Search for a brass faucet and you will find a $90 option and a $400 option that look nearly identical in photographs. The difference is not branding. It is what the fixture is made of.
Three Things Sold as Brass
- Solid brass. Brass all the way through. Heavy, repairable, lasts decades.
- Brass-plated. A zinc alloy or steel body with a microns-thin brass or gold-tone layer electroplated on, usually sealed under lacquer.
- PVD-coated. A vapour-deposited coloured finish. More durable than standard plating, but still a coating over another metal.
Why Plating Fails at the Handles First
The plated layer is measured in microns. Every time a hand turns the handle there is a little friction and a little skin acid. The lacquer wears through, then the plating, and the base metal shows as a dull grey or pinkish patch.
It always starts at the handles, then the spout tip, then wherever a cloth wipes most often. Once it starts it cannot be repaired. You cannot polish a coating back into existence, so the fixture gets replaced.
Solid brass has no coating to fail. A scratch is surface-level and polishes out. This is why hundred-year-old brass fixtures are still working, and why nobody is restoring hundred-year-old plated ones.
How to Tell Them Apart Before You Buy
- Weight. Solid brass is noticeably heavy for its size. If a listed shipping weight looks light for a full faucet, be suspicious.
- The word solid. Sellers of solid brass say so explicitly. Listings that only say brass finish, gold tone, or brass-coloured are describing a colour, not a material.
- The word unlacquered. Only solid brass is sold unlacquered. There is no point leaving a plated finish exposed.
- Price. Raw material cost sets a floor. A full solid brass kitchen faucet cannot be made and shipped for under about $150.
- A magnet. Brass is not magnetic. If a magnet sticks, there is steel underneath.
When Plated Is Actually Fine
A rental you are flipping. A guest bathroom nobody uses. A short-term budget where the fixture only has to last a few years. Plating is not fraud. It is a different price-to-lifespan trade, and sometimes that trade makes sense.
When It Is Not
Your main kitchen. Your primary bathroom. Anything you touch multiple times a day. Anything installed behind a wall or a tiled surface, where replacing the fixture in five years means opening the wall again.
That last point is the one people underestimate. The fixture is rarely the expensive part of a failure. The labour is. See our solid brass fixtures.