After much Googling and little success, I'm reaching out to this forum for some help. I'm trying to find a particular style of hand held shower head and am not having much luck. Several years ago we had one of the original style Waterpik hand held shower heads. This one had a mounting bracket that would allow the shower head to sit lower in the bracket in such a way that the shower head was at normal height, with the handle of the shower head lower than the shower arm. We need a new one now and I cannot find this design at all. All of the hand held shower heads that I can find these days sit much higher. The end of the handle is at the height of the shower arm, causing the shower spray head itself to sit several inches above the shower arm. Does anyone still make the older style shower head or mounting bracket? We don't really like having the shower head sit so high. Any brand is fine, but I've had a terrible time trying to find one. Thanks.

Height of the rainshower head? I'd bring it down no lower than about 12" above the height of the tallest user. It can be a bit lower, but try to stay at least 8" above the top of the tallest user's head. Depending on the style of head you're using, 18" to 24" extension will work fine. Most true rainshower heads will not perform well unless they are installed parallel to the floor. So installing them on an angle, as they might be when coming out of a wall? You'll get some "rain" and some "dribble". There are hybrid rainshower heads that are designed to replace a standard head coming out of a wall, but they're not true rainshower heads. They usually have fewer holes to give a more forceful spray. They are "in between" heads. I've not heard of cleaning problems with metal hoses. I suppose hard water could bring that into play. I do recommend getting a hose long enough so that you can use the head to wash down all surfaces in the shower. You can also get additional head hanging brackets, they're only a few dollars each, so you can mount a bracket to hold the head at knee height for shaving legs, etc. Metal versus plastic? Some metal heads are cheesey, some plastic heads are fabulous. I've showered in all types of settings, from razor sprays that are painful to the gentlest of rainshowers. From one shower head to full-blown 24 head spa setups that make you feel like you're in a car wash. When I built my own shower, there were no limitations. My wife had carte blanche, we had no budget. All we did was we put in two heads on two valves. A 12" overhead rainshower, it was about $100 for the head. On the wall I installed a Grohe Top4 Relaxa head on a vertical wall bracket. I'm 6'4", my wife is 5'1". The head is easy to slide up and down as required. It can also be taken off the clip to be used as a hand held. I installed another bracket lower on the wall for my wife to use when shaving her legs. She can sit on a teak bench and clip the Top4 head into that bracket while she does that. I have two separate on/off supply valves, one for the overhad and one for the handheld. They can be run independently or simultaneously. They are simple valves, Temptrol. It's an excellent valve that will never cause problems. $100 for the rainhead, I think it was around $175-$200 for the entire Grohe setup, the Top4 head, the bar, the extra long hose, etc, about $200 for the two Temptrol valves. $500 for the whole shebang. No regrets. In a tub/shower combo, a rainshower head could be brought to the ceiling. There are plumbing kits that have chromed or other finish tubing that can be surface mounted on the wall to bring the water to an overhead rainhead. But mounting a rainshower head on a typical angled arm coming out of the wall? You might not get good water flow out of that. I have installed in-the-wall plumbing so that a rainshower head could come out of the ceiling in a standard tub/shower surround. The setups have had the standard wall tub filler and wall shower valve setup, I've usually installed a diverter valve so the water could come out of the wall shower head or the overhead rainshower head. Nothing ghastly about that at all. I would not have just a rainshower head as your only head. As other have mentioned, it's a very gentle flow of water, and does not do a good job of penetrating hair to rinse out shampoo. Mongo

There's no one correct answer regarding elevation. The slide bar should be installed at a height that makes its range functional. That can make it dependent on the highest height you want, the lowest height you want, as well as the length of the bar itself. Some folks simply want to take a traditional shower. Some want to be able to lower the head so there is no way that their head can get wet. I've had some require a height for waist-down showers. And for shaving legs, some have requested the head to be able to be lowered to a mid-thigh height. I do have to say that I prefer the shower head to be able to be raised about 8" above the height of the tallest user. If there is no "tallest user" then I shoot for the bar to be set so the head can be raised up to a generic 7' above the shower floor. As far as centering things, again, that can depend on the style of the bar, the bracket, and the head. I do prefer the head to be close to centered. It can depend on the length of the hose too. Let's say the bracket offsets the shower head to the left of the bar. I might install the sliding bar to the right of center so the head can be centered. I might install the wall outlet just to the right of the bar. That way the hose will hang down from the wall outlet, make a "U" under the bottom of the slide bar, then go upwards to connect to the handheld. But again, that's dependent on the length of the hose and the length of the bar. But that layout will allow the hose to hang in a "U" shape flush to the wall instead of the hose crossing over in front of the bar and projecting out into the shower, or getting looped over itself in a twist. Sounds like a weird point to make, but it does neaten things up. The height of the wall outlet can depend on those same things. Your configuration, the length of the hose, etc. What you don't want is your hose to snag on anything when you adjust it upwards or downwards, the location of the wall outlet can be varied to minimize the possibility of that happening. Again, it all does depend on the fixtures in the shower. The length of the bar, the length of the hose. It's easy to mock things up with tape on the wall and a piece of rope for your proposed hose length. Don't forget that the style of the handheld itself can result in the actual shower head being several inches higher than the height of the sliding bracket. Some brackets are adjustable so that the handheld can be rotated up/down on the bracket, as well as the bracket sliding up/down on the slide bar. So a sort of ambiguous reply, but there is no hard and fast rule. Example, in my own shower? I'm 6'4, my wife 5'1. I have a 40" long slide bar. I have a large shower, so I have an 8' long hose. The shower head can go from well above my head to below the height of my wife's head. The hose allows the head to reach out and touch every point within the shower for bathing or for rinsing the shower walls down if needed. Depends on what you want. Some want the head lower for kids using the shower. Lastly, you can usually by just a wall bracket that can get mounted to the wall. So you can have your handheld on a slide bar that goes up and down as needed. If you then need an out of that range height, say for shaving legs, you can mount a small wall bracket lower on the wall just for that.

Hi Esme Would love to help you out but not sure what additional information I can provide. What we have works, a diverter tub spout, but It is frustrating when guests use the shower because to send the water to the shower you must pull down on the bottom of the spout and it is not obvious that this piece is there or how to use it. I had wanted a single 3-way diverter that would have diverted the water to the 3 outlets but my plumber goofed from what he told me to purchase for fixtures to the way his workmen plumbed the pipes and valve. I have replaced the 3-way/6 function trim/cartridge which had 3 positions with no water (what would have been tub only, Tub + shower head, Tub + hand held) with a 2 way/3 function diverter. My new plumber was refusing to install the 2-way diverter stating that it wouldn't work properly despite the install instructions that the same rough in valve worked with either the 3-way or 2-way. The Trim Kit included the cartridge so the new 2-way fixture included a compatible cartridge. He installed it, just to prove me wrong, and it worked as I expected! He said he had a customer with the same issue and took the instructions and box so he could recommend how to fix her problem. These are Brizo/Delta Valves and Trim. I don't think the set up I ended up with is the best diverter set up. However, I received conflicting feedback from the Showroom, who consulted their Delta Rep, and the Delta Customer Service, that I contacted, on whether or not Option A (3-way diverter) would work. Good Luck! I really felt like I was the first person to want a tub, shower and hand held configuration with the amount of confusion with the Showroom, Delta and my Plumber.