Why are faucets so expensive?

At one point in my life I designed bathrooms and kitchens. I've sold thousands of faucets. Here's a few points on regular retail faucets in the US.

Expensive faucets, you are paying for the design (Grohe), or for quality parts (Kohler).

Cheap faucets are made with cheap parts and are often old designs from major brands. These knock-offs are sold under store brand names usually (Aquasource/Lowes, Glacier Bay/Home Depot) and are made of cheap plastic. Avoid these unless you plan on replacing (rentals).

If you buy Grohe, don't buy a US made model. Another company paid to use the name and 'style' in the US but the interior parts are cheap plastic bits and some things are modified to reduce the cost of manufacturing. Not worth the extra money they charge.

For most people I recommend sticking to the big names. Moen, Delta, Kohler, etc. They come with good warranties and parts are available everywhere.

You can still find really neat old faucets and repair them. Chicago, Price Pfister, Eljer had some good stuff back in the day and you can get new parts from Danco.

Thank you for the great reply. I know your modern brand recommendations, but the reconditions for older brands is a great idea I'll have to look into.

For anyone that has contractor grade faucets, if you ever get to handle a higher end faucet, or even a lot of the commercial fixtures and compare them to the cheap stuff, it should be night and day.

I replaced my faucets before attempting to sell my house and used ok stuff to modernize, but they're still low end. I ended up not moving, and I treat them nice so they're doing ok.

But they all have plastic internals, the weight is much less, the parts wobble more, and the finish isn't holding up as well as I'd expect of a premium faucet. Even when right out the box, they aren't as nice as a decades old name brand faucet.

They're made to meet a price point. While they will get you the look (potentially) of a high end faucet, it won't hold up like one with better fit and finish, and if it does need repair, your chances of getting the part is likely much better.

Do you want a buy it for life faucet? Or do you need one to last a couple years? Spend accordingly. There's a market for both, and people need to determine which product is right for them.
I was searching the band VOLA when I came across the faucet brand that makes very expensive but very repairable, and that compelled me to finally ask. I've replaced a few faucets over the years that were at the end of their life, but the last one took to a plumbing supply to get what looked like an obvious replacement part and they said it's some home depot brand that doesn't make them.

Thanks for the info, I've never thought to buy old since over only ever replaced cheap and only faucets, but when it comes time to work on my kitchen I'll check out the brands you mentioned.

Guess how much a kitchen cabinet door costs. £10-15 per door. A kitchen with more than ten 40cm cabinets is going to cost you a bomb.

if that seems excessive, you're right. A few years ago, those same doors were less than half the price.

What happened then, did the doors change? Is the flimsy wood composite they're made of go extinct?

You know the answer.

I want to know the answer. Is it just greed?
- I thought love was the answer?
- its bingo. the answer is old people gambling
- too many factors at play but yeah there are way too many middlemen.
- No. Clearly it's aliens!

A couple of reasons:

First of all what one wants in terms of faucet designs is very personal. As such there are many many models to choose from. This makes each model in be produced in relatively low quantities, and be more expensive. If everyone would use the exact same faucet, they would be basically free. And you do see some models being used in new construction that are very cheap indeed, just because of the higher volumes.

Second of all, the tolerances and finishing involved. It's relatively easy to make a faucet that works, the designs have been perfected long ago and modern manufacturing can easily produce a working model. However to create a faucet that feels nice, that doesn't make weird noises, opens and closes smoothly etc. is a lot harder. I've had cheap faucets before, one of those single handle deals. It would take more force that I would like to open the tap, at which point it shoots open so water sprays out. The range in temperature is insanely hot to insanely cold with only a tiny single spot of normal temperature in between.

Third reason is they are made from a lot of parts and with materials that need to be handled really delicately. Chrome finishes that scratch easily when handled in properly, leading to the whole thing becoming instant scrap. This leads to hand assembly being the only option. And often it involves a lot of small parts that need to be placed just so. This adds a lot of cost.

Fourth reason is the materials themselves, often quite expensive to start with. Large parts being machined out of a single piece. By definition everything needs to be corrosion resistant. And it's one of the products where we still expect them to last 15-20 years easily. Not like the consumerism that's forced a 5 year lifespan to be called long in the modern world. The finishing coatings are often chemically applied with expensive materials and taking a long time. And a fully polished finish also takes time and is often done by hand and takes some skill.

Fifth reason is brand names. Just like with any designer thing, brand names and designers are a large part of the costs. You can often find designer faucets for outrageous prices and cheap knock offs that can be trash or sometimes even better than the original for half the price.

I appreciate your insight. I assumed some of what you mentioned but have no idea what the actual manufacturing process are like compared to other products that use similar materials.

It's morning and don't have a lot of time but this is an interesting question I wanted to answer while it was relevant.

A lot of people have touched on the basics which kinda follow along any industry. Price gouging, variety is more expensive than just making one repetitive design, etc. Few things I wanted to touch on,

You shouldn't really be replacing faucets that much. They design them to have internal structures which can be replaced. Even the crappiest low cost items can be fixed with a few bucks (they call these mobile home models, what gets put into all the mass manufactured items and are usually in a different section all to themselves). Pick a design you want and look into it's replacement parts to save some money (if you're worried about the part being reliably available, just get like 3 kits and you'll be set for life).
Supply chain cost. Manufacturers make a product for 30, they sell it to distributors who mark it up to 50, they sell it to a store who then marks it up to 80. Home Renovision DIY has a great video detailing the process, compares online vs boxstore vs plumbing store. Also cuts them open and shows you the internals which is all great with a 13min video.

The brand name is the only difference. Much like slapping nike and gucci 10xes the price of clothes.

Not true. As someone mentioned above thread — cheap store brands are commonly plastic junk that breaks after a couple of years of use.
- And the big designer names are often the same cheap plastic item with their logo slapped on it. Hardly any brands are actually providing a significantly better product that justifies the exorbitant price tag.

Fashion. Same reason we don't have standardized flashlights, knives, shoes, toilets, etc.

Huh. Ok but there are actually standards to say, shoe sizes, and the materials used in their manufacture, and that flashlights are accommodating standard battery sizes... and the toilet’s fixtures so that it would actually work with… the standard plumbing. Literally the world around you is built on standards. 📏📐

You’re not wrong about fashion though! Style and everything which supplements all that standard, is what we want. Just anything so that it doesn’t look standard. We humans are a bit funny. 😄
- I didn't mean "standardized" as in interchangeable parts or uniform sizing. I meant standardized as in limited selection, like how armies have historically standardized their equipment. You want a pair of boots, for example? Then choose from a handful of types with limited options, and everyone picks from the same list. There is no reason for Zappos to carry 2,600 types of mens boots other than fashion.
  
  Similarly, there is no reason for Home Depot to carry 500 types of toilet seat other than fashion. The seats are "standardized" in that they are interchangeable, but there is no standard toilet seat style that everyone uses. You could do the same with lots of other consumer goods: everyone uses the same shower faucet, the same knife set, or the same style of flashlight. The world would save a tremendous amount of money and material by manufacturing everyday thing at scale and refining the designs to near-perfection.
  
  I'm not advocating for such a world, though. It would be incredibly bland and boring.

It's the R&D cost, surely. Faucet tech has come so far in the last couple of years

Honestly, what's not expensive these days? I did some remodeling in my home, and boy oh boy did we go over the budget with things I considered cheap. I looked into different manufacturers and they all claim the same thing I found here, the materials, prices going up, and labor shortage... Not really sure what's the difference, but one thing is for sure - I'm not rich enough to buy cheap things (and replace them all the time).

I dont know anything about faucets other than using them. But not all faucets are the same. The mechanism, the design tolerances, the materials, the granularity, smoothness and its longevity can vary by a lot.

Grohe used to be amazing, i am not so sure how things are nowadays. I've heard enshitification has hit them. If you own a house, a faucet is something that you will use for decades, even centuries(your descendants). Something that you will interact with many times a day. It is worth spending a bit more money to get something good.

From what I gathered, Grohe now has a generic brand that's in shops and a professional brand. You don't want to buy from the generic brand (it's not really bad, but it's not great).

Because that is what people are willing to pay for them.

A lot of those types of goods are priced extremely high compared to the actual cost to manufacture. Lighting is another example of this. You are paying for the design and brand in many cases even though they aren't built better or with better materials compared to a more moderately priced faucet. High end faucets do have some more expensive components in them than cheaper ones. For example, orings are replaced by ceramic cartridges that feel better. Those changes maybe account for a couple dollars of manufacturing cost though.

It can be frustrating knowing how much stuff costs to manufacture, so often I look at items like this and get frustrated because I know the manufacturer is selling for >10x what it cost to make.

Right. Cost ≠ value

Cause what are you going to do; not have a faucet?

Agree with most of the other posts here. Some of the cheaper faucets I've come across have these miserable plastic valves that set you back $15 a pop and last only a year until they break. Then it either jams or water starts dripping.

That said, an Ikea faucet I got on sale for $20 five years ago still works like it did on day one. In fact, I got two more while it was still on sale, fearing it would break like the other cheap ones, but they're still sitting in their boxes under the sink.

As with most of these things it is pricing based on value.

Contractor is often fixing or building and cares a lot about the price.
Most other purchases are during renovations so a luxury expense and relatively speaking the faucet will be a small part of that, so it is easy to milk these people for money.

Capitalism

domestic water pressure varies around 30-80 PSI. Faucet has to deal with smoothly managing that pressure at all times (on 2 lines) while allowing selective amounts out daily for years.

The $12 ones on Ali Express will leak and break within a year. That $60 Kohler faucet may go 10 years before you need to replace a washer and 20 years with no issues before it gets replaced. Kohler faucets also have a limited lifetime warranty against leaks. I assume other higher end manufacturers offer something similar.

When measured against the expected use it's a pretty good bargain unless you get one that's super fancy with unnecessary add ons.

The industry is highly monopolized. The cheap stuff is accordingly worse and the okay stuff can set high prices.

Very very little. Some will have vaguely nice functional upgrades, like the spray hose being integrated into the faucet opening, a button to temporarily change the flow limiter for more power, integrated soap dispenser or things like that, but you're almost always paying mostly for particular aesthetics.

Oh, and some come with under sink hardware. A normal faucet that comes with a nice water filter or a near-boiling water dispenser can reasonably cost a fair bit more, assuming you want those things.

"Good enough", Demand, and Scale.

The contractor grade stuff is designed to be durable and good enough. Most people will find it attractive and suitable for their esthetic. Seasonal re-designs are safe by following design trends established at trade shows. Contractors can rely on the product not failing so they continue to buy it for all their projects.

The fancy stuff is often made for different countries and can have different parts and specifications. If more (assuming we're talking about America here) people wanted this stuff, the manufacturing would increase and the costs would come down. However, a lot of times the reason people buy the expensive stuff is specifically because it's bespoke and "hand crafted". If a Gucci bag cost $50, it wouldn't be worth the name.

You need demand to bring down costs. This increases the scale required and ability to afford better technology to make more.

The tools needed to manufacturer something at large scale are expensive. If you house your own tools, how are you going to buy those tools if you don't have money to buy them? If you're going to contract manufacturing, why would a manufacturer make you something for little money when they can use their facility to make exponentially more widgets for another company? Just swapping out a die on a machine costs money. They're not going to disrupt existing manufacturing for a few hundred widgets.

I figured production scale was part of it, but still assumed standardization in the process over time would bring the price down. But they probably aren't selling that many $700 faucets to bring the price down much below their costs, and makes sense they'd have to keep the price high to maintain the brand reputation to sell a boutique product.

If I ever have to buy a faucet, I'll probably just 3D print one with a hole in it for a tube. Just use a tube and a 3D printed faucet. Easy.

Ya nothing like some cheap shitty plastic that quickly breaks down to get a job done.
- And it will still be way more expensive than an off-the-shelf faucet. That being said, you can make it look like an Eevee this way.