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Warranties Are Nice But What I’d Really Like is a QUALITY PRODUCT!
By JLP | August 7, 2008
UPDATE: Please read this follow-up post.
When we did our kitchen renovation last year, we purchased and installed a Price Pfister 26 Series Treviso faucet for the kitchen sink. This particular model was around $200 I believe. It wasn’t the most expensive model but it was far from the cheapest. It was installed sometime last October.
Well, it’s ten months later and I’m already having to change out the diverter as there is almost no water pressure (or maybe water flow is a better word for it). The problem is not with the supply lines as I’ve already checked them. It’s also not with the line that goes from the handle to the diverter as I checked it and it flows just fine.
I called Price Pfister’s customer service and the customer service rep told me that they would ship me a bunch of different parts, all of which were covered by the warranty. HOWEVER, the warranty doesn’t cover shipping so I had to fork over $7 to have the damn things shipped to me.
It’s nice that this stuff is under waranty but if the new parts are the same quality as the old ones, won’t I just be changing them out again in another ten or so months? That’s what’s so frustrating about products these days. They’re all made of crap. They engineer them so that they can manufactured cheaply but they don’t consider quality.
If the engineers had to crawl under the kitchen sink to change out a stinkin’ diverter, they’d make a better product! It’s a real pain. We have a deep kitchen sink, which makes it difficult to reach the faucet from below. I managed to get the old diverter off but had to put it right back on because I couldn’t find a replacement at the Lowes. So, I guess I’ll have to wait until next week before we have decent water flow from our kitchen sink.
Would someone PLEASE make a good product so that we don’t need warranties?
Topics: Miscellaneous | 21 Comments »
August 7th, 2008 at 2:28 pm
Not sure if this will be of any consolation, but…
I had a PricePfister in our kitchen and over a period of fifteen years or so I replaced no fewer than four cartridges. BTW-The cartridge may wind up being your problem. Two years ago I installed mid-grade American Standard faucet while changing countertop and it has worked without problem.
I have the deep sinks as well and found a tool that really does help some when it comes to removing the faucet. Look for a gadget that is called a basin wrench – click on this link to see what one looks like http://www.ridgid.com/Tools/Basin-Wrench
The thing helps you reach up to loosen/tighten the fittings in pretty tight quarters. What is cool about this is that it works in either direction.
Good luck.
August 7th, 2008 at 2:34 pm
Weird. I think we have the exact same faucet in our kitchen.
August 7th, 2008 at 3:09 pm
Use Kohler parts, from a Kohler dealership, or directly from Kohler. They are the best. Dont buy it from Lowe’s, as they tell Pfister/Kohler to cheapen up the parts to fatten their margins. Wal-Mart does this with a lot of name-brand stuff as well.
August 7th, 2008 at 4:05 pm
Maybe the parts you got were just broken. Why would you expect the new ones to also be broken?
Personally, I find that things last quite a long time. I’ve only had to send things in for warranty service maybe twice in the past 10 years.
August 7th, 2008 at 5:13 pm
The “good” engineers are out making more important things than faucets. For the most part you are left with lower level engineers designing your faucets and general consumer products. Isn’t that the way you would want it? Or would you rather have the “bad” engineers designing your car or power plants?
August 7th, 2008 at 7:23 pm
The term “engineer” is, in my opinion, over used. The quality of work that many so called “engineers” do is terrifying to think about – so I try not to.
August 7th, 2008 at 7:30 pm
We quite frequently pay a little more to ensure that we are getting a quality product. My husband spends $100 on a pair of shoes that he gets every two years. Sure, we could get shoes for $35. But we tried that once and found that we had to replace them after six months.
After we realized this, we started applying the same philosophy to all our purchases.
I can’t believe you had to pay shipping, though.
August 7th, 2008 at 10:06 pm
Maybe your son did something to it!
August 7th, 2008 at 11:41 pm
I agree. If I feel that I need a guarantee to purchase a product, I try not to buy it. The analogy that comes to my mind (because I like Honda and Toyota vehicles) is, I rarely have owned any Honda or Toyota while it was under warranty, and, yet, I don’t hesitate to buy those products again. Quality never gets monotonous. Thanks for the good post.
August 8th, 2008 at 12:58 am
Kohler, Kohler, Kohler! Never have had a problem!!
August 8th, 2008 at 7:37 am
angie and preston – words spoken by two non-engineers…..
angie – do you think “good” engineers only work for auto or power plants? have you ever worked for either one? I wouldn’t work in the auto industry now for anything…and power plants are no picnic…
August 8th, 2008 at 8:05 am
Without shoddy products, how could the world’s corporations keep increasing profits and giving execs their huge paydays? I’m thinking they’re bettign that the majority of people will just buy a new faucet rather than fix it.
August 8th, 2008 at 8:10 am
Geoff said:
“I’m thinking they’re bettign that the majority of people will just buy a new faucet rather than fix it.”
Believe it or not, that’s what I almost did because I didn’t want to wait for the parts to come in!
August 8th, 2008 at 8:29 am
Actually, I am an engineer… I just threw those industries out there as examples.
I’m just pointing out that for a faucet the consequences of failure from either poor design or manufacturing are pretty much nothing. So why overdesign to make it last forever. Meanwhile there are industries where failure is much more important in terms of consequences and warrant the extra effort to put into design and quality control.
August 8th, 2008 at 9:54 am
Angie,
I don’t think it’s unreasonable to expect a faucet to last 5 – 10 years. Ten months is inexcuseable regardless of whether or not it’s under warranty.
Sadly, it’s your line of thinking that bugs me the most. People and companies should make better products because IT’S THE RIGHT THING TO DO! Based on your line of thinking, there’s no reason for lower-wage employees to do a good job since their jobs “really don’t matter.”
All failure is important!
August 8th, 2008 at 10:12 am
It generally isn’t the design is poor because the consequences of failure are minimal. It is that the design is forced to be poor for the sake of lowered cost. By replacing say a metal gear in a part with a plastic one, you can cut a few pennies in material cost a few pennies in freight cost and give the consumer a slightly cheaper product (or prevent erosion of profit margins). Unfortunately, it is known that that gear will fail sooner than its metal counterpart.
These are design decisions that are parsed to bits and made not for lack of engineering skill, but for the almight dollar.
August 8th, 2008 at 12:09 pm
Ask a trustworthy plumber what they would install in their own house. Two years ago I had the sewer and plumbing systems rebuilt and have not had any problems. My fixtures are made by Danze. I was able to piece together all the pieces I needed by shopping at construction warehouses and online. BTW – they are also the best people to talk to about toilets….they’ll tell you exactly what breaks and what doesn’t.
August 9th, 2008 at 10:35 am
My home was built in 1989 and nothing has been changed. I like the qaulity of the older faucets. My parents built their home in 1976 and just recently (around 2000) replaced many of their faucets and such. The new stuff is so much cheaper feeling. I’ll keep the older, uglier stuff – it just feels like it has a higher quality.
August 12th, 2008 at 12:16 pm
Don’t always blame the engineer. Most of us would love to design the best that is possible, but you would design yourself right out of business because few people would be willing to pay the price.
August 12th, 2008 at 2:42 pm
This article reminds me of an interesting site I came across a while ago. There is a section in the video on the site that talks about observed obsolescence and planned obsolescence. It’s an interesting watch.
http://www.storyofstuff.com/
December 1st, 2008 at 7:06 pm
I just had to add my two bits. We Americans are trained to be consumers. We are taught that consumption is synonomous with pleasure, enjoyment and self worth.
That’s a chimera that empties your bank account and wastes our inheritance without fulfillment (unless that’s your thing).
Engineering isn’t the problem, corporate philosophy is.
It’s our duty as consumers to support manufacturers who make quality products and shun the ones who make crap. The lines are not black and white as many companys have good and bad products for the same purpose.
Somewhere in there is also seeking the best value so as not to fall for the yuppie trap of ‘it must be better because it cost a lot’.
AS the world gets more complex renaissance education becomes more rare and we narrow our questing for understanding, paranoia and knee jerk reactions might be the norm. We dont fix broken stuff, we toss it and buy a new one.
A lot of newer products are purposefully designed to be unrepairable to encourage this practice.
Vote with your pocketbook! It’s how capitalism works!
I bought a Moen faucet set that looks good and seems to be reliable. However the mechanism for the stopper is made from plastic that, unfortunately, takes too much of the area in the drain pipe. I have to take it apart every couple of months because it gets fouled and the drain runs slow.
Tried to address this issue with Moen and got B.S. and happy horsemanure back. I wont buy from them again.