European shower valve

[SecondAttempt]

As mentioned in another thread, I'm remodeling a bathroom. I absolutely love the shower valves that are ubiquitous in Europe. If you are not familiar, you set the temperature on one side and the flow rate on the other. No variation or adjustment from one shower to the next unless you want to. If you are not familiar, search on Amazon for "Bathroom Thermostatic Shower Mixer Wall Mount" and you will see several examples.

But all are European imports. Normally I would not have a problem with this but I'd like to stick with American brands so I don't have problems getting parts if I have to replace washers or something in a few years. Does anyone know if any of the big America brands (Moen, Price Pfister, Delta, etc.) makes anything like this? So far I have come up empty. Are they maybe not allowed by American plumbing codes? If that is the case I'd be curious why.

 

[JoeWras]

Will this work?

https://www.homedepot.com/pep/Delta...inless-Valve-Not-Included-T17038-SS/202831696

Small aside: I once got a faucet off Amazon where the vendor sent me the metric version. Oh, it was so close. Seemed like it should fit standard US 3/8"shut off, but no dice. Thread pitch was different too. Drove me a little nuts for about 15 minutes.

 

[folivier]

These have been available here for many years. Moen and Price Pfister among others have them available. I have these at the cabin but not the condo. Also have had these in 3 different high-end motorhomes. IIRC there was an anti-scald "law" passed years ago that kinda mandated the single handle ones available now.
I much prefer being able to adjust the temperature and water volume separately.

 

[Texas Proud]

Not sure about if mine is European or not but it does what you say...


A big handle on the bottom for temp and a small one on top for water flow... I like this a lot more than one handle for both as you have to find the right temp...


AND, ours you could adjust where the scald temp was at... I have it set just at what I like maybe a bit warmer... it is really easy to find the temp as I just move it to the stop... if you want warmer you push a button to allow it to go past the stop...


Since the big handle is temp it is also very easy to adjust to what you want...

 

[Koolau]

Not sure about if mine is European or not but it does what you say...


A big handle on the bottom for temp and a small one on top for water flow... I like this a lot more than one handle for both as you have to find the right temp...


AND, ours you could adjust where the scald temp was at... I have it set just at what I like maybe a bit warmer... it is really easy to find the temp as I just move it to the stop... if you want warmer you push a button to allow it to go past the stop...


Since the big handle is temp it is also very easy to adjust to what you want...

It sounds wonderful. I spend way to much time trying to get my shower to the right temp. YMMV

 

[Jerry1]

I have Hansgrohe fixtures and our shower valve works as described. It’s not a U.S. company but they have a U.S. subsidiary and I’d have no concerns about getting repair parts.

https://www.hansgrohe-usa.com/artic...mostatic-trim-for-2-functions-square-15763001

 

[OldShooter]

... you set the temperature on one side and the flow rate on the other. No variation or adjustment from one shower to the next unless you want to. ...

We just moved into a new lake home and, after some chasing around, I found a Moen single-handle valve that achieves your objective. https://www.moen.com/products/Align/Align-Brushed-Nickel-M-CORE-3-Series-Valve-Only/UT3291BN Pushing the handle in and out controls the water pressure and moving it from side to side controls the temperature. We have three and they work great. Temp setting doesn't change from shower to shower unless we want it to.

We actually have two of these in our master BR walk-in shower. One feeds a conventional shower head and one feeds a hand shower. The vertical bar of the hand shower is also an ADA-compliant grab bar.

The more popular valves that I avoided had handles that controlled temperature and were also used to turn off the water. So turning the water on and off involved going from the desired temperature through "cold" to get to "off." Terrible idea IMO.

 

[pb4uski]

Will this work?

https://www.homedepot.com/pep/Delta...inless-Valve-Not-Included-T17038-SS/202831696

Small aside: I once got a faucet off Amazon where the vendor sent me the metric version. Oh, it was so close. Seemed like it should fit standard US 3/8"shut off, but no dice. Thread pitch was different too. Drove me a little nuts for about 15 minutes.

Our shower valve is similar to that and it works well. The smaller lever sets the temperature and for us is pretty much a one-time thing. And then the larger lever controls the water pressure... from off to full.

 

[SecondAttempt]

Will this work?

https://www.homedepot.com/pep/Delta...inless-Valve-Not-Included-T17038-SS/202831696

Small aside: I once got a faucet off Amazon where the vendor sent me the metric version. Oh, it was so close. Seemed like it should fit standard US 3/8"shut off, but no dice. Thread pitch was different too. Drove me a little nuts for about 15 minutes.

Thanks, those look like they have the function I'm looking for. I'm not fond of the style for my application but that's a different matter.

Those European threads are actually not metric What you had were probably G 3/8. They are the same as 3/8 inch British Straight Parallel Pipe. The G supposedly stands for "gas" but they are widely used in plumbing in Europe. You can get adapters here so it's not a big problem except that they look so similar at a glance that it can be confusing.

 

[mcbraemer]

Delta Model T17038 has 2 handles and allows you to set the temperature once and never mess with it. We have an older version of this valve in two bathrooms, and after 10 years they are still working fine and look brand new