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100% Lead-Free Faucets
There is a very unfortunate certification for faucets which is named “lead-free” but means the faucet can contain 0.25% lead. If you are concerned with lead (no level of lead is a safe level and it’s difficult to chelate), you want to look for 100% lead-free faucets.
The ones I have seen that are 100% lead-free are made of 100% solid stainless stee
Options for 100% lead-free faucets can be pricey.
- MGS an Italian company
- Nivito and in Canada
- Bay Castle makes 100% stainless faucets.
- Trywell makes a 100% stainless steel spigot for RO systems.
- Waterstone has some stainless steel options and those ones are 100% stainless.
- Signature Hardware, Bennet
If you cannot afford a 100% lead-free faucet you can add a certified filter to the tap like this Brita one which will remove lead.
It’s ideal to also have a whole house system or reverse osmosis (RO) as well to remove contaminants.
The type of system needed depends on if you are on city or well water, and which contaminants your water contains.
If you are on well water, a RO or charcoal system is not advised without having a primary UV or ceramic filter to take care of microbes first.
Ashley says
Hi Corrine, I am desperate to find a lead-free faucet. I believe that Franke makes at least a few, specifically FF3350 and FF3352 appear to be manufactured from T304 and T316 stainless steel. I read the above comments to your post. Have you found that the faucets that are certified as “lead-free” with .025% truly don’t leach lead? I’d be interested to know as it would certainly open up more purchasing options than what I have found.
Corinne says
I have seen them show no lead in the water but you would want to test it when it’s brand new and then at a few months time.
Sandra Iglesias says
Hello, just started searching for kitchen faucet options and I happened to see this one: https://www.signaturehardware.com/faucets/kitchen-faucets/single-hole-kitchen-faucets/bennett-single-hole-outdoor-kitchen-faucet.html
Unless I am reading the info wrong, this faucet is made out of stainless steel and they say it’s lead free.
Have you heard/had experience with this brand by any chance?
Thank you very much
Corinne says
It would have to be 100% stainless and 100% lead free to be free of lead (as opposed to the “lead free” certification which allows some lead.
Sandra says
Hello and thank you. Well, for what I can see the specs say this is a solid 316 stainless steel. It is not cheap, but it’s certainly not as expensive as the other stainless steel options out there so that is why I wanted to see if you had ever heard of this brand. It seems like a good option for a stainless steel faucet, but not sure if I am misreading something.
Corinne says
If it’s solid then that would be great.
Sandra says
Hello and thank you. Leaving this info here in case it’s of any interest… per the info they sent me (email) the faucet is made of 100% 316 stainless steel. The cartridge of the faucet is made of ceramic, and that is the only place water would pass through that isn’t stainless. The nozzles is also stainless.
Have a nice week!
Corinne says
than you so much! I added it to the post. this is very helpful!
Amanda says
Anyone have details on the Kraus Allyn Bridge kitchen sink and filtered water spout? It claims to be 100% lead free brass in both.
Thanks!
Anna says
Just an FYI, Waterstone uses vulcanized rubber as their supply line. Some manufacturers use latex as the rubber. I can’t imagine heated latex in chlorinated water will be a good thing in the long run. Not to mention, the hoses in the pull out faucets are made out of junk in most cases too. Why spend $1400 on a kitchen faucet that ends up producing toxins? I might as well spend $300 on a Parmir product. Parmir has not gotten back to me about what their hose materials are made from, but I can’t imagine it being worse than what Watersone is doing.
IC says
Actually, <0.25% brass can leach a lot of lead, because of its microstructure; the lead is not evenly distributed, but forms channel-like networks. When the leaded brass is cast from the molten metal mixture, the brass solidifies first, and the lead collects in little blobs at the edges of the grains of brass (if you look at a galvanized metal surface, you will see the interlocking grains of metal). For actual test results on leaching, see the Environmental Defense Fund blog posts on lead in faucets, the first of which is here:
http://blogs.edf.org/health/2018/11/06/nsf-61-lead-from-a-new-lead-free-brass-faucet/
The lead in the brass is not necessary, but it is deliberately added because it improves the machineability of the brass. When the metal is cut, the lead smears across the cut surface, and the metal cuts better. Just a small amount of lead is needed for this effect, though since lead is very cheap, the higher the metal's lead content, the less the manufacturer has to pay for the metal. Without any lead, the manufacturer can't machine the faucets and other fittings in one pass; they have to do a rough cut and then a fine cut. Which also costs them more. See Wikipedia's article on brass:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brass#Lead_content
Appallingly, manufacturers who deliberately add lead to their fittings can still sell them as "lead-free" in the US, as long as the weighted average of the wetted surfaces is <0.25% lead. So if they include a quarter of a square inch of pure lead touching the water in their faucet, they must include 100 square inches of lead-free metal in contact with water in the faucet to average it out. As the EDF posts show, faucets can pass this test while leaching huge amounts of lead.
You might want to only buy fittings which tell you that they are made with no added lead, and give test results telling you the amount of lead in the alloys (should be undetectable), and the amount of lead that leaches from them (ditto). If the manufacturer can't give you their own test results when asked, go elsewhere (the tests are legally required). If it says "NSF/ANSI/CAN 61: Q ≤ 0.5" means that the average lead concentrations are less than or equal to 0.5µg per sample use, on AVERAGE. This is the detection limit in some commercial labs.
Some of the links in this article are to manufacturers who do not seem to have posted test results; the blog could do us all a great service by phoning around manufacturers and posting the test results they give, and what alloys they use.
Corinne says
Thanks for posting that. The water tests I have seen have not showed leached lead. Right now we dont have enough companies who have verified their testing, or third party testing of multiple brands.
It would be a good idea to test your tap and see, I add water filtration anyway.
Suzanne says
Thanks so much for this. Is this true for stainless steel also?
Carol says
Thank you for the post, however, I cannot find any of the lead free faucet brands you mentioned.
Corinne says
They are unusual and hard to find. The ones with 0.25% don’t seem to actually leach, as water testing results showed though. I will be updating this soon.
Danielle says
please do update us, been looking for a fully stainless kitchen faucet for weeks now and cannot find any in the country. just not right!