The faucet in your kitchen or bathroom serves an essential role, allowing you to clean up, wash vegetables, or grab drinking water. Given its importance, buying a good-quality model is crucial.
So, does Newport Brass meet the good-quality requirements? This article explores Newport Brass and its offerings, including where its products are made, who makes them, and if they’re any good. So, if you’re wondering whether a Newport Brass faucet is a good choice for your home, continue reading to learn more!
About Newport Brass
Newport Brass is a familiar plumbing brand operating under Brasstech, a division of Masco Corporation. Masco is a massive home improvement conglomerate, home to other familiar plumbing brands, including Brizo, Delta, and Hansgrohe.
Newport Brass was founded a few years after Brasstech in 1989 and added to the Brasstech lineup to produce premium brass faucets and fixtures. Over the years, the brand has grown exponentially, doubling in size by 1998 and continuing its growth in recent years.
Today, Newport Brass is known for its high-quality plumbing fixtures, featuring an extensive array of kitchen and bathroom products made with solid brass.
Product Lineup
Newport Brass offers a myriad of kitchen and bathroom plumbing fixtures, including the following:
- Shower heads
- Bathtubs
- Hand showers
- Decorative drains
- Bathroom faucets
- Kitchen faucets
- Bar faucets
- Pot fillers
- Water dispensers
Where Can You Buy Newport Brass Products?
Although Newport Brass has a website, customers cannot purchase directly from it. Instead, customers can buy these products from multiple well-known retailers, including Amazon, Wayfair, Build.com, and Faucetdirect.com.
Here are some bestsellers on Amazon:
Where Are Newport Brass Faucets Made?
Newport Brass’s website proudly boasts its faucets are made in the United States. According to its website, its products are made in Santa Ana, California. However, while these products are assembled domestically, the components of these faucets are sourced elsewhere.
Newport Brass primarily sources its faucet components, among other product components, from Chinese manufacturers. A couple of components come from other countries around the world, including Germany and Italy, but the vast majority come from China.
The company sources the components from manufacturing facilities worldwide, importing them to its facility in the United States. Once this facility receives the components, the faucets are assembled and distributed for sale. So, while these faucets are technically “made” in the United States, the parts inside them came from other countries.
Who Makes Them?
Like many faucet manufacturers, Newport Brass has several manufacturing facilities around the world that produce the components from its faucets. Most of the brand’s suppliers are Chinese manufacturing facilities scattered throughout the country, but a few are in Italy and Germany.
However, once the brand receives these components, it assembles them domestically. So, one could say that Newport Brass (or Brasstech) makes these products, even though the components were technically made elsewhere.
Are Newport Brass Faucets Any Good?
Touted as high-quality faucets made with solid brass and promised to last for years, Newport Brass faucets seem like an excellent choice. But are they actually any good? Let’s find out.
Quality
Without hands-on testing over several months or years, it’s tricky to evaluate the quality of a product thoroughly. So, instead of years of testing, we examined the components for quality and customer reviews.
These faucets feature highly durable materials, with solid brass as a base material and ceramic valves. Both components contribute to longevity, reliability, and durability, which bodes well for the quality of these products.
Most customer reviews regarding quality are positive, with many applauding the sturdiness and durability of these products. Of course, there are a few less-than-satisfied customers, so we recommend sifting through reviews on the product you like before purchasing it.
Design
For the most part, current design trends lean toward modern aesthetics, including sleek silhouettes and minimalistic styles.
While Newport Brass offers various models that accommodate modern tastes, many of its faucets feature traditional designs. For example, the brand offers multiple bridge faucets with traditional, rounded lines. Other faucets emanate Victorian Era designs that combine historical authenticity with modern hints.
These faucets come in several finishes, including brass, bronze, chrome, stainless steel, and nickel.
Pricing
The solid construction of Newport Brass faucets comes at an exorbitant price. While most kitchen and bathroom faucets start at around $150, Newport Brass faucets begin at about $500 on the low end.
Its faucets climb well above $1,000, with some nearing the $2,000 mark. Given the steep price tags on these faucets, they’re not a good budget-friendly pick. So, if you’re looking for an inexpensive option, you’ll have better luck elsewhere.
Technology
In recent years, the faucet industry has integrated tech features to provide a seamless, ultra-convenient user experience. Touch-on, touchless, and voice-activated faucets have made the user experience easier than others, allowing users to activate and deactivate the water with a simple tap, wave, or voice command.
However, while most brands have stepped into the modern era and offer numerous picks for each type, Newport Brass remains stuck in years past. At the time of writing, the brand does not provide any touch-on, touchless, or voice-activated models, so if you prefer the luxurious convenience of techy faucets, you’ll be better off looking elsewhere.
Warranty
Brasstech provides a warranty on Newport Brass faucets, just like it does for other brands under its umbrella. Like many faucets, Newport Brass faucets come with a guarantee against defects in material or workmanship for the length of the warranty.
The warranty is worded poorly, with general overviews of all product coverage instead of specific protections for faucets. Here’s a quick look at the specifics:
- PVD and polished chrome finish on certain faucets come with a limited lifetime warranty.
- “Living” finishes have no warranty.
- All other finishes come with a 10-year warranty starting on the initial purchase date.
- Bathroom faucets feature a limited lifetime warranty on ceramic disc valves.
- All other product parts in kitchen or bathroom faucets (except valves) come with a 10-year limited warranty.
In essence, these faucets come with no warranty or up to a limited lifetime warranty for the finish and up to 10 years of coverage on all parts except the valve. The valve only in bathroom faucets comes with a lifetime warranty.
All coverage in Newport Brass product warranties is non-transferable and solely applies to the original purchaser consumer.
Customer Reviews
We combed through dozens of customer reviews across sites like Amazon, Build.com, and Wayfair. The overwhelming majority of these faucets feature exceptional feedback. Happy customers applaud these faucets’ designs, excellent quality, and functionality.
Of course, there are a couple of dissatisfied customers that cited problems with the quality based on pricing, customer service, and warranties. Given the variation in reviews from one product to the next, we recommend consulting customer reviews before purchasing the product you like.
Customer Service
Unfortunately, we came across several customer complaints regarding Newport Brass’ customer service. Additionally, we usually see a response to negative reviews from a dedicated customer service team, but we didn’t come across such in our search.
That said, customers can reach the brand’s customer service team using one of the following methods:
- By mail: 2001 Carnegie Avenue, Santa Ana, California 92705-5531
- Online: Contact form
- By phone: 949-417-5207
- By fax: 949-417-5208