Waterstone IS a splurge, but they have such a unique look, and appear so well made, like faucets were forty years ago. Congrats on your choice. I love the Annapolis pull down. Can I ask how much reach you have on your plp? More than a conventional hand-sprayer? Or about the same?

Love love love LOVE my Kohler Karbon, truly one of the best appliances in my kitchen, and the OTF (one true faucet). Good luck!

I went outside my initial budget to buy my two Waterstone faucets.

Now that we are using them every day, I'm thrilled we bought them. The money was well worth it. They are solid, built like a tank, beautiful and totally functional.

My plumber had never installed any previously and marveled at the ease of installation and construction.

My family loves them. To me, they were well worth the money.

No one is ever sorry he bought the best.

Doc

Another vote for the OTF.

I bought the Waterstone traditional pull down faucet. It will be installed in a couple of weeks. In the meantime, I just stare at it longingly.

As others have said, the faucet is built like a tank and the attention to detail is exquisite.

Love the OTF! Had never seen it before. Too modern for my decor, but passing it on to my sis who is in mid-reno as well.

Doc, love your quote. I think you are right.

Starting to turn the corner toward hatred of my OTF. I think if you have one of those step-ony-thingies it might be OK, but as is I can absolutely never get the hot water to work. O urs isn't very hot to begin with as a insta-hot water heater that's just not very hot. By the time it travels to the OTF at anything less than full-on ... oh, it's all annoying and pretty poorly-functional.

I can't be sure we don't have installation problems. But for me, the cool look of that faucet was long-ago eclipsed by its poor performance. It's got nice water pressure, but the articulations are really hard to move for me, I can't get the main stem to stay screwed on well (probably not the faucet's fault) and mostly, I hate how hard it is to find "hot".

:( I know this is a way-minority opinion. Most people love their KK.

I wish I had splurged for Waterstone! But they're 4x the cost.

I have a Waterstone PLP Traditional at my main sink and a Hampton kitchen faucet with a side spray at my prep sink. Have to agree with the others who have said they are built like a tank. My GC was really impressed with the quality. My gosh, they weigh a ton! The quality is evident just by looking at them, but especially so when you use them. I have the larger 5500 PLP at my 36" single bowl farm sink and have plenty of reach. I also have a Hampton hot/cold tap at the main sink and two soap dispensers hooked up to NeverMTs. The faucets were definitely a splurge but have never regretted the money.

I remodeled my last kitchen because of water damage from a faucet that burst and wanted a quality faucet in this kitchen. Another very nice thing with the Waterstone is the number of finishes you have to choose from and you can get everything in the same finish. I have one of their living finishes (black ORB) and love it.

Alaris19 - I read your post to DH and we both said - there's got to be something wrong. We have never had anything come unscrewed and our faucet moves incredibly smoothly. We are on well water and had problems with the water pressure initially. Apparently the faucet comes with a low flow filter or something like that. I called Kohler and purchased a 20$ high flow filter thingy and it's been fine ever since. Definitely suggest you call Kohler to talk through your problems. The reason I love this faucet so much is not because of how it looks but 100% due to how it performs. Good luck and sorry for the hijack!

Consider Graff & KWC.

I have two Cifial faucets. Absolutely beautiful and as per my plumber, "some of the best, sturdy faucets [he's] ever installed".

I circumvented a lot of cost issues by finding the least expensive seller, which happened to end up on eBay, that would take payments. I paid $25.00 a week to my Brunswick faucet (now discontinued) vendor, and something similar to another.

You never, ever know how things will work out. I paid my Granite Grannies ahead for my entire MBR suite. I also paid Thompson Creek for a year ahead of time for my gutters. )Love my gutters, still battling with them. Another rant.) My point is to think outside the box. Don't just give up because a price is too high. If you love it, figure out how to get it. It might not be immediate, but sometimes that's more worth it! :)

Love hijacks. Always good info. I will say, Alaris19, that being a devotee of Kohler sinks and various other Kohler products, they are amazingly helpful on the phone. It does sound like you got a dud faucet.

I will definitely check out Cifial which is a brand unknown to me. But at the end of the day, I think I will sink some serious money into either a Waterstone pull-down similar to a2gemini's, or the Towson suite. I need a hot water dispenser on the sink -- and add on for us -- so that's gonna be a lot of metal across the back, but worth the clutter, I think.

Well, I hate to be the party pooper here, but almost any $100 Delta or American Standard faucet will last you 20-30 years if the water going into it is good quality. My mom's faucet is 25 years old. The old faucet here was 30 years old before I replaced it and it was still going strong. If you've got bad water, treat it, and almost any faucet will last you. If you don't treat it, then any faucet will suffer and you will too.

Will you notice the difference between it and a faucet that costs 10x it? Of course. The weight and "hand" will be obvious. However, there just isn't that much functional difference between good, better, and best on faucets. There IS a world of difference between crappy and good though. Is it "worth" the extra money? Only you can decide that. Every project needs several budget decisions, and at least one splurge. This could be your splurge. Will that extra $$ be forgotten among the many cost overruns in a kitchen project? Probably. Or you could to use that extra $$ on splurging on your bacsplash. Or hand made artisan cabinet knobs. Or that fabulous sink. Or that water treatment that you need.

I have the Perrin & Rowe 4764 bridge faucet with sprayer in polished chrome. Looked at many faucets before I bought it and that process helped me get over the high price. The design is straightforward and traditional, but the faucet is so solid and beautifully made. I am very happy with it.

Hey MizLizzie and oldbat (I still love your name the best ;) ) -- thanks for the hijack and indulgence. I may try to contact Kohler then and talk to them. And maybe I should start a separate thread and solicit more info to try to figure out whether I have aberrant useage or installation or a lemon installed...? (or installer, most likely).

Anyway, thanks.

As for the OP, FWIW, let me just say that of all the myriad decisions over months and months and a gazillion dollars, this one was the hardest for me ... and that was before the ultimate seeming long-term, ongoing mess-up. (Course that could retroactively color that particular decision as well). I just found -- well, given hollysprings' point which I think is well-taken; I found the decision really, really hard. At once the faucets were all similar and good-enough, maybe, except then they weren't, too. And the high end ones really were ultra-nice ... and mind-bogglingly more expensive than the others ... which might have been good-enough. It is all complicated by the fact that the same manufacturer will construct units in different countries with very different innards .. and you can't see them or understand what you're getting, what you can get away with, etc...

Anyway, I found this decision toughest of all. Good luck with it! I think the point about water hardness is really important as well. And water pressure.

...whew... I'm still traumatized by this decision! Back still broke, I guess you coud say...

MizzLizzie: lol: " But at the end of the day, I think I will sink some serious money into either" .. cute pun.

MizLizzie - I can pull out my faucet and use it to fill a pot at the side of the sink - but it is offset, so puts it a bit closer. 21 inches of hose/head when pulled out - and in classic Waterstone quality - it pulls out to just above the sink bottom- so it doesn't quite touch the sink bottom.

My old kitchen faucet lasted almost 25 years - but the house was empty for the first 8 years. We replaced the cartridge a few times along the way. It died about a month before reno started and DH and handyman plumber tried to fix and made it not usable. So had to buy a $25 faucet to bridge me over. (And this was after telling DH not to play with it - just turn off under the sink when we leave the house.....)

My parents had the original faucets in their houses that was built in the 50s - but newer faucets don't seem to last as long.

Do I think the Waterstone will last forever - no one knows the answer - but it beautiful and well made. Solid brass contruction throughout including the head.

I bought mine through Baldwin Brass in West Reading PA - the shipping was free.

21 inches is a good amount. (Trying to reach my coffee pot, can you tell?) I think that's what I like about the Towson suite from Waterstone. The big swing. OK, that, and it just looks cool. Ha.

Love Baldwin Brass. Have bought lamps and other bits and pieces there over the years. Didn't know they sold faucets. Will check out website!

I want this faucet by Perrin and Rowe so bad...ah not meant to be though...lol... http://www.rohlhome.com/Kitchen/Product_Detail.aspx?ProductID=28011&Collection=402&SubCollection=419&ConnectionString=%22Product.Country%20Kitchen$S$Kitchen%20Faucets$P$$C$V%22

Hi MizLizzie
I am not familiar with the Waterstone faucet that you like, but I'll speak up in favor of your springing for the fit and finish of a faucet you really love, since it is something you use multiple times every day, and the "Fingerspitzengefuehl" of a beautiful piece of metalwork is hard to pull off without the extra investment in materials and craft. Things like doorknobs and faucets have a big impact on the feel of your home. Especially appealing to learn that Waterstone is made in America. Pull-down faucets must withstand a lot of abuse, too, so go for the high-quality manufacturer.
Lynn

MizLizzie - you might have to call Baldwin Brass Center - I don't think the website has the faucets but maybe they added them. i worked with Jason. Their prices were the lowest that I found - maybe others found lower prices. They ship the the store, check it and send it out.
They were nice to work with - I had a problem that some of my handles were from a different batch - even though they were opened and it was months later, they took them back without an issue. (I made some changes and had extra anyway).
Good luck!

I love my Waterstone PLP too. I bought it ~4 months ago on eBay after seeing a2gemini's recommendation here on the forum. It's intended for my new house, but it looked so nice I had to install it here in the old one until the new one is finished. I'm happy I did.

Aside from the looks and build quality, my two favorite features are
a) The sprayer stays on once you press the switch. You don't have to hold it down.
b) There's enough friction in the pull-out hose that it will stay at whatever height you put it. So you can leave it dangling further down in the sink if you want.

On hollysprings' Delta comment: I put Delta fixtures in a bathroom I remodeled ~8 years ago and have been very unimpressed. They're crap, basically: falling apart, leaking, etc. I'm going to have to replace them before I put the house up for sale. But I've heard their quality may have improved in the last 5 years or so.

Laura

Laura - glad you like your WS. Yes, those 2 features are great. I wanted one that latched on as I have a history of CTS and this helps my hands!!!
MizLizzie - let us know what you decide.