05/07/2026
I have really held off and tried not to do this , I hate rants and this is not a rant but is an informational post.
Box store plumbing fixtures, fittings and repair parts from box stores or internet sights (unless it’s a plumbing supply house) are absolute garbage. They are not near the same quality as you would get from a plumbing supply house or through your plumber. Years ago, some of the top manufacturers such as Moen , Kohler and American Standard put their name on a product line at such stores. This product line is a low level product line and is not the same product that you would purchase from a plumbing supply house. Yes they usually are a cheaper product but as always, you get what you pay for. These products are inferior and almost 100% of the time have issues. We have had issues of damaged goods, missing parts, malfunctioning fixtures, poorly constructed porcelain fixtures. All of these issues always come back to cost us time and money. We always try to have a conversation with the homeowner about the quality of product that they purchased, but it never seems to sink in until it has cost us time,money and a lot of frustration. We have been inundated with issues lately from people buying these low line products. They think they are getting a great product because of the name on the box, but they are not. It is very difficult to have this conversation every single day with every customer wanting to buy their own product. It is not about the sale from our company to our customer as much as it is about the inferior product costing us money or damaging our relationship with our customers. We have finally hit a wall with these products where The Plumbing Works will no longer install any products purchased at any of these places. If you have the ability to purchase your plumbing fixtures or products from a plumbing supply house, we will gladly install them. We have had three terrible issues within the last couple of weeks with these products that has caused a lot of friction between us and the customer, cost us a lot of time and money, and is costing us our reputation. So from this point forward, The Plumbing Works will not be installing any of those products for anyone. If you decide you must have those products to save a few pennies then we are not the plumbing company for you. We try to do the best job we can, be as efficient as possible and use the best product possible to avoid problems and difficulties anywhere down the road. Even the products we supply are not what they used to be. However, we do the best we can. What people do not understand is when these products fail or malfunction, they can cause water leaks which can quickly cause major damage. So it is not worth saving a few bucks to have water damage in your new home or newly remodeled bathroom or kitchen. If anyone questions or disagrees with any of these statements feel free to do your own due diligence online. There are many videos out there showing a side-by-side comparison of these plumbing supplies from box stores compared to plumbing supply houses. They physically take these fixtures, faucets, and water heaters apart and show you piece by piece the differences in the quality of these products. It’s a shame that we are at this point, but this has been an uphill fight for years, and I have to take a hard stance against installing junk. Hopefully this brings awareness, educates you and we can still do business. Appreciate your time and understanding on this matter!
(There goes my future retirement job in the plumbing aisle at one of those stores)
