Review IS about this MOEN ALIGN, but there’s a back story, so keep reading until the end. I originally bought KHOLER R10651-SD-CP Sous Pro-Style to replace a similar ‘SPRING NECK’ style faucet that I bought on eBay for $35 - and for the $35 price it was VERY good, albeit never at the finish quality of the Kholer, which costs 8 times as much at $285 or so. Now, I bought the Kholer because after a year or so of use, the $35 faucet started gradually losing pressure w every month seeing a noticeable difference. I figured I should have never gone that cheap (it’s unlike me, I’m usually a brand/quality snob) & figured if I had spent the money I wouldn’t have had the issue. To remedy it, I started researching & found the aforementioned Kholer & figured it was the right brand & price as I have other Kholer faucets that look & function like new after 10 years of use. So I bought it here. It got home & installed it that same night. Took maybe about 35-50 minutes to install. I followed instructions to ‘flush’ water lines by removing shower head & running the water before operating faucet to prevent debris from getting caught on the filtering/aeration mechanism. All was good in the neighborhood for one day. The next day the aerator/shower head started SPLATTERING WATER all over the counter and backsplash - and it continued to do so. If I lowered the pressure via the faucet lever, then it’d do this non-aerated SOLID WATER STREAM (non-aerated - aeration is done to prevent splashing) that would contain ONE BIG AIR BUBBLE every 0.5-1 seconds & that hit the bottom of the sink & cause huge droplets of water to jump from bottom of the deep sink as much as 24” into the air, and which fly all over, splashing anything/anyone in sight. After I few days I got Amazon to send me a replacement faucet & I just swapped the aerator / shower head - this eliminated the more minor splattering originating right from the aerator. Hw, the air bubbles in the solid water stream, while diminished by 70%, were still present whenever I reduced the water volume (at 40-50% volume). Now this is when THIS MOEN FAUCET comes into play: So I then figured, this is not right, why should I spend $300 on a faucet and have it operate worse than a $35 one? I started research again & settled on the MOEN ALIGN 5923 - it looked great in pics & was of similar cost so I bought it here. When It arrived, there were immediately ‘visible’ quality issues: the valve lever to open/close water flow wouldn’t align neither when closed or fully open. Talk about MOEN’s slogan of “buy it for LOOKS, buy it for life”. I called Moen & they recommended sending it back to Amazon, and so I did & I got yet another replacement, and wait for it: it had the EXACT same issue!!! At this point I decided to install it anyway because that was purely cosmetic matter and it had a feature that I really wanted that the Kholer didn’t: a SHOWER STYLE STREAM - the Kholer has a similar feature, but it’s fan-shaped to ‘sweep’ debris, and ps, it’s messy, plus the moment you remove finger from button, it reverts to aerated stream. After installing the MOEN, it was immediately apparent the BIG DIFFERENCE IN AESTHETICS QUALITY vs KHOLER. The KHOLER LOOKED BEAUTIFUL, EXPENSIVE and VERY ‘OOMPHY’. MOEN ALIGN, honestly LOOKED IDENTICAL to the $35 FAUCENT and for all the hoopla about it’s different stream choices, it was hoaky at best; Plus its aerator/shower head also caused a significant amount of splash all over. It was obvious to me that Kholer was the winner, albeit FAR FROM PERFECT, at least you CAN’T GO PAST the KHOLER and NOT NOTICE IT - it says LOOK AT ME; KHOLER does stay true to their slogan: “The Bold Look of Kholer” UNLIKE the MOEN ALIGN, which you wouldn’t even notice its there; Plus it’s VERY GENERIC LOOKING and FORGETTABLE. I will say that the MOEN PHOTOGRAPHS WAY BETTER than it looks in person. Something else to consider about the Align, its valve mechanism is located VERY LOW with relation to the counter top so it’s VERY difficult to keep ‘IT’, and AROUND IT, clean, vs KHOLER’s LEVER/VALVE, which sits very high up & rarely even gets splashed. Keeping the Kholer shiny & clean is a snap. So until I find something else, I’d rate the Kholer 5 in style, 3 function/features. Hw, do note that precise water flow may not be easy to control if you have high pressure water into your home - if so, you need to control the pressure it receives via the water valves under your sink. The Moen Align I rate 3 in style (generic) and 3.5 in function/features. Note that even its ability to ‘pull out’ the hose is quirky at best - the weight it brings is not heavy enough to help retract the hose in place; and if you add an extra weight, then it’s too much and if the hose slips out of your hand, it them SLAMS into gooseneck sprint at a suicidal speed LOL!!! Also, unlike KHOLER’s SUPER EASY MAGNETIC DOCKING (you just need to bring it close by and it ‘docks’), docking MOEN’s head in its housing takes a more CONCERTED effort and aim. It’s also hard to keep spotless. Needless to say, I sent this MOEN back and kept the Kholer despite all its shortcomings. I hope this helps you decide ;)
