Good afternoon Kristin,

There is a lot of good quartz brands, I Couldn't named ONLY ONE.

But as a quartz and granite countertop fabricator, what I usually recommend to my clients is Caeserston, Compac, Pompeii and Aurea stone.

I've used Cambria, Caesarstone and Pental for bathroom counters. All done by the same fabricator. Good brands, no issues with any of them. I chose them based on who had the best color for each project.

Chipsa do you have pictures, I too am thinking about Quartz as an option.

There is very little difference between brands as they all use the same equipment and processes. The difference is the price charged because of the name. Even with the Chinese brands nobody has been able to show they are inferior.

I have seen two cases of pitting of the surface with Chinese brands posted here. One was with Samsung brand, and they discovered the resins hadn't cured long enough. It was covered under warranty. When I bought my Pentalquartz, the manager told me the owner of Pental went to China to see their process and refused to buy it because the resins were cured at a lower temperature and for a shorter period of time than the Breton process. So he bought Vicostone from Vietnam and slapped his company name on it.

Mugs taken out of a DW and set on a towel overnight on unknown brand Chinese quartz. Marks are permanent.

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Look at White Cotton in Pentalquartz. I have it in my bathroom and was $500 less than CS Organic White. I had an excellent fabricator and zero issues.

Yes, White Cotton is one that I pulled as looking identical to Organic White, and I’d hoped Pental might be less expensive. Glad to hear it was for you!

What I have gathered from reading here is that while the quality of the main name brands may be the same, the customer service is not necessarily the same. I haven't followed this closely, since I am not getting quartz, but maybe others can weigh in on that for the OP.

Agreed. Customer service between brands is different, some are worse, some are better. Even the fancy brand names have issues with marks, not just the Chinese.

BTW, Samsung is not Chinese, its Korean. And I believe that Samsung Quartz is made in the USA.

I have Pentalquartz, going on six years now. It was a little cheaper because labor is cheaper in Vietnam. I have been happy with the quality and would buy it again. They have a warehouse in Portland and I was able to view my slabs. I replaced Caesarstone with it, which my fabricator scratched with Barkeeper's Friend. But my Caesarstone Buttermilk didn't look like the sample and I wasn't happy with it. It didn't have the faint round drip marks of water on limestone. Instead it had stark white blotches that looked like a bird flyby. I would not have been able to view Caesarstone slabs so I didn't want to take a chance with it for a replacement. This problem of resin pooling and slabs not looking like samples happens with several of the quartz companies. It is not covered under warranty.

I think a warranty issue is going to be resolved by any of the Breton companies. Fabricator error and sloppiness is a different story. I go with who my KD/contractor uses because he has more weight to have a problem corrected.

BTW, Samsung is not Chinese, its Korean. And I believe that Samsung Quartz is made in the USA.

It was not at the time the GW member had a pitted countertop, as I recall. Samsung just puts their name on another manufacturer's product, same as Pental. Unless they now have their own manufacturing plants.

mayflowers - that's good to know. I'm in Portland, which is one of the reasons Pental appealed to me - good availability here, including being able to see the slabs. Plus it's nice to support a Seattle company (even if it is manufactured elsewhere).

Our top three would be

Technistone, Silestone and Samsung.

Just be aware though they are almost made the same way there are huge differences in quality and especially price. Smartstone, Cambria, Lg and Quantra are also good on some ranges.

Just be aware that some major brands you are paying for the name, not quality. We have not mentioned them here. Also avoid anything made out of china, malaysia, vietnam etc. They are cheap for very good reasons.

They are cheap because they use a different technology than Breton and labor is cheap in Asia.

Pentalquartz is Vicostone is Breton.

Actually samsung technology is better than Breton, at the end of the day they do use breton or a type of the breton system. It is still mixed, compacted and baked.

It is actually the raw materials they use are inferior hence cheaper

No different to a company using a breton system and producing a product that is not the best product in the market.

We would name two major manufacturers that fall into this category. So your comment about it is because they are not using brenton is incorrect. It has more to do with the quality of the raw materials.

It would be very helpful if you could name the two major manufacturers that use the breton system but produce a product that is not the best on the market. I would like to have this information before I buy. Thanks in advance.

@Quartz - Stone Care, Cleaning & Repair Experts please tell us the names of the two before we buy. Thanks

@Quartz - Stone Care, Cleaning & Repair Experts Wondering if you still feel Quantra Quartz is a good quality quartz brand. We are about to pull the trigger on Quantra Quartz Bianco Venatino and would love your updated opinion. Thanks in advance.

I am a fabricator. The great majority of the quartz brands are essentially the same material despite the marketing hype to the contrary. Your selection of a fabricator is a far more important consideration than the quartz brand.

We had Cambria and it was a stunning countertop. We moved and now are back looking at a ktichen reno and think we may go with Silostone this time around.

We are going with Cambria, but certainly the other majors like Pental have good products. We wanted to go with American made, which is one reason we chose Cambria even tho’ it was more expensive than some others we liked.