Dorf Villa

Form and function – Pros: * Modern aesthetic with flawless chrome finish * Smooth lever actuation requiring little force * Good reach and vertical clearance to get large items underneath * 15 year warranty (but only with installation by licensed plumber) Nitpicks: 1. The flow rate of 7.5L/min is a bit low, however this is easily remedied by swapping the aerator for a full flow one. Although I wonder if the internal components were only designed or tested for 7.5L/min. The warranty and terms don't say if this voids the warranty. As a precaution I ended up settling on a 9L/min aerator, which also helps equalise the flow rate across the temperature range.

2. 3 out of 4 units on the shelf at Bunnings had slightly bent-inwards copper pipes, which places some unnecessary strain on the crimped hose connectors.

3. The nut on the male end of the hoses is only ~7mm tall and I could not find a hardware store which sold a spanner thin enough to fit. Therefore I could only hand tighten them by grabbing the length of the hose and twisting.

4. The large black nut which secures it under the sink is quite wide and may not fit as many sinks compared to the smaller semicircle clamp used by most other models. I had to remove a clip underneath my sink to make room for it.

Installation tip:

When tightening the nuts on the female ends of the hoses, remember to hold the hose body, otherwise once the nut's internal rubber washer grabs, the hose itself will start rotating, which causes the male end to start unscrewing (since clockwise at female end = anticlockwise at male end).

Long term testing:

I will revisit this review if any issues occur, such as leaks, corrosion, sediment in water, handle falling off etc. Otherwise you can presume I did not experience any issues.

6 month update:

The mixer is still performing fine, however there are a couple of nitpicks I have noticed.

1. The center temperature position is misaligned. i.e the hottest setting is about 35 degrees left of center; coldest is 80 degrees right of center. This means the temperature midpoint is about 23 degrees right of center, instead of dead center. This is the position I use the most, and if correctly centered would have prevented overlap between handle and spout stem, reducing water dripping onto stem when adjusting the handle, reducing watermarks on the chrome finish. I believe this could be solved by unscrewing and realigning the cartridge, however I'm terrified to start mucking with it as I don't want to break anything or cause a leak.

2. The temperature is not consistent throughout the pressure range. e.g with temp at center position, the more I increase pressure, the colder it gets. For example if I am washing my hair under the tap at mid point temperature and max pressure, and then reduce the pressure a bit to reduce splashing, the temp will get too hot and I must pull my head out to avoid getting mildly scalded. I must remember not to adjust pressure in this scenario.

On a separate note, I reverted to using the included 7.5L/min aerator as it splashes less compared to my two 9L/min ones, and it saves a bit of water too.

1 year update:

I started having an issue where rotating the spout would cause the handle and flexible tails to rotate in unison with the spout. This was putting unnecessary strain on the flexible tails whenever rotating the spout.

Luckily the fix was easy enough: remove the handle and tighten the 27mm brass nut another 1/8 turn. This also corrected the handle alignment issue, so now midpoint is exactly half way between hot and cold. Happy with this result as I thought it was going to be a warranty claim.

To clarify, the brass nut under the handle appears to serve 2 purposes:

1. Locking the mixer cartridge into place (which also determines hot/cold centerpoint position) 2. Locking the tap body internals into place (which prevents hoses from rotating when rotating spout)

I will still retain the 4 star rating I originally gave as the fix was so easy. If the cartridge had consistent temperature through the pressure range it would be a 5 star.

4 year update:

The underside of the spout arm developed a small corrosion hole causing water droplets to form and dribble down the spout. I am docking a star for this. Luckily I had purchased it from Bunnings and they swapped it over for a new one, which was amazing. But I'm not confident in the replacement given how quickly the metal has corroded on the previous unit. Although the replacement unit is manufactured November 2023, so they've had 3 years to hopefully improve quality control since then. We shall see how long this one lasts.

The price has also increased from $174 to $259 since first purchased four years ago, so I'm removing my original "reasonably priced" pro point.

Clean, modern and elegant sink mixer – This is a beautiful flick-mixer for kitchen basins. It appears tall and hence efficient as the tap rises high up above the tap/sink join giving plenty of room to move dishes/pots from basin to basin. The finish is sparking high quality. Instillation was easy if you want to DIY (but this voids the manufacturer's warranty). No negatives so far with this tap.

Stay away – Bought this mixer and installed by licensed plumber in last week April 2016. Handle fell off may 2016. Warranty claim through caroma who manufacture Dorf products. Their response we will mail you a new handle with instructions how to fit the replacement. If this product is so inferior in the first place it will just fall off again. Never buy one of their products again. Thought I was buying quality?