Swapping out old faucets and toilets - what brands actually last?

Honestly, I’ve found it’s less about the brand and more about the specific model and how standardized their parts are. Some “big” brands have proprietary stuff that’s just as hard to find as off-brand parts. Ever tried tracking down a Moen cartridge from 15 years ago? Not always a walk in the park. Sometimes you get lucky with universal fit, but I wouldn’t count on it every time.

Some “big” brands have proprietary stuff that’s just as hard to find as off-brand parts.

That hits home. I’ve spent more time in hardware aisles with ancient faucet pieces in a ziplock bag than I care to admit. My house was built in the 1920s, and it’s always a gamble - sometimes you get lucky, sometimes you’re staring at a wall of “almost but not quite” parts. Honestly, I’ve had better luck with older American Standard stuff than some newer “fancy” brands. At least the old ones seem built to outlive us all... but yeah, tracking down parts is half the battle.

Honestly, I’ve had better luck with older American Standard stuff than some newer “fancy” brands.

I hear you on that. My place is ‘40s-era and I swear, the original American Standard valves are still kicking - meanwhile, the “premium” brand I put in the kitchen needed a cartridge swap after just a few years. It’s wild how the old stuff just keeps going. Ever tried tracking down parts for those oddball European brands? That’s a whole other headache... Sometimes it feels like the more expensive it is, the harder it is to fix.

I get where you’re coming from, but I’ve actually had the opposite experience in a couple of my rentals. Some of the newer Moen and Kohler stuff (mid-range, not the top-shelf models) has held up surprisingly well, and parts are easy to find at any hardware store. The old fixtures in one building looked cool but were a nightmare when something finally did break - took weeks to track down a replacement. Maybe it’s just luck of the draw, or maybe it depends on how hard the water is? Either way, I’m not totally sold on the “old is always better” thing...

I hear you on the old fixtures being a pain when it comes to finding parts - tracking down a weird valve from the ‘70s can be a wild goose chase. But do you ever notice the newer stuff sometimes feels lighter or just... less solid? I’ve swapped out a few Moen and Kohler faucets lately and, while they’re easy to install and repair, I wonder if they’ll really last 20+ years like some of the old brass ones did. Maybe it’s just nostalgia, but I’m not totally convinced the build quality’s the same, even if the convenience factor is way better now. Anyone else feel like the weight and “feel” of the fixture matters, or am I overthinking it?