Graff Faucets Review & Rating Updated: May 15, 2025 Our panel of consu­mers and industry pro­fes­sion­als has rec­ognized Graff fau­cets as a Best Val­ue in Luxury fau­cets made or assembled in Eur­ope. Read the Best Fau­­cet Val­ue Re­port for more in­for­ma­tion.

Imported

Poland

Graff Faucets Co.
3701 W. Burnham St.
Milwaukee, WI 53215
(800) 954-4723
customersupport@graff-designs.com
techsupport@graff-designs.com

Rating

Business Type

Product Range

Kitchen, Bath, Prep and Bar Faucets

Certifications

Brands
Graff

Street Price

$55 - $3,800

Warranty Score

Cartridge

lifetime¹

Finishes

Various²

Mechanical Parts

Lifetime

Proof of Purchase

Required

Transferable

No

Meets Federal Warranty
Law Requirements

No

Footnotes:

1. Graff fau­cets are warranted to the original purchaser "to be free from defects in materials and workmanship for the lifetime of the product."

2. Finishes are guaranteed for anywhere from "a limited lifetime" to no warranty at all, depending on the finish. See main text below for more information.

• Download/Read/Print the the Graff faucet warranty.
• Learn more about faucet warranties.

This Company In Brief

Graff Faucets Co. is the marketing and distribution arm of Milwaukee-based Meridian International Group, Inc., a privately owned group of related companies involved in the casting, machining, and finishing of metal products founded in 1991.

Other members of the group include

• American Metalcast Technologies, Inc., a manufacturer of low-pressure brass casting machinery,
• Polco Metal Finishing, one of the largest independent metal finishing companies in the U.S, and
• Valvex, S.A., formerly Jordanowska Fabryka Armatury Valvex S.A. is a water and steam fittings manufacturer located in Jordanów, Poland.

The Company

Graff Faucets Co. was incorporated in Wisconsin under its present name in 2002. It is directed by Zbigniew Ludwik (Ziggy) Kulig, its CEO, a migrant to the U.S. from Poland in the 1970s.

Graff designs and distributes but does not manufacture its fau­cets. They are made by Valvex, S.A., and imported from Po­land.

Valvex has been in the metal fabrication business since 1922. It became part of the Meridian International Group after a major investment in the company in 1994^[1][2], just after the fall of the Soviet Union and the final dissolution of the Warsaw Pact.

Valvex has received ISO 9001 certification for its quality management and ISO 14001 certification for its "green" manufacturing.

Faucet Construction

Graff's fau­cets are well-built and substantial, intended to last a very long time.

Their construction is conventional, in which the decorative elements of the fau­cet, body, and spout are also the parts that channel water. Except in its wall-mounted fau­cets, Valvex does not use core and shell^[3] construction.

Core and shell is an approach to manufacturing fau­cets in which the core element channels water separately from the body and spout, which then becomes simply a decorative shell hiding the inner workings of the fau­cet.

Core and shell has always been used to manufacture wall-mounted fau­cets in which the valve that controls water flow is hidden in the wall. Trim, installed over the valve, gives the fau­cet its appearance and hides the valve.

Faucet Components

Graff's primary fau­cet material is certified lead-free brass. How­ev­er, some components of its fau­cets that are not under water pressure and do not need the strength of brass are made of zinc or a zinc/aluminum alloy. These may include base plates, handles, and .

Components not in contact with water may also be made of ordinary leaded brass. So long as leaded brass does not touch water, it is legal to use in faucet construction.

Some parts are plastic.

All mixing cartridges for single-handle fau­cets and most aerators are plastic. It is no longer possible to find these components in any material except plastic. The material does not seem to be a problem in cartridges or aerators.

Plastic in kitchen spray heads can be an issue, however.

Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene (ABS), a low-cost, easily manufactured, non-toxic, impact-resistant plastic, is also a commonly used substitute material for brass. It can be safely used in incidental fau­cet 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 constant water pressure.

Among those suspect uses is its use in the spray heads of kitchen fau­cets. Plastic spray heads (called "wands" in the fau­cet industry) have become the standard for many manufacturers, including some that sell upscale fau­cets such as

Forious kitchen fau­cet sprays are all ABS plastic.

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.

Unfortunately, ABS plastic degrades over time from exposure to ultraviolet and is not dimensionally stable. It expands and contracts more than most other plastics with temperature changes, making tight tolerances challenging to maintain.

These characteristics make plastic wands suspect for long-term use in faucets, products that most consumers consider lifetime products.

Better wands are made of metal, insulated against excessive heat transmittal.

According to a company source, all Graff side sprays are still metal, as are pullout and pulldown sprays in the Bolero, Conical, Oscar, Perfeque, and Sospire collections.

Our inspection of the Graff fau­cets we acquired for testing confirmed that cartridges from Kerox Kft are used in some of Graff's single-handle fau­cets.

Kerox is generally considered one of the best ceramics manufacturers, and a frequent choice in cartridges for upscale European fau­cets.

Faucet companies that incorporate this cartridge in their fau­cets are simply too numerous to list, but they include noteworthy brands such as

Other Graff fau­cets that we examined were fitted with cartridges from Hain-Yo Enterprises Co., Ltd., a Taiwanese technical ceramics manufacturer of some pretty good cartridges.

Hain-Yo cartridges are also used in

These are not considered as reliable as first-tier cartridges made by companies such as Kerox, but the difference is probably not substantial. The cartridges should provide years of leak-free service.

Most Graff two-handle fau­cets are fitted with a brass 1/2" quarter-turn ceramic stem cartridge, easily the most common size of stem cartridge used in fau­cets.

According to Graff, Valvex makes its stem cartridges in-house, and it's probably true. It is, after all, a valve company.

The Valvex website indicates that the company makes and sells pressure relief valves for central heating radiators, various stop valves for water systems, and thermostatic valves for showers. It does not mention stem valves, but stem cartridges should be no problem.

Ne­o­perl^® invented the precision aerator and supplies most of the used in Graff fau­cets. How­ev­er, fau­cets with pull-down sprays appear to be equipped with aerators from Am­fag S.r.l., a company manufacturing in Ca­sa­lol­do, Ita­ly.

Am­fag is Ne­o­perl's leading competition in Eur­ope. Both products are at about the same level of quality and endurance.

Today's faucet aerators are precision devices used to shape the stream of water, limit water volume to the lower flows required by federal and state water conservation laws, and, for fau­cets with pull-out sprays, prevent back-flow that could contaminate household drinking water.

It is important that these be the best available, and with Ne­o­perl and Am­fag, Graff has two of the best, and, interestingly enough, the very same companies that supply aerators to our other Best Value company in this category,

Graff Faucet Design

The fau­cets are gathered into two broad collections.

The Traditional group includes fau­cets in traditional and transitional styles. These fau­cets are stylish but conservative, reflecting conventional American designs, many of which have been around in one form or another for over a century.

The Contemporary group is designed by Graff's affiliated G+ Design Studio in Athens, designers of Graff's MOD+ collection, and several well-known extra-mural product designers contracted by the company, including:

• Angeletti Ruzza Design product designers in Italy that also design for the upscale Italian fau­cet company, Cristina Rubinetterie.
• Davide Oppizzi's DCUBE studio in Switzerland.
• Nespoli e Novara, owned by Alberto Novara and Ambrogio Matteo Nespoli, who also design for

Graff Faucet Finishes
Finish Name		Finish Type	War­ranty
BAU - 24K Brushed Gold		Electro­plated	1 Year
AU - 24K Pol­ished Gold		Electro­plated	1 Year
PC - Pol­ished Chrome		Electro­plated	Life­time
BNi - Brushed Nick­el		Electro­plated	5 Years
PN - Pol­ished Nick­el		Electro­plated	5 Years
SN - Steel­nox (Satin Nickel)		Powder Coat	3 Years
BK - Arch­itec­tur­al Black		Powder Coat	3 Years
MBK - Matte Black		Powder Coat	3 Years
OB - Olive Bronze		Powder Coat	3 years
VBB - Vin­tage Brushed Brass		Epoxy Coating	2 Years
WT - Arch­itec­tur­al White		Powder Coat	3 Years
UBB - Un­fin­ished Brushed Brass		Living Finish	None
UB - Un­fin­ished Brass		Living fiFnish	None
BB - Brushed Brass PVD		PVD	Life­time
PB - Pol­ished Brass PVD		PVD	Life­time
BOX - Brushed Onyx PVD		PVD	Life­time
OX - Onyx PVD		PVD	Life­time
BRG - Brushed Rose Gold / Brushed Cop­per PVD		PVD	Life­time
RG - Pol­ished Rose Gold / Pol­ished Cop­per PVD		PVD	Life­time
WB - Warm Bronze PVD		PVD	Life­time
PRB - Pol­ished Tus­can Bronze (Pol­ished Rus­tic Bronze) PVD		PVD	Life­time
BRB - Brushed Tuscan Bronze (Brushed Rus­tic Bronze) PVD		PVD	Life­time
BG - Brushed Gold PVD		PVD	Life­time
BNP - Brushed Nick­el PVD		PVD	Life­time
PNP - Pol­ished Nick­el PVD		PVD	Life­time
SG - Sa­tin Gold PVD		PVD	Life­time
PG - Pol­ished Gold PVD		PVD	Life­time
GM - Gun­me­tal PVD		PVD	Life­time
DGM - Dis­tressed Gunmetal		Living FiFnish	None
AB - An­tique Brass PVD		PVD	Life­time

Some of Graff's designs are award-winning.

• Graff's Cameo Collection won an ICFF Editor's Award for Kitchen and Bath in 2024.
• The Futurismo kitchen collection received an SBID award for design excellence in 2023. SBID is the UK's leading interior design accreditation body.
• The MOD+ collection, designed by G+, won an Archiproducts Design Award in 2020 for "concept and design".
• The Ametis collection, designed by Davide Oppizzi, won an IFDA Selected award from the International Furnishings and Design Association at the 2019 Architectural Digest Design Show.
• The Sospiro collection was named one of the 30 most innovative products for 2018 by Better Homes & Gardens, and product of the year in 2017 by the Decorative Plumbing & Hardware Association.
• The SENTO fau­cet won the 2013 Product Innovation Award from Architectural Products magazine.

In addition to its fau­cets, showers, and accessories, Graff also offers bathroom furniture, tubs, and sinks in its Contemporary collections.

The sinks and tubs are made by Marmorin SP Z O. O. in Wschowa, Poland. Marmorin also manufactures sinks and tubs for Most furniture is imported from Tap Grafiche in Italy.

Graff Finishes

The current Graff finish chart shows 28 fau­cet finishes. Searching through Graff's fau­cet listings and retailer websites, however, we found a total of 30. Two are listed in the company's warranty but do not appear in its official finish chart. They may be discontinued, in which case Graff needs to update its warranty (See more below).

The standard is polished chrome, of course, but fau­cets are also available in several nickels, including Steelnox^® (a satin nickel or stainless steel look-alike) and several bronzes, as well as two blacks, a white, several golds and brasses, two onyxes, and a gray finish the company calls Gun­met­al, which comes in two flavors, plain and distressed (although Di­stressed Gun­met­al may one of those discontinued finishes).

A few finishes are special orders and may take up to eight weeks to deliver. Some, but not all, finishes other than chrome will raise the price of the fau­cet. A 24k gold finish, pure, unalloyed gold, is likely to more than double the price.

The true gold finishes are mostly for prestige. Undoubtedly, there are only a few sold each year. Gold is not a very good finish metal. It is not carefree. It will not visibly discolor but it will dull and need the occasional polish. It is a very soft metal and will scratch and mar easily, so care in its daily use is advised.

Graff has changed the names of two finishes: Bushed Rustic Bronze and Polished Rustic Bronze are now Brushed and Polished Tuscan Bronze, a change likely to cause some confusion until the company's warranty is amended to reflect the new names.

Polished and Brushed Copper are also called Polished and Brushed Rose Gold, and are sometimes referred to as Copper/Rose Gold.

Some faucets, like the Segovia kitchen faucet, are available in a for novel and interesting effects. Evidently, any Graff finish can be combined with any other Graff finish to produce a split finish, although a few combinations would be incredibly ugly. Faicets in two collections, Mod+ and Vignola, can be trimmed in marble for very interesting effects.

Most, if not all, split finishes are special orders. We did not count split finishes in the total. Had we done so, we would be looking at over 800 total finishes and finish combinations, not including the marble trim options.

Safe to say that the company probably has at least one finish or finish combination to suit any decor.

Electroplating

Pol­ished Chrome, Brushed gold, Brushed Nick­el, Pol­ished Gold, and Pol­ished Nick­el are the company's sole remaining finishes.

All except Pol­ished Chrome have a PVD analog (Brushed Gold PVD, Pol­ished Gold PVD, Brushed Nick­el PVD, and Pol­ished Nick­el PVD.

Elec­troplat­ing is the well-established traditional way of finishing fau­cets that has been around nearly since fau­cets were invented.

Plating involves immersing the fau­cet and the metal to be used as the finish 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 inherently dangerous, involving very corrosive acid solutions, and the resulting waste products are hazardous to the environment if not disposed of properly.

Powder Coats

Ar­chi­tec­tur­al White, Ar­chi­tec­tur­al Black, Dis­tressed Gun­me­tal, Matte Black, Olive Bronze, and Steel­nox are .

A powder coat is essentially a paint in powder form applied using a special low-velocity spray gun that disperses the powder while giving it a positive electrical charge. The powder is drawn to the fau­cets to be coated, which have been given a negative charge.

After spraying, the coated fau­cets are baked in a low-temperature 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.

Powder coats are considered at most "semi-durable" – not as robust as Elec­tro­pla­ted or PVD finishes and requiring more care to maintain a like-new appearance.

For that reason, some fau­cet companies are replacing powder coats with (TFC) coatings. Originally formulated to finish firearms and hard-use military field equipment, TFC is a much more durable finish, comparable in some respects to PVD finishes.

The most frequent source of damage to powder coatings is over-aggressive cleaning, so Graff's detailed care instructions should be closely followed.

Liquid Coatings

Vintage Brushed Brass is native brass given a semi-transparent coating that protects the brass from tarnish and gives it an antique patina.

Graff does not identify the type of coating, but it is likely a synthetic lacquer.

The Steelnox^® finish is coated with a hydrophobic barrier. Graff's literature raves about its features and advantages, but never quite gets around to explaining exactly what it is. Most probably, it is an oxide polystyrene composite that repels water due to its particular surface structure. Because water cannot stick to the surface, the coating eliminates water spots.

Liquid top coats are also at best semi-durable and need to be treated with some care. Their relative fragility is illustrated by Graff's skimpy two-year guarantee of Vintage Brushed Brass, an epoxy coating, and three years on Steelnox^®.

Physical Vapor Deposition (PVD)

The company has recently upgraded its finishing technology. Many finishes formerly available as Elec­tro­pla­ted or relatively fragile powder coatings are now the more durable finishes.

To watch fau­cet components being given their PVD finishes, check out this brief video. Be aware that it is very noisy, so you might want to turn down the volume on your player.

To create a PVD finish, a chamber is loaded with unfinished fau­cet components. All the air is removed and replaced with a calculated mix of nitrogen and reactive gases.

The metal to be used as the finish – usually chromium, titanium, or zirconium – is heated to a temperature so high that it dissolves into a cloud of individual atoms that are bombarded onto the fau­cet parts.

The atoms are deposited in a very thin layer 2 to 5 microns (.00008-.0002") thick – less than 1/20th the thickness of a human hair – but because the coating bonds to the fau­cet at an atomic level, the finish is dense and very hard.

In abrasion tests, PVD finishes were found to be 10 to 20 times more scratch-resistant than the old standard: Elec­tro­pla­ted chrome.

Different finish colors and effects are possible by using different metals and varying the mix of reactive gases.

Graff's PVD brasses and golds, for example, can be created using a titanium alloy as the coating metal with nitrogen gas. Titanium is a dull gray metal, but combining it with nitrogen in a PVD chamber creates a brass-look finish.

Adding a little methane to the mix reddens the color, producing a finish like Graff's two Rose Gold finishes. Adding a little acetylene darkens the finish to create Vintage or Antique Brass.

Living Finishes

Distressed Gunmetal and unfinished brasses are . They are intended to change appearance over time as the surface oxidizes and reacts to its environment, developing a patina of age and use.

Unfinished brasses, for example, will tarnish, turning that familiar warm brown of untended brass. Gunmetal Distressed will become even more distressed with age and use.

If you are contemplating one of these finishes, just keep in mind that the finish you see when the fau­cet is first installed is not the finish you will see a few months later. The changes are normal and expected and not a finish defect. Like most faucet companies, Graff does not show images of what the finishes will look like as they age, so a living finish has an unknown future, leaving you to guess how it will appear one, two, and ten years from new.

If you don't want your finish to change over time, do not select a living finish.

For more information on the types of fau­cet finishes and their advantages and drawbacks, see Faucet Basics, Part 5: Faucet Finishes.

The Graff Warranty

Graff is a company that seems to do almost everything right. When it comes to its warranty, however, its usual focus on quality seems to have gone awry.

Understanding Finish Warranties

A finish warranty does not protect against anything that can go wrong with a fau­cet finish. It protects against defects caused by faulty materials or errors in the finishing process, generally subsumed under the rubric "manufacturing defects."

A peeling faucet (not a Graff product)

Delaminating, peeling, blistering, 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 Graff pays, but if you scratch it or it turns a funny color after you clean with Wham-X All Pur­pose Mir­a­cle Clean­er – well, you should have read Graff's cleaning instructions. Sor­ry.

A warranty is nothing more than a promise by the company that its fau­cet will work as expected for a time. The better the fau­cet, the longer the time, and the longer and stronger the company's guarantee. A good fau­cet will work for a lifetime and beyond.

Graff guarantees its fau­cets to be free from defects in materials and workmanship, including cartridges and most finishes, for the "lifetime of the product".

The company has backed away from a life-of-the-product warranty on some of its finishes.

Finishes that are covered by the warranty are listed by name in the warranty document. Unfortunately, however, the warranty is out of date. It names some finishes that do not appear in the company's current finish chart and omits some of its more recent finishes.

Sixteen finishes, all PVD except Elec­tro­pla­ted Polished Chrome, are protected by a "life of the product" warranty.

Two of Graff's living finishes, Unfinished Brass and Unfinished Brushed Brass, have no warranty.

The remaining finishes have 1-, 2-, and 3-year warranties.

All applied fau­cet finishes can and should be guaranteed against manufacturing defects (and only manufacturing defects) for the life of the fau­cet.

Defects such as blistering, delamination, peeling, spalling, and other failures of adhesion are compelling evidence of a problem with the finishing process at the factory. They are extremely rare. When they do occur, they are usually caught at inspection and seldom see daylight.

Graff's finish warranties seem focused on protecting the company from liability for color and texture changes. This can be done with a lifetime finish warranty by simply excluding ordinary and expected color and texture changes from warranty coverage.

Some finishes, particularly powder coats, tend to fade with exposure to ultraviolet radiation in sunlight. This is especially true of the darker hues. (Graff says its powder coats do not fade. Well, maybe, but if so, why the short-term warranty?)

Some fading is normal and considered ordinary wear and tear. Typically, it occurs so slowly that it is unnoticed. Abrupt color changes are very rare and almost always due to careless cleaning, something that is never covered by a warranty.

Graff's Warranty Problems

In addition to our concerns about the company's ill-considered limitations on its finish warranties, the warranty document itself is problematic.

It is poorly drafted, repetitive, unclear, and ambiguous in parts, and illegal in others.

We found multiple violations of the Mag­nu­son-Moss War­ranty Act (15 U.S.C. §2308), the federal law that sets the rules for consumer product warranties in the United States.

We have criticized the document repeatedly in past reports, and Graff has made several changes. But it is still woefully inadequate and far from the "simple and readily understood" warranty statement required by Mag­nu­son-Moss.

It is doubtful that a lawyer wrote the warranty. But if so, he or she urgently needs a refresher in both legal drafting and warranty law.

More likely, however, it is a cut-and-paste effort, cobbled together by someone with limited or no legal training.

Redundant Statements

The lack of legal training is evident in the multiple redundancies in the document.

Redundant provisions are unnecessary. Anything that needs to be said needs to be said only once.

A provision does not get any clearer, stronger, more convincing, or more certain through repetition.

Here is an example:

"This warranty does not cover items sold for display purposes or as is."

But in case you missed it the first time, a few paragraphs later, the warranty states:

"GRAFF's warranty does not cover items sold for display purposes or as is."

Got it now?

Here's another example.

"At GRAFF's discretion, we require any and all products to be returned to GRAFF for evaluation for any claims and/or defects."

In case that is not already perfectly clear, the warranty provides, a few lines farther down, that:

"GRAFF reserves the right to require any part deemed as defective to be returned to our US headquarters for inspection prior to replacement parts being issued."

Both provisions say exactly the same thing.

Let's try combining the statements.

"GRAFF, at its discretion, may require products or parts to be returned to GRAFF for inspection and evaluation."

Omitted Terms

Redundancy is not the only drafting problem, however. Some needed language is entirely omitted.

For example, the Graff warranty on cartridges is for the "lifetime of the product." It is extended only to the original owner and cannot be transferred. Any subsequent owner does not inherit the Graff warranty.

It certainly seems like Graff has covered all the bases. But has it?

Here's the problem. The warranty does not end once the original owner no longer owns the faucet.

According to the warranty document, only two events terminate the Graff warranty. These are:

1. The original owner dies or

2. The faucet reaches the end of its lifespan.

If the original owner, Bob, sells his house to cousin Nell and the Graff fau­cet with it, he still has his warranty. The product still has some life left, and Bob is still alive, so the warranty remains in force.

If the cartridge leaks a year after the house sale, Nell cannot claim under the warranty. She does not have a warranty. But, Bob does and can claim on her behalf as what is called a "third party beneficiary." Graff would be bound to honor the claim.

Instead of …

"This warranty is limited solely to the original purchaser, and is non-transferable."

… it needs to say:

"This warranty is limited to the original purchaser for as long as the original purchaser owns the product and lives in the residence in which the product is installed. This warranty is not transferable to a subsequent owner of the product."

Ambiguous "Lifetime"

The Graff warranty lists most faucet finishes as having a "Limited lifetime" warranty, but it never gets around to explaining what is meant by "lifetime."

Exactly what "lifetime" is being referred to?

There are several possibilities. The life of the faucet. The life of the buyer. How about the life of the company?

Without knowing the lifetime referred to, it is not possible to know what event or circumstance ends the warranty, and that violates the "certainty" required by Mag­nu­son-Moss.

By contrast, the duration of Graff's warranty against defects in materials or workmanship is very certain. It lasts for the "life of the product" and ends when the faucet is scrapped. Are these finishes also guaranteed for the life of the product? If so, why not say so?

Lifetime" standing alone without an explanation has no certain legal meaning. It is ambiguous.

Ambiguities in a warranty are resolved by courts applying the ancient legal rule of Contra Proferentum, which holds any ambiguous wording against the writer. This means that the buyer will get the longest "lifetime" that is reasonable under the circumstances.

Clueless "Voiding"

Here is another ill-considered provision. This one is truly goofy but common in warranties written by a layman trying to sound like a lawyer.

"Improper maintenance and cleaning of fixtures with abrasive or corrosive chemical cleaners will void this warranty."

What Graff is apparently trying to convey is that damage caused by maintenance or cleaning not in accordance with its care and cleaning instructions is not covered by its warranty. Fair enough. And that's what the warranty should say. But that's not what it does say.

What it does say is that if you improperly clean your Graff fau­cet on Monday (whether or not the improper cleaning does any actual harm), then your valve cartridge fails on Tuesday, causing a massive leak, the leak is not under warranty.

Why?

Because the warranty ended on Monday. It became "void" when you improperly cleaned the faucet.

Void means exactly what you think it means. The warranty is done, over, gone, terminated, finished, concluded, ended, kaputt, history.

So, on Tuesday, you have no warranty and the leaking cartridge is your problem, not the company's.

This is a sterling example of a clueless use of the word.

How­ev­er, to be fair to Graff, we know of no instance in which the company has given its finish warranty this strict interpretation in practice. But it could, and that's what we have to look at when evaluating a warranty.

Illegal "Tie-In"

Here's another:

"Warranty will be void if [the product] has been … previously repaired using replacement parts other than genuine GRAFF parts …

Once again, the word "void." But, more importantly, this provision violates the Mag­nu­son-Moss ban on tie-in provisions.

Graff cannot legally, under any circumstances, require the use of only "genuine GRAFF parts." That's considered a tie-in, and tie-ins are absolutely prohibited. Magnuson-Moss provides

"No warrantor of a consumer product may condition his written or implied warranty of such product on the consumer's using any article … which is identified by brand, trade, or corporate name."(16 CFR § 700.10)

Nor can Graff void the warranty for their use. According to the Federal Trade Commission:

[C]ompanies can't void a consumer's warranty or deny warranty coverage solely because the consumer uses a part made by someone else …" (FTC Staff Sends Warranty Warnings)

What the company probably means to say is that damages caused by the use of other than "genuine GRAFF parts" are not covered under warranty. So, why not say exactly that? Why is it necessary to "void" the warranty?

Deceptive Disclaimer

This illegal tie-in provision is just one of several violations of Mag­nu­son-Moss written into the Graff warranty.

We don't intend to list them all, but here's another glaring illegality:

"This warranty is the exclusive warranty granted by GRAFF in lieu of all other warranties expressed or implied including those of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose."

Mag­nu­son-Moss views a company's written warranty as an extension of and not a replacement for state law warranties, including those of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose.

If a company provides a written warranty, it also, as a matter of law, is deemed to have adopted warranties of merchantability and fitness. It cannot legally disclaim them. (15 USC §2308)

Any attempt to otherwise modify or exclude state law warranties is simply void and has no effect. Magnuson-Moss warns that

"[a]ny attempted disclaimer, modification, or limitation made in violation … is deemed to be ineffective for purposes of the [Magnuson-Moss] Act and state law." (5 U.S.C. § 2308(c))

Moreover, the claim that Graff's written warranty is the exclusive warranty is a "material statement" that is "likely to mislead a customer" into believing that state law warranties do not apply to his or her fau­cet. As such, it is a "deceptive act or practice" as defined in Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act (FTC Policy Statement on Deception) and any number of state fraud statutes.

Graff's Myopic Warranty Vision

Our last problem with the warranty involves neither poor drafting nor a legal violation. It is a matter of poor business judgment and a lack of vision.

Graff requires the customer to pay to ship a defective fau­cet to the company for inspection or repair and to pay the cost of shipping the replacement parts or faucet from the company, with this provision:

Inbound and/or outbound freight for warranty items is the responsibility of the purchaser.

The company may save a few pennies on shipping expenses, but it costs the company many dollars in goodwill and future sales. It makes Graff look incredibly churlish and chintzy.

The customer, already aggrieved by the failure of his or her Graff fau­cet, is going to be even further annoyed by this penny-pinching requirement.

The likelihood that the customer will ever again buy another Graff product is probably gone forever.

Graff clearly views its warranty as an undesirable overhead to be minimized as much as possible. This is the bean counter approach to warranties favored by Chief Financial Officers and accountants.

The much better philosophy is one pioneered by decades ago, the constant marketing approach.

Moen views any claim made under its warranty as a golden marketing opportunity not to be missed – a way to encourage more sales to repeat customers by cementing loyalty to the company and its products.

It figures that the small cost of a good warranty and simple, hassle-free warranty service will be more than made up by additional sales to happy repeat customers and the family, friends, and folks at the gym and in the carpool who they tell all about it.

How do you think that's working out?

There are good reasons Moen customers tend to stay Moen customers, and this is one of them.

Making an enemy out of an existing customer makes no business sense whatsoever.

A Better Graff Warranty

Graff needs to start taking its warranty as seriously as it takes the rest of its business. Writing a warranty is not a job for amateurs.

A written warranty is a legal contract. Every word in a warranty has import and will someday be minutely scrutinized by a court.

Drafting a warranty is not something to be handed off to a third deputy assistant vice-president with a business school degree. The result will be the amateurish, convoluted, redundant, ambiguous, and illegal warranty that Graff now has.

If its warranty ever gets to court, Graff will lose and lose big, paying not just a hefty judgment but also its customer's attorney fees, a nifty little penalty imposed by Magnuson-Moss for ignoring its requirements.

Graff's warranty urgently needs a complete rewrite, this time by an experienced lawyer familiar with state warranty law and the requirements of the Magnuson-Moss Act who has read the Federal Trade Commission's manual. Writing Readable Warranties.

Graff Customer and Technical Services

The defects in the warranty do not require us to lower the company's warranty score to below the U.S./Canadian standard simply because (1) most of the warranty defects toll against the company and in favor of the customer and (2) Graff's technical service is very good, which has the effect of papering over the defects.

Graff divides its help desk into two parts. Customer Service handles all pre-sale issues: prices, availability, lead times, etc. Technical Service handles post-sale issues: installation problems, warranty claims, and replacement parts.

We rate both services as very good. They scored extremely well on our service tests, never dropping below 4.4 out of a possible 5.0. Any score above 4.0 is satisfactory. The company generates very few complaints from consumers about post-sale issues and seems to handle those that do occur with dispatch.

The Better Business Bureau rates Graff "A+" on a scale of "A+" to "F" for its effective response to customer issues.

Graff's technical service department was selected by the Decorative Plumbing & Hardware Association as the customer service department of the year for 2015.

The DPHA cited "responsiveness, courtesy, knowledge, ability to go above and beyond the norm, and overall performance" as its reasons for the award.

Fortunately, nothing has changed.

The Graff Website

The Graff website is very artistic: full of beautiful, well-staged photographs – probably more artistic, well-staged photographs than it really needs. At some point, they become intrusive, getting in the way, and Graff may have reached and gone past that point.

Faucets can be displayed individually or as an item in the collection of matching showers and accessories.

It's very useful to see all of the pieces of a collection before deciding on a fau­cet. You may love the fau­cet but hate the towel rack or soap dish, which may be a factor in your buying decision.

Graff's collections are so complete that they even include components that you will never see, and are of interest only to plumbers, such as valve extension kits and vessel rings. Whoever put all this together did a very good job.

The information provided about each fau­cet is very clearly presented, including its available finishes, critical dimensions, and options. Down­load­able .pdf files include a dimensioned drawing, exploded parts diagram, parts list, installation instructions, and specifications for most fau­cets.

There is even a link to a 3d CAD model of most fau­cets but in .3ds format rather than the more universal .dxf format. A model may not help consumers, but is a boon to designers and specifiers.

Unfortunately, however, the totality of the hard information provided about a faucet is insufficient for an informed buying decision.

Most faucet listings include a link to a specifications sheet, but some do not, meaning that information available about the faucet is very sparse indeed.

For those faucet listings that do link to a specification sheet, important specifications are missing. Just over half of the needed information is provided.

• There is no identification of the type of valve used. We presume ceramic cartridges are used in all fau­cets but don't see an explicit statement to that effect on the Graff website.

• We would also like to see the valve manufacturer identified.

• Forty years ago, the description of a fau­cet valve as "ceramic" meant that you were getting the latest and best technology. Today, however, ceramic is not enough.

• Some ceramic companies make valves that will last a lifetime and longer. Others last just a few years. To filter the good from the not-so-good, the name of the actual manufacturer is necessary.

• Graff uses good quality valves in its single-handle fau­cets, so for these faucets, identifying the source of the valve should not be a problem. As for two-handle fau­cets, we don't yet know where the valves come from, and we would sure like to know.

• Certifications are also missing. They are, in fact, nowhere on the website or, if they are, they are very well hidden. Graff's fau­cets are fully certified, so it should have no problem mentioning them.

• If a fau­cet is fully certified, the certification notice can be as simple as the following statements:

• ☑ Certified to all applicable U.S./Canadian standards. Legal to install in a drinking-water system in the U.S. and Canada (ASME A112.18.1/CSA 125.1, ANSI/NSF 329, ANSI/NSF 61).
  ☑ Approved for use in California.
  ☐ Accepted for use in Massachusetts.
  ☑ ADA compliant.
  ☑ WaterSense Listed.
  ☑ CalGreen compliant.

• There is no link to the faucet warranty.

• Because Graff does not sell faucets on its website, the link is not required by law. But Graff must make its warranty readily available to a prospective buyer "in advance of" any sale (16 CFR 702.3), and a warranty link is the easiest way to do so – much easier than providing retailers with warranty statements in the hope that they will be handed out. (News flash, they won't be.)

Most of what's missing can be readily supplied without any redesign of the existing listings. There is a lot of unused space on most listing pages. The rest can be provided through links.

A Graff spokesperson told us that most of the required information is on its website somewhere. Even if true, however, that's missing the point.

A typical fau­cet buyer does not take the time to read through the entire website.

The information he or she needs must be available on the fau­cet listing pages.

Some critical information on the website is very hard to find.

The warranty, for example, is buried so deep in the backwaters of the site that it requires the persistence of an ar­chae­ol­o­gist searching for ancient artifacts to merely locate.

Since there is no menu item labeled "Warranty," we first tried a site search on "warranty" that produced the notice "No products Found."

Then we found "Product registration and Warranty" at the very bottom of the page. But, clicking on that link displayed a page for registering a Graff product, but no warranty.

As a last resort, we tried clicking on "FAQS," and hit paydirt.

We found …

"Is there a warranty on Graff products?"

… that displayed two warranty links. One of them, "Graff's North American Signature Warranty," covered faucets.

So yes, the warranty is on the website, but good luck finding it. To make it easier, however, here is a direct link to the warranty.

Faucets can be displayed in multiple finishes and, sometimes, in multiple configurations. The user can use what Graff calls a "Configurator" to select a body and a separate trim finish that are displayed on the faucet image. The trim selections include all available finishes plus three marbles: Storm Black, Forest Green, and Smokey White. For some faucets, the spout and/or handles can be changed and added to the display.

The configured faucet image is fully visualizable. Using the mouse, the image can be rotated for viewing at any angle. Other websites have this feature to some degree, but Graff's is the most sophisticated we have seen. (We can only guess at how many programming hours were needed to develop and implement the feature.)

Where to Buy

Graff fau­cets are sold in most parts of the world and through most venues, including an extensive presence on the internet.

The most ubiquitous source in North Amer­ica is Fer­gus­on En­ter­pris­es (Wolse­ley in Canada), the British-owned plumbing supply company that has outlets in just about every city, town, and hamlet in North Ameri­ca and multiple online stores including Build.com, Fau­cets­Direct.com, and Fau­cets.com.

The fau­cets are a favorite of interior designers and sold in design studios throughout North America. A very good "Where to Buy" locator on the Graff website will find the design studios near you.

Online web sources in addition to those affiliated with Ferguson include De­cor Plan­et, Fau­cet De­pot, Plumb­tile, Qual­ity Bath, and Ama­ti Can­ada. A few Graff fau­cets are sold at Amazon, but the styles and finishes available are very limited.

Minimum Advertised Price (MAP) Policy

No matter where you buy a Graff fau­cet in the U.S., do not expect a substantial discount.

Graff enforces a Minimum Advertised Price policy that prohibits authorized retailers from advertising prices lower than the company's permitted minimum price.

Those that do are subject to sanctions up to and including the loss of the authorization to sell Graff products.

The policy does not prevent dealers from selling a fau­cet below the MAP price, but they cannot advertise it. Most studios will sell below, and sometimes substantially below, the MAP price if a faucet is part of a larger purchase of coordinated items.

Testing and Certification

CalGreen^® Certified: Graff faucets comply with the energy-saving requirements of the California Green Building Standards Code. For a fau­cet to display the CalGreen label, it must have been tested for compliance with CALGreen Chapter 4, Residential Mandatory Measures, Section 4.303 Indoor Water Use, and certified by an independent testing organization.

Graff's Competitors

Faucets made in Eur­ope or the Americas that compare to Graff for quality include

Conclusions

We think of Graff as the North-Amer­i­can­ized version of the upscale Eur­ope­an designer fau­cet.

If you are outfitting a heritage kitchen or bath, Graff's traditional collections may be just the ticket. Faucets suitable for Victorian, Arts and Crafts, Art Deco, or Mid-Century Modern motifs are available.

If your kitchen or bath is more modern, there are even more choices in Graff's contemporary collections.

These are serious fau­cets: heavy, solid, and substantial. We are very impressed with their quality and with the very low number of consumer or plumber complaints over our 5-year look-back period.

They are definitely luxury items, however, with prices to match, but the prices are competitive and often lower than similar fau­cets from competing companies.

Over the past few rating cycles, Graff has been consistently listed by our panel of consumers and industry professionals as a Best Value or Best-Value runner-up in luxury faucets. The fau­cets are well worth a look for anyone in the market for a designer fau­cet.

The company needs to fix the problems with its warranty and add the information needed for a well-informed buying decision to its website.

Despite these lapses, however, our rating panel was unanimous in its view of the company and its fau­cets. All of the members indicated that they would buy a Graff fau­cet for their own kitchen or bath, but only in finishes that have a lifetime warranty.

You should also be circumspect in your choice of finishes.

Graff's very short 1-, 2-, and 3-year warranties on some of its finishes are a strong indication that Graff's management has little faith in their long-term durability. Why? We don't know and may never find out. But, if management believes some of its finishes won't last, perhaps you should too and select an Elec­tro­pla­ted or PVD finish that has a better warranty.

Graff's warranty in general is a problem.

We think Graff intends to offer a strong warranty but has not quite figured out how to write it to balance buyer protection against unreasonable warranty claims. Fortunately, almost all of Graff's warranty mistakes actually make it a more buyer-friendly warranty, but you may have to go to court to prove it. If you do have to bring a lawsuit, you will win, and Graff will end up paying your attorney fees, and very possibly, exemplary damages.

To find out how to enforce your warranty, see The Warranty Game: Enforcing Your Product Warranty.

We are continuing to research the company. If you have experience with Graff fau­cets, good, bad, or indifferent, we would like to hear about it, so please 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.

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