Hi,
All over the forums and internet the pros recommend Delta #1 in shower valves for ease of repair,finding parts years down the road and durability and Moen #2.When I was in Lowes I opened the most expensive Delta that fit my requirements(chrome,single handle shower only valve) and the valve body was all plastic.I opened the cheapest Moen and the valve body was brass.That would lean my decision towards Moen.Am I missing something?
P.S. I heard that the Moen Posi-temp is a pain to repair,if Moen is the better choice should I look for one without Posi-Temp?
Thanks.



Edited 1 times.

So you're the one opening the boxes (), just kidding, I don't buy them there anyway...

Both Moen & Delta have brass valves, but Delta may have more plastic parts and neither of them are difficult to repair, the cartridges cost about the same.

e-plumber
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"The society which scorns excellence in Plumbing as a humble activity and tolerates shoddiness in philosophy because it is an
exalted activity will have neither good Plumbing nor good philosophy: neither its pipes nor its theories will hold water." -
John William Gardner 10/8/1912 - 2/16/2002

Repair your leaking Plumbing fixtures ASAP [www.theplumber.com]
This slow drip will waste 7+ gallons of water per day.

moen.
never seen a plastic shower valve body.
both are exelent valves.
but cring when i see an old delta body the three tube desine is to easy to twist if the bonet cap is seazed up.
use a strap wrench on the old deltas after removing the escushun plate.
if it wont budge then sell them a moen valve.
just red the last post how the hell did we grow up with( out )scald controls and posi- temp !!!!!!



Edited 2 times.

I think you were mistaken about the delta valve. Of course, the cartride is plastic, but not the valve body. When you look at the body in the box, it may have a plastic plug on it. That is a test plug only.

Moen can use either a plastic or brass body cartridge, and plastic is preferred by many folks.

Positemp is not any harder to repair than any other Moen.

Because of codes, you will not find many, if ANY, single handle valve which are NOT anti-scald.

Open a Kohler box...check out the valve...i think you'll be impressed

I install 90% Kohler and still havent had a call back

Moen is my #2 choice...I worked with Delta for years and was never impressed..All the Delta Lowerend faucets you'll buy to go with that mixer now come with plastic drain assemblies....Moen & Kohler are still all brass drains....

Ive had Moen/Delta come damaged and missing parts right out of the box...never had a damaged or missing parts Kohler...

You will be in good shape with either .delta's newer valve body design will give you more options if you are looking for flow control or Temperature sensing.Any valve can become a nightmare to repair if you know not, what you are doing.

THe valve body was brass, the control unit was plastic. Moen is the same way. I prefer Delta.

The same way we grew up without knee pads and bicycle helmets, soft landing pads at slides, and all the rest of the "kid's safety equipment" we have now. In other words "tough".

I do not think I have ever met anyone from WI that did not like Kohler faucets or the Packers, and hate Bret. I was able to reprogram my wife at an early age.

Sure HJ Bet she still has a wedged shape hat she wares when your not home.Once a cheese head!GOOOO BEARS!

Nope, it was burned at a Bears rally.

Everyone wants Kohler around here..i do mostly middle/high end work so that may be why. Still no call backs...im a few months away from 3 years in business...probably 1000's of faucet/mixer installs

It is getting easier to sell Toto though...their rep. is growing...just wish Toto sold shower mixers/faucets which could compete with Moen/Delta/Kohler....they are crazy expensive....i have 1 of their faucets in my house..not the best engineering.

Interesting. You wish TOTO sold shower and tub valves BECAUSE of "not the best engineering"? That would discourage most plumbers from using them, since we do not like callbacks. There was a time when Kohler was a top line manufacturer of faucets, but those days are long gone. The only thing they retain from those days are the high prices and limited warranty.

It is possible that the valve was plastic. California is supposed to have a new law that makes it illegal to have any lead in the potable water supply system. Often brass has a small amount of lead to make it more machinable.

As for which valve I would recommend, I would recommend the Moen Moentrol valve. It is a little more than the Moen Posi-temp valve, but it lets you control volume and temperature and it will cost you less to repair it in the future. We always push the Moentrol at my company.

--Will

Used to install Moen exclusively until I had to repair them. It didn't take me long to find another valve and now Delta is all I install. The valve can be installed without a decision made on the trim because any trim package uses the same valve.

Hi,
Thanks for all the advice.Since I didn't have time yet to go back to Lowes,I called Delta and asked if the particular shower faucet model that I wanted which is also sold in HD has or has not a brass valve body.They did indeed confirm that it is the R10000 valve body which of course is brass.Sorry for the confusion.I think what happened is that when I opened the Moen box,the cartridge and body were all together and I saw it was immediately brass.When I opened the Delta box I only saw the cartridge,and looked no further for the brass body and assumed it was plastic.Again,sorry and thanks for all the posts.I'll be going with the Delta.

Woberkrom.Could you send me three of the moen trol balancer spools.Seems moen is unable!!!I am not feeling good about this.

We are planning for a soaking tub (Hydro Systems Lacey 6632), and over it a tiled shower with a fixed shower head at each end (separate temp controls if affordable), and a hand-held on a sliding bar at the end with the drain. Nothing fancier, just be able to take showers together with shower head at a convenient height for each, and the handheld on sliding bar.

Our plumber prefers Delta or Moen, also, for ease in repairs and getting replacement parts, but wants us to figure out what we want for functions and trim and provide it all, and then he will install. (I think he is used to doing simple projects, and he is young. This one may be more complicated than he is used to, with double showers with a hand-held over a soaking tub, or else he is used to people with complicated showers not being as concerned about the cost and not asking as many questions.) He put in 1" pipe from the basement to the second floor and then it is 3/4" pipe to the separate fixtures.

We want as much of the plumbing as possible to happen on the drain end of the tub, since that is accessible for repairs while the other side is over a staircase.

We'd like the two fixed shower heads to have separate temp controls, if that isn't too expensive or too complicated. (My impression from Delta was that with their stuff, we couldn't get a tub AND three shower heads on the same circuit anyway.) I don't really care about the volume control for the tub or showers (on/off is fine).

I have long, thick hair and want to be sure I can get the conditioner out easily with any of the shower heads. We don't care a lot about the other types of spray, but the H20 Kinetic by Delta sounds pleasant if it gives enough force for rinsing, and it it didn't cost a lot more, or we'd be interested in a couple of options for lighter or pulsating flow.

I have heard we should get a "high flow valve" to be able to fill the tub fast enough to not have it cool off while it is still filling. (70 gal tub with no jets to keep the temp up.) Is that really a concern? If so, what companies have them? I am having trouble finding online relevant results searching with high flow tub valves.

I don't really care about "saving the temp setting" and having a separate volume control, but 1) I don't want it to be complicated for guests trying to take a shower and figuring out how to work it; 2) I would rather the shower handles look like each other, and function similarly (If 11:00 on the handle is warm for one, I'd like it to be at about the same place for the other, but that isn't essential.); 3) I'd like to be able to turn off the water to the handheld from the handheld (to save water while shaving legs) if that is affordable (or we'll have to make sure the seat is near the drain end, so I can reach the handle); and 4) we want parts that are durable and look good (not rusting, not breaking, not feeling like cheap plastic). We will find a traditional or transitional style of trim that is compatible with what function we want and with not looking too complicated. We are going with chrome, figuring it will allow more choices and be cheaper than some other choices that don't offer any advantage for durability.

The handheld can be from the thermostatic valve of either of the fixed showers, although I have been assuming it would be from the valve for the tub and the shower head over the tub spout. I think that will be less confusing, since the wall elbow and sliding bar will be on that end.

A Delta rep on the phone recommended the R10000UNWSHF valve to control the shower head and hand-held shower on the end with the tub, and said the tub had its own diverter, so that would somehow be on that valve even though the website states it is for SHOWER ONLY. She recommended the 1700T series, which provides more flow to the tub (but it doesn't go to the tub??), even though we don't care about setting the temp and having it stay there.

Then she recommended the R1100 diverter with 2 ports, three positions so that one port would be to the fixed head and one to the hand-held on that end, with the three positions of one or other or both. I seem to have stopped taking notes, but maybe later she said we'd actually use it as three ports, 6 positions because one port would be for the tub??

For the opposite end of the tub, She said we could buy the 1300 or 1400 series, since we didn't need the high flow, but then the handles don't match. I didn't get a part number for which valve we should get.

The Moen rep was talking about having an exact temp valve (S3371) and four separate handles (S3600): one for each shower head and for the tub. That was sounding really busy to me, and didn't give temp control to the other shower, and they didn't have anything about high flow, so I am not sure how long it will take to fill the tub. To have separate temp control for the other fixed shower head, she recommended a Moentrol (3570). She said you choose the valve you want first, and she recommended the Moentrol. When I selected Moentrol valve and Chrome, all three choices had 1/2" connections and were well over $300, and this was for the simple end!

Thanks for any recommendations!