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Best flow-adjustable shower valve money can buy?

7 years ago

Rethinking my interest in keeping my old Moen valve. What is the most durable shower valve you can get? I need to control both temperature and water flow. (The dh hates the single function that adjusts temperature only.) We don't want any body sprays or anything fancy. Just a Jaclo rain can shower head on an arm (not ceiling) and some kind of handshower on the wall. Pressure balanced valve or the other kind ( memory escapes me) are fine. Right now we have an antiquated Moen standard valve and it works fine for us. No one has ever been scalded in this house. Thanks for any advice.

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Comments (3)

User
7 years ago
last modified: 7 years ago
Pressure balanced valves are single control. You want a high end thermostatic valve, with volume and temperature control, and separate transfer valve. Not cheap. A rain head on an arm puts undue stress on plumbing joints. It's too heavy without ceiling support. A good quality hand held on a bar can suffice for most everything if you are willing to give up the rain head. If you've never used one, you may hate them. I do.

Kohler or Hansgroehe will do what you want but you're talking a couple of grand to get what you say you want.
MizLizzie
Original Author
7 years ago
We put a Koher rain head and thermostatic valve in the guest bath and love them, so I feel we will be happy. Plumbing is not my forte, though, so I want the best valve, whatever brand, and to be able to slow the flow as needed. We could mount from our ceiling -- we have easy access -- but I'm not crazy about that look. I was hoping some of the plumbers here might have a favorite valve . . . ?
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I have the shower riser at home already, so it will be available when they come to measure for the glass. I've decided to alter the design a little bit and have the riser come over the glass in an arc instead of through the glass, so that should make things a bit easier. I am also planning on having the glass fabricator make a (frosted) glass topper for the knee wall - unless you can recommend a better material for that purpose? I'll make sure they know to do the holes for the brackets in the shop, though! The glass people I've spoken with suggested a bracing the glass with a chrome bar extending from the long shower wall to the glass wall (the one with the showerhead) - I'll be sure to ask if any other supports are necessary. Thanks again for all your help with this!!!!!
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Thank you, brickeyee. Does a cartridge have to be special ordered to fix this? Do you think the plumbing guy is just trying to do a cheap fix rather than doing this right? We do have a wall on the other side of the shower that could be opened up to get at a defective valve and now I'm starting to think that the contractor just wants to cross this off the punch list without doing the right thing. Am I being too suspicious?
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So definitely a thermostatic valve and not just a pressure balanced valve? Geoffrey, I believe most locales require pressure balanced valves, not thermostatic. I appreciate your opinions on the heat recovery system. It might be true that you might not see much payback if you have natural gas, with lower operating costs and quicker hot water recovery. However, I don't have access to NG, so I have to go all electric, which is more expensive and has a much slower recovery time. I was skeptical at first as well. But I have talked to people that have them and they work. And I have read the independent research papers that show they work. And I have calculated the affects on a water heater if you change the incoming water temperature from 50F to 75F. If my calculations are correct, my payback will be instantaneous, because the money I spend on the DWHR system will be saved by being able to purchase a smaller capacity water heater.
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H B
7 years ago
I have trouble keeping all the terms straight so not sure if this is what you might be looking for -- we have a delta Trinsic valve in the shower, it is one item with two handles on it, one controls the water temperature and the other, the volume. Because this is a shower/tub/handheld, we have a second handle that controls where the water comes out. They were not super expensive.

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