"I could also just get a pull-down faucet for the sink and aim it at the tub to fill it." You could - but you won't like it. The most one of those will fill is 2.2 gallons a minute - some less that that. Divide your tub's capacity by that and you're looking at 20 minutes to fill +/- Not good. beekeeper - I have one of these and have placed more than half a dozen in projects over the past few years. What you get for your money is a machined brass body that mounts in the ceiling or wall and a plated trim piece. The body is a substantial piece of hardware and chrome,brass, nickel plating costs $$$ too. Whether that's all worth 500 + bucks, is up to you. Like davidro says, it doesn't matter what the delivery system is, this is just an opening for hot water to come out of, albeit one with a bit of engineering. GD & Spanish - the splashing is very much dependent on the mounting height of the unit AND the tub selected AND the location of the water column inside the tub. Mine hardly splashes at all. The ones I have seen that splash only do so for a minute or so until their is enough of a pool in the tub to counteract it. Flat bottom tubs with tall ceilings are going to splash more than one from 7' into a sloped contact point in the tub. Besides , we're talking water in a bathroom, generally tiled so what's the big deal ??? It's not like the amount of splash is the same as taking a shower and leaving the door open. 2. While you are correct in that "the water cools off much more than it would from just a regular tub filler", it's not as if it cools off enough for anyone without a thermometer to tell a difference, and a very sensitive one at that! Sure the air cools the water more from a stream falling from 8 feet than one falling from two feet. But bath water that is 100 + degrees is not going to cool down to 90 deg. in the xtra 1-2 seconds it takes it to fall from the ceiling- get real. Additionally , that filler produces a very dense column of water (laminar) that has little to no air in it, so one might argue it will be hotter and less prone to heat loss than a "regular" filler that introduces room temp air into it's stream - thus cooling it off on it's way to the tub. So don't worry Spanish -your tub will still be plenty hot with that filler if you choose it. IT'S A NON -ISSUE people. I've already alluded to the real issue for lower tub temps - FILL TIME. That's directly related to the delivery system ( valve). If your valve and accompanying filler will only deliver 5 gallons a minute it's going to take a while to fill an 80 gallon tub, and there will be some heat loss. Select a valve that delivers 20 gallons a minute and you can be soaking quicker that most people can undress. Here is a link that might be useful: laminar valve body - see page 2

Does anyone know body scrub products will scratch an acrylic tub? I'm THISCLOSE to taking my first bath in my new Bain Ultra air tub and it just dawned on my that my collection of body scrubs (Twisted Peppermint for the holidays) (g) might scratch it. Thanks, Monica

Just chiming in here to say that I purchased my clawfoot tub and all the plumbing to go with it (as well as plumbing fixtures to go throughout the rest of my house) from SignatureHardware.com Their faucet and tub prices are great, the quality of every single piece I got was fantastic and they have given me terrific customer service. My clawfoot tub faucet arrived with ceramic cross-handles instead of the ceramic lever handles I ordered. They shipped the correct handles out immediately. Also the spout for another tub faucet arrived with a tiny scratch on it that appeared to have been made before the faucet was ever packaged up by the manufacturer. (There is no way it could have gotten scratched once it was in the box because everything was very well packaged.) When I contacted Signature Hardware about the scratch, they asked me to email them a photo of it and, on the basis of that photo, agreed to send a replacement. Did not even require me to package up the scratched part and send it back to them.

Oh Monica, Please let me know how it goes! I think that's what I want to. And, because we're in the middle of renos, DH hasn't fixed my present bathtub (which leaks into store room), so I'm just 'aching' for a nice long soak! Too cold to go outside into hot tub!