Appaso Faucets Review & Rating Updated: December 27, 2023
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Law Requirements
This company claims a five-year warranty on products sold in the U.S. and Canada, but was unable to provide a copy of a written warranty.
Learn more about faucet warranties.
This Company In Brief
Appaso is a brand name under which Xinyanghui Electronic Commerce Co. sells uncertified, contraband faucets through online retail sites that host third-party sellers such as Amazon.
The faucets are of average quality and of no particular design distinction. The styles are largely typical of Chinese faucets found in the inventories of dozens of Chinese faucet companies.
The company provides no written warranty on its products and no source of replacement parts.
Black Market Faucets: These faucets are not legal for sale in the U.S. and not legal for installation in a drinking water system in the U.S. or Canada. For more information on contraband faucets and how to avoid these potentially dangerous products, please visit Illegal and Black Market Faucets in North America.
Xinyanghui Electronic Commerce Co. is a trading company that also does business as Shenzhen Xinyanghui E-Commerce Co., Ltd. and Shenzhen Habixiang Technology Co., Ltd.
Its primary retail outlet in North America is Amazon where it trades as Appaso Direct but it also sells a few faucets on other sites that host third-party sellers such as Walmart and Wayfair.
The Company
Amazon requires sellers to provide at least their name and address, but this company does its best to disguise its true identity by listing itself as
shenzhenshihabixiangkejiyouxiangongsi
805,Bldg 15,Bihuali Shanzhuang, Jindaotian Rd,Dongxiao
Shanzhuang
GUANG DONG
510710
CN
which is a phonetic rendering of its Chinese name. This hodgepodge translates to
Shenzhen Xinyanghui Electronic Commerce Co., Ltd.
805, Bldg. 15
Bihuali Shanzhuang
Jindaotian Rd.
Dongxiao St.
Luohu Dist.
Shenzhen 518019 China
It took our researchers only a few minutes to translate the phonetics into its actual name in Mandarin and look up its English name in the Chinese Corporations Registry. (The official name of a Chinese company is always in Mandarin, but registrants also have the option to select an English name which is usually an approximate translation of the Mandarin.)
Xinyanghui sells its products in North America under the Appaso brand. The company logo, shown above, but not the Appaso name, is a registered trademark in China, India, the U.S., and Canada.
In addition to faucets, it sells other plumbing fixtures such as showers, tub spouts, and various bathroom and kitchen accessories such as drains and soap/lotion dispensers.
The company evidently plans to sell other products in the future. Its U. S. trade mark filing identifies the potential scope of its business to include:
"Automatic flush valves for toilets; Bath installations; Dripper irrigation systems, comprised of valves, filters and regulators; Electronic facial steamers; Facial saunas; Hand wash basins being parts of sanitary installations; Heating systems composed primarily of tubes, pipes and manifolds through which warm or high temperature water circulates; Hot water heating installations; Mixer faucets for water pipes; Plumbing fittings, namely, shower control valves; Regulating accessories for water supply, namely, metered valves; Safety accessories for gas pipes, namely, flashback arrestors and reverse flow check valves; Showers; Tap water faucets; Water fountains; Watering machines for agricultural purposes; Pipes being parts of sanitary facilities; Regulating accessories for water or gas apparatus and pipes; Taps being faucets."
Appaso's North American Facilities are Ghosts
Xinyanghui claims to have a North American "partner and distributor," Vomi LLC, located in Flushing, New York. In fact, it is a Nevada limited liability company located in Las Vegas.
Several factors suggest that Vomi is a , not an actual business. These include:
- Vomi does not have a Las Vegas business license. The Las Vegas municipal code prohibits the conduct of any business without a license.
- There is no record of Vomi having paid either Los Vegas or Nevada business taxes since it began in 2020.
- Vomi, as far as we can determine from public records, has no employees.
- There is no record of Vomi importing any products from China – something it would have to do in order to distribute Appaso faucets.
- The telephone number of the business is listed as "messages only."
- Its addresses in both Nevada and New York are , essentially message drops, of the type created and maintained by lawyers and accountants for foreign merchants that want to create the appearance of a U.S. business facility.
Xinyanghui also claims warehouses in Nevada, California, and Texas. The Nevada warehouse is like the Nevada corporation, more aspirational than real. The California and Texas warehouses are real enough, but they belong to Amazon.
Appaso's sales operations are handled in North America by the hosting websites on which it sells faucets. Amazon in particular takes care of inventory, warehousing, sales, payment processing, and delivery.
Xinyanghui's sole role in the process is to ship faucets to Amazon warehouses from time to time, ensuring that Amazon does not run out of inventory.
Xinyanghui attempts to handle customer issues from China, but the attempt is less than successful. (See more below.)
Appaso Faucet Construction & Materials
The faucets are constructed conventionally. The body and spout of the faucets, as well as being decorative, are the components that channel water within the faucet.[1]
The primary materials from which the faucets sold by Appaso in North America are made are brass and stainless steel.
Brass
Traditional (alpha) brass is a blend of copper and zinc with a small amount of lead (1.5% - 3.5%) added to make the material more malleable, less brittle, and easier to fabricate. Brass is the preferred material for faucets for two reasons:
- Brass is strong but easy to work with. It casts, forges, and machines with relative ease.
- Brass is naturally anti-microbial. The copper in brass kills microbes including bacteria, retarding the build-up of potentially hazardous germs inside a faucet.
But, brass has one serious drawback: it may contain lead.
Lead is now all but banned in North America for use in any drinking water component due to its toxicity to humans, particularly children.
According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), lead, even in small amounts, causes slowed growth, learning disorders, hearing loss, anemia, hyperactivity, and behavior issues.
To comply with the restrictions on lead, today's faucet brass replaces lead with other additives to reduce brittleness without adding toxicity. The most common is bismuth.
Bismuth is similar to lead – right next to lead on the periodic table of elements – but it is not harmful to humans.
It is, however, very expensive. It is 300 times rarer than lead, even rarer than silver, which is the reason that bismuth-brass alloys are considerably more expensive than leaded brass.
In China, there is no lead limit in drinking water, and faucets made in China for the domestic market often contain large amounts of lead.
Lead is prized in Chinese manufacturing because it is plentiful, cheap, malleable, and resistant to corrosion.
Lead compounds are regularly added to plastics and vinyl to make them more resistant to high temperatures. It is added to cheap metal products to make them seem more substantial by increasing their weight
Most faucets made in China for domestic use contain leaded brass, and the temptation, especially among Chinese companies selling low-cost faucets is to sell those high-lead-content faucets here.
Whenever we see brass faucets made in China that have not been certified lead-free, we suspect leaded brass is being used and the faucets have not been certified because the seller knows they will not pass lead-free testing.
Stainless Steel
Some of the kitchen faucets sold by Appaso are made from stainless steel, sometimes with brass. The stainless steel is identified by Appaso as 304 stainless, an alloy that includes chromium and nickel. The nickel gives the steel a crystalline structure which increases its strength. The chromium helps the steel resist corrosion.
Stainless 304, also known as "food-grade" stainless, is by far the most common alloy used to make kitchen utensils, silverware, cookware, and faucets.
Steel is much harder than brass. It can be made in thinner profiles that use less material and still have more than adequate strength.
It requires processes and machinery that differ from those used to produce brass faucets. Typically a company makes either brass or stainless steel faucets but not both. Appaso is one of the few faucet brands to combine the materials.
Why Stainless Steel Does Not Rust: Properly alloyed stainless contains at least 10% chromium (which gives stainless its slight yellowish tinge) and a dollop of nickel. These form a coating of oxides and hydroxides on the outer surface of the steel that blocks oxygen and water from reaching the underlying metal, preventing rust from forming. The coating is very thin, only a few atoms thick, so thin that it is invisible to the eye under ordinary light but thick enough to protect the faucet.
Zinc & Zinc/Aluminum Alloys
Because both brass and stainless steel are expensive, manufacturers tend to use only as much as they need, substituting a less costly metal where the strength of brass or steel is not needed
The most frequent substitute is zinc or a zinc-aluminum (ZA) alloy. One of the most common is called , a composition containing 4% aluminum.
Zinc alloys are typically not as strong as brass or steel and do not resist water pressure as well as steel. But, their use in non-pressurized parts of a brass faucet such as handles, base and wall plates, and is common even among manufacturers of luxury faucets.
They do no harm when used in these components, and may save consumers a few dollars on the price of the faucet.
Plastics
Plastic is the other commonly used substitute material. It may be safely used in incidental parts like base plates and has been largely trouble-free in aerators and as casings for ceramic cartridges but otherwise, its use is suspect especially if under water pressure.
Appaso kitchen faucet spray heads are plastic and the use of plastic for spray heads (called "wands" in the faucet industry) is one of the suspect uses of the material.
Unfortunately, plastic wands have become the standard for many manufacturers, including some that sell upscale faucets such as
Manufacturers give three reasons for their use of plastic:
- Plastic does not get uncomfortably hot in use like metal wands;
- Plastic is not as heavy and is more comfortable to hold for long periods of time; and
- Plastic is a lot cheaper than brass or stainless steel – even cheaper than zinc.
However, plastic wands also fail much more often than metal wands. And although engineers have made significant improvements to their reliability over the past decade, the problem has not been entirely solved.
Better wands are made of metal, insulated against excessive heat transmittal.
The Sure Cure for Too-Hot Spray Wands: The simple cure for spray wands that get too hot is to reduce the temperature of the water. Dishes do not need rinsing in scalding hot water.
Appaso Faucet Design & Styling
Appaso faucets feature both contemporary and traditional styling. Many of the designs are original with Xinyanghui and the company claims over 100 design patents for faucets and faucet components. We did not, however, find nearly that many individual faucet designs. The same design is patented in several countries, driving up the number of patents. But, the actual number of distinct designs is closer to 20.
The company's designs are original, but they are also very conservative. The styles exhibit no particular design originality of the type that continuously pours from design-centric countries like Italy.
The goal of Chinese faucet 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 Chinese designs are merely adaptations of European and North American faucet styles.
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.
Appaso's faucet designs fit this pattern. They are pleasant and often smartly styled but by no means novel or exceptional.
Appaso Faucet Components
The critical components used in Appaso faucets are ceramic valve cartridges and aerators. For Appaso faucets, these components are mostly unknown. The company does not provide any information about them. To the extent they are known, they are unremarkable.
Valve Cartridges
We inspected several Appaso valve cartridges and determined that they are modern ceramic valves in standard configurations of a type that is made by any number of Chinese manufacturers.
Some were imprinted with maker's marks allowing us to identify them as made by (Ningbo) Wanhai Cartridge Technology Co., Ltd. These cartridges do not have the reputation of some of the better-known Asian brands such as Sedal S.L.U. (China) or Geann Industrial (Taiwan), but its cartridges have been certified to North American standards, meaning the cartridges have passed the North American life-cycle and burst tests.
The standard North American life-cycle stress test requires operating the cartridges through 500,000 cycles under 60 psi of water pressure without a single failure. At one cycle per second, the test takes six days to complete.
The Faucet Cartridge
Its cartridge is the heart of a modern faucet and should be your very first consideration when making a buying decision.
It is the component that controls water flow and temperature.
Its finish may fail and the faucet will still work. It may be discolored, corroded, and ugly but water still flows. If the cartridge fails, however, the faucet is no longer a faucet. It is out of business until the cartridge is replaced.
It's important, therefore, that the cartridge is robust, durable, and lasts for many years.
The burst test subjects the cartridges to a water pressure of 500 pounds per square (psi) inch – 10 times the average household water pressure of 40-60 psi for one minute. If the cartridge leaks or deforms under this pressure, it fails.
In other countries, the standards are much less rigorous. The European (EN 817) and Chinese (GB18145) life-cycle requirement, for example, is just 70,000 cycles.
Since Wanhai has certified its cartridges to joint U.S./Canadian standards, we can say with fair confidence that the Wanhai cartridges used in its Appaso faucets meet the minimum North American requirements for durability and longevity and should provide years of leak-free service. (Read the Wanhai listing certificate.)
Aerators
There are dozens of companies in China that manufacture aerators and spray-head assembles. Most are a least adequate.
Faucet used to be simple devices that merely added a little air to soften the water stream so it would not splash out of the sink. Today, however, they are also used to limit water volume to the lower flows required by federal and state water conservation laws, and in some cases, to prevent back-flow that can result in the contamination of household drinking water.
It is important, therefore, that this little device, often smaller than a dime, be the best available.
Unfortunately, Appaso does not identify the source of the aerators used in its faucets. We took several apart to see if the devices had any manufacturer identification, but they did not.
Appaso Faucet Finishes
Appaso offers four finishes on its faucets: Matte Black, Brushed Nickel, Chrome, and Brushed Gold.
Some kitchen faucets are available in in which a base finish is paired with an accent finish. Split finishes include Black with Chrome and Black with Gold.
Not every finish is available on every faucet but the finishes available are usually identified for each faucet.
Appaso does not identify the processes used to apply its finishes, so we must base our assessments solely on visual inspection and non-destructive testing.
Two finishes, Chrome and Brushed Nickel, are electroplated. Black is probably a powder coating. Gold looks to be a physical vapor deposition (PVD) finish.
Electroplating 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.
Usually, multiple coats are applied, one or more undercoats and then two or more coats of the finish metal.
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.
The top coat may be polished or brushed. Chrome, a relatively hard metal, is usually polished to a high shine. Nickel, a softer metal, is usually brushed to help hide the inevitable minor scratches.
Physical vapor deposition (PVD) is one of the latest space-age faucet finishing technologies, 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 then only rarely due to its great expense. Its first use was in nuclear reactors. Today, PVD is everywhere and the machinery required is getting smaller, faster, and cheaper all the time.
Finish Durability
Some finishes are more durable than others. Here are the Appaso faucet finishes and their durability from most to least durable.
- 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.)
- (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 essentially a paint applied in a powdered form and then heated in an oven to cure. It is considered semi-durable with about the same scratch resistance as the finish on your car.
To create a PVD coating, a sealed chamber is loaded with unfinished faucet components, and all the air is removed and replaced by a carefully calculated mix of nitrogen or argon and reactive gases.
A rod of the metal to be used for the coating is heated to a temperature so high that the metal dissolves into individual atoms. The atoms mix with the various reactive gases to get the desired color and finish effects and are then deposited in a very thin film – 2 to 5 – on the faucets.
Despite being just microns thick, 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. (And some PVD finishes are given a final chemical coating that resists water spots, so even the damp wipe is made largely unnecessary. A dry buff will do.)
Powder coating is usually described as semi-durable
, not as robust as electroplated or PVD finishes, about as durable as the finish on your car, and requiring more care to maintain a like-new appearance.
It is essentially a dry paint in powder form applied using a special low-velocity spray gun that disperses the powder while giving it a positive electrical charge. The particles are drawn to the item to be finished which has been given a negative charge.
Once the powder is applied, the item being coated is baked in an oven which melts and bonds the powder and changes the structure of the coating into long, cross-linked molecular chains.
These chains are what give the coating its durability, reducing the risk of scratches, chipping, abrasions, corrosion, fading, and other wear issues.
Learn more about the types and durability of faucet finishes at Faucet Basics, Part 5: Faucet Finishes.
Finish Care Instructions: Always read and follow the faucet seller's care instructions. Careful cleaning and maintenance not only preserve the good looks of your faucet but also your finish warranty.
Appaso Warranty
Appaso claims to offer a five-year warranty on its faucets but has been unable to produce an actual copy of the warranty.
A valid warranty in the U.S. must be in writing. Absent a document, there is no warranty, merely an unenforceable verbal promise that is not worth the paper it is not written on.
We do not classify unwritten warranties to be actual warranties and neither does U.S. law.
Appaso, by its lack of a written warranty, clearly suggests that it does not have enough confidence in the durability or longevity of its faucets to guarantee them in writing.
Appaso Customer Service
Customer service for Appaso products is through emails to China.
The company's stated goal of providing "100% customer satisfaction" from China is largely defeated by time and distance.
The time difference between China and North America is between 13 and 16 hours. This means that when you send an email to Xinyanghui Sanitary Ware, its agents are asleep, and when the response arrives 8-9 hours later, you're asleep. So every exchange of emails typically takes a full 24-hour day – longer on weekends.
Getting a replacement part or faucet from China is not a trivial process. China Post is efficient but the distance the package travels is literally halfway around the world. Parcel delivery by air takes 7-15 working days, and by sea up to 70 working days.
If your Appaso faucet is malfunctioning and you need replacement parts, that is far too long.
We rate the company's customer support as unsatisfactory.
Appaso Website
Xinyanghui has ints own website. https://www.appaso.com in addition to its Amazon storefront.
The website does not provide much hard information about Appaso faucets. The information it does provide is promotional, designed to sell the faucet not inform the buyer. The best place to get the information needed to make an informed buying decision is often the faucet's listing on Amazon.
The information on Amazon is still incomplete, but more complete than that on the Appaso website.
It includes the faucet's dimensions, flow rate, primary material (Brass or Stainless steel, and often secondary material,) and so on, but you have to scroll far down in the listing to the section headed "Technical Detils." The intervening area is filled with illustrations that are, however, worth examining for additional nuggets of hard data.
Many of the specifications important to an informed faucet buying decision are missing. Among the most critical are:
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Certifications:
Appaso identifies almost every faucet it sells as "cUPC" certified ("cUPC" is code for "certified to joint Canadian/U.S. standards"). This claim is simply not true.
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Faucet Valve:
No information is provided about a faucet's valve other than the fact that it is a ceramic cartridge. In addition to this basic notice, the name of the cartridge manufacturer is needed. There are good ceramic cartridges and not-so-good ceramic cartridges. To make an informed buying decision the buyer needs to know the actual manufacturer. Otherwise, there is no way to judge the quality of the cartridge.
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Type of Finish:
The type of finish is not disclosed. Type of finish (electroplated, powder coating, PVD, etc.) is important to the long-term durability of the finish and the type and amount of care and maintenance required.
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Warranty:
Appaso claims to provide a 5-year limited warranty but the actual warranty document is nowhere to be found. U.S. law requires a consumer product warranty to be in writing and made available to the buyerprior to
the sale of the product.
- For faucets sold only online, this means the warranty must be part of the online faucet listing. If not then a conspicuous link to the warranty must be provided from every place on the internet where the faucet is sold. Appaso does not comply with either requirement.
These are just some of the many gaps in the basic information that should be provided about an Appaso faucet that is not available from Xinyanghui.
Appaso Testing & Certifications
Comparable Faucets
Legal faucets made in China comparable to Appaso in quality with at least some sort of warranty, but not necessarily comparable for design or price, include
Conclusions
There is absolutely no reason to buy an Appaso faucet. The company does not comply with U.S. or Canadian laws that require the testing and certification of all faucets sold in North America.
1. Price is not enough. The prices on Appaso faucets make them attractive, but, as the list above demonstrates, a great many other companies sell Chinese-made faucets for about the same price that are fully certified, legal to use in a drinking water system, and backed by a warranty of some kind. Many are guaranteed for the lifetime of the buyer.
g1312 2. Toxic Substances Have Not Been Excluded so the presence of lead, arsenic, cadmium, and mercury in most of the faucets is a real and substantial risk. Because these faucets are made in China where the use of lead in faucets is not regulated, the risk is even greater than usual.
3. Warranty Appaso claims a 5-year warranty, but is unable to provie a copy of the warranty document. In the U.S., consumer warranties must be in writing. Even if the warranty exists, the very short 5-year duration suggests that the company does not have enough confidence in the long-term durability of the faucet to commit to a reasonable guarantee.
4. Appaso's faucets cannot be legally installed in a drinking water system anywhere in the U.S. or Canada. A plumber probably will not install one for you, and if you do it yourself you risk, at the very least, having to replace the faucet with a legal product and the possibility in some jurisdictions of a fine and some jail time.
We are continuing to research the company. If you have experience with Appaso faucets, good, bad, or indifferent, we would like to hear about it, so please contact us or post a comment below.
Footnotes
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The newer faucet construction method, and almost certainly the wave of the future, is called "core and shell". The water channel is provided by the core components, typically consisting of copper or composite tubes that are guaranteed to be lead free. This core is then concealed inside the decorative outer shell that provdes the faucet's shape and style. Because it never touches water, the shell can be made of leaded brass, and because it is not subject to water pressure, it does not need to be structural and can be made of much thinner matrial.
The technology is actually not all that new. Wall-mounted faucets have always been core and shell. The core (usually called the "valve") is mounted in the wall and the shell (called the "trim") conceals the core. What's new is that the technique is now being applied to faucets other than wall-mounts, and the core, rather than being brass is some other lead-free metal, usually copper, and some companies are experimenting with composite cores, eliminating metal altogether.
faucets are already all core and shell construction with a zinc alloy shell.