Store Brand Faucets Uberhaus • Facto Review & Rating Updated: 06/06/21
220, Chemin du Tremblay
Boucherville, Quebec J4B 8H7
(866) 283-2239
(514) 599-5100
Warranty: (866) 206-0888
Lowe's Companies Canada, ULC
5160 Yonge Street
Suite 200
Box 25
North York, ON M2N 6L9
1-866-46LOWES (56937)
Law Requirements
Footnotes:1. "For as long as the faucet is in domestic use."2. U.S. law does not apply. The products are sold only in Canada.
Warranty service is handled by Mecanair at (866) 206-0888 or (450)641-4111.
Download/Print the Rona faucet warranty.
Learn more about faucet warranties.
This Company In Brief
Uberhaus and Facto are in-store brand names under which a line of private label faucets, fixtures, and bath accessories are sold by RONA, Inc., a Canadian corporation that has recently been acquired by the giant U.S. home improvement chain, Lowe's Companies, Inc.
RONA sells faucets in stores only in Canada. It also sells over the internet but ships only to Canadian addresses. There is no known source at this time of Uberhaus or Facto products for buyers in the U.S.
Uberhaus and Facto are in-store brand names under which a line of private label faucets, fixtures, and bath accessories are sold by RONA, Inc., a Canadian corporation. Neither name is reserved solely for faucets, or even plumbing products. You can buy everything from window blinds to appliances, power tools to dishwashing detergent under these brand names. For faucets, there seems to be no differentiation of quality, price, or style. Substantially the same quality and style of faucets are available under either brand, for about the same price.
In 2016 Lowes with 42 stores in Canada and in a three-way competition with Home Depot (Canada) with 182 stores and RONA with 496 stores, simply eliminated RONA as a competitor by buying the company for $2.3 billion ($3.2 billion CAD), jumping ahead of Home Depot. The Lowe's/RONA operation, with nearly 700 combined store locations is now the largest home improvement retailer in Canada.
Lowes has begun the process of converting RONA stores to the Lowe's banner with the promise of an "improved customer experience." How that works out remains to be seen. Lowes plans to relocate its Canadian headquarters to RONA's base of operations in Boucherville, QC, and retain most of its in-store brands. How that applies to faucets is still up in the air. Lowes already has its own well established faucet brands that would be in direct competition with the Uberhaus and Facto brands owned by RONA.
RONA sells only in Canada. If you live in the U.S., you cannot buy a RONA faucet. RONA sells over the internet but ships only to Canadian addresses. If you have it shipped to your Canadian cousin, you can slip a RONA faucet across the border duty-free as a "gift" but you will not get after-sale warranty support. RONA's warranty applies only in Canada.
RONA is a cross between the big-box chains like Lowes and Home Depot, and the buying cooperatives that supply independently owned Ace and True Value hardware stores. It supplies its own company-owned stores but also provides its products to franchises and independently-owned affiliated stores.
The company began in 1939 as a buying cooperative organized by independent hardware stores to pool their buying power for better prices and continued as a cooperative until going public in 2002. Its chief competitor in Canada is U.S.-based which entered Canada in 1994 by buying out Aikenhead‘s Hardware and converting its stores.
RONA's company-owned big box stores have avoided that quintessential warehouse look favored by U.S. box stores like Lowe's with arrangements that create stores within the store, making the shopping experience much more pleasant. Whether Lowe's will change that successful format is unknown at this time.
RONA, Inc. like the does not design or manufacture its own faucets but buys them ready-made and already in the box from large outside manufacturers.
Known manufacturers of Uberhaus and Facto faucets include:
- Guangdong Huayi Plumbing Fittings Industry, Co., Ltd. (China) used to be RONA's primary supplier of sink faucets, a position it seems to have lost to
- Taizhou Fenghua Brassworks Co. Ltd. (China), which manufactures about 18 bath and kitchen faucets for RONA, some of the Artos faucets sold by and sells faucets under its own Flova brand in Asia.
There may be other RONA faucet suppliers but if so, we are unable to identify them. RONA changes suppliers frequently, so by the time you read this review, the manufacturers providing RONA faucets will probably have changed. For example, Xiamen Delmei Sanitary Ware Co., Ltd. which used to manufacture some RONA faucets no longer appears to do so.
The company advertises its faucets as being all brass. In fact, most are brass with less expensive zinc or ZAMAK (a zinc/aluminum alloy) used in non-critical parts such as handles and base plates. Only a few of the higher-end Uberhaus faucets (sometimes identified as "Uberhaus Design" faucets) are actually all brass and not all of these.
The RONA website does not provide sufficient information necessary to make an informed buying decision. Each faucet page displays a short description of the faucet, its finish availability, type of cartridge, base material(s), the number of faucets holes required in the sink, and certifications but does not indicate the flow rate or the manufacturer of the cartridge (useful in determining whether it is a known brand with a good reputation). It also does not provide a link to installation instructions (useful for determining whether any special procedures or tools are required) or an exploded parts list.
The RONA warranty is average for North American faucet companies. It provides for the replacement of defective parts and components to the original buyer so long as the buyer owns the faucet.
Post-sale customer service is very good provided you do not have technical questions. If the installation instructions are not clear, RONA can provide no help in clarifying them but if you need to return a defective faucet, customer agents are very efficient and helpful.
Faucets comparable to Uberhaus and Facto faucets include
We are continuing to research the company. If you have experience with Uberhaus faucets, good, bad, or indifferent, we would like to hear about it, so please contact us or post a comment below.