Waternia Basket Strainer

smellslike$tome

Installed (my first experience with this brand which I think is related to Delta) a kitchen sink basket strainer and disposal flange in oil rubbed bronze on Thursday last week. Get a call back yesterday saying the finish is already peeling. This strainer, disposal flange and disposal stopper cost me about $150 or so but even it was $20 it shouldn't be peeling off in 3 days! Anybody have any experience with these? Did I just get a bad one? It has a limited lifetime warranty and I picked up the replacement today, will put it in tomorrow but you know how it is with call backs, they eat profit!

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KillerToiletSpider

I do nothing but very high end work, and I have never heard of them.

Is there any way to get a refund for the defective stuff and then order a replacement from Jaclo?

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A flush is better than a full house.

smellslike$tome

It has a limited lifetime warranty and seems, aside from the massive chip in the finish to be a quality strainer, heavy gauge, heavy brass nuts, etc. so I'm going to take a chance and hope that this was simply an anomaly. If I have any other incident with it I will abandon them for another brand. Whether I can get my money back or not is another question. Probably not, I don't remember seeing any warranty for any plumbing item that promised anything other than replacement. If it fails again and the manufacturer refuses refund then I will put the screws to the supply house and see what happens. In the end I may have to eat it but not before making a big fuss about it.

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KillerToiletSpider

I have been able to get suppliers to credit me for defective product finishes, but I have a bit of leverage, and average bath remodel for us is about $20,000 in fixtures alone.

Jaclo is an excellent quality manufacturer of specialty trim items BTW, we have been using their stuff for years, and at retail their prices are cheaper than what you paid.

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A flush is better than a full house.

Putty Truck

Fancy colors are fine for walls and drapes, but for drains? No way! I've lost a few jobs on my insistence that they use chrome for basket strainers, but I know I was right.

KillerToiletSpider

Why would you care if it lasts a year?

I haven't installed a polished chrome fitting in anything but a laundry room in a couple years.

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A flush is better than a full house.

Putty Truck

Because I care and the customer pays me over and over again, job after job.

KillerToiletSpider

Are they paying you to make decisions for them?

Will they pay you to correct the mistakes they made?

Three years down the road that peeling polished brass basket strainer is now a service call.

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A flush is better than a full house.

smellslike$tome

Thanks. I'll keep Jaclo in mind.

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Putty Truck

Yeah, they are, at least to the extent of if I know of a bad product, then I should have warned them. I don't subcontract...they hire me directly, regardless of the job.

We aren't near as rich as you, so mistakes are "lived with" for decades.

And believe me, they will remember who installed it. This is a small town where the average family has lived here for 75 years and memories are long and tolerence is short.

Why do I live here after seeing most of the world? Because they appreciate someone who tells them that the polished brass drain is crap and a waste of money.

smellslike$tome

I hear you Putty and I agree. Part of my job is to tell the ho "you know what, you really don't want that and here's why ..." but what do you do when you show up on a Thursday to find the ho already has the kitchen sink faucet in oil rubbed bronze (price pfister which I would never recommend although their ks faucets are better than their lav faucets) an under mount black granite composite sink and a Sunday wedding shower at the ho's house. I'm sure you know how ridiculous a black granite composite sink w/oil rubbed bronze faucet and chrome basket strainer/disposal flange would look. There was not time really to do anything else and while I agree with you on consultation I stop short of telling the customer "no, you can't have that".

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KillerToiletSpider

I get hired because the architect, the designer, or the GC has worked with us in the past, we install what the architect/designer specifies. It is not unusual that we remove faucets the day after we install them because the homeowner decides that polished nickel doesn't look like they thought it would with the tile, and they go with a different finish, and eat the cost of all the faucet and hardware trim in the bathroom.

I really should start thinking about selling the stock in my garage on e-bay. How many polished copper Jado lav faucets does one man need?

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A flush is better than a full house.

smellslike$tome

Hey Killer, I already told you I'm paying .10 on the $1.00 site unseen as long as each is complete and not HOT.

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KillerToiletSpider

The Jado polished copper lav faucets were $1800.00 apiece each our cost, when can I expect the $360.00? These are wall mounted lav faucets, so I'll throw in the matching grid drains for free, saving you $36.00 at your exchange rate.

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A flush is better than a full house.

Putty Truck

My customers would laugh at those faucets. I wouldn't be able to give them away and if I did, they would sell them on E-bay.

I wouldn't trade my customers for all the gilded faucets in the world....