Arm mounted diverter, bad idea?

[DBA]

Looking at putting together a system with a fixed Speakman shower head and a handheld on a slide bar. Speakman makes a combo, but I was going to put my own together so I can use their better head. The diverter valve is a 2 way Speakman, so only one head would be used at a time. Will this work well or am I better off using a separate diverter? Planning on using it with a Kohler stacked thermostatic mixing/volume valve.

 

[Jadnashua]

Carefully check the specifications to ensure the valve you want allows things to be shut off by a diverter. Some valves, especially thermostatically controlled ones, do not support a shutoff after them. Also, many of the arm mounted ones do not fully shut off the flow, and it will continue to dribble. A shutoff after the thermostatically controlled valve tends to cause the adjustment to max out, trying to provide warm water after things have been shut off.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[DBA]

Carefully check the specifications to ensure the valve you want allows things to be shut off by a diverter. Some valves, especially thermostatically controlled ones, do not support a shutoff after them. Also, many of the arm mounted ones do not fully shut off the flow, and it will continue to dribble. A shutoff after the thermostatically controlled valve tends to cause the adjustment to max out, trying to provide warm water after things have been shut off.

Thanks, if the diverter is just switching between heads, how would a thermostatic valve even know something changed? The valve is installed upstream from both heads.

 

[Jadnashua]

Essentially, if there is always an outlet patch, that diverter may work. If you want to get fancier about which one or ones you want on at any one time, you need more ports on the diverter. They make all sorts of ones in matching trim for many valves. The situation I described is if the diverter could turn off all outlets, which happens on some of them...some valves do not like that. Many of the showerhead diverters are actually just an on/off valve, but there are some that will switch outlets.

 

[DBA]

Thanks, not looking to do anything fancy, this is just a pop-up valve that switches between the fixed and hand held head.

 

[Terry]

This Kohler bar has a diverter on it to switch from shower head to hand shower.

 

[DBA]

Looks nice, so I'm assuming there are no flow issues with this setup?

 

[Terry]

Looks nice, so I'm assuming there are no flow issues with this setup?

It works great.

It was interesting to install. I put some backer board in, and then found it a little difficult to hit the wood with screws. Kohler gives you some plastic wall anchors with the kit.
It is one of the smoothest looking setups I've installed though.

 

[DBA]

I was thinking of doing this, but will substitute one of the better all brass Speakman heads for the fixed location

 

[Jadnashua]

What I have in my home is just the handheld. I really don't see the need for both a fixed and the handheld on the bracket. Unless you had your diverter setup so both could be used simultaneously (more heads, faster deplete the WH and not great for the environment, either), I'm fine with just the handheld as the only spray.

 

[DBA]

My idea is to put in a really strong, commercial grade Speakman head for me in a fixed position, and let her put the head on the slider where she wants it when she's sitting down. The configuration I'm doing will only cost about $200 more than just having a handheld slider since it won't require any additional plumbing work. We really don't need both heads on at the same time.

 

[DBA]

I like the look of that Kohler setup so much that I'm changing mine. Going to use the Hyrodrail S with the Speakman shower head for the fixed location. For the handheld, I assume you like the Kohler? I'm thinking of using the 4 way Stillness/Purist as I'm using the Stillness stacked valve trim. It looks like that head would also work well anchored in the slider.