Wolverine Brass Faucets Review & Rating Updated: May 16, 2024
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Download/Print the Wolverine warranty.
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This Company In Brief
Wolverine Brass is a domestic faucet company, founded in 1876 in Grand Rapids, that sells only to plumbers and Contractors. It is over years old as a faucet seller. But, it is not nearly the company it once was.
After twenty years as a division of Professional Plumbing Group, Inc. (PPG), the company has been transformed from an American manufacturer of exceptional faucets to an importer and distributor of fairly average Chinese faucets of no particular design or quality distinction.
It still makes some faucets in South Carolina, but the number is decreasing year by year. Seventy-five percent of Wolverine Brass faucets are manufactured in China.
Plumbing and Mechanical Magazine, the well-respected plumbing industry trade journal, at one time, rated Wolverine Brass as the most reliable faucet made anywhere and, as late as 2009, a Wolverine vice president was truthfully able to state:
"All Wolverine Brass-manufactured products are made in the United States and to a standard not found in most home centers. This includes our lines of residential and commercial faucets, as well as brass valves, ball-cocks and tubular products."
This is no longer true and has not been true for several years.
Wolverine still assembles some faucets in the U.S. using an increasing amount of imported parts and components.
The overwhelming majority of its faucets, however, are manufactured in China and Taiwan. The Wolverine name is no longer a guarantee of a reliable American-made faucet.
The Company
Wolverine Brass was founded in 1896 by Louis A. Cornelius, a master plumber, who started the company to make plumbing components that plumbers could rely on. The company developed a reputation over the years for its heavy-duty products including its reliable faucets.
The company was a family-owned enterprise for over 100 years until it was acquired by Bradford Equities Management, LLC in 2001.
Bradford created a holding company, Professional Plumbing Group Inc. (PPG), to own Wolverine. PlumbMaster was added to PPG in 2004 after Bradford purchased it from NCH Corp. of Dallas.
PlumbMaster has its own history – formed in 1924 through the merger of R & M Manufacturing and the Creed Company. By 2004 it had become one of America's top plumbing parts distributors.
PPG has continued adding companies. According to Dun & Bradstreet, it owns 82 subsidiary companies, all involved in some way in supplying plumbing products.
Other than Wolverine and PlumMaster, its best-known brand is a plumbing products company founded in 1869 that made its reputation with the Anystream adjustable showerhead and, more recently, its sensor automatic faucets.
The sale to Bradford was not the end of Wolverine's sojourn through the rarified world of private equity acquisitions.
In 2013, Bradford sold PPG to Dunes Point Capital in a debt-financed leveraged buyout. Dunes Point is a private equity firm and a wholly-owned subsidiary of White Group Holdings, funded by Nationwide Insurance.
Dunes Point, in turn, sold the company to Marcone, an appliance parts distributor in 2021. Genstar Capital, another private equity fund, owns Marcone, described in company literature as the "world's leading appliance parts exporter and distributor with customers in North America and 117 additional countries across the globe."
The Dilution of the Brand
A leveraged buyout almost always results in massive debt that has to be paid off.
Wolverine has been leveraged four times since 2001, each sale generating more debt. The company needs substantial profits just to service the debt.
Management's way of generating the needed massive profits is to capitalize on the reputation for quality earned by Wolverine over generations while packing the brand with inexpensive products made in China, similar to what happened to after their takeovers by investment groups using borrowed money.
The faucets are still of good quality. Our inspections revealed that even the faucets made in China are well-made using high-quality components.
But they are not a good value. The faucets are priced significantly higher than similar faucets from other companies and we can find no reason for the pricing other than the lingering but no longer wholly deserved reputation as very reliable American-made faucts.
Loss of Exclusivity
PPG has merged Wolverine into PlumbMaster as just one of the many faucet brands it distributes including Zurn Industries.
Some of these are wholly owned by PPG including Plumbmaster, Windon Bay, and Wolverine Brass.
PPG chacterizes Wolverine as a "PlumbMaster brand" distributed "exclusively" by PlumbMaster.
Wolverine lost its separate website in 2017. (Under Marcone ownership, PPG is also losing its separate website. As of the date of this report, a notice on the PPG site advises users that "Our website is migrated to my.marcone.com. as of June 5th, 2023.")
Much of the brand's hard-won exclusivity is gone.
As a family-owned enterprise, it sold only to plumbers. As a PPG brand, it expanded its market to include other contractors. Marcone appears to be limited sales to contractors with approved credit accounts.
Limiting its sales to trade professionals, however, shut Wolverine out of the very large market comprised of do-it-yourselfers and homeowners.
PPG has worked around the limitation by the simple process of selling Wolverine faucets to the general public under the PlumbMaster brand.
They are the exact same faucets often with the exact same model name, just in a different box. The approach allows PPG to advertise that Wolverine faucets are still exclusive to the trades when, in fact, they are not and have not been for several years.
Wolverine Faucet Collections
As of our last update to this report, Wolverine faucets were grouped into eleven collections that Wolverine calls "Sub Brands." As of this update, however, the Centennial collection has disappeared entirely and is no longer being sold.
The remaining ten collections are groups of products of similar appearance. Some collections include just faucets. Others may include shower components, tub fillers, tub spouts, toilets, and accessories such as towel racks, robe hooks, and toilet paper holders.
Some collections include both kitchen and lavatory faucets, others are exclusivly for the bath.
The collections allow the buyer to easily coordinate the look of bathroom and kitchen fixtures.
Wolverine Faucet Sources
For over 100 years, Wolverine was a manufacturer of quality "Made in U.S.A." faucets. Not today, however. Wolverine faucets are no longer "Made in U.S.A." although Wolverine Brass sales materials constantly make that claim.
Under the Federal Trade Commission's country-of origin-rules, to be "Made in U.S.A."
'… the product must be "all or virtually all" made in the U.S.
"All or virtually all" means that all significant parts and processing that go into the product must be of U.S. origin. That is, the product should contain no – or negligible – foreign content.'
Wolverine faucets have not met that standard for over a decade. Most, if not all, of the parts and components that go into a Wolverine faucet are imported.
Some Wolverine faucets are still "Assembled in the U.S." from foreign-made parts and components. These are, however, increasingly rare. At present, they include all of the faucets in the Encore and Endurance collections and all but one faucet in the Eternity collection – just over 25% of the Wolverine faucets sold by PlumbMaster.
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Wolverine Brass
Faucet Status as of May 15, 2024
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| Collection | Model | Description | Origin | Availability |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Architec | 81571 | Centerset Lavatory | |
Out of Stock |
| 81576 | Single-Handle Lavatory | |
Out of Stock | |
| 81577 | Single-Handle Lavatory | |
Out of Stock | |
| 81578 | Single-Handle Lavatory | |
Out of Stock | |
| 81582 | Widespread Lavatory | |
In Stock | |
| 81583 | Widespread Lavatory | |
Out of Stock | |
| 81610 | Pulldown Kitchen | |
Out of Stock | |
| 81611 | Pulldown Kitchen | |
Out of Stock | |
| 81612 | Pulldown Kitchen | |
Out of Stock | |
| Artis | 86330 | Centerset Lavatory | |
In Stock |
| 86340 | Centerset Lavatory | |
Back Ordered | |
| 86430 | Widespread Lavatory | |
Back Ordered | |
| 86440 | Widespread Lavatory | |
Back Ordered | |
| Encore | EKA0305 | Two-Handle Kitchen |  |
Back Ordered |
| BLK0305 | Centerset Laundry | |
Back Ordered | |
| EC01350 | Centerset Lavatory | |
Back Ordered | |
| EC01330 | Centerset Lavatory | |
Back Ordered | |
| Endurance | 85000 | Single-Handle Kitchen | |
Back Ordered |
| 85050 | Single-Handle Kitchen | |
In Stock | |
| 85051 | Single-Handle Kitch. w/ Side Spray | |
Back Ordered | |
| Essence | ESW1330 | Widespread Lavatory | |
In Stock |
| ESC1360 | Centerset Lavatory | |
Back Ordered | |
| ESL0340 | Two-Handle Laundry | |
Back Ordered | |
| ESK7360 | Two-Handle Kitchen w/ Side-spray | |
Back Ordered | |
| 85057 | Single-Handle Kitchen w/ Side Spray | |
Out of Stock | |
| 85058 | Single-Handle Kitchen w/ Side Spray | |
Out of Stock | |
| 85060 | Single-Handle Kitchen | |
Back Ordered | |
| 85263 | Single-Handle Centerset Lavatory | |
Back Ordered | |
| 85940 | Pullout Kitchen | |
Out of Stock | |
| Eternity | 33071 | Centerset Lavatory | Unknown | Out of Stock |
| 33397 | Centerset Commercial Lavatory | |
Back Ordered | |
| 33494 | Metering Lavatory |  Taiwan |
Back Ordered | |
| 33992 | Centerset Lavatory | |
Back Ordered | |
| 93331 | Centerset Service (Body only) | |
Back Ordered | |
| 9334286A | High Spout Utility w/ Spray | |
Out of Stock | |
| Finale | FW01350 | Widespread Lavatory | |
Back Ordered |
| FC00340 | Centerset Lavatory | |
Back Ordered | |
| 50123W | Pillar Lavatory | |
Out of Stock | |
| 85270 | Single-Handle Lavatory | |
Back Ordered | |
| 85271 | Single-Handle Lavatory | |
Back Ordered | |
| 85274 | Single-Handle Lavatory | |
Back Ordered | |
| 85921 | Single-Handle Lavatory | |
In Stock | |
| 85922 | Single-Handle Centerset Lavatory | |
In Stock | |
| 85923 | Single-Handle Centerset Lavatory | |
In Stock | |
| 85924 | Single-Handle Kitchen | |
In Stock | |
| 85925 | Single-Handle Kitch. w/ Side Spray | |
Out of Stock | |
| 85926 | Pulldown Kitchen | |
In Stock | |
| 85927 | Pulldown Kitchen | |
In Stock | |
| 8503504 | Pullout Kitchen | |
In Stock | |
| Simplicity | 85091 | Single-Handle Kitch. w/ Side Spray | |
Out of Stock |
| 85294 | Single-Handle Lavatory | |
Out of Stock | |
| Timeless | 81501 | Pulldown kitchen | |
Out of Stock |
| 81502 | Pulldown kitchen | |
Out of Stock | |
| 81503 | Pulldown kitchen | |
Out of Stock | |
| 81505 | Hii-Arc Kitchen w/ side spray | |
Out of Stock | |
| 81511 | Centerset Lavatory | |
Out of Stock | |
| 81512 | Centerset Lavatory | |
Out of Stock | |
| 81515 | Widespread Lavatory | |
Out of Stock | |
| 81516 | Widespread Lavatory | |
Out of Stock | |
| Vogue | 81541 | Single-Handle Kitchen | |
Out of Stock |
| 81542 | Single-Handle Kitchen | |
Out of Stock | |
| 81546 | Centerset Lavatory | |
Out of Stock | |
| 81548 | Widespread Lavatory | |
Out of Stock | |
| 81549 | Widespread Lavatory | |
Out of Stock | |
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Out of Stock faucets may again be available by the time you read this report.
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Made in China
Most of the other 75% of Wolverine's faucets are made in China. We found one metering faucet made in Taiwan.
The most recent PlumbMaster catalog identified all of the faucets in the Architect, Artis, Simplicity, Timeless, and Vogue collections as Chinese. In the Finale collection, two of the 15 faucets are assembled in South Carolina, the other 13 are made in China.
The Essence collection is a roughly even mix of Chinese and U.S. faucets.
According to the current PlumbMaster online catalog, only 15 of 67 (22%) Wolverine faucets are listed as "in stock" and available for sale.
All Wolverine faucets assembled in the U.S. except one kitchen faucet in the Endurance collection were identified on the PlumbMaster website as "Back Ordered."
Most of the Chinese-made faucets were identified as "Out of Stock."
This situation suggests substantial changes in Wolverine's future. It is likely that several of Wolverine's existing collections will be phased out in the near future or, perhaps, even the Wolverine brand itself.
Wolverine Faucet Manufacturers
Wolverine faucets made in China are manufactured by Huayi Plumbing Fittings Industry, Co. Ltd. and at least one other manufacturer that we have not been able to positively identify.
Huayi sells its own Huayi and SOKA brands in Asia and supplies faucets to PPG sold under the Wolverine, Speakman, and Windon Bay brands.
It also supplies faucets to two Canadian companies,
PPG buys faucets and faucet components from several Chinese companies including Xiamen Runner Industrial Co. Ltd., Xiamen Lota International Co., Ltd., NCIP, Inc., and Hangzhou Panasia Sanitary Ware Co., Ltd. We have not, however, been able to link any of these manufacturers to Wolverine faucets.
We cannot track imported components to a specific faucet. This would require access to PPG's internal records, which we do not have. But, we can track the increase in imports of parts and components from overseas manufacturers, mostly in China and Taiwan, and the increase since PPG's ownership began has been substantial, well over 500%.
Wolverine Faucet Design
Some of Wolverine's faucets are left over from the old family-owned Wolverine Brass. These can be characterized as designs out of the 1950s and 60s, largely devoid of style. Durability and reliability, not looks, were the focus of the old Wolverine, and it shows.
The newer collections, made in China, are more stylish but of no particular design distinction. The styling is fairly typical of Chinese-made faucets, pleasant but conservative.
China is developing more design finesse and some Chinese domestic faucet designs are beginning to be recognized on the world stage for their originality. A few have even won awards in international design competitions. None of these are sold by Wolverine, however.
The Chinese designs for faucets sold by Wolverine are mostly adapted from successful European and American styles.
A faucet design that proves popular in the European or North American markets will ultimately be copied by Chinese factories with just enough variation to avoid infringing design patents. The lag time is normally three to five years behind the Western designs, by which time the design is usually no longer new nor original.
Wolverine's Faucet Construction and Materials
All Wolverine faucets sold in the U.S. are made using conventional construction in which the body and spout channel water as well as give the faucet its appearance.
Brass
The primary faucet material used is brass – the preferred material for faucets for two reasons:
- Brass is strong but easy to work with. It casts, forges, and machines with relative ease.
- Brass is naturally anti-microbial. The copper in brass kills bacteria, retarding the buildup of potentially hazardous microbes inside a faucet.
Wolverine Brass Myths
A great deal of mythology has grown up around Wolverine Brass faucets, much of which was once true but is no longer.
- Made in USA: Before the 2001 sale to Professional Plumbing Group, all Wolverine Brass faucets were made in the U.S. from parts and components also made in the U.S.
- That has not been true for many years. Just under 75% of Wolverine Brass faucets are now made in China. Those still assembled in the U.S. are made from mostly imported components.
- We have not found a single Wolverine Brass faucet that qualifies for "Made in U.S.A." labeling.
- 100-Year Warranty: Wolverine's faucets were once covered by a 100-year all-parts and components warranty. As a PPG company, however, the warranty is now for one year with just two components covered for 100 years: cartridges and some, but not all, finishes.
- Sold Only to Plumbers: Once true, but no longer. The faucets are sold to anyone in the building trades.
- All Brass Faucets: If it was ever true, it no longer is. The bodies of Wolverine Brass faucets are brass but not the heavyweight brass of earlier years. Handles, base plates, and are zinc. Pulldown and pullout kitchen sprays are plastic.
Brass has one serious drawback, however. It may contain lead.
Traditional (alpha) brass is a blend of copper and zinc with a small amount of lead (1.5%-3.5%) added to make the material more malleable, less brittle, and easier to fabricate.
ZMAK Faucet Handles Before and After Finishing
Image Credit: Indian Diecasting Industries
Zinc is easily identified by its dull gray color. Zinc faucet handles, shown before (top) and after chrome plating.There is virtually no stress on a faucet handle, so zinc works well in this faucet component or any other component not under water pressure. In core and shell construction, it can be used as the shell without diminishing the quality of the faucet.
Lead, however, is now all but banned in North America in any drinking water component due to its toxicity to humans, particularly children.
According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), lead, even in small amounts, causes slowed growth, learning disorders, hearing loss, anemia, hyperactivity, and behavior issues.
Before 2014, a faucet sold in the U.S. or Canada could contain as much as 8% lead and still call itself lead-free.
Now the maximum lead content of those parts of a faucet that touch water is 0.25% (1/4 of 1%), basically just 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 without adding toxicity. The most common is bismuth.
Bismuth is similar to lead – right next to lead on the periodic table of elements – but it is not harmful to humans.
It is, however, very expensive. It is 300 times rarer than lead, even rarer than silver, which is why bismuth-brass alloys are considerably more expensive than leaded brass.
This increased cost has encouraged many faucet manufacturers to use substitute materials in their faucets where possible.
Zinc and Zinc/Aluminum Alloys
The most common substitute is zinc or a zinc-aluminum (ZA) alloy. One of the most common is called ZAMAK, a composition containing 4% aluminum.
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
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 in the spray heads of Wolverine's pulldown and pullout kitchen faucets.
Unfortunately, plastic spray heads (called "wands" in the faucet industry) have become the standard for many manufacturers, including some that sell upscale faucets such as
Proponents of the material give three reasons for the use of plastic:
- Plastic does not get uncomfortably hot in use like metal wands;
- Plastic is not as heavy and is more comfortable to hold for long periods of time; and
- Plastic is a lot cheaper than brass or stainless steel – even cheaper than zinc.
However, ABS plastic degrades over time from exposure to ultraviolet and is not dimensionally stable. It expands and contacts 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 purchases, and, although engineers have made significant improvements to their reliability over the past decade, the problems have not been entirely resolved.
The Faucet Valve Cartridge
Its cartridge is the heart of a modern faucet and should be your very first consideration when making a buying decision.
It is the component that controls water flow and temperature.
Its finish may fail and the faucet will still work. It may be discolored, corroded, and ugly but water still flows. If the cartridge fails, however, the faucet is no longer a faucet. It is out of business until the cartridge is replaced.
It's important, therefore, that the cartridge is robust, durable, and lasts for many years.
The general view in the faucet industry is that better wands are made of metal — brass, zinc, or stainless steel — insulated against excessive heat transmission.
The Sure Cure for Too-Hot Spray Wands: The simple cure for spray wands that get too hot is to reduce the temperature of the water. Dishes do not need to be rinsed in scalding water.
Wolverine Faucet Cartridge
Wolverine uses a ceramic stem cartridge in its two-handle faucets that it first engineered in 1972.
How to Clean a Ceramic Valve Cartridge
If your faucet starts to drip after several years, the problem is most likely in the valve cartridge.
The cartridge is probably not defective. It is just clogged up with mineral deposits accumulated over the years from hard water.
The two ceramic discs that shut the water off no longer mesh completely, allowing a few drops of water to slip through.
To return it to full functionality, removing the lime scale deposits is all that is required.
Here is how that can be done:
- Remove the cartridge following the instructions in your faucet manual.
- Soak the cartridge for up to 30 minutes in a solution of 50% household vinegar and 50% water.
- While you are waiting, take a toothbrush soaked in the vinegar/water mixture and clean the cavity in the faucet that holds the cartridge. Wipe it dry with a clean cloth.
- Rinse the cartridge thoroughly in clean cold water.
- Lubricate the O-ring(s) and rubber washers with silicon plumber's grease
- Reinstall the cartridge.
If the mineral build-up is substantial, you may have to do this more than once.
The company was neck and neck with in the race to develop the first ceramic faucet cartridge.
Wolverine beat its rival by a nose, receiving a patent for its "ceramics disc shutter", a single-function ceramic cartridge for two-handle faucets in 1973 (US Patent 3,780,758).
American Standard Companies, however, was not about to give up easily.
It countered Wolverine with a patent of its own a year later for a dual-function ceramic cartridge for single-handle faucets (US Patent 3,834,416). Dual-function cartridges are substantially more difficult to engineer.
The cartridges were a game-changer – the model for all the ceramic cartridges used today by virtually all faucet companies.
Instead of vulnerable rubber seals and washers that wear out and need to be replaced regularly, ceramic discs are used to control water flow.
The nearly indestructible discs do not wear out and need almost no maintenance other than a periodic flush to remove accumulated mineral deposits.
For more information about the development and characteristics of faucet valves and cartridges, see Faucet Basics, Part 2: Faucet Valves & Cartridges.
Wolverine has great confidence in the durability of its valve cartridges, as evidenced by the 100-year warranty on the cartridges.
Plumbers generally give the cartridges good marks. The only complaint is the plastic stem (the part at the top of the cartridge that attaches to the faucet handle.) Plastic stems can twist off more easily than metal stems. Most in the industry consider metal stems to be superior.
Wolverine Faucet Finishes
Wolverine faucets are available in three finishes: Chrome, Brushed Nickel, and Oil-Rubbed Bronze. For a few years, some faucets were offered in Matte Black, but this finish no longer appears as an option in the PlumbMaster catalog.
All faucets can be purchased in Chome, most in Brushed Nickel but only a few in Oil-Rubbed Bronze.
Electroplating
Chrome and Brushed Nickel are finishes.
Electroplating is the oldest form of metal coating, using a process discovered in 1890 by Luigi Brugnatelli, an Italian chemist but it did not come into widespread industrial use until the 1840s.
Wolverine Warranty
Legal Issues
In 1975, Congress passed the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act (15 U.S.C. §2301) that established the legal minimum content and form of consumer product warranties.
Its passage seems to have escaped the attention of Wolverine's management because absolutely no attempt has been made to conform Wolverine's warranty to the federal law.
Magnuson-Moss has been in force for over years. So, somebody at Wolverine should have noticed.
The Wolverine warranty is a consumer product warranty. Magnuson-Moss requires certain content in a consumer product warranty and excludes some restrictions. The Wolverine warranty includes very little of this required content but does include banned restrictions.
- Defective Designation: The first and most serious problem is a defective designation of the warranty in its caption.
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To be a limited warranty, the warranty must clearly
designate
the warranty as a limited warranty with the magic words "limited" and "warranty" in its caption or title. - The words can be arranged to make a variety of acceptable captions: "Limited Warranty", "Limited Product Warranty", "Limited Lifetime Warranty", "Wolverine Brass Limited Warranty", and so on.
- So long as the words "limited" and "warranty" are included, it gives a fair warning to the buyer that the warranty is intended to provide only limited warranty protection.
- The Wolverine Brass warranty is captioned just "Product Warranty". The word "limited" is nowhere to be found. And, although it is clear from the test of the warranty that Wolverine Brass intends to offer a limited warranty, the missing "limited" in its caption automatically converts the warranty to a full warranty. (15 U.S.C. §2303(a), 16 CFR §700.6)
- A full warranty gives a buyer many more rights, voiding many of the restrictions and limitations written into the Wolverine Brass warranty.
- Warranty Claims: The Wolverine warranty does not provide "A step-by-step explanation of the procedure which the consumer should follow" to make a claim under the warranty including the mailing address or telephone number to use. (16 CFR § 701.3(a)(5))
- Exclusion of Labor Charges: Wolverine's attempted disclaimer of labor charges, is void and without effect. In a full warranty, labor charges cannot be excluded. (16 CFR § 700.9)
- Required Disclaimer All consumer product warranties must include the following disclaimer:
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"This warranty gives you specific legal rights, and you may also have other rights which vary from State to State"
- The Wolverine Brass warranty does not contain the disclaimer.
The warranty disregards so many legal requirements that in any legal challenge a court will probably ignore most of the warranty and apply the state law warranty of merchantability to any warranty claim.
Wolverine will also pay any plaintiff's costs and attorney fees — the statutory penalty for disregarding Magnuson-Moss requirements.
It involves immersing faucet components and the met (chrome or nickel) 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 components.
Usually, multiple coats are applied, one or more undercoats, and then two or more coats of the finish metal. The undercoats are required because many plating metals do not bond well with brass. An undercoat of copper or nickel is usually applied as a primer. They bond well to brass and chrome bonds well to copper and nickel.
Powder Coating
Oil-Rubbed Bronze is a .
A powder coat is usually described as semi-durable
, not as robust as electroplated finishes, somewhat more durable than the finish on your car. In use, it requires more care to maintain a like-new appearance.
It is 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 to melt the coating, changing its structure 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.
Wolverine Warranty
Wolverine has offered a 100-year warranty on its faucets since the 1970s, the only company to ever do so.
From the outset, it was mostly a marketing gimmick.
No Wolverine faucet owner is likely to live 100 years, and on the death of the original owner, the warranty ends. In effect, it was nothing more than a lifetime warranty, but "100 years" has a marketing punch that "lifetime" does not have.
Originally it was an "all-parts and all-components guarantee" but that was on faucets substantially more durable than most of the company's current products.
Under PPG's ownership, the warranty has been eviscerated. The current "100-year" warranty guarantees all parts and components for just one year with two exceptions:
- Cartridges are guaranteed for 100 years from the date of manufacture.
- Finishes except Oil-Rubbed Bronze are guaranteed for 100 years from the date of purchase.
Why "date of manufacture" and not "date of purchase" we do not know. But it seems odd.
The date of manufacture is stamped on the Wolverine cartridges. We found it to be within 24 months of the facet's purchase date. In a 100-year cartridge warranty, that 24-month difference is not going to have much effect.
Another oddity is this: the warranty does not clearly identify who owns the warranty.
The owner is the "purchaser/homeowner." But the two are not the same. The purchaser is the plumber who buys the faucet from Wolverine. The homeowner is the consumer for whom the faucet is purchased.
Which one owns the warranty? It's impossible to say.
What if the consumer is not a homeowner? If he or she is a tenant, lessee, or renter, who then owns the warranty?
These ambiguities result from poor legal drafting. Whoever wrote the warranty did not think through the many ramifications of the language used.
The Wolverine warranty is what we term a "Barnam Warranty" in honor of the famous 19th-century promoter and huckster, P. T. Barnam, who reputedly sold a boxcar load of white salmon by guaranteeing that it would not turn pink in the can – something that white salmon cannot possibly do.
Understanding Finish Warranties
A finish warranty does not protect against everything that can go wrong with a faucet finish.
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, Wolverine pays. But, if you scratch it or it turns a funny color after you polished it a few times with Wham-X All Purpose Miracle Cleaner, you are on your own.
Like Barnam's guarantee, the widely advertised 100-year Wolverine warranty is not what it seems. The headline still looks good — 100 Year Wolverine Warranty — and it impresses customers looking for a reliable faucet. But very little of a Wolverine faucet is actually guaranteed for 100 years.
The warranty is more accurately a one-year warranty with exceptions. But nowhere outside of the actual warranty document itself does PPG mention the one-year part of the warranty.
But if the faucet spray quits spraying, the handle refuses to turn, or the aerator stubbornly declines to aerate, you are on your own after the first year. That one-year limitation is important, so keep it in mind when making your buying decision.
Read the Woliveriine "100 Year" Fauicet Wariranity.
To learn more about how to interpret faucet warranties, go to Faucet Basics, Part 6: Understanding Faucet Warranties.
To learn how to enforce your faucet warranty, read The Warranty Game: Enforcing Your Product Warranty.
In addition to its other problems, the warranty is not legal.
It does not comply with the minimum requirements of the federal Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act (15 U.S.C. §2308). This is the federal law that dictates the minimum content of and sets the rules for consumer product warranties in the United States. (See the sidebar Wolverine Warranty Legal Issues on this page for more information.)
In any court challenge, most of the restrictions and limitations written into the Wolverine warranty would be thrown out.
Magnuson-Moss and the regulations published by the Federal Trade Commission to clarify the law require a very different warranty, one that is not just limited to mailing a few replacement parts, but one that actually repairs a broken faucet, no matter what it takes, parts and labor included.
If the faucet cannot be restored to full function and appearance after a reasonable number of tries, the consumer then has the choice of a replacement faucet or a full refund.
Testing & Certification
Comparable Faucets
Faucets comparable to Wolverine's Asian-made faucets include
All of these companies offer a warranty on their faucets that is superior to the Wolverine warranty. Some are similar in design. Most are much more stylish. Some are more expensive, most are less, some are much less. All are made, at least in part, in China or Taiwan.
Wolverine's commercial faucets compete with
Chicago Faucet, Symmons, and T&S Brass faucets are made in the U.S. Elkay, Mainline, and Central Brass products are made in Taiwan and Cina.
Conclusions
If you are looking for an inexpensive but good-quality Chinese-made faucet, Wolverine Brass will not be your first choice. For fairly average Chinese faucets, Wolverine's products are expensive.
Most of the qualities that made Wolverine Brass a stand-out brand are gone. The faucets are not the heavy-duty products of earlier years, they are mostly not made in America, and the 100-year Wolverine warranty is mostly myth.
We can think of no reason to buy the brand in preference to other quality Chinese-made faucets such as those from most of the companies listed above.
We are continuing to research the company. If you have experience with Wolverine Brass faucets, good, bad, or indifferent, we would like to hear about it, so please contact us or post a comment below.