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Strom Thermostatic Control Valve & Volume Controls for Shower

9 years ago

I am looking at the Strom Plumbing shower system for a whole-bathroom remodel. The biggest reason I like their system? The nice porcelain labels on the volume control valves that tell you what each one controls.

The system consists of the thermostatic control valve and then individual volume control valve for each of the shower functions you have. For me, that will be three: regular shower head for DH, rain shower head for me, and a handheld. So three volume control valves like this, situated in a row above the TCV:

There is nothing like an ibox, no 6-way diverter. Each valve is simply on or not. If you have the water pressure, you could conceivably have all three on at the same time, though the hot water tank would empty in a few minutes if you did that. BTW, even on its own site, Strom Plumbing publishes no information about the volume of water per minute that their Thermostatic Control Valve can handle. It is shown with 3/4" intakes from the hot and cold water supplies, a 3/4" output that then goes down to 1/2" with no visible interchange in the plumbing system. I understand that I have to check with m local plumbing codes, as there are jurisdictions (CA, VT) that may not allow a set-up that allows more than one valve to be turned on at one time. If I check this and find that I do not have a code problem, is there any reason I should not go with this simple system for my new roll-in shower? No tub, just a shower.

Featured Answer

PRO

StarCraft Custom Builders

9 years ago

last modified: 9 years ago

There are as far as I know, no restrictions on the volume of water that can pass through a valve. The restriction is on the shower head, which cannot pass more than 2.5 gallons per minute according to the Energy Policy Act of 1992. Some state laws are more restrictive.

In most jurisdictions you can have more than one shower head as long as no one of them exceeds the 2.5 gpm limit. California is an exception, but I don't think VT prohibits multiple heads. The practical limit is your hot water tank capacity. At 7.5 gpm for a three-head shower, your 40 gal. tank will empty quickly, so most multi-head systems limit flow to 1.5 gpm or less per shower head.

Strom makes nice stuff. If used to be made in the U.S., but is now made in Taiwan.

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Comments (8)

User
9 years ago
Strom Plumbing
Nancy in Mich
Original Author
9 years ago
Yes Sophie, what did you want to say? I think your comment was lost.
Nancy
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Dornbracht Cost, IIRC, about $1500. The plumbing gods were not slow to punish our hubris. Two issues developed. It has 2 small integral check valves. Grit was keeping them open causing hot to flow into the cold. Never could get cold water in the master bathroom sink in normal conditions for a year until we fixed this recently. Had to let the cold run for about 25 seconds in the kitchen as well. Since this fixture is so rare, contractor did not install tile to allow proper access to valves, so he had to hack away at tile beneath escutcheon. The main cartridge needed to be replaced. The problem was that if all 3 shower heads were on, or the valves were opened too suddenly, or the water was turned toward cold, the water would become freezing cold and had to be turned off and on again. This is a $500 part, but was covered under the 4 year warranty. These problems are tricky to track down. A licensed plumber refused to help him with this (we did not know how the hot was getting into the cold, and his experience told him how frustrating that could be to pin down), so my contractor trouble shot it himself, consulting with me several times. Nothing looks better. And now that it works properly it's a joy to have. But beware the high end, and doubly beware the ultra high end.
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Don't forget a balancing loop of some sort for the side sprays if you want them to come out evenly. This is a lot of water, hopefully you're feeding this with 3/4" pipe. Keep that going through the thermostatic valves up to the volume control input. I've got about the same thing with a single grohetemp thermostatic valve, grohe volume controls and only one set of side sprays.
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Also have the grohe. I was talked into the thermostatic by the sales person. It's okay, but I could have lived without it. She described it as a must have, but I honestly don't see the big whoopee. Also, I found I couldn't get really cold water or super hot water out of my faucet once it was installed. Maybe this was an installation error, but we like freezing showers in the summer and super hot baths in winter.
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hansgrohe has the ibox valve now. we are using this one. it works fine, imo. it makes it easy to choose trims with it as it is the universal valve for all of its trims. just wanted to add, grohe also has a similar setup with its universal valve called grohflex. i am thinking of trying this one out next in my new bath remodel, as the hansgrohe trim backplates we had were all painted plastic, which i wasn't too thrilled about.. the hansgrohe works just fine though.
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Nancy in Mich
Original Author
9 years ago
So it is okay to just have the Thermostatic control and volume controls, no ibox-type diverter?
PRO
StarCraft Custom Builders
9 years ago
A flow limiter installed at the thermostatic valve is not required for the system to work properly. As long at each shower head is limited to not more than 2.5 gpm, the system is legal under federal law.

However, there are a lot of weird local code requirements out there, and your local plumbing inspector may have different ideas.
Nancy in Mich thanked StarCraft Custom Builders
renosarefun
9 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
The differences are:

One volume control plus diverter (depending on which diverter chosen) is you can operate any combination of the three fixtures independently or any combination of any two together, but at the same volume as the control is set to.

Advantage, is lower price of material, less rough in work, less openings in shower wall. Disadvantage, more rough in work, less overall control.

Having three volume controls will allow each fixture to be controlled independently so you can have all three fixtures on at once and be controlled at any volume setting independent of each other.

Advantage, better overall control.
Disadvantage, higher price due to one more fixture needed and more rough in work, one more opening in shower wall.

In the end, more openings in shower wall can be dealt with easily so it's just a matter of cosmetics. Also the rough in work isn't much more when adding another fixture, therefore it's a minor disadvantage.
Nancy in Mich thanked renosarefun
Nancy in Mich
Original Author
9 years ago
That makes some more sense of it. Really, though, we are talking three volume controls vs a volume control and a diverter. So one more fixture. All three volume controls lined up in a row, each one saying in words, not symbols, what it does. Works for me! Too bad they don't have one that says "temp cont" for the Thermostatic Control Valve!
renosarefun
9 years ago
I ended up going with Pfister's 12.0 gpm thermostatic and the thermostatic valve has temperature settings on the trim kit so you know it's the temperature valve only. Keep in mind it has a totally different look to it then your white fixtures.

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