If you buy directly from Moen, you get top quality metal materials. Note: nearly all shower handhelds are plastic (I understand it has to do with weight and temperature issues).

Moen requires a code to access their actual site. It's annoying. But I got a lot of stuff for cheaper than other places, although often Ferguson/Build.com and Amazon was the same cost.

Home Depot has a lower grade for some of the items and it's plastic.

Yes it's hideous. The house we just moved into is Moen and all plastic - not just faucets, also light fixtures. We're slowly replacing them.

Anonymous wrote:I bought a Moen shower and tub set, and it is shiny plastic. There's not a bit of metal in it-- the handle, the tub spout, the shower spout are all plastic with a chrome-like paint finish. I thought the over $100 Moen and Kohler fixtures were still metal. The online descriptions are not forthcoming about the materials. Anyone else noticed this? I know there's been a trend towards plastic valves in place of ceramic for a while now, but plastic spouts and handles are ridiculous and cheesy.

Both of those are really cheap box store brands. You get what you pay for.

Decent machined fixtures, not molded China stuff, cost around $750-2000 per fixture.

Moen is crap now.

Anonymous wrote:We just purchased a kitchen faucet that’s over $400.00 and the handle and the base is plastic! We purchased it directly from Moen, what is happening…PLASTIC?!!!!

I recently had $1,400 of repair and maintenance plumbing done. I shopped extensively for faucets in the normal price range of big box stores and our local indie plumbing showroom. Plastic is very common now in mass market faucet lines. It can look the same as metal but is very light. On mass brand websites there are vague references to superior properties such as corrosion resistance in new materials (plastic).

I haven't replaced my laundry tub faucet yet because I haven't chosen the faucet. The models I'm interested in used to be metal (it even says so in the Amazon listings) but is clearly plastic now when you see the floor models at stores. I noticed this with other faucets, too. The web descriptions haven't always been updated for designs that look the same but shifted their content from metal to plastic.

This reminds me of how reasonably costly kitchen cabinets have particleboard and woodgrain foil components these days. I didn't understand this when I bought a new build and ended up with some cabinet end panels that really should have been veneer.

The plumbing companies don't care and they can hide behind corrosion resistance as a logical excuse.

Most really expensive metal faucets I saw ($500+) are either wackily ultra-modern or historical replicas (Victorian, faux Colonial brass inspo).

I found my local ACE hardware was the best place for having display faucets within my reach. Big box stores tend to mount then high up on walls where they are too high to touch.

$100? The last bathroom faucet I bought was almost $500.

We just purchased a kitchen faucet that’s over $400.00 and the handle and the base is plastic! We purchased it directly from Moen, what is happening…PLASTIC?!!!!

Anonymous wrote:I learned this 5 years ago on a kitchen reno. I think it's wear and tear/longevity. I had to replace a faucet about 5 years after another kitchen redo in another house and the plumber that installed the new faucet said that I should have only expected that 5 years with the HD faucet I bought originally. I figured it was worth it the second time to buy the nicer metal one to safe us trouble.

I think the issue is that people want all metal and are paying higher end thinking they are getting all metal, but there is no metal to be had at some stores. It's obscene.

I learned this 5 years ago on a kitchen reno. I think it's wear and tear/longevity. I had to replace a faucet about 5 years after another kitchen redo in another house and the plumber that installed the new faucet said that I should have only expected that 5 years with the HD faucet I bought originally. I figured it was worth it the second time to buy the nicer metal one to safe us trouble.