Is the water from cheap imported tapware safe?

What’s the issue with cheap imported tapware?

Master Plumbers chief executive Greg Wallace said his organisation has been concerned for many years about the tapware people are buying from overseas retailers.

“Tests we’ve commissioned have shown high levels of lead leaching from these taps into the water. As a country, we’ve removed lead from petrol and house paint, so it’s unbelievable it can still be present in drinking water from our plumbing supplies,” Wallace said.

Wallace said it can also be particularly hard to know what the tap is made from when buying overseas tapware online.

“We have found that the packaging and instructions are often very basic and may not be in English.”

At Consumer NZ, we wanted to check whether cheap tapware from online retailers could pose a lead safety concern. We tested six budget kitchen tap mixers from Amazon, AliExpress, and Temu as well as four well-priced products from New Zealand hardware stores.

What we found

In our test, we analysed the water that came from the tap, rather than the tap itself.

Nine of the 10 products, including five we purchased from overseas websites, didn’t raise any red flags However, one tap from Amazon (Basdehen Single Handle High Arc Pull Out Kitchen Faucet) resulted in lead levels in the water higher than the amount permitted by the Australian/New Zealand testing standard – AS/NZS 4020:2018.

Other issues with imported tapware

The fittings that come with overseas taps can also pose a problem. Both taps we purchased from Amazon only came with American standard connections, so if you were looking to buy tapware through Amazon, you might need to buy new fittings, which could be hard to find.

Another issue to be wary of when buying online is that your plumber may be reluctant to install your purchase.

“The liability for the product installation falls on the plumber, so they might require you to provide certification that the product is lead free,” said Wallace.

New regulations fall short with labelling requirements

From May 2026, new requirements for plumbing products that deliver drinking water come into force in New Zealand, in line with an update to the building code.

Under the new requirements, these products, which include kitchen and bathroom tapware, as well as valves and fittings connected to drinking water pipes, must not contain more than 0.25% lead.

The building code update, often referred to as the ‘lead-free’ standard, brings New Zealand in line with many other countries, including the United States. The requirements also come into effect in Australia next year.

Wallace said the industry is pleased lead-free plumbing products will be the only choice in this country from May 2026, but is disappointed the regulations fall short in not requiring mandatory lead-free marking on products, like WaterMark rules do in Australia.

“We are now pushing for mandatory labelling to make it easy for consumers and tradespeople to be sure the product they are buying is lead free,” he said. “Taps are available in stainless steel, which contains no lead. However, most are made using brass – a copper alloy that commonly contains lead – coated with chrome or other finishes like brushed nickel or bronze. From next May, these must contain no more than 0.25% lead – but how will consumers know unless the taps are labelled as such?”

What about lead in drinking water supplies

The new lead-free tapware requirements only fix half of the problem, according to Wallace. “Most people get their drinking water from a mains water supply, so we want those to be lead free as well.”

The plumbing within the mains supply, the pipes in your home and your sink fixtures can all contain lead. Lead can accumulate if water sits inside those pipes for a while.

In 2021, coastal towns in Otago were found to have dangerously high levels of lead in their water supply. This raised the issue nationwide of lead in drinking water and the potential health risks associated with it.

Drinking water supplies in Aotearoa are regulated and monitored by the Crown’s Water Services Authority Taumata Arowai. The drinking water standards state that the maximum acceptable level of lead in drinking water is 0.01mg/L.

In 2023, there were 10 notifications of water supplies exceeding this level for lead, and there has been an increase in notifications year on year since 2021. A Taumata Arowai report stated this is probably because an increased number of suppliers are now required to undertake mandatory testing of chemicals in their water supply.

Tips for keeping your drinking water safe

To make sure you’re not drinking water contaminated by lead pipes or fixtures, you need to flush any residual contaminants that might have settled in the water pipes after several hours.

Here are some tips for clearing the system.

• Each morning when you get up, run the cold tap on full for the length of time it would take to fill one cup from the taps you’re drinking from or getting cooking water from. If there are vulnerable people in your home (pregnant women, infants or young children), we recommend you flush two cups worth.

• Flushing the taps once in the morning is usually enough. However, if you’ve been out all day, do it again when you return home.

• Don’t use the flushed water to fill a kettle or for cooking – heat won’t remove the contaminants of heavy metals like lead.

• To avoid wasting water, you could wash your hands at the tap as you flush it or use the flush to water non-edible plants.

About our test

We tested one sample of 10 kitchen mixer taps at an accredited lab for the presence of 16 heavy metals, including lead, in the water we extracted from each tap.

The laboratory tested the tapware to some requirements of the Australian / New Zealand Standard AS/NZ 4020:2018 Testing of products for use in contact with drinking water. The standard requires two samples of each tap to be tested. However, we tested only one sample to be consistent with how consumers would buy a product.

The maximum allowable concentration of lead is 0.01mg/L.

Health NZ Te Whatu Ora funded our tapware testing as part of its ongoing efforts to understand and prevent lead poisoning.