thermostatic vs. non-thermostatic?

10 years ago

Hi,

We're renovating and one shower system we like the looks of is the Hansgrohe Raindance 240. But it's a thermostatic system & we've never had that (plus my mother-in-law has one we hate, because she's set the temperature too low). Sometimes we want a hot shower & sometimes lukewarm. If we get thermostatic would that be easy to accommodate? Or should we just do non-thermostatic?

Many thanks for *any* thoughts you might have (we are utterly inexperienced!),

Alice

Featured Answer

MiniSplit Heat

4 years ago

https://www.heatingair.org/

How to Identify your type of thermostat?

The most simple way is to observe your home heating system and then look at the backside of your thermostat. If your home heating/air conditioning system is central (a central furnace or boiler) and you have many ducts or pipes going through all rooms (starting from the furnace/boiler) you should be having low voltage thermostat in your home.Now when you look at the backside of your thermostat, if you see 6 or more wires (thin, multi colored) in its back (going into a board) you can confirm you have a low voltage thermostat.

A line voltage thermostat is used only with single stage heating systems (like forced fan heaters or baseboard heaters) and their will be only either 2 wires or 4 wires coming out of its back. These wires will be thick (as they carry higher current & voltage) and often will be in a combination of Black & Red or Black & White color.

Well, this is the most important classification when it comes to types of thermostats. In fact, there are only two types of thermostats – either low voltage or line voltage. The other classification (based on features) which brings in Smart Thermostats, Programmable, Non Programmable etc. applies to both line voltage and low voltage thermostats.

Smart Thermostats are available for both low voltage & line voltage categories. Similarly, programmable & non programmable thermostats are also available in both categories. So lets see which all are the best models available for both categories and how they differ.

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Comments (10)

suero
10 years ago
There are two controls on a thermostatic system. One controls the volume, the other controls the temperature. The temperature can be changed.
I have a thermostatic control, and when my doctor told me to take cooler showers, all I did was set the thermostatic control lower. There is no reason why you couldn't set your mother-in-law's thermostatic control higher, but it is only courtesy to return the control to your mother-in-law's preferred setting when you leave the shower.
lillo
10 years ago
The thermostatic control can come all by itself as one fixture and there will be another fixture to control the volume or it can come the two together in one fixture as suero explained . The nice thing about the thermostatic valve that it just controls the temperature so you don't have to increase the volume to get a higher temperature . Plus you set it up one time to what you want and won't have to readjust it every morning . As suero said you don't have to take cold showers when you visit your mother in law. She just set to her own temperature, you can change to what you like and then return it back to where it was after your shower . There is another thread on this web about the thermostatic valve , look for it .
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To be honest I could never figure them out and found them very frustrating to use - it seemed like no matter what you did and which way you adjusted, the water temperature would always stay the same. My husband had the exact same issue (one of the few things he requested in this remodel is “no Euro shower”), and we are in our 30s and pretty tech savvy! I’m sure it’s different when you’re selecting your own and have a manual on hand, but we both saw no need to pay a premium for full thermostatic given our experience. Also he likes his showers boiling hot and I don’t, so the super precise temperature adjustment is not something that would benefit us as we’d be constantly switching. I think the setup that we chose is very easy and intuitive to use for both us and any future owners, fits our needs very well and doesn’t come at a significant price premium, so it seemed like the optimal choice in our case. Hopefully everything works out! This is the kind of setup we had issues with:
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elphaba_gw
10 years ago
I thought thermostatic valves give better water pressure than "pressure balance" type valves.
raehelen
10 years ago
Don't know what 'kind' of thermostatic valve your M_I_L has, but ours has a separate volume control and separate temp control. You can change it to whatever you want, not even a huge deal if you didn't change it back...I always know if someone else has taken a shower, cuz they never turn it back...I would NEVER expect anyone to shower at a temp they don't want, and I'm pretty sure your MIL doesn't either. Maybe time to have a conversation about that? LOL
aliceb_ma6
Original Author
10 years ago
LOL indeed... The thing is, she would feel *so* bad if we ever said anything...

Thanks to all!
howhoo
10 years ago
Hi, i have a question regarding the temperature control feature of a thermostatic valve- is the temperature control variable or fixed? For example, let's say you're taking a warm shower but want to increase the temperature just a little bit for a minute and then again in another minute, are you able to feather the lever for gradual increases in temperature, or are you relegated to pre-set settings where the lever or dial clicks into a position. tx
sjhockeyfan325
10 years ago
The one I had was infinitely adjustable like any other shower control, but had settings so you could pre-set it to a desired temperature, which was handy.
raehelen
10 years ago
howhoo,

It really depends on the manufacturer and then the particular valve/divertor for that system.

In the one I referred to above, the temperature control was on a separate knob, was easy to change and there was a little handle showing that you could see where it was pointing to, and if it was in a different position than you normally liked, easy to change.

However, I have a brand new shower system, and it does not work like that. I still have to play around with it, I really don't know how it works ( I think I have to set the temp when it's off, and there is no handle/lever to see where it's pointing) this one has the temp control on the same knob as the volume control , just a separate ring to turn? Not really thrilled with it. :>(
MongoCT
10 years ago
"i have a question regarding the temperature control feature of a thermostatic valve- is the temperature control variable or fixed? "

The temperature is fully adjustable.

The thing that might be confusing you is that most people adjust the temp control to where they want it and then leave that control alone. All they do afterwards is turn the water supply ON and OFF.

With themostatic valves, the temperature control can be "set and forget" if you like. But it's always fully adjustable.

thermostatic vs. non-thermostatic?

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thermostatic vs. non-thermostatic?

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