Townsend Single-Handle Single Hole Bathroom Faucet with Speed Connect Drain in Matte Black

Purchased this item in August, 2018 and by October, 2018 it was already not working. The handle would not go pass the middle and only cold water could be dispensed. See pictures and video uploaded. So if you are looking to spend $250 on installation, another $150 or do it yourself for 30 minutes to de-install, drive to Home Depot store to return the not working faucet and spend another 1 hour shopping for a replacement faucet, then spend another $150-$200 on new installation (not counting the time to wait for plumber to show up) and you not able to use your bathroom sink: go ahead and buy this faucet. If you would rather want to have faucet that works, look for another model. This faucet model is money and time sink. Avoid it all cost !!!

Very happy to get the new Townsend Single Hole Single-Handle Bathroom Faucet with Speed Connect Drain in Legacy Bronze delivered. Very solid, heavy, well made faucet and very simple to install. I love the new speed connect drain letting you just twist on the connection and you are done. Awesome, wish someone invented that a few years ago. We have ordered the base plate and are still waiting on it to be delivered. Might need a new sink now to match the beautiful faucet.

This faucet took me by surprise with its quality. It's actually very solid feeling and the handle mechanism moves smoothly. Installation was no sweat. I appreciated the installation nut on the underside of the faucet. It made the install take approximately 3 minutes (with the help of a basin wrench to really tighten) which was really appreciated. I especially like the supplied drain. The button on the back of the faucet is tied via a cable to the drain, and making the connection is super simple. I had to buy an Eustachian plate for my install since the faucet does not come with one. That was about $40 from a plumbing supply website. My only niggle with the faucet is the water spotting. Water spots are *very* visible against the polished nickel (pic attached). It's a very pretty faucet, just keep a rag near by to buff out the spots when they happen.

My wife and I run a small property business in western Pennsylvania. I am the registered home improvement contractor of the outfit and head up our small work crew. We have quite a bit of experience in bathroom renovation, from basic upgrades to complete luxury overhauls. For luxury upgrades, I would say we work with slab stone quite a bit more than most American outfits like ours, for various reasons, and that understanding of how slabs are worked into counters and vanity tops has quite a bit to do with this review of the Townsend faucet. I doubt that one of the best things about this faucet was intentionally designed into it by American Standard, but since it is there, I hope my remarks on it will not go unnoticed. To begin with, this is a very good-looking faucet with few external seams. It looks as if it has been machined out of a single block of steel. This is not just an aesthetic plus, since soap scum tends to get into creases and seams. Seamless construction makes the faucet easier to clean, especially on its underside. The faucet’s action is smooth and easy. The well-written step-by-step installation directions come in multiple languages, which is a huge benefit when dealing with installers of varying backgrounds and competency levels. In my other faucet reviews, I have railed time and again against European and Asian manufacturers who skimp on step-by-step installation directions -- to do so again is meaningless here. I would just like to point out that a reasonably handy DIYer can indeed follow the written direction and put this particular Townsend faucet in successfully. American Standard, as far as I know, has pioneered a special pop-up drain cable, which it calls a Speed Drain Connect system, that works very well. A typical pop-up drain has two arms that running down from the faucet to the drain to work the stopper. This is a reliable system, but over time, as bathroom vanity basins have grown roomier and are often mounted under a piece of slab stone, there isn’t always enough room back behind the sink to connect the arms properly. I’ve seen multiple cases where the pop-up drain has to be routed around drain piping outlets originally designed for much smaller basins and becomes non-operational (you can’t pull the lever and stopper the drain). The Speed Drain Connect system solves these issues nicely. The lever operates a pull cable like a bicycle’s gearshift, and that turns a wheel at the end of the cable that spins to open and close the pop-up drain. The flexibility of the cable means that it can be routed around obstacles. Now for what I feel is most important about this faucet: multiple fixture manufacturers have experimented with a type of one-hole faucet mount that uses a crescent washer and a nut to mount the faucet to the deck securely. It works well. I’ve seen the open part of the crescent designed to open toward the back wall (most usual) and the side (less usual). On the American Standard Townsend and on only one other one-hole faucet that I’ve reviewed (put out by another manufacturer), I’ve seen that crescent washer open toward the front (toward the basin). This is an important, valuable feature. Stone countertop fabricators are largely unregulated in the USA, and there are both very good outfits working in the industry here and not-so-good ones. There is a great deal of hype and misinformation surrounding slab stone as a luxury product. This is slowly getting better as the industry matures here, but there’s a lot of room for improvement. In the US market, the center of the hole that is drilled through a stone/engineered stone/quartz countertop or vanity top to mount a faucet is typically set back two inches from the edge. The lip of an undermount sink is supposed to take up a maximum of 3/4 of an inch under the countertop. The hole itself is supposed to be 35mm, or 1 3/8 inch in diameter. All this is supposed to leave just a shade less than 1/2 of an inch of stone beneath the countertop between the lip of an undermounted sink and the edge of the hole for any faucet mounting system to grab hold of. Half an inch is not a lot. Several things complicate getting this right. A hand drill equipped with a diamond hole bit never does a wonderful job drilling exactly straight down through 1 1/4 inch of stone slab. The hole tends to creep off in one direction. Many of these holes used to be drilled on-site by installation subcontractors in older installations, many still are, and so they were/are drilled with hand drills instead of more specialized machines. There are two sorts of diamond-boring systems for stone, one that can be used dry, and one that can only be used in a water bath. The wet systems generally make more precise holes, but create mess, wet slurry. The dry systems can be used with a vacuum drilling rig to keep the stone dust they generate down. Not having to do messy wet slurry cleanup inside a full vanity cabinet when drilling stone in a customer’s bathroom is a real bonus for a subcontractor on a schedule. The dry rigs are often much more expensive, and therefore, to a subcontractor who doesn’t specialize in stone, quite legitimately seem to be higher-quality products that will produce higher-quality results. The dry systems in the hands of an inexperienced subcontractor more often result in holes with compromised lips or irregular edges. The holes also creep quite a bit. Coupled with an imprecise basin installation (also often done on-site by minimally trained installers), a creeping, sloppy hole means that the half an inch of space that is supposed to be there to help mount the faucet securely often gets compromised. Especially for replacement faucets put into these stone vanity tops, an installer has to make parts fit in spaces where they refuse to fit in holes that are not exactly where they should be. Since the Townsend’s mount crescent washer opens up toward the front, it can easily fit into many originally botched undermount sink/slab/hole installations where other faucets can’t. It’s a much easier faucet to install in problematic situations than others. This makes this faucet very useful for updates of existing stone installations and no-worry replacements, especially in tight spaces. The mid-size dimensions of the Townsend don’t look like they would be useful for this sort of thing compared to many other smaller faucets, but size is deceptive here. This is not to say that the Townsend is much easier to install than other faucets, but that it can be installed in a variety of situations that might be otherwise difficult or even impossible for other faucets. That, along with its other important features, makes this Townsend one of the best and most useful one-hole bathroom faucets I’ve ever looked at. This is a good choice for a bathroom redesign that real thought has been put into, or for a replacement fixture in a custom granite or marble vanity top cut, polished, and drilled either yesterday or years ago.

Okay, so as the title says, the second one works well. I was unfortunate enough to get a bad faucet the first time, and luckily for me, it leaked right away so I knew there was a problem. It was leaking inside the body of the faucet somewhere and in the course of a day it made a big mess. I contacted a customer service rep, and they took care of the issue - unfortunately, the faucet was on back-order and it took a few months to receive the replacement. In the meantime, I replaced the old faucet (that was leaking, but into the sink) and used that one while I waited. The new one appeared a few months later. As far as the installation, the hardest part was removing the old faucet, as is most replacement faucets - due to the amount of space you have to work with. Once that was done, it was a matter of hooking up the included supply lines, attaching a new drain mechanism, and all set to go. The second one did not leak, or it hasn't thus far anyways. I keep an eye on it. I also purchased an escuncheon for mine, because when I removed the existing faucet, I realized I had a 3 hole installation instead of the 1 hole. This was my mistake. If you are unsure of your installation, look under the sink to begin with and you can count the installation holes. If this replacement holds up, which I am confident that it will, this will be an excellent faucet. It is heavy and solid, and the finish is nice and cleans off easily. I hope the issue I had was a very small sample issue and that I can count on quality control in the future. It is safe to say that I have never had a problem with a previous American Standard product.

High end quality faucet which adds a touch of class to my bath. I installed on a pedestal sink in my half bath after total reno. Polished finish is excellent and on/off lever on top works to perfection. Install was easy with attached water supply lines. Sink drain and stopper is a new system which is easy to install and minimizes hardware which is important under visible pedestal sinks.Overall high end, easy install faucet.

Attractive and sturdy faucet. The lever action is solid and easy to operate. The water stream is full and does not splash.

A very well made quality product. I was very impressed both with quality of packaging as well as quality of finish. I would highly recommend this item. I normally enclose photos but camera is down at this time. It is a very nice product. The finish I chose was the legacy bronze finish. Gives it the antique look of an oil rubbed bronze kind of look. Very classy.

I have come across quite a few faucets in my life and this is one of the best. I always like products from American Standards and this bathroom faucet lives up to their usual high standards. Well package. Easy to install. Looks great on my vanity. I am buying more for my other two bathrooms.

This is a very solid heavy faucet. I don't think I've ever seen one this heavy and solid. It feels like they didn't skimp on the quality. Even though this is a water sense product, the water flow is heavy enough for a bathroom. I'm not sure who would need more than that to brush your teeth and other regular things. Installation was a breeze and it came with a new, high quality drain. It's nicer than the one I currently have but I didn't feel like messing with it since it wasn't having any problems. The only reason I didn't give this 5* was because it didn't come with the 3 hole cover plate. I know it's only a one hole and the cover plate is just as nice when you buy it sepeartly but most of these come with one. I guess the quality was too nice for them add it without increasing the price. Finally, this is a top quality faucet that can be used in any style house from condo to mansion.