You are right. The one I got is a returned one. The gasket missed. I exchanged it with the Moen faucet because it provides lifetime warranty for leak or drip free. ThatÂs what I want. But, I do not understand why most of kitchen faucets do not use rubber gasket instead of plastic one. I see most of bath faucets have rubber gasket. IsnÂt the rubber gasket better for preventing from water leaking in than the plastic gasket? Can anyone explain it?

I would contact Delta, they may just send you one.

I ended up here, because I'm redoing my kitchen and trying to make a decision about the faucet. I have various faucets throughout my house from Kohler, Moen, Restoration Hardware, and Newport Brass. I think the Restoration Hardware fixtures are made by Newport Brass, because we had to call them when we needed to replace. We've had them from 10-12 years, so I don't know the styles or even if they are made. Almost all are polished nickel, and the Kohler and Moen are always spotless, laundry room and bathroom, respectively. I'm not crazy about the pull down sprayer on the Kohler. The Moen Showcase (do they still make this line?) is in the bathroom, and I love it so much, because I can just pour water over it and it will dry spotless. It's amazing. It is wall mount, and I wish I had it in every bathroom. Because of my success with Moen, when I needed a faucet for my kitchen, I bought an inexpensive (relative to all the other faucets I have) Moen at Home Depot. It is the only non polished nickel faucet I have. It is stainless steel, still looks brand new (10 years+), and the pull down sprayer works wonderfully. Unfortunately, I'd never buy fixtures from Restoration Hardware again. They spot like crazy. The Newport Brass are slightly better, but they also spot. I'm looking at Kohler and Moen for my new kitchen, but the choices are limited in polished nickel. Now I'll look at California Faucets, too, but I'll skip Rohl, since someone mentioned the polished nickel spots so much.

When installing a new faucet, you turn on the shutoff valves and run the faucet before attaching the head. This blows any crud out of the line before it hits and possibly ruins the filter in the head. Perhaps your installer did this, but just didn't get the head tightened enough, or forgot to pull the washer before flushing and lost it.