Our cast iron tub is a Toto, which apparently isn't being sold residentially any longer (just their tubs). We do have a Kohler cast iron shower pan and it seems very well-made. It's in our guest bathroom, so normally does not see much use. However, DH and I used it from April of last year, until this past September while we were renovating our other two bathrooms, and it held up beautifully.

Wow, thanks bumble doodle! Tt is great to know that the tub works well as a shower. We are tall too--at least most of us (two of my teenage daughters are twins and one is 5'2" and the other is 5'10", so maybe the short one complains a bit but that's ok, since she complains about everything!) We are getting the non-jetted version. Also, I am hoping that building the deck at the front will help with the water spray. I am pushing the tub back into an alcove under the window the long way (so we get into the tub at the 32" side rather than from the 48" side) and we are trying to go without shower doors in order to make the bath feel open. With a deck, we buy a few more inches of length to help avoid water on the floor. We may not succeed and will put a panel on if we have to. Any thoughts on this?

I have a tea for two soaking tub, not whirlpool in the 5.5' size. my thoughts in no particular order 1) have you sat/seen the 5' size? I remember a NYTimes story about renovating a brownstone that commented that they got the 5' tea for two, had to downsize from teh 5.5 and were unhappy b/c it killed the depth along with the length. 2) the drain set up absolutely sucks. I had 2 plumbers and my father in law who is a handy man screw with it, none could get it to reliabily work, it either didn't drain and held water or, drained, but wouldn't hold water. We resorted to removing the drain and using a rubber stopper. 3) we were acting as GCs on teh renovation..... we were buying the fixtures and having a plumber install... however, he wasn't any kind of set up to get this up to the second floor master, nor manuver it around... we did that. it weighs about 450lbs + we decided that undermounting would make sense. on top of that, I bought mine off of craigslist for a really really good deal. the downside, one corner had a small chip. it could have been touched up, but I used the "savings" to undermount with granite. It really looks sweet. I'm really not sure what you're doing with sliding glass doors? as far as I can tell they don't have set up that would accomodate a shower, so I'm nto sure doors would be needed... I like the tub, but we don't use it much, we should, but don't. if I were to do the whole bath over again, I would have done a larger shoewr and skipped the tub.

"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