We'd like to replace our 17-year old showerhead and faucet. What brand(s) will you guys recommend? Where (B&M or online) retailers would you recommend?
I always recommend a "name brand" valve. You don't want to be replacing or repairing one all the time. Usually, getting to a shower valve is a royal pain. Find one that has easy to find future replacement parts you may need. The "economy" valves do not always have removable replaceable parts so you end up buying a whole new unit if it fails.
At 17 years old, I am guessing that your shower controls are two knobs, a hot and cold or possibly 3, hot, cold and the diverter. IF this is true, just in case you dont' realize it, installing a valve like the one in your link, a pressure balance anti-scald valve where the hot and cold supplys mix in the valve body, will require some plumbing beyond just replacing your existing valve with another, newer, like style. I love my mixing valve - but if you aren't skilled at sweating copper pipes, it will require a plumber. All that is assuming there isn't a mixing valve there already.
That aside, I really dig the valve you picked out. Very classy, yet, not too much. I like it alot.
The best advice I can give you is don't buy from the big box stores. They negotiate with the manufacturers to get the price down on their products. To do this the manufacturer will replace a lot of the internal parts with plastic ones. This goes more for sink faucets but just the same. I recommend Symmonns. They are basically builders choice, but they do have fancy trim kits. I recommend them because they last and almost every plumber has a repair kit in his truck, if needed.
You know that for you the change out the old valve for a new valve, you will need access to the back wall and you will need to most likely have to alter the plumbing to get the new valve installed. We install alot of American Standard Valves and recommend them Moen is another good choice., the one you picked out id a nice one also.
As far as cheaper parts in the big box stores, I can till you they all look the same to me, internal and external parts, maybe in other locations they do it, but, not here on the West Coast.
This is not always true. and to the best of my knowledge I don't think they do. I have taken apart valves from big box stores and valves from my supplier and the parts are indentical.
Hi, my husband bought the Parma line from Danze online and although the products were made in China, they are very solid and well made. We are quite happy with them and we'd purchase Danze products again. If anyone has any input about how long the products last, please post. It would be good to know if I can expect to have to replace parts and if you found it easy to do.
Sorry I don't remember the name of the website he used, but if anyone is interested I can ask him to post it.
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