Alfi Brand Faucets Review & Rating Updated: April 14, 2026

Imported

China

Alfi Trade, Inc.

4011 W. Jefferson Blvd.

Los Angeles, CA 90016

(800) 990-2534

(323) 732-4045

info@alfitrade.com

Rating

Business Model

Product Range

Kitchen, Bath, and Bar Faucets

Certifications

Brands

Alfi Brand

Street Price

$63.00 - $1,003.00

Warranty Score

Cartridge

1 or Years¹

Finishes

Lifetime

Other Mechanical Parts

1 or 5 Years

Proof of Purchase

Required

Transferable

No

Meets Federal Warranty
Law Requirements

No

Footnotes:

1. The company provides a limited lifetime warranty on its fau­cets but but excludes "mechanical parts" which have a one- or five-year guarantee depending on which warranty accompanies the faucet.

Download, read, print

the Al­fi Fau­cet warranty from Fer­gu­son­Home.com (5 years on mechanical parts).

The the Al­fi Fau­cet warranty from Al­fi­Brand.com (1 year on mechanical parts).

☆ Learn more about faucet warranties.

☆ See how we determine warranty scores.

☆ Understanding the federal Magnuson Moss Warranty Act.

☆ Find out how to enforce your product warranty at The Warranty Game: Enforcing Your Product Warranty..

Download/Read/Print our Model Limited Life­time Faucet Warr­an­ty.

This Company In Brief

Alfi sells fau­cets made in China over its own websites ( bluebath.com, alfibrand.com, and alfitrade.com) and on sites that host third-party sellers such as Wayfair and Amazon.

The faucet styles are typical of Chinese-designed faucets. Most of Alfi's styles are also sold by other importers of faucets made in China.

The Alfi warranty is far below standard for North American fau­cets. It is purportedly a lifetime limited warranty, but a close reading reveals that the important components of an Alfi faucet are guaranteed for just one or five years.

The faucets are illegal to sell and illegal to install.

There is nothing to distinguish Alfi from hundreds of other importers of contraband faucets other than the brand's widespread penetration of traditional distribution channels, which suggests some masterful marketing by the company.

The bottom line on the company is that it sells perfectly average Chinese faucets that are illegal to sell or install in North America for exceptionally high prices and supports them with a decidedly sub-standard warranty.

Alfi Trade, Inc. imports bathwares from Israel and Italy, as well as China, but imports faucets only from China. The company does not sell domestic products.

It is primarily a bathwares company, selling imported sinks, toilets, and bathtubs. It sells fau­cets as a complement to its bathwares, but fau­cets are a fairly minor part of its overall business.

The Company

Afi Trade, Inc. is a California corporation, chartered in 2007, owned by Eldad M. Alfi.

Other family members involved in the company include Hagar Kessel, chief administrative officer.

It is located in West Los Angeles with warehouses in Edgerton, Kansas, and in West Haven, Connecticut.

The company is a distributor of the This brand is reviewed and is not a part of this report.

The Alfi Brand logo (see above) is registered as a U.S. graphic trademark. It has not been registered in Canada.

The Suppliers

The principal overseas suppliers of Alfi's fau­cets over the past twenty-four months have been:

• Foshan Wantage Co., Ltd. (China - Faucets, Bathroom Accessories),
• Guangdong Binli Bathroom Co. Ltd. (China - Toilets, Kitchen Faucets),
• Ceramic Co, Ltd. (China - Kitchen Faucets, Shower Heads),
• CAE (or Xi'en) San­i­ta­ry Fit­tings In­dus­try Co. Ltd., an manufacturer founded in 1989. (China - faucets),

These are the suppliers we can identify from bills of lading. There may be others that we have not yet found. Just one of the identified suppliers is a faucet manufacturer, CAE. So most of Alfi's actuel faucet manufacturers remain unknown.

Alafi Fucet Designs

Alfi's faucets are neither designed expressly for nor unique to Alfi. They are straight out of each supplier's , and the same designs may be sold to other importers in the U.S. and Canada.

Alfi's line of faucets is heavily slanted toward contemporary styles. Only a few are traditional or transitional in design.

The designs are attractive, and some are striking, but they are not innovative.

Chinese companies are seldom hotbeds of design innovation. The goal of Chinese manufacturers is to sell as many faucets as possible, which means keeping their designs well within the mainstream to appeal to as many potential buyers as possible.

Most faucet designs originated in Europe or North America. A style that sells well in these major markets will often be imitated by Asian factories (with minor changes to avoid patent infringement). The lag time is usually 3 to 5 years, so by the time a design appears in a Chinese faucet, it is no longer new.

Alfi's designs are well within the design mainstream.

Alfi Faucet Finishes

Alfi's faucet finishes were once limited: bright chrome and brushed nickel on its bath fau­cets; chrome, nickel and stainless steel for its kitchen fau­cets.

The company has now gotten a little more adverturesome with its bathroom faucets, adding Black to its palette of faucet finishes.

Not all fau­cets are available in all finishes.

Alfi's websites do not identify the processes used to create its finishes, one of the specifications essential for an informed buying decision that the company does not disclose.

However, from inspection, we believe that Chrome and Brushed Nickel are electroplated. Black is either a powder coating – a type of paint applied in powder form then baked on – or produced through (PVD).

Chinese manufacturers tend to favor PVD over the less robust powder coatings, but as these faucets are produced by several manufacturers, there is a good possibility that some blacks are powder coats while others are PVD finishes.

Electroplating

Electroplating is a traditional process for finishing 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.

Chrome does not bond well with brass, so one or more undercoats, usually of nickel, are applied before one or more coats of chrome.

The process is potentially hazardous to the operator and the environment.

It involves toxic and corrosive chemicals that must be disposed of safely. No other coating technology even comes close to the dangers involved in electroplating.

Stainless Steel

Stainless steel is usually not an applied finish. It is the material of the fau­cet buffed and polished. However, some manufacturers apply a coating of stainless steel using .

Either process is acceptable. Native stainless steel, however, scratches and readily shows fingerprints. PVD stainless is much more resistant to scratches and is less likely to show fingerprints.

Physical Vapor Deposition

Physical vapor deposition or PVD is one of the latest space-age metal-coating technology, rapidly replacing electroplating as the finish of choice.

Although the technology was discovered in the 19th century, it was not used in industry until the 1950s and, even then, only rarely due to its great expense.

Its first use was inside nuclear reactors, where very tough coatings are mandatory.

Today, PVD technology is everywhere, and the equipment required is getting smaller, faster, and cheaper all the time.

The process is the closest that the coatings industry gets to actual magic.

Load a chamber with unfinished faucet components, remove all the air, and add back a carefully calculated mix of nitrogen or argon and reactive gases.

Add a rod of the metal to be used for the coating. Heat that rod to a temperature so high that the metal dissolves into individual atoms. The atoms mix with the various reactive gases to get the color and finish effects you want and are then deposited in a very thin layer – 2 to 5 microns – on the faucets.

A micron is one-millionth of a meter or 1/26,000 of an inch. The average human hair is 83 microns thick. The smallest a human eye with excellent vision can see without magnification is about 5 microns.

A matte black finish is often produced using Titanium Carbo-Nitrate as the finish metal and a slow deposition rate while altering the chamber gas to create microscopic surface roughtness that scatters light, resulting in a flat finish.

Despite being very thin, a PVD coating is extremely dense and, in consequence, very hard and durable. By some estimates, it is up to 20 times more scratch-resistant than electroplated chrome.

From long experience, we know that PVD is nearly impossible to accidentally scratch or mar, never fades or changes color, and resists all forms of soiling.

It can usually be maintained with just an occasional wipe from a damp cloth to remove water spots.

Alfi Faucet Valves

The cartridges used in the Alfi kitchen fau­cets we examined were made by Kerox, Kft, a Hun­gar­i­an manufacturer of excellent ceramic cartridges considered by many to be among the best valve cartridges made for single-handle faucets.

For bathroom faucets, the valve cartridges were less recognizable.

The gold standard in stem cartridges for two-handle faucets is Flühs Drehtechnik, GmbH, a Ger­man firm located in Lü­den­scheid, Ger­many since 1926, and world-renowned for its precision machining. We did not find any of these valves in the Al­fi fau­cets we examined.

All that we inspected were from Chinese sources. Some were without identifying markings. Many Chinese valves are excellent, but the makers of good valves usually mark them for identification.

The Alfi Websites

Two of the company's websites, Alfi Trade and Alfi Brand, are wholesale sites intended for the trades.

Navigation on these sites used to be a little mysterious until you realized that the key was the link to "Menu" displayed unobtrusively about a third of the way down the page, which opened up the site's navigation links. Once you figured this out, navigation became generally intuitive.

The menu has now been moved to the top of the page, which makes the whole process more obvious.

BlueBath.com is Alfi's retail site. Its navigation is more traditional, with a menu bar across the top of the page.

The site sells Alfi products along with an assortment of fau­cets from other importers of Chinese and Taiwanese fau­cets, and some good to excellent fau­cets from familiar brands such as lesser-known but reputable companies.

Site search on all of the sites is effective, and individual fau­cets are easy to find.

Where To Buy

Alfi products are sold online at Alfi's own retail site, BlueBath.com.

They are also widely available throughout the U.S. and in parts of Canada through plumbing products distributors such as Ferguson En­ter­pri­zes, a supplier to the trades with locations in most cities and large towns, Hughes Supply, Inc., Win­nel­son Co., and Stand­ard Plumb­ing Sup­ply, all major national or regional wholesalers.

They are available at retail plumbing supply venues such as Ferguson Home (formerly Build.com), Faucet.com, Home Depot, Quality Bath, and at general retail sites like Amazon, Overstock, and Wayfair. A complete list is provided on the Alfi Trade website.

The Alfi Faucet Warranty

The Alfi warranties are below par for North Amer­ica, where the standard warranty pioneered by is a lifetime warranty on all parts and components, including finishes.

Alfi has at least two warranties that cover its faucets. One is for faucets purchased through Ferguson Enterprises, and a second for the same faucets purchased from the Alfi Brands website.

The warranties were not written by a lawyer. Even the most novice attorney would not have made so many mistakes.

It is astounding to us how many business owners think themselves competent to write a complex contract like a warranty without the aid of a legal professional. It almost never turns out well.

Mysterious Warranty Terms

Both claim to be lifetime warranties, although the term lifetime is not defined in either warranty.^[1]. However, both warranties exclude "mechanical parts" from this "lifetime" coverage.

The Ferguson warranty covers the mechanical parts of a faucet for five years. The website warranty for one year.

So, what are the "mechanical parts" of a faucet?

We really don't know because, like the term "lifetime," it too is never defined. However, in the faucet indUstry, the term is generally understood to mean the moving parts of a faucet that make it work, particularly the ceramic valve cartridge and, in some kitchen faucets, the spray mechanism.

After subtracting the mechanical parts, the only parts of the faucet protected by the lifetime warranty are those least likely to prove defective: body, handle, baseplate (if any), and spout. Not much chance that anything will ever go wrong with these components.

The Warranty Shuffle

Despite the five-year warranty published online, some of the faucets we acquired from Ferguson outlets for testing and evaluation arrived with the one-year warranty in the box with the faucets.

This substitution may be just a mistake, or it may be what is called a "warranty shuffle," in which a seller promises a stronger warranty before the sale, then substitutes a weaker warranty as the "official" warranty after the sale.

The warranty shuffle has long been illegal.

Compliance With Warranty Law

The Alfi warranties do not even begin to comply with the minimum requirements for consumer product warranties specified in the federal Mag­nu­son-Moss War­ranty Act (15 U.S.C. §2308). In particular, it does not …

• Provide a clear description and conspicuous disclosure of the terms and conditions of the warranty. Without defining critical terms like "lifetime" or "mechanical parts," there is no possibility of a "clear and conspicuous" disclosure . Words and expressions used in a warranty are required by law to be "simple and readily understood" by a consumer purchaser, not just by industry insiders (16 CFR &Sect; 701.3(a)).

• Define the length of the "lifetime" part of the warranty. Which lifetime does it have in mind? Is it the lifetime of the buyer? The company? The faucet itself? Something else? We don't know because Alfi does not say. (16 CFR § 701.3(a)(4))

• Explain what Alfi will do to remedy a defect under warranty. It explains at great length what it won't do, but never quite gets around to disclosing what it will do. (16 CFR § 701.3(a)(3))

• Provide "A step-by-step explanation of the procedure which the consumer should follow" to make a claim under the warranty, including the mailing address or telephone number to use. (16 CFR § 701.3(a)(5)) The Alfi warranties include no instructions for makeing a warranty claim.

• Clarify its attempted disclaimer of consequential and incidental damages with the following required statement:

  "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." (16 CFR § 701.3(a)(8))

• Include the following statement, required to be in every consumer warranty:

  "This warranty gives you specific legal rights, and you may also have other rights which vary from State to State." (16 CFR § 701.3(a)(9))

Warranty As Deceptive Act or Practice

Under the Federal Trade Commission Act , which prohibits "unfair or deceptive acts or practices in or affecting commerce", product warranties such as Alfi's that do not contain even the minimum requirements mandated by Magnuson-Moss are considered "unfair and deceptive" and cannot be enforced. (15 U.S. Code § 57a)

As a result, all of the limitations and exclusions attempted by Alfi in its warranty would be ignored by any court. This is to the advantage of the buyer who would very likely end up with a judgment based on a lifetime unlimited warranty that includes consequential or incidental damages, and which is fully transferable to subsequent owners of the faucet.

Cutting through the ambiguities and grossly deficient legal writing, the warranty turns out to be no more than a one- or five-year limited warranty. We score it "far below" the North American standard "limited lifetime" warranty.

Learn how we determine warranty scores.

Warranty As Alfi's True Opinion of the Quality of its Faucets

A faucet warranty is the company's pledge to pay for any defects in a faucet for a certain period of time. It is, in effect, betting its own money that nothing will go wrong. How long it is willing to continue that bet is a good indicator or how much faith management truly has in the durability and longevity of the company's faucets.

Most sellers of good-quality faucets guarantee them for at least the lifetime of the buyer.

So, what does Alfi's one- or five-year warranty on the critical parts of its faucets tell you? At very least, it suggests that the company has only a short-term confidence in the trouble-free operation of its faucets. After the first or fifth year, it expects you to pay for any breakage.

For more information on how to interpret faucet warranties, see Faucet Basics, Part 6: Faucet War­ran­ties.

Alfi Customer Service

Customer service is sometimes hard to get in touch with.

All of the various telephone numbers used by Alfi route through the same automated answering system. After about three minutes, the computer will give you a choice of leaving a callback message. If you leave a message, you will get a call, usually within 24 hours. But if you miss the call, you start all over again.

Once you get a customer agent, you will usually get your issue resolved. Agents are knowledgeable about Alfi fau­cets and generally cordial and helpful.

Better Business Bureau Rating

Alfi Trade itself does not have a BBB rating, but its associated retail sales site, Blue Bath, is rated A, down from A+ at our last report. This is still a very good score, based on one complaint in three years, but a complaint that "was not resolved."

Alfi Trade, Inc. is not BBB accredited.

It is, however, a member of the National Kitchen and Bath Association and has agreed to abide by that organization's code of conduct, which, among other matters, prohibits deceptive statements about the company's products.

What Makes a Faucet Illegal?

Faucets are a part of your drinking-water system, and every part of that system, right down to the solder joints, is strictly regulated by state and federal law. Even areas that do not have a local plumbing code are still subject to a state or provincial code, every one of which requires full certification.

Not just anything with a shiny finish that delivers water is a fau­cet, as the laws of the land define fau­cets in North America.

To be a fau­cet, the product must be legal to sell as a fau­cet and legal to use as a fau­cet in a drinking-water system.

If it is not legal to sell as a faucet and/or not legal to use as a faucet, but is advertised and sold as a faucet, then something illegal is going on.

The usual legal term for such activity is "fraud" and "conspiracy to commit fraud."

The sale of a fau­cet is prohibited by federal law in the U.S. if it…

• has a maximum flow rate greater than 2.2 gallons per minute. (10 CFR § 430.32),

• is not registered with the Department of Energy. (10 CFR §430),

• contains lead in the waterway of the fau­cet in a weighted average of greater than 0.25% (1/4 of 1%). (40 CFR § 143.12),

• Has not been certified "lead-free" to ANSI NSF 372 standards by an indEpendent testing laboratory (40 CFR § 143.19(b)),

• is not marked with a "a permanent legible marking identifying the manufacturer"^[2] located where it can be viewed after installation. (16 CFR § 305.24(a)(2),

• is assembled outside the U.S. and not "marked in a conspicuous place [indicating] the country of origin of the product." (19 U.S.C. § 1304).

A faucet that hasn't been certified by an independent, accredited laboratory as meeting all U.S./Canadian standards cannot be legally installed in a household water system (including a private well system) in the United States, its overseas territories, or in Canada.

These standards are:

• ASME A112.18.1/CSA 125.1, The design and performance standards for fau­cets, including durability, reliability, longevity, ease of use, and repair.

• ANSI/NSF 372 and ANSI/NSF 61: Standards that confirm that a fau­cet is free from lead and other toxic substances and that water flowing through a fau­cet does not pick up harmful materials. contaminants, or pathogens.^[3]

A faucet that passes all of the many tests required for certification is listed in a public database available for all to see and is legal to use in a household water system.

Testing and Certification

Faucet certification is not just something that is nice to have or recommended. It is the law everywhere in the U.S. and Canada.

There are no exceptions.

Even the sale of uncertified fau­cets is prohibited. Civil fines under the U.S. Safe Drink­ing Wat­er Act can be as much as $71,000 per day for each day the violation continues, and repeated or flagrant violations can lead to criminal prosecution.

Testing and certification is so critical that the law does not allow a company to test and certify its own fau­cets.

To ensure that fau­cets comply with all North American standards, they must be tested and certified by an accredited independent laboratory.

The tests are rigorous – some of the toughest in the world. As an example of how tough, consider the following:

• Life Cycle Testing:

• A faucet's valve is the heart of a fau­cet. It is the component that actually controls water delivery, turning the water on and off and regulating temperature.

• Valves are tested for durability and longevity by cycling the fau­cet on and off 500,000 times in a robotic testing chamber.

• That's not a misprint. The test requires a full half-million test cycles without a single failure. At one cycle per second, the test takes six twenty-four-hour days to complete.

• In other countries, the standard is much less daunting.

• The European durability standard (EN 817) requires 70,000 cycles, and the Chinese (GB18145-2014) test is a mere 30,000 cycles.

• A half million cycles are probably far more than the fau­cet would ever go through in a lifetime, equivalent to about 70 years of use in a typical kitchen or bath.^[4]

• Burst Testing:
• A second test, informally called a "burst test," confirms the valve's resistance to sudden surges in household water pressure.

• It subjects the valve to ten times the average household water pressure for one minute to see if it will deform or leak.^[5]

• If it does, it fails and is not certified for use in North America. (Some failures can be spectacular, hence the informal term for the test: the "burst test.")

For more information on fau­cet valves and cartridges and how they work to control water, go to Faucet Basics, Part 2: Faucet Valves & Cartridges.

Every legal fau­cet sold in North America has passed these two tests and dozens of others to ensure, among other things, that:

• The design of the fau­cet permits the repair of most common problems from "above the sink", without having to uninstall the fau­cet.
• Faucet finishes are durable enough to withstand moderate abrasion and contact with common household chemicals without damage.

• Flow rates do not exceed the maximum legal flow rate of 2.2 gallons per minute. It can be less (and in some states, like California, must be less), but it cannot be more.

• Backflow protection is installed where needed to avoid drinking water contamination.

• Faucets do not contain harmful contaminants like lead, mercury, or arsenic, nor harbor pathogens that can end up in the water flowing through the fau­cet.

Metallic Lead, Deadly Pathogens, and Other Contaminants

Faucets are tested for the presence of harmful substances by filling them with water specially formulated to extract contaminants.

After 19 days, the water is removed and tested for the presence of toxins and harmful organisms in concentrations greater than safe limits.

If any are found, the fau­cet fails and is not certified for use in North America.

The most worrisome of these contaminants is metallic lead, a known neurotoxin.

Lead is a special concern with fau­cets made in China, where leaded brass is commonly used, and there are no regulations banning or limiting lead in fau­cets. (See the sidebar Lead in Chin­ese Faucets)

Brass, the material from which most fau­cets are made, is an alloy that normally includes lead, and lead is a big problem even in small amounts.

It has been identified by both the En­vi­ron­men­tal Pro­tec­tion Agen­cy (EPA) and the World Health Or­gan­i­za­tion (WHO) as a neurotoxin that is very hazardous to health.

Neurotoxins specifically target and destroy the nervous system, disrupting critical communication between neurons. Children younger than six years are especially vulnerable to the effects, which can severely affect mental and physical development.

In the past, brass could include up to 8% lead and still be used in fau­cet construction. But that ended in 2014 with an amendment to the Safe Drinking Water Act.

Today's brass fau­cets must, by law, be made of an alloy that contains no more than a bare trace^[6] of lead.

To ensure that a fau­cet is free of lead, it must pass two stringent tests.

• ANSI/NSF 372 ensures that any brass alloy that touches water flowing through the fau­cet contains no more than 0.25% (1/4 of 1%) lead in its composition.

• ANSI/NSF 61: guarantees that water passing through the fau­cet does not pick up lead in a concentration greater than 5 parts per billion.

That's billion with a "b" – almost no lead at all. The air you breathe probably contains more lead than the tap water you drink.

Safe, Durable Faucets

How successful are the safeguards provided by certification?

Very.

Safety

The drinking water flowing from a certified fau­cet is safe. And a lot of time, effort, and money go into keeping it that way, from treatment plant to kitchen or bathroom sink.

It is as safe and often safer than the bottled water you buy at the grocery.

An investigation by Consumer Reports in 2020 found several brands of bottled water with "forever chemicals" (PFAS) and arsenic far above safe levels.

A four-year review by the Natural Resources Defense Council comparing bottled vs. tap water concluded that 22% of bottled water brands "contained chemicals at levels above state health limits" that "[i]f consumed over a long period of time, some of those contaminants could cause cancer or other health problems."

Durability

Certified faucets are also incredibly durable.

If you have ever wondered why fau­cets seem to last forever; the answer is certification.

Certified fau­cets are beastly tough, unlikely to ever fail in a lifetime of use. Fewer than 2% develop a problem resulting from a design, manufacturing, or material defect.

In our day job of remodeling vintage kitchens and bathrooms, we encounter faucets that are well into their second century, and still going strong.

Faucets are usually replaced, not because they fail, but because tastes change and they simply go out of style. Newer, often more convenient, designs and novel finishes make that old faucet seem old indeed. But it's not old at all, not for a faucet, that is.

And, odds are, it still works.

Leaking is now very rare due to improved valve technology that no longer relies on rubber rings and washers to control water flow.

With the near-universal adoption of almost indestructible ceramic disc valve, the dreaded midnight drip, drip, drip is largely a thing of the past.

It is becoming even less common with the introduction of super-cartridges that use ceramic discs treated to prevent mineral deposits — accumulated minerals from "hard" water are the usual culprit if a ceramic valve leaks.^[7]

To learn more about how consumers are protected by fau­cet regulation at all levels of government, go to Faucet Basics, Part 3: Keeping Faucets Safe & Reliable.

Listing Certificates

A faucet that passes all required tests and meets all North American standards is listed in a certificate issued by the testing authority called, simply enough, a Certificate of Listing or, even more simply, a listing certificate.

The certificate must be issued before the fau­cet is placed on the market, then reissued annually thereafter for as long as the fau­cet remains for sale.

In addition, the testing authority will periodically take fau­cets from the seller's inventory, and sometimes right off the production line, for random retesting.

A certified fau­cet must be identified by an indelible mark on the faucet itself identifying the certifying authority and standards to which the faucet is certified, and in a listing certificate by brand and model name or number issued by that authority.

If it is not marked, not listed, or the listing does not show the brand name and model under which the fau­cet is sold, it is not certified. And, no matter how long or loudly the seller insists that it is, it isn't. (Learn how to recognize a valid listing certificate.)

The listing certificates are public documents, posted on the web.

Alfi routinely identifies its fau­cets as certified in compliance with the joint U.S./Canadian mechanical safety and reliability standards (ASME A112.18.1/CSA 125.1) and the North American lead-free and safe drinking water standards (ANSI 372 and ANSI 61, sometimes consolidated as ANSI 61/9). This statement is typical:

"Certified by Uniform Plumbing Code (cUPC)."

However, none of the seven accredited organizations that test and certify fau­cets to North American standards have ever heard of Alfi Trade, Inc., and all deny testing or certifying Alfi Brand fau­cets.

We know because we checked.

When we telephoned Alfi about the apparent lack of certifications for its fau­cets, we were initially assured by a customer service representative that they were "UPC certified" and fully compliant with all North American standards.

But when we then asked Alfi for certificate file numbers, we were given one identification number that turned out to be for a Uniform Product Code registration, which has nothing whatsoever to do with faucet certifications.

No one, not even the most experienced industry professional, can tell by looking at a faucet (or a picture of a faucet on a website) whether it is free of lead, mercury, arsenic, and other toxins, or whether its cartridge will be leak-free over the long run.

Extensive testing and certification are needed, precisely the testing and certification that Alfi has not had done.

Here are the detailed results of our inquiry into Alfi's faucet certifications:

Alfi's Certifications and Required Registrations

Legal Actions

The California Energy Commission sued Alfi Trade, Inc. for illegally selling unapproved faucets in California from July 2015 to July 2021. The company paid a penalty of $41,994.00 to settle the suit in 2022.

Comparable Faucets

Legal faucets comparable to those sold by Alfi are widely available in many of the same styles and for about the same price range. These include any of the following. Many of these provide much stronger warranties and a wider finish selection. All offer faucets that are legal to sell and legal to install in a drinking-water system.

In Conclusion

Alfi Trade, Inc. is not big on law abidance.

Its warranty does not conform to U.S. warranty law, and its faucets do not meet the mandatory certification requirements of state/provincial or U.S. federal law.

We are troubled by the ethics of a company that continues to claim that its fau­cets are certified to North American standards in the face of overwhelming evidence that they are not, and continues to sell uncertified fau­cets with knowledge that they are not legal to sell or install in the U.S. or Canada.

We don't think it's possible for Alfi to have been in the faucet business for over 20 years and remain wholly ignorant of what constitutes a validly certified, legal faucet. Representing the fau­cets as certified deceives buyers into believing that they are legal to install in drinking-water systems in the U.S. or Canada, when in fact no plumbing code that we know of permits their installation.

We rate the faucets as an extremely poor value from a company you would do best to avoid.

Continuing Research

We are continuing to research the company. If you have experience with Alfi fau­cets, good, bad, or indifferent, we would like to hear about it, so please email starcraftreviews@yahoo.com or post a comment below.

Please note that we generally do not answer questions posed in the comments section below unless the question and answer are of general interest. For specific questions, please contact us by email. We generally respond within one business day.

Footnotes

1. The law has a cure for ambiguity in contracts, and a warranty is a contract. It is the ancient doctrine of Contra Proferentum which requires any ambiguity to be interpreted against the writer. For the Alfi warranty, the warranty term choice between 5 years and lifetime would be interpreted to mean lifetime, the term most disadvantageous to the writer, Alfi. Then the issue becomes what is meant by "lifetime," a term that is also ambiguous.
2. The term "manufacturer" means "any person who manufactures, produces, assembles, or imports" a fau­cet (16 CFR § 305.2). The marking may be a trade name or trademark.
3. ANSI/NSF 372 and ANSI/NSF 61 are often combined and referred to as ANSI/NSF 61/9.

4. If ceramic valve cartridges are designed to last 70 years or longer in ordinary use, why did my valve fail after 5, 10, or 20 years?

   The answer is mineral buildup. Faucets are tested in mineral-free water. Unless you have a water softener installed, your household water is probably mineral-rich. Only 15% of the U.S. has naturally occurring soft water.

   Ceramic valves control water with two ceramic discs that are polished to the point where, when closed, the space between them is smaller than a water molecule. The flow of water is blocked. When minerals accumulate on the polished surface, that gap can widen, allowing water to leak past.

   What distinguishes super-valve discs from others is their resistance to mineral accumulation.

   At present, two approaches are used to combat mineral buildup. Diamond Seal Technology valve cartridges used in fau­cets from Masco, are coated with diamond dust that constantly grinds away any minerals that adhere to the discs. The German company, uses a simpler approach. Its PVD+ cartridges are coated with diamond-like carbon. This material not only makes the discs super hard but also makes them super slick, preventing minerals from sticking.

   For more in-depth information about faucet valves and cartridges, read Faucet Basics: Part 2: Faucet Valves & Cartridges.

5. Water systems and well pumps deliver water at a normal pressure between 40 and 80 psi (pounds per square inch). Water pressure below 40 psi is considered low, and water pressure above 80 psi is too high. A water pressure lower or higher than this range violates most plumbing codes. The average water pressure in the U.S. and Canada is 60 psi.
   A surge in pressure occurs when a fau­cet is shut off suddenly. Water flowing behind the fau­cet comes to an abrupt halt, but in doing so momentarily surges to a pressure of 200 psi or even higher, but usually nowhere near the 600 psi at which fau­cet valves are burst tested.

6. A faucet may contain no more than a "weighted average" of 0.25% lead in the waterway of the faucet, calculated by measuring the parts of the faucet in contact with water, determining the percentage of lead in each part, multiplying the lead percentage of each part by its surface area percentage, then summing the percentages.

7. Most fau­cet failures are caused by improper installation and a lack of routine maintenance. Faucets that contain rubber washers or O-rings need the washers and rings replaced periodically to avoid leaking. Faucets of this type are increasingly rare, limited to some economy fau­cets and fau­cets purchased before 1985.
   In most modern fau­cets, the water control device is a self-contained ceramic cartridge. These need no regular maintenance other than a periodic dousing in diluted vinegar to remove mineral buildup. Once every 5 to 10 years is uaually enough.