bathroombathroom-fixturesfaucet
Today I spoke to a highly reputable bathroom faucet company, and they claimed that their all metal faucets and plastic faucets (internal parts) are generally the same when it comes to quality and how often they break.
And when they do break, they generally have the same issues.
Is this true? From my understanding, all metal faucets cost more because they are of higher quality.
Durability - I have often seen the stainless/chrome plated hose breaking up after a few years... this is where the hose splits along the seam of the hose... This will not happen with the braided hose due to the fact that you have a netted sheath. Also. the braided pattern is more flexible than its counterpart.
Cost - This hose is substantially cheaper than the corrugated style hose.
Ease of manufacturing and assembly: this hose can be crimped during assembly, the alternative is to use more complex and expensive screw clamps to assemble the unit.
You will probably also find the regular stainless braided hose like this:
I know this isn't really supposed to be a "shop for you" kinda place, but the Moen Banbury 8 specs an 8-16" spread; the Delta Porter is 6-16". I'd suggest you tour your big box store and squint at the packaging to see what range you can cover.
Best Answer
It's cheaper for a company to use in-house "off-the-shelf" parts instead of having multiple, specifically tooled assembly lines for each and every model of faucet. The "internal parts" are all likely to be the same.
The extra manufacturing cost (we have to ignore whatever marketing says, and the effect of supply and demand*) comes from the fact that plastic can be cheaply injection molded (once you have the die), and that metal casting still requires numerous additional steps in the casting and finishing processes.
Every piece of cast metal you've ever held has been made from a (single use) mold, which was made off of a pattern (which can also be quite expensive).
Any casting with internal passages also requires the use of cores; an additional expense. Again, each of these are a single use item and it's quite probable that it requires more than one per casting.
All-metal faucets cost more because they... cost more; in materials and labor.
*I'm unqualified to provide any type of market analysis on this matter.