Hand shower hoses and slide bars

15 years ago

Picking out fixtures for my shower-over-bath. I'm going with Hansgrohe, and I'm going to have both a fixed showerhead and a handshower on a slide bar. Things like which showerheads and which thermostatic valve trim were easy (ha!) - it's the esoteric stuff that's confusing me:

(1) Metal hose vs. rubber? Hansgrohe has this stuff called Techniflex which seems to be painted rubber... haven't seen it in person, but I suspect metal looks nicer. Any functional differences??

(2) Length of shower hose: both metal and rubber hoses come in 63" vs. 80". I'm thinking 80" for maximum flexibility... any reason not to do that?

(3) Slide bars: what should I be looking for in a slide bar? Anyone have a Hansgrohe slide bar that they can comment on? Would any of the HG handshowers fit any of the HG slide bars? (I'm getting an Aktiva A'8.)

Thanks!

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Comments (4)

astridh
15 years ago
I have two of the Hansgrohe slide bars, one in brushed (satin?) nickel and one in oil rubbed bronze. I had a Grohe one previously. The hose is fine on all three. Grohe's hose was made of metal rings and a bit nicer. The Hansgrohe hoses are a different material; they are smooth, but I would not say that they look cheap or feel plasticky. I don't know whether or not they are painted rubber as you say. I have had them since January, so I can't judge how well they hold up long term.

I have the shorter length hose on both, and I regret that a bit. I think it depends on how high off the floor your hose is mounted. Mine are high. In a shower or shower/tub, you want a long enough hose to rinse down all the walls. In my shower/tub, the hose doesn't reach the far end of the tub. On the other hand, I wouldn't want the hose to dangle onto the floor of the shower or into the tub. If/when mine wears out, I will buy the longer length for the shower/bath (but not for the freestanding shower). For now, it is not a big enough problem that I feel the need to replace it.

I think the Hansgrohe slide bars work fine, as did the Grohe one I had previously. I think I remember someone mentioning on another post that the adjustment part of her Hansgrohe slidebar had worn out and had needed to be replaced. It was in her children's bathroom and had been frequently adjusted. Mine are fine, but as I said it had only been six months. One more thing: I didn't like the soap dish that comes with the bar. I have a niche where I keep the soap, and I think that looks better. It was easy to remove the soap dish. Of course, if you like it you can always leave it on.
pineapplecake
15 years ago
We have a Hansgrohe handshower in our guest bath. It's just one I got at Home Depot (rushed repair before guests showed up), so I don't know if it compares to what you're looking at. It has a smooth silver hose which I think seems like painted plastic or rubber, and I've never liked it. I think it looks kind of cheap. However, I will say that it's held up ok so far (about 6 months, including some heavy use while we were remodeling our master bath). Again, I have no idea if this is in any way similar to the parts you're thinking of, so take this with a grain of salt...
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hyerground
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The techiflex hose is great because it won't scratch your tile and is super easy to clean. No mold in the grooves like a metal hose. I have never had one break or leak.

Hansgrohe has different "weights" of wallbars, the lesser priced ones have less brass and more plastic. They still function close to the same as the more expensive ones. Jaclo makes nice wallbars (in there more expensive range)
charlikin
Original Author
15 years ago
To follow up, I decided to go with the 80" Techniflex hose on a 36" wallbar. Hyerground, it did finally occur to me that the metal hose might scratch the tile or other fixtures, especially since I wanted to go with the longer hose. And I realized that I actually liked the very smooth, non-segmented look of the rubber - very sleek with the wallbar, and good for the contemporary trim style I ended up choosing (Metris S). Originally I was going to do a more traditional style, and I think the segmented hose would have gone better with that.