The best bathroom faucets

Count the holes before anything else

This is the measurement that decides whether a faucet can be fitted at all, and it takes ten seconds.

Look at the back of your basin. You will see one hole, or three holes spaced 4 inches apart center to center (a “centerset”), or three holes spaced 8 inches apart (a “widespread”).

Every faucet on this page publishes fitting for one or three holes at 4 inch centers, with a deckplate included to cover the outer two when you use a single-hole faucet. None of them fits an 8 inch widespread basin.

If your basin is drilled for 8 inch widespread, you need a widespread faucet — three separate pieces rather than one. You cannot bridge the gap with a deckplate.

Flow rate, and who actually publishes it

Federal maximum for a bathroom faucet is 2.2 GPM. WaterSense labeling requires no more than 1.5 GPM, and California and a few other states set their own lower limits.

Delta publishes an actual figure: 1.2 GPM at 60 psi. Moen publishes WaterSense compliance on both Genta models but no number, which means you know it is at or below 1.5 and no more than that.

That difference in disclosure is worth noticing. On a basin faucet the flow rate matters less than on a shower — you are rinsing hands, not standing under it — but a maker that publishes the figure is a maker you can check.

Moen does publish compliance with AB1953 (California) and S152 (Vermont) on the Genta, which are lead-content laws rather than flow laws, and both makers publish NSF/ANSI 61 certification for drinking-water safety.

The valve is what fails

A faucet body lasts decades. The cartridge inside it does not, and a dripping faucet is almost always a worn cartridge rather than a worn faucet.

Which is why Delta publishing a valve “tested for 500,000 uses” is the most useful durability figure on this page. At twenty uses a day that is roughly 68 years, which is clearly a laboratory number rather than a promise — but it is a comparable one, and Moen publishes nothing equivalent.

Both makers publish lifetime limited warranties, and both sell replacement cartridges. Moen publishes a cartridge kit part number for the Genta, which is genuinely useful information to have before you need it.

Why this is still an owner-only job

No holes are made and nothing is cut, so a faucet swap looks more approachable than it is. All three products rate Owner-only on our install rating.

The job means shutting off both isolating valves, disconnecting the supply lines, removing the old drain assembly and linkage, working in the cabinet under the basin, and reconnecting everything without a leak. Old shut-off valves seize, old supply lines are brittle, and the drain linkage is fiddly.

More to the point, it is plumbing on the property’s water supply. If you rent, this is not yours to change — and a faucet that drips constantly is a repair your landlord owes you rather than a reason to buy a new one.

We are not going to publish a step-by-step for it. There is a difference between explaining what a specification means and telling somebody how to work on their water supply, and we stay on the explaining side of it.

The finish question

A faucet is the fitting most likely to need to match something else, and finish naming is not standardized between manufacturers.

Moen publishes chrome, matte black, brushed nickel and bronzed gold on the Genta LX, and chrome or “Spot Resist Brushed Nickel” on the Conway. Delta publishes six on the Trinsic including champagne bronze, polished nickel and Venetian bronze.

One brand’s brushed nickel is not another’s, and matte black varies more still. If you are matching a faucet to a shower head or a towel bar from a different maker, expect a visible difference rather than a match — the same problem we set out on the matte black shower head page.

Chrome is the exception. It is the closest thing to a universal finish, it hides water spots better than anything else, and it is the one safe choice when the rest of the room is already fitted.