Pricing on faucets has become outrageous. $200-$500+? Come on!
We have an American Standard low profile, single handle, pull out kitchen faucet that came with the home. The pull out hose had already been replaced at some point before, the fitting to the spray head doesn't quite fit inside the base socket, but it kinda works. Some JB Weld fixed a small break in the metal sheathing that had developed at the connector (my fault, had pulled it out too far to fill a brew bucket). A "proper" replacement hose runs ~$50. Whaaat? How about a new, similar faucet? $250? Nope, not yet.
Then one morning I "broke" the handle off by my knucklehead move. It only needed a replacement cartridge to fix it and Amazon plus $11 brought it home (HD/Lowes wanted $25). A few days later it was all back together and working as well or better than it did before.
I had noticed the faucet base had started to corrode a little. So while I had everything apart, some more JB Weld and some careful sanding filled the opening. As good as new, except that small area is now dark gray, not white, the "paint" is missing. I may "touch that up" some day.
What I had noticed is that base has a hefty weight to it. It's made from some thick solid aluminum composite with what looks like a thin stainless steel shell (skin) over it. Then coated in white paint. Actually pretty high-tech in some ways.
Last week I happened to be in a Restore and saw brand new faucets, even similar to the one we have, $30-50. Hey now we're talking... until I picked one up. It weighed close to nothing and felt thin and tinny. No brand name, Chinese knockoffs most likely and especially made for that target market. They may still last 10-20 years, who knows, but the spray head felt so light, odd, and kinda clunky, nothing like the AS we have. I guess you get what you pay for. But anything over $200 is surely pushing it, IMO.
TL;DR, so watch out, faucets may not be all the same.
