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I have one of these grohe thermostatic valves. You can set the temperature and then use a push button to turn the shower on. The temperature is always set corre

I have one of these grohe thermostatic valves. You can set the temperature and then use a push button to turn the shower on. The temperature is always set correctly as the on/off is separate from the temperature control. A majority of the range of the dial is usable. We still use cold water for cleaning the shower, or when you want a cold shower. During the shower, I have it set to hot, then slowly turn up the heat. This uses about half the dial's range. The big difference is the grohe costs $500 while a standard builder grader valve might be $50. https://www.build.com/product/summary/1391570?uid=3279009&jmtest=gg-gbav2_3279009&inv2=1&&source=gg-gba-pla_3279009!c6955229006!a76700685101!dc!ng&gclsrc=ds&gclsrc=ds https://www.build.com/product/summary/1391570?uid=3279009&jm... <<How does a Grohe thermostatic valve work? The thermostatic valve mixes the hot and cold water to your pre-selected temperature and reacts instantly to any changes in the pressure or temperature of the water supply by re-adjusting the mix of hot and cold water.>>

sintezcs 4y ago
I also have grohe thermostatic valve and enjoy it a lot! Worth every $ spent.
- dclowd9901 4y ago
  Same, nothing but good from my experience. Just a bit finicky to install like most European hardware and fixtures. Oh and their instructions are pictures only and hilariously obtuse.
  - vl 4y ago
    Well, you can get Chinese thermostatic valve for few times cheaper.
    - dclowd9901 4y ago
      You get what you pay for in my experience.
      - vl 4y ago
        Hans Grohe panel shower broke, they don’t make panels like this anymore. Repair parts - $1600. Even BMW is not that greedy. I replaced it with Chinese panel from Amazon for $500. Sure, not as fancy, but works just fine.
brmgb 4y ago
I have thermostatic valves here which costed me something like 80€. It's not as fancy as the Grohe. It looks like a classic two knobs system except the right one controls temperature with gradation in degrees while the left one controls flow. Better temperature control doesn't have to cost an arm.
scottlamb 4y ago
I have a Gröhe thermostatic valve which came with the house. It's somehow broken such that you can't get the water as hot as advertised unless the dishwasher is running (?). And it's installed behind tile, so we can't just get a plumber to come in and replace it; we have to also line up someone to re-tile the shower immediately afterward. We also have a pair of Gröhe sinks. We had to replace all four expensive, proprietary faucet hoses one-by-one as they ruptured. And then a couple more. It turns out they're short enough that it's hard to install them without kinking, and that eventually causes them to rupture. I'm not a Gröhe fan. (It also takes several minutes for the water to come to temperature in that particular shower, though it's only about 10 feet away from the water heater. I think the sink fixtures are affected too which suggests it's not all the shower valve's fault. It might be that we have pipes that are indirect and/or way too high-capacity, such that the total volume of water to drain between the water heater and the bathroom is excessive, and this is particularly obvious when using a low-flow shower-head.)
- avianlyric 4y ago
  Sounds like an issue with your heater. Not sure why your dishwasher changes anything, they normally run off cold water and use their own heaters. Sounds more like you run your kitchen tap while filling the dishwasher, and flushes the cold water out of your pipes, and gives your heater enough time to get to temp. Have you tried see if you can set the output temperature of your heater higher? Could be the output temp of the heater is very close to “shower” temperature, and a lot of heat is lost heating up pipes etc, something that could be sped up by increasing the heaters output temp, or improving the insulation on your hot water pipes.
  - scottlamb 4y ago
    The water's hot enough everywhere else (this bathroom's sinks after the aforementioned delay, other bathroom, kitchen). The heater's set to ~130 deg F, which iirc is the upper limit of what's recommended and considerably above the ideal shower temp. It really seems to be the dishwasher running that makes the difference. I rarely use the shower in question, but my wife does every evening, and it apparently doesn't help if I've done all the rinsing/hand-washing and loading of the dishwasher but not actually hit start. I don't understand the mechanism, but I believe her. I'm not sure if the dishwasher draws from the hot or cold tap.
olliej 4y ago
I have these as well, but they suffer the same underlying complaint that the majority of the dial area is for temperatures that are generally unwanted. As far as I can tell (and as the article records) there is a relatively small range of temperatures people want for showers or whatever, and then all hot and all cold. So while with my setup I press a button and (sans hot water reaching the shower time) I always get the same temperature, dialing around to get that temperature is still fairly annoying.

sintezcs 4y ago

I also have grohe thermostatic valve and enjoy it a lot! Worth every $ spent.

dclowd9901 4y ago
Same, nothing but good from my experience. Just a bit finicky to install like most European hardware and fixtures. Oh and their instructions are pictures only and hilariously obtuse.
- vl 4y ago
  Well, you can get Chinese thermostatic valve for few times cheaper.
  - dclowd9901 4y ago
    You get what you pay for in my experience.
    - vl 4y ago
      Hans Grohe panel shower broke, they don’t make panels like this anymore. Repair parts - $1600. Even BMW is not that greedy. I replaced it with Chinese panel from Amazon for $500. Sure, not as fancy, but works just fine.

brmgb 4y ago

I have thermostatic valves here which costed me something like 80€. It's not as fancy as the Grohe. It looks like a classic two knobs system except the right one controls temperature with gradation in degrees while the left one controls flow. Better temperature control doesn't have to cost an arm.

scottlamb 4y ago

I have a Gröhe thermostatic valve which came with the house. It's somehow broken such that you can't get the water as hot as advertised unless the dishwasher is running (?). And it's installed behind tile, so we can't just get a plumber to come in and replace it; we have to also line up someone to re-tile the shower immediately afterward. We also have a pair of Gröhe sinks. We had to replace all four expensive, proprietary faucet hoses one-by-one as they ruptured. And then a couple more. It turns out they're short enough that it's hard to install them without kinking, and that eventually causes them to rupture. I'm not a Gröhe fan. (It also takes several minutes for the water to come to temperature in that particular shower, though it's only about 10 feet away from the water heater. I think the sink fixtures are affected too which suggests it's not all the shower valve's fault. It might be that we have pipes that are indirect and/or way too high-capacity, such that the total volume of water to drain between the water heater and the bathroom is excessive, and this is particularly obvious when using a low-flow shower-head.)

avianlyric 4y ago
Sounds like an issue with your heater. Not sure why your dishwasher changes anything, they normally run off cold water and use their own heaters. Sounds more like you run your kitchen tap while filling the dishwasher, and flushes the cold water out of your pipes, and gives your heater enough time to get to temp. Have you tried see if you can set the output temperature of your heater higher? Could be the output temp of the heater is very close to “shower” temperature, and a lot of heat is lost heating up pipes etc, something that could be sped up by increasing the heaters output temp, or improving the insulation on your hot water pipes.
- scottlamb 4y ago
  The water's hot enough everywhere else (this bathroom's sinks after the aforementioned delay, other bathroom, kitchen). The heater's set to ~130 deg F, which iirc is the upper limit of what's recommended and considerably above the ideal shower temp. It really seems to be the dishwasher running that makes the difference. I rarely use the shower in question, but my wife does every evening, and it apparently doesn't help if I've done all the rinsing/hand-washing and loading of the dishwasher but not actually hit start. I don't understand the mechanism, but I believe her. I'm not sure if the dishwasher draws from the hot or cold tap.

olliej 4y ago

I have these as well, but they suffer the same underlying complaint that the majority of the dial area is for temperatures that are generally unwanted. As far as I can tell (and as the article records) there is a relatively small range of temperatures people want for showers or whatever, and then all hot and all cold. So while with my setup I press a button and (sans hot water reaching the shower time) I always get the same temperature, dialing around to get that temperature is still fairly annoying.