Horizon Group Faucets Bath Select^®, Cascada Showers, Fontana Showers^®, & Juno Showers Review & Rating Updated: September 10, 2025

Fontana Showers has taken exception to some of the facts about the company disclosed in this report, going so far as to publish a rebuttal on its website. The company's rebuttal and our response can be read in the footnotes.^[1]

Imported

China

Bath Select LLC

4429 Brookfield Corporate Dr. Suite 500, Chantilly, VA 20151

customerservice@Bathselect.com

800-500-9895

703-378-2808

Cascada Showers

7121 Merrimac Dr., McLean, VA 22101

customerservice@cascadashowers.com

800-766-7428

Fontana Showers LLC

4429 Brookfield Corporate Dr. Suite 500, Chantilly, VA 20151

customerservice@fontanashowers.com

800-684-4489

Juno Showers LLC

4429 Brookfield Corporate Drive, Suite 500, Chantilly, VA 20151

info@junoshowers.com

800-684-4489

These Brands Are Also Sold By a Related Company:

Horizon Direct Depot LLC

6845 Elm St. McLean, VA 22101

sales@horizondirectdepot.com

703-595-4855

Rating

Business Type

For more information on the five fau­cet company business types, see Faucet Companies

Product Range

Kitchen, Bath, Bar, and Prep Faucets

Certifications

Brands

Bath Select

Cascada Showers

Fontana Showers

Juno Showers

Street Prices

Bath Select	$ 99.65 - $2,029.99
Cascada Showers	$169.95 - $ 296.99
Fontana Showers	$154.40 - $3,845.35
Juno Showers	$187.13 - $1,936.00

Warranty Score

Valve Cartridge

1 Year

Finishes

1 Year

Mechanical Parts

1 Year

Proof of Purchase

Required

Transferable

No

Meets U.S. Warranty
Law Requirements

No

• Read the Bath Select faucet warranty.
• Read the Cascada Showers faucet warranty.
• Read the Fontana Showers faucet warranty.
• Read the Juno Showers faucet warranty.

☆ 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.

Download/Read/Print our Model Limited Lifetime Warranty.

This Company In Brief

Maysara Khalid Sadiq and his associates, some of whom are family members, control a group of related companies that illegally import and sell uncertified Chinese-made fau­cets in the U.S. and Canada under several trade names.

Faucets are sold through proprietary internet venues and internet retailers that host third-par­ty sellers such as Ama­zon, Houzz, and Way­fair.

At least one of the companies claims to design and manufacture "hundreds of original fau­cets" in Northern Virginia. Our research, however, confirmed through import and customs records that the "Italian inspired" fau­cets are designed and manufactured in China.

The prices charged for fau­cets are higher and, in some instances, much higher than the street prices of other sellers of similar and sometimes the very same Chinese fau­cets.

The faucet warranties are uniformly sub-par for North Amer­ica, and after-sales customer service is deficient.

The faucets do not meet the minimum legal requirements for installation as drinking water faucets in North America.

The Group

The Horizon Group consists of at least five operating companies and one or more holding companies, all of which are in some manner associated with Maysara Khalid Sadiq.^[2]

There may be other companies that we have not been able to identify.

The Group controls https://wikihomeimprovements.com, a blog that regularly promotes the Group's products under the guise of publishing independent reviews.^[3]

Company Addresses

The companies list a wide variety of business addresses, some of which are private residences.

Fontana Showers, Juno Showers, and Bath Select identify.

as their primary business address. This location is an office/warehouse complex hosting multiple busineses.

Cascada Showers and Hor­i­zon Di­rect De­pot claim a primary address of

That location, however, is listed by Fairfax County property records as a single-family residence owned by Rola Sabbagh (AKA Rola Al-Sabbagh). Ms. Sabbagh is identified by Dun and Bradstreet as the president of Hor­i­zon Di­rect De­pot, and by the Virginia Corporation Commission as that company's registered agent.

Cascada identifies its mailing address as

which is the Old Chelsea Station Post Office. The "#1306" is, according to the station manager, the number of a post office box.

Other addresses associated with the Group are:

A registered address is the address of a company for legal matters such as service of process in a lawsuit. It is not unusual for a company's registered and principal addresses to be different. Quite often a registered address is that of a law firm.

Legal Organization and Status

Members of the Group share purchasing, warehousing, order fulfillment, and customer service.

We believe, based on our research into import records, that Hor­i­zon Di­rect De­pot LLC handles most of these backend processes for the Group indluding importation from China. It also sells the Group's products on its website and through Amazon and eBay stores.

All of the entities are organized as limited liability companies in Virginia.

However, as of the date of this report, the Virginia Corporation Commission shows two of the companies, Ju­noShowers LLC and BathSe­lect LLC, as "inactive" for failure to file annual reports and pay required fees.

An inactive company still exists as a legal entity but is not in "good standing." It cannot legally conduct business.^[4]

A spokesperson for Fontana Showers insisted that the company began in business in 1991. While we have no doubt that Mr. Sadiq was in business in some capacity as early as 1991, it was not through one of the entities that now make up the Group.

Bath Se­lect, offering "designer" fau­cets, glass sinks, showers, and shower panels began selling online in 2005 (but was not orgainzed as a limited liability company until 2016). Fontana Showers was added in 2006, Ju­no Showers and Hor­i­zon Di­rect De­pot in 2014, and Cas­ca­da Showers in 2018.^[5]

By 2012, bathtubs, steam showers, tub fillers, and bath accessories such as towel bars and rings, robe hooks, and toilet paper holders had been added to the Group's product offerings.

Where to Buy

The Group does not sell faucets through a normal distributor network. A distributor would check the faucet's certifications and probably not handle the products until proper certifications were obtained.

Con­se­quent­ly, its faucets are not sold in plumbing supply houses like Ferg­u­son En­ter­pri­ses or Ha­jo­ca, in big box lumber stores such as Lowe's or Home De­pot, or in local hardware stores. Nor did we find any brick-and-mortar showrooms that offer the Group's products.

It sells primarily through ten proprietary websites:

• BathSelect.com
• Bath Select Hospitality
• CascadaShow­ers.com
• FontanaFau­cets.com
• Fon­ta­naSen­sorFau­cets.com
• Fon­ta­naShow­ers.com,
• Fon­ta­naShowersCom­mer­ci­al.com
• HorizonDirectDe­pot.com
• junocommer­ci­al.com
• junoshowers.com

Two of Fontana's four websites, Fon­tanaSen­sor­Fau­cets.com and Fon­ta­na­ShowersCom­mer­ci­al.com, are directed more toward the hospitality industry than private residential buyers, as is Bath Select's Bath Select Hospitality website.

Faucets are also retailed over the internet on websites that host third-party sellers, including: Amazon.com, eBay.com, Houzz.com, Wayfair.com.

There is some variation in the fau­cets sold by the different companies.

Bath Se­lect carries more fau­cets in traditional styles and more two-handle fau­cets. Cascada fau­cets (also sold by Hor­i­zon Di­rect De­pot) are priced at the low end of the Groups pricing structure.

Fon­ta­na fau­cets is the Group's premier collection and has some of the highest prices of the Group, climbing to nearly $4,000 which puts it in the same price range as premium European brands such as and very pricey for Chin­ese faucets.

Juno and Fon­ta­na Fon­ta­na faucets are mostly contemporary designs. The two companies sell many of the exact same faucets under different model names, often for different prices. They also sell each other's faucets.

Hands-Free Faucets

Most of the companies carry some hands-free automatic fau­cets, but Fon­ta­na offers a large assortment of these fau­cets on each of its websites.

One of Fon­ta­na's websites, Fon­ta­naSen­sorFau­cets.com, sells nothing but hands-free faucets.

Bravat Faucets

In addition to their own brands, members of the Group sell fau­cets.

Although Bravat goes to a considerable expense to test and certify 23 of its faucet models to North American standards specifically for the U.S. and Canadian markets, the Group does not sell these legal models.

Instead, it sells Bravat faucet models approved for the United Kingdom and the Eurozone. These faucets have not been certified for North America and are illegal to sell or install here.

Bravat is owned by Roman Dietsche GmbH. Faucets and other sanitary wares are imported through various intermediaries from Bravat GmbH, which, despite the German name and charter, is a Chinese trading company. (How that came about is a long story. Find out more at our review: Bravat Faucets by Dietsch.)

Bravat's authorized retailer in the U.S., Rational K&B, Inc., sells Bravat faucets that are fully certified and legal for sale and use in North America. For more information see Bravat Review & Rading.

The Manufacturers

Fon­ta­na Show­ers claims to manufacture its own fau­cets in Virginia. We cannot confirm the claim. Our research found no evidence of manufacturing by the company.

We base our conclusion on the following:

• None of the Group's known facilities are zoned for manufacturing. Many are private residences and the others are offices. The warehouses we found are zoned for light commercial but not for manufacturing.

• Metal manufacturing and finishing is a dirty business, requiring lots of potentially harmful materials that are strictly regulated by Virginia. Permits from the Virginia Department of Envoronmental Quality are required. We did not find permits for any of the company's known locations.

• All of the randomly chosen faucets we acquired for examination and testing were marked "Made in China."

From these findings, we concluded that the fau­cets are manufactured in China and delivered as finished products, ready to sell, or as nearly finished fau­cets that need a few minor additions before they can be sold.^[6]

Not all of its suppliers are known outside of the Group, but those that are known to have supplied faucets to the Group in the past 24 months include:

• Jiangmen Anmei Industrial Co. Ltd. is a Chinese manufacturer of faucets sold worldwide under the Lanerdi brand. In addition to the faucets supplied to the Group, it also provides faucets to

• Changsha Angfa Information Tech Co., Ltd. is a Chinese trading company, not a manufacturer. It supplies faucets and other plumbing products, such as smart toilets, to the Group.

• The actual manufacturer or manufacturers of the fau­cets cannot be determined from the records to which we have access. However, as Chang­sha Ang­fa deals only in Chin­ese-made merchandise, we can be confident that the fau­cets are made in China.

• Fuzhou HDsafe Technologies Co., Ltd. is a Chinese manufacturer that supplies many of the automatic fau­cets sold by members of the Group.

• He Shan Aqua Gallery Kitchen & Bath Factory, trading as Aqua Gallery Home, is an bathwares manufacturer established in 2008 in Foshan, China. It supplies both manual and sensor fau­cets to the Group and manufactures fau­cets.

• Aqua Gallery specializes in suites of bathtubs, showers, vanities, sinks, and fau­cets all matched in coordinated sets. It manufactures almost entirely for export to the Amer­icas from which it derives 92% of its revenues.

• Zhejiang Slion Brassware Co., Ltd., founded in 1993, is one of the group of Slion companies in Zhejiang, China, manufacturing fau­cets and other plumbing products primarily for export. The Slion Group includes Zhejiang Slion Fluid Control Co., Ltd., another Hor­i­zon Group supplier.

• These two Slion companies also provide some of the fau­cets sold by

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.

Chinese manufacturers have yet to widely adopt the newer Core and Shell construction, which divorces function from appearance.

The core component controls water flow while the shell hides the core and gives the faucet its distinctive appearance. Core and Shell has many advantages over conventional construction, including the most important: making faucets much less expensive without sacrificing durability, longevity, or appearance.

For more information on Core and Shellconstruction, see Faucet Basics Part 1: How Are Faucets Made?.

Most of the Group's fau­cets are fashoned from brass. A few touchless fau­cets intended primarily for commercial use and some kitchen fau­cets are in stainless steel.

Stainless Steel

The stainless steel, according to one of the Hor­i­zon companies, is 304 stainless, an alloy commonly referred to as "food grade" stainless. Nickel is added to give the steel a crystalline structure, which increases its strength. Chromium helps the steel resist corrosion.

Why Stainless Steel Does Not Rust: Properly alloyed stainless steel 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.

Steel is harder than brass. It can be made in thinner profiles that use less material and still have more than adequate strength.

The tradeoff, however, is that steel is more difficult to fabricate and generally requires heavier machinery, so there is usually very little, if any, actual cost savings over brass.

Brass

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 anti-microbial. The copper in brass kills bacteria and other nasty micro-criters on contact. Microbes can accumulate inside the faucet, leading to potential health problems. One of the purposes of independent testing and certification is to ensure that the design of a faucet does not allow it to harbor harmful pathogens.

But, traditional brass has one serious drawback.

It contains metallic lead, and lead is now all but banned in North Amer­ica in any drinking water component due to its toxicity to humans, particularly children.

The maximum lead content of those parts of a fau­cet that touch water is 0.25% (1/4 of 1%) – a bare trace. In fact, there may be more lead in the air you breathe than there is in a fau­cet that has been certified lead-free.

To comply with the restrictions on lead, today's fau­cet brass replaces lead with other additives to reduce brittleness during manufacturing without adding toxicity.

The most common is bismuth, which is similar to lead – right next to lead on the periodic table of elements – but not harmful to humans.

Bismuth, however, is 300 times rarer than lead, even rarer than silver, which is the reason that bismuth-brass alloys are considerably more expensive than ordinary leaded brass.

This increased cost has encouraged many fau­cet manufacturers to use substitute materials in their fau­cets where possible.

Members of the Horizon Group claim that their faucet brass ia lead-free. However, the fau­cets have not been certified lead-free or drinking-water safe, so this claim has not been independently confirmed by laboratory testing as required by law.

We do know, however, that Chinese fau­cet manufacturers tend to use much less expensive leaded brass in fau­cets made for their home market, and some are not above exporting leaded brass fau­cets to North Amer­ica. (See Lead in Chinese Faucets.) Many thousandss of these illegal, contraband fau­cets can be found on Ama­zon alone.

In May 2025, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) issued a warning and subsequent recalls for several uncertified, Chinese-made faucets sold on Amazon that were found to leach dangerous levels of lead into drinking water. Like Horizon Group faucets, the affected brands were sold without required manufacturer identification or certification labels.

The recall should have been a clear notice to Amazon to verify the legallity of the faucets sold on its website. Amazon has, however, done nothing to clean up the problem.

Zinc & Zinc/Aluminum Alloys

Zinc or a zinc-aluminum (ZA) alloy is a common substitute for brass in faucet manufacturing.

Zinc is not as strong as brass and does not resist water pressure as well as brass. But, its 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.

It does no harm when used in these components and may save consumers a few dollars.

Plastics

Plastic is the other commonly used, but often controversial, 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.

Among those suspect uses is in the spray heads of kitchen fau­cets, and all of the Hor­i­zon Group's spray heads that we examined were plastic.

Plastic spray heads fail much more often than metal sprays. Unlike metal, the plastics used in fau­cets are vulnerable to chlorine and ultraviolet light, which will degrade the material over time.

Although engineers and chemists have made significant improvements to their reliability over the past decade, the problem has not been entirely solved.

To learn more about how faucets are made and the difference in construction between quality faucets and also-rans, see Faucet Basics Part 1: How Are Faucets Made?

Design & Styling

The Group's fau­cets include some traditional designs, but most of the faucet styles are very contemporary. Almost all are single-handle fau­cets. A few fau­cets feature two handles, notably in the Bath Select collections.

The styling is mostly conservative, featuring fairly common Chinese designs, often attractive enough, but exhibiting no particular design originality.

A spokesman for the Fontana Showers stated that its fau­cets are designed in Virginia by members of the Group and are proprietary designs. In addition, The Fon­ta­na Showers website also states as follows:

"FontanaShowers is a USA-based company with over three decades of experience and has built a formidable reputation for excellence in designing and manufacturing bathroom fixtures." (Emphasis supplied)

We do not take this claim seriously, however, for several reasons:

They are much more likely to be designs created by the Chinese fau­cet companies that manufacture them, Some are quite stylish, but they are by no means owned by, unique, or original to companies in the Group.

A few Chinese manufacturers have begun producing original faucet designs, some of which have won awards in international design competitions. The known manufacturers of Hor­i­zon Group fau­cets, however, are not among those innovative companies.

Buying Rule for Smart Faucet Buyers

The Faucet Cartridge

Never buy a faucet unless you know who made the valve cartridge.

Its valve is the most critical part of a faucet. It is the component that controls water flow. Without a working valve, a faucet is no longer a faucet.

Companies that use good-quality valve cartridges in their faucets usually disclose the cartridge source on their websites. Those that don't will happily identify the cartridge in a call to customer service.

If the company declines to disclose the sources of its cartridges (because it is a "trade secret"), you can confidently assume it is not one of the better brands.

Replacement Cartridges: If Foster no longer stocks the cartridge for your very old faucet, don't panic. fos­ter uses cartridges, so it is probably available from one of the replacement parts sellers such as Faucets Parts Plus or Chicago Faucet Shoppe.

For more information about faucet valves and cartridges and the companies that make cartridges that are known to be reliable, see Faucet Valves & Cartridges.

Unique and innovative designs are eye-catching and often result in extensive coverge in trade magazines, but they usually don't sell that well.

The market for "out-there" designs is very small and the goal of most Chinese fau­cet manufacturers is to sell big – as many fau­cets as possible. This means keeping their designs well within the mainstream to appeal to as many potential buyers as possible. They generally tweek existing designs rather than venturing too far from core design parameters.

To learn more about faucet design and configuration, see Faucet Basics Part 4: Faucet Styles & Configurations.

Faucet Components

The critical fau­cet components are ceramic valve cartridges and aerators. The valve is the component that actually makes the faucet work. It turns water on and off and meters the flow rate. In single-handle faucets, it also controls water temperature. The moden aerator restricts water flow to the legally allowed maximum, shapes and softens the water stream, and prevents backflow contamination.

Valve Cartridges

The fau­cets we examined contained universal configuration^[7] ceramic valve cartridges made by well-known Chinese technical ceramics manufacturers. All have reputations for producing valves that are at least adequate and many are gaining reputations as top-quality producers.

As far as we can tell, none of the Group's companies sells replacement cartridges for the faucets they sell. However, they are available from any number of replacement parts sellers, such as Danco, Chicago Faucet Shop, and Allora, so a replacement should not be hard to find should a cartridge ever fail.

To learn more about faucet valves and cartridges, visit Faucet Basics Part 2: Faucet Valves & Cartridges.

Aerators

Dozens of Chinese companies make . None of the fau­cets we examined, however, included precision-engineered aerators like those made by the Swiss company, Neoperl^®, considered the world's best, or the equally capable Amfag S.r.l. in Italy, but they did appear to be adequate.

Faucet aerators 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 backflow that can result in the contamination of household drinking water.

It is important, therefore, that this little device, often smaller than a dime, works well and is completely reliable.

Faucet Finishes

None of these companies publishes a finish chart. The finishes are whatever their Chinese manufacturers can provide and change with some frequency.

A little research on various company websites, however, found the following finishes that seem to be common to all of the companies: Antique Brass, Black, Brushed Nickel, Chrome, Gold, and Oil-rubbed Bronze. Rose Gold, Stainless Steel, and White were available on a few fau­cets.

Some of the fau­cets are available in in which a base finish is paired with an accent finish. We found split finishes that included, among others, Black with Chrome, Black with Nickel, and Black with Gold.

Stainless steel is available only on stainless steel kitchen fau­cets. It is not an applied finish, but the material of the fau­cet buffed and brushed to an attractive finish. Stainless steel shows fingerprints readily, so a brushed finish is commonly used to help hide both fingerprints and water spots.

The rest of the finishes are applied using one of three common processes: electroplating, physical vapor deposition (PVD), or powder coating.

None of the companies reveal the process used to produce a particular finish, something they may well not know.

They do not finish their own fau­cets and may not be familiar with the processes used by the Chinese manufacturers. However, the process affects the durability and longevity of the finish and is information that is important to an informed fau­cet-buying decision.

Two of the finishes. Chrome and Brushed Nickel are almost certainly electroplated. Black, White, Gold, Rose Gold, and Oil-Rubbed Bronze are typically powder coatings, but could also be PVD finishes. In fact, a finish like Gold or Oil-Rubbed Bronze could be a powder coating from one manufacturer and a PVD finish from another.

Be careful of matching any finish other than chrome. One manufacturer's gold or oil-rubbed bronze is unlikely to perfectly match those from another manufacturer. Visible variation is common.

Be especially wary if matching finishes over the internet from photos. Have a customer service agent visually confirm a match before buying, and don't be reticent about returning the products if the match is not as perfect as you might like.

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.

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

or 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 inside nuclear reactors, where a very tough finish was necessary to withstand the hellish environment. Today, PVD technology is everywhere, and the machinery required is getting smaller, faster, and cheaper all the time.

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.

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.

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

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.

Faucet Prices

Compared to sellers of uncertified Chinese-made fau­cets offered by other importers, prices on Hor­i­zon Group fau­cets are often unaccountably high: as much as eight times the price at which the same or a very simolar illegal fau­cet can be purchased elsewhere.

They are typically even higher than the prices charged for similar fau­cets that are fully certified and completely legal to sell and install.

If the Group's fau­cets were certified and protected by a lifetime warranty combined with responsive and effective post-sale customer service – like – we could see some justification for the pricing.

But, unfortunately, the fau­cets are not certified, the warranties are substantially sub-par, and customer support could use a lot of improvement.

We have to conclude that Hor­i­zon Group fau­cets are largely overpriced and the overall price-to-value relationship is extremely poor.

Faucet Warranties

Until sometime around 2009, fau­cets were sold by the companies in the Group "as is" without a warranty of any kind.

This is the "Warranty Disclaimer" that was posted on the Font­ana Show­ers website on August 23, 2009:

"[T]he materials and products on this site are provided "as is" and without warranties of any kind, whether express or implied. To the fullest extent permissible pursuant to applicable law, [Fon­ta­na Sho­wers] disclaims all warranties, express or implied, including, but not limited to, implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose and non-infringement."

Today, all of these companies offer some sort of warranty, but none comply with U.S. consumer warranty law. The Mag­nu­son-Moss War­ranty Act (15 U.S.C. §2301) imposes requirements that these warranties come nowhere near meeting.

They also have in common the fact that they are woefully deficient for the North Amer­ican fau­cet market in which the standard fau­cet warranty, introduced by in the 1960s, is a lifetime warranty.

Warranty Duration

Most of the Group's companies provide no more than a single year of warranty protection on their faucets, although this duration is often buried in the verbosity of the warranty documents. Here is the breakdown:

• Cascada Showers: One Year:

  "If your product becomes defective due to faulty materials or workmanship within a period of 1 year from the date of purchase, we guarantee to:

  • Replace or repair all defective parts, free of charge, or
  • Repair products free of charge, or
  • Replace the unit with a new or re-conditioned unit, free of charge."

• Fontana Showers: One Year:

  "FontanaShowers will repair or replace, free of charge, during the applicable warranty period, any part of product that proves to be defective in material and/or workmanship under normal installation, use and service."

• Juno Showers: One Year:

  "JunoShowers, at its discretion, will repair or replace, free of charge, during the applicable 1-year warranty period, any part that proves to be defective in material and/or workmanship under normal installation, use and service. If repair or replacement is not practical, we may elect to refund the purchase price in exchange for the return of the product."

• Horizon Direct Depot: One Year:

  "At our discretion, we will repair or replace, free of charge, any part that proves to be defective in material and/or workmanship under normal installation, use, and service during the applicable 1-year warranty period. If repair or replacement is not practical, we may elect to refund the purchase price in exchange for the return of the product."

Understanding Finish Warranties

A finish warranty does not protect against everything that can go wrong with a fau­cet finish.

(Not an Horizon Group product)

It covers defects caused by faulty materials or errors in the finishing process, generally subsumed under the rubric "manufacturing defects."

Blistering, delaminating, peeling, and spalling are the usual manufacturing defects. These are very rare – almost unheard of. The bad old days of peeling China chrome are long gone.

Most finish problems these days are caused by over­zeal­ous cleaning and ordinary wear and tear, neither of which is covered by a finish warranty.

If it peels, the company pays. But, if you scratch it or it turns a funny color after you polish it a few times with Wham-X All Pur­pose Mir­a­cle Clean­er, you are on your own.

• Bath Select has a slightly different warranty. It starts out looking like a standaard North Americal lifetime warranty with this language:

  "Bathroom fixtures will be free of all defects in material and workmanship that would impair the intended and proper use of the product as well as … against deterioration of the product's finish for as long as the original purchaser owns the home in which the product is originally installed."

  That promise of lifetime coverage is immediately taken away a few lines later with this provision:

  "BathSelect offers a 2 Year manufacturer warranty on all purchased products."

• Read together, these provisions promise a lifetime warranty only if you don't purchase the faucet. If you do prchase the faucet, the warranty is for just two years. Exactly how you might go about acquiring a Bath Select a faucet without buying it is left unexplained.

• And that's not even the oddest provision in the warranty. Consider this incomprehensible statement:

  "Any potential damage/flaw must be reported to us within 7 days after delivery …"

  How does that work exactly? I have a warranty that lasts at least two years, but I have to report any damage within 7 days after delivery. What if the damage occurrs on the 8th day?

The Warranty as Insight Into Faucet Longevity

A warranty is a good guide to a company's true opinion about the durability and longevity of its faucets.

A warranty forces a company to pledge its dollars that its fau­cets will perform without failing. How long a company will risk its own money is a very good indicator of how long the company truly expects its fau­cets to last problem-free.

Companies that sell very good faucets such as promise with their wrranty dollars thaat their faucets will last a lifetime. That a company provides less than a lifetime warranty is usually indicative of a lack of confidence by management in the long-term viability of the faucets.

The Group's skimpy one- and two-year warranties strongly suggest that management has very little confidence in its Chinese fau­cets.

Compliance With Federal Warranty Law

In addition to their other problems, the warranties do not comply with the federal Warranty law and regulations.

The Mag­nu­son-Moss War­ranty Act specifies the content and form of consumer product warranties. These warranties do not conform to the requirements.

• Non-Compliant Captioning: It is clear from the warranty language that they are intended to be limited warranties. But, to be a limited warranty, a warranty must clearly designate the warranty as a limited warranty with the magic word "limited" in its caption or title.

• The word "limited" is required to give an early warning to the buyer that the warranty is intended to provide only limited protection.

• Unfortunately, these warranties are captioned just "Warranty" or "Product Warranty". The word "limited" is nowhere to be found. The missing "limited" automatically converts the warranty to a full, unlimited warranty. (15 U.S.C. §2303(a), 16 CFR §700.6)

• A full warranty gives the consumer many more rights. Among these is the right to have any plumber labor required to uninstall, repair, and reinstall the fau­cet and all shipping and handling charges paid for by the company.

• Warranty Claim Procedure: None of the warranties provides "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, or the information or documents that are required. (16 CFR § 701.3(a)(3))

• Incidental and Consequential Damages: Some of the warranties attempt to exclude (lawyers say "disclaim") consequential and incidental damages, but the disclaimers are not accompanied by the following legally 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."

• Without the required clarification, the attempt to exclude incidental and consequential damages is void and has no effect. (16 CFR § 701.3(8))

• Missing Required Statement: Most of the warranties do not 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."

• Without this statement, the entire warranty is probably voided, which means that the state law implied warranty of merchantability takes over and becomes the sole warranty. The implied warranty usually gives the buyer many more rights. (16 C.F.R. §701.3(a)(9))

• Exclusive Remedy: The Bath Se­lect warranty attempts to disclaim state law implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose with this statement:

  "Our warranty is the sole and exclusive remedy, offered in lieu of all other warranties, expressed or implied. We will not be liable for any indirect, direct, incidental, or punitive damages arising from the purchase of this product."

• It is not legal under Mag­nu­son-Moss for a company offering a written warranty to exclude coverage by implied warranties of Merchantability and Fitness for Purpose.

• A company's written warranty is intended to supplement state law warranties, not replace them. Any attempt to deny state-law warranty coverage is simply ignored.(15 U.S.C. §2308(a))

• The second problem with the attempted exclusion is more serious.

• The language could be considered deceptive, and one of the three cardinal rules of Mag­nu­son-Moss is that warranty language must not be deceptive.

• This provision would almost certainly lead a reasonable person to falsely believe that a defective fau­cet would be excluded from state-law warranty coverage – and that is the very definition of deception under the law.

• We don't believe the companies are being deliberately deceptive.

• No doubt whoever wrote the warranties saw the language in some other warranty and copied it, unaware that it is not allowed. (Many fau­cet warranties include similar language. We are not sure where it first appeared, but it has been widely copied.)

• Under Mag­nu­son-Moss, however, deliberate deception is not required to incur liability. It is sufficient that the company has not taken reasonable care "to make the warranty not misleading." (15 U.S. Code § 2310(c)(2))

• The very presence of the provision in these warranties evidences a lack of reasonable care.

Customer Service

To complement its below-par warranties, the Group provides substandard customer service.

Our Customer Service Experience

Our experience with customer service has been far from favorable.

We did not conduct our usual formal tests. They do not work with very small companies since agents soon realize they are being tested and change their behavior.

However, over the past 90 days, we called with typical questions and problems that service agents might encounter.

In general, the results were not good.

Agents seem to know little about their fau­cets beyond the limited information already on the company's website. They could tell us nothing about the finishing processes, country of origin, the type and source of valve cartridges, all common questions that an agent should be able to answer.

Common Misrepresentations

Factual misrepresentations were common.

• Despite a wealth of evidence to the contrary, agents maintained that the fau­cets were certified to joint U.S./Canadian standards.

• Fontana Showers agents insisted that the company manufactures fau­cets of its own design in Virginia, again contrary to overwhelming evidence that the fau­cets are manufactured in China, including "Made in China" stamped on the boxes containing our randomly selected test fau­cets.

• One gentleman offered to provide us with listing certificates proving the fau­cet certifications, but only if we agreed to remove any mention of Maysara Khalid Sadiq from our report.

• Since (1) we do not allow companies to censor our reports and (2) we already knew the listing certificates did not exist, we declined the offer.

We do not think that the agents are consciously lying. They are repeating what they have been told and what they believe is true. However, it is clear from their statements that the Group is not above misrepresenting its products.

We scored the company's customer support: "Unsatisfactory."

BBB Rating

The Better Business Bureau, as of the date of this report, rates the companies as follows:

• Bath Select: A
• Cascada Showers: B-
• Fontana Showers: F
• Juno Showers: B-
• Horizon Direct Depot: B-

These ratings are slight improvement over the ratings as of our last report. The BBB indicates that the reason for the less than perfect scores is that companies in the Group frequently fail to respond to customer complaints.^[8]

Most of the complaints received by the Bureau were for problems with post-sale customer service.

This BBB complaint is typical:

"We placed an order on Jan 20, 2021, for bathroom Faucets and Soap Dispensers which totaled $1,472.58. After several weeks of calling to find out the status of our order, we were told the items were not in stock and they may have them in March."

"We are in the middle of a renovation and can not wait until March, so we asked for a refund. We were told the refund would take in 3/5 business days."

"I have been calling daily since February 4. The times they have answered, I am told the accounting department is short-handed and they have other refunds to process and we should receive our refund in 3/5 business days."

"I have tried to talk to a supervisor who is never available. Most times when I call there is no answer and I have left quite a few voice messages."

"No company should be allowed to hold on to someone's money this long. They had no problem taking our money right away. All we desire is to get our refund which rightly belongs to us."

Font­ana Show­ers did not respond to this complaint.

Legal Compliance

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 federal, state, and even local governments.

Not just anything with a sparkling finish that delivers water is a fau­cet as the laws 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.

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

• Is not registered with the Department of Energy (DOE). (10 CFR §430). None of the Group's fau­cets are recorded in the DOE CCMS database of registered fau­cets.

• Does not bear a "a permanent legible marking to identify the manufacturer"^[9] located where it can be viewed after installation. (16 CFR § 305.24). None of the Group's fau­cets we acquired for testing had the required marking. In fact, none had any sort of marking at all, including certification markings.

• Does not comply with the lead-free requirements of the Safe Drinking Water Act which, after September 22023, requires faucets to be tested for lead content and certified. None of the Group's faucets have been tested.

These basic standards are:

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

A faucet that passes all of the many tests is listed as certified in a public database available for all to see and examine.

None of the Group's faucets are listed in any certificate, indicating that none have been tested and certified.

Testing and Certification

A faucet company cannot 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 Group's companies insist that their fau­cets are certified to North Amer­ican standards. Our research found the contrary. None of these companies appears in a listing certificate issued by any of the organizations accredited to test and certify fau­cets in North America.

To double check, we asked the company for copies of any listing certificates showing thaat their brands and models are certified. We have not received a response after nearly twenty-two months.

Certification Disclaimers

These companies know full well that their fau­cets are not legal to sell or install in North Amer­ica for lack of required certifications and seek to shift responsibility for failing to certify their fau­cets to their customers when a plumbing inspector discovers that the fau­cets are contraband.

Here, for example, is the Font­ana Show­ers' attempt at a disclaimer buried in its warranty:

"… [P]roducts being produced in our factories overseas are not guaranteed to meet U.S. inspection requirements. All customers are responsible for install [sic] and removal costs of our products in case products do not pass inspection due to lack of specific certification paperwork.

Other of the Group's waarranties contain the same or similar language.

We doubt that this disclaimer will save a company from civil liability for fraudulent inducement, however, and predict that it will have no effect when the various government agencies responsible for enforcing fau­cet regulations – underfunded and understaffed as they are –finally get around to these companies.

Legal Actions

The California Energy Commission (CEC) has already taken action against the Group for failing to comply with California water conservation standards.

The CEC sued the Fon­tana Show­ers, LLC for illegally selling unapproved fau­cets in California from April 2019 to May 2019. To settle the lawsuit, the company paid a fine and agreed to sell only approved products in California in the future. This agreement affects all of the Group's brands.

The Group's companies have not, however, been penalized for selling faucets in California that have not been certified lead free as required by AB-1953 on and after July 31, 2023.

So far, the companies have also escaped the attention of the Department of Energy (DOE) for failing to register their faucets. The DOE is understaffed, underfunded, and overworked. But, it will get around to the Group eventually, and at $560.00 for each day a faucet violated the registration requirement, the large number of different faucets sold by the Group, and the length of time it has been selling unregistered faucets, it can expect a monster penalty.

The Group's failure to register its faucets is incomprehensible. Registration is free and takes just a few hours at the computer. Compared to penalties that may reach six figures, the cost of a few hours of staff time to register seems very affordable.

Comparable Certified Faucets

Legal faucets made in China, comparable to Hor­i­zon Group faucets in quality with a better warranty, and almost always less costly, include:

Conclusions

There is absolutely no reason to buy any of these faucets.

Even if your goal is to buy a potentially dangerous, uncertified, contraband faucet, there is likely to be more than one black market seller offering the same or a very similar illegal faucet for a much lower price. (See: Amazon's Contraband Faucets for a comprehensive list of illegal faucets sold on Amazon.)

Dozens of companies (see the list above) sell comparable fau­cets that are fully certified, legal to sell and install, and proven safe to use. These often sell for a lower, sometimes a much lower, price with a stronger warranty and much better customer support.

None of the Group's fau­cets comply with U.S. laws governing the sale of fau­cets or the state and local laws governing their installation in drinking water systems. The warranties are weak and blatantly disregard the federal warranty law designed to protect consumers from suspect warranty practices.

It is not possible for us to believe that companies that claim to have been in the faucet business for as long as 35 years do not know the rules. They simply choose to ignore them.

Most of their fau­cets are brass and have the potential for drinking water contamination. They have not been certified free of lead, arsenic, mercury, or cadmium, which may cause serious health issues, or pathogens, which can have equally serious or even worse effects.^[10]

Chinese manufacturers such as those that supply the Group's fau­cets are particularly suspect when it comes to leaded brass. China has no regulation limiting the use of lead in fau­cets made in that country where lead poisoning is common and widspread, and many Chinese companies have no qualms about offloading those faucets to companies, such as the Hor­i­zon Group, that sell faucets in North America.^[11]

If you are foolish enough to disregard your health and safety and that of your family and install one of these contraband faucets in your home and are caught, at the very least, you will have to replace the fau­cet at your expense and possibly pay a small fine.

In an increasing number of jurisdictions, however, you can go to jail for a knowing and intentional violation.

Continuing Research

We are continuing to research the Hor­i­zon Group and its sink faucets. If you have experience with fau­cets from any of these companies, good, bad, or indifferent, we would like to hear about it, so please contact us at starcraftreviews@yahoo.com or post a comment below.

Please note: we cannot answer questions posted in the comments. If you have a question, email us at starcraftreviews@yahoo.com.