Bulbs & Fittings Ideas

What can I say, Moen in Bronze.. best quality for the price. I bought the entire Moen shower set, shower head, and hand spray on Amazon. The flow rate is low, which is a prerequisite for my well fed system. Nice that Moen sells 1.5-1.75gpm fixtures. SO many folks with wells or low pressure buy other manufacturers fixtures that dribble at low pressure. Moen matches the lowest pressures of the most expensive shower accessories costing 3x as much.

These valves operate very well. However, they are difficult to install. There is a black guide plate that should be used to be sure the shafts do not mount too far inward. Most plumbers discard the black spacing plate because they want access from both sides of the wall and want avoid interference with the copper soldering. Moen should figure out a better way of maintaining spacing on these valves. If you have very thick shower walls, there is an extension kit for the shafts so the handles can control the valves. It is hard to imagine needing these because the shafts seem to be too long. Note that these are pressure regulated valves so you should replace all at the same time with the same valve so they act together properly. We had one shower, and two shower tubs that were replaced.

With the upper valve, you can use a tub spout WITHOUT diverter. Order this in advance because your typical hardware stores do not carry Moen Tub spouts without a diverter. The Moen Brantford Non-Diverter Tub Spout is a high quality metal spout that matches well. Your opinion may vary.

Both upper and lower valves rotate either way and pull in and out. The top valve operates to direct the flow to a shower head or a tub faucet. Alternatively, a second shower head can be used instead of the tub faucet. If you have a single shower head, both sides can be coupled together to flow to a single shower head. The top valve pulls in and out to control the flow of water at the mixed temperature set by the lower valve.
The lower valve rotates left and right to control temperature and pulls in and out to control the flow. They are very smooth in operation requiring little force when new. Time will tell if they become more difficult to use. Flow rate is slightly less than the 30 year old Temptrol valves we replaced but it was not noticeable. These valves are very usable and seem to be of high quality.

The reason for 4 stars is the difficulty of installation. Plumbers need to be forewarned about how to install these valves and use the black spacer or some other spacing mechanism so that the valve is not soldered in place with the shafts sticking out too far. The valve will operated OK it just will not look great.

Looks nice but has to be installed further recessed into the wall than described on the unit. If you install where the unit says make flush with finish wall the handle will stick out way too far from the unit. I recommend 1/2 inch recessed from finished wall if not more.