Amazon's Illegal Faucets

last year

last modified: last year

Amazon probably sells more kitchen and bath faucets than any other retailer in the U.S. or Canada, and 90% of the faucet brands its offers for sale are illegal to sell under federal law and illegal to install in a drinking water system under state, provincial, and territorial law.

Our ongoing investigation into Amazon faucets, now over two years old, found the following:

Around 90% of the faucet brands for sale on Amazon violate state and federal laws and regulations, may contain dangerous materials and harbor dangerous pathogens, and are illegal to sell in the U.S. and/or illegal to install in a drinking-water system in the U.S. or Canada.
Only 10% of the faucet brands available on Amazon are certified as having undergone testing to ensure they are free of pathogens including Cryptosporidium, Legionella, Naegleria fowleri, Vibrio spp., and Pfiesteria, as well as harmful mineral compounds like lead, arsenic, mercury, and cadmium.
All but a few of the 850+ traffickers in illegal faucets selling on Amazon.com are located in China, and all but four of them sell faucets that are made in China.
Amazon's policies promise its customers that it will not sell harmful or illegal products, yet it does not appear to be taking any meaningful steps to stop the trafficking of potentially dangerous, illegal faucets. Even after the Consumer Product Safety Commission's warning and recall of hundreds of faucets sold on Amazon in 2025 for dangerous amounts of metallic lead, the company has still done nothing to significantly impact its black market faucet sales.
By frequently endorsing contraband faucets as "Top Picks," "Highly-rated," "Sponsored," or an "Amazon Choice," and widely advertising them online, Amazon actively promotes the sale of illegal faucets.
Amazon itself sells prohibited faucets. It is the second most prolific seller of contraband faucets on its website. Seventeen illegal brands are "sold by Amazon" as of the last update to the report.

Before you buy any faucet on Amazon that is not a well-known established brand, check our list of illegal faucet traffickers at Amazon's Contraband Faucets.

Featured Answer

Buehl

last year

last modified: last year

Eam44 is correct. StarCraft are not recommending any particular place to buy -- they're warning you about illegal BRANDS. If you want a Kohler or other manufacturer that has legal faucets, you can still buy on Amazon. It's the foreign (usually Chinese, but not always) brands that don't meet US & Canadian safety and other standards that are selling on Amazon that are the issues. Yes, they're calling out Amazon, but that's b/c it's probably the most widely used site with the most known issues.

Re-read the post please.

=====

Edited to clarify that I did not mean ALL Chinese faucets are "illegal", I meant that those that are illegal are often Chinese. "The ... brands that don't meet...standards" are often made in China, although not always. There are also brands that are made in China that meet the standards - but those aren't the ones I meant.

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Comments (8)

dani_m08
last year
Good information for people who decide to purchase cheaper faucets instead of known trusted brands. It's really not right that Amazon doesn't seem to care what's sold on its site - it only cares about its profits.

There are also many dangerous toys for infants and toddlers that sold on Amazon - cheaper copies of the name brand ones that are safer.
StarCraft Custom Builders thanked dani_m08
eam44
last year
Oh no, Stax, these guys are legit. If you haven’t used their web site, more’s the pity. They are builders, not faucet sellers, but they have done a thorough review of every imaginable brand of faucet.

I had no idea Amazon was this flagrantly irresponsible.
StarCraft Custom Builders thanked eam44
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Kendrah
last year
Thanks for sharing this info. I avoid Amazon at all costs, but good for other people to know.

@Stax, I get your concern, but these guys are totally legit. I love @StarCraft Custom Builders 's website and go there to educate myself about faucets when I have to buy one. They are a great resource.
StarCraft Custom Builders thanked Kendrah
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Original Author
last year
last modified: last year
Let's be clear. Not all Chinese made faucets are illegal.

A great many faucets made in China and sold on Amazon, Wayfair, Walmart, etc. are completely legal to sell and install. In fact, one Chinese brand, Forious, made our current Best Value Faucets list in the Asian-made economy category. The brand has some issues but is overall a very good buy..

Some faucet brands that we generally think of as American are made in China, including the majority of Delta and Brizo faucets and all of American Standard faucets.

So, being made in China is not itself reason to avoid a faucet brand. Some Chinese-made faucets (Gerber, Strom, and Lefroy Brooks , for example) are among the best-made faucets in the world.
jwvideo
last year
last modified: last year
@Stax --- I'll add to the vouching for StarCraft and its faucet info as both legitimate and helpful. To be sure, we recently have had such an uptick here with AI generated spam that it bears being cautious when you are not familiar with a poster, so do not take my comments as implying in any way that your question was not legitimate.

That said, I, like Kendrah and the others above, have found the Starcraft site to be as comprehensive a collection of legitimate, detailed info on brands and models as can be found these days including detailed info on warranties, warranty service and regulatory compliance. In the years I've been checking (and recommending) the site, I've never found the Starcraft site selling any faucets. So, if you haven't checked out Starcraft's faucet info compilations, it think it would be well worth your doing so next time you have an interest in the topic.
John Liu
last year
I can totally believe the warning. Amazon is rife with fakes as well as junk. Nowadays if I'm looking for a specific brand, I go to the brand's own online store (whether at Amazon or the brand's own website) to buy.
porkchop_z5b_MI
last year
"Amazon is rife with fakes as well as junk."

Oh yea....