GROHTHERM® SMARTCONTROL SINGLE FUNCTION 2-HANDLE THERMOSTATIC VALVE TRIM

Bought this to replace a Grohe that died after 15 years. WE LOVE IT. The bottom dial sets the temperature. Since my wife & I like the same water temperature, we set the dial once and we are done for the next 15 years. As soon as you turn the top dial to let the water run, it automatically goes to your preferred pre-set temperature. You can make it hotter or colder if you want, but most times it's set it and forget it.There are options to buy units with one setting (water on/off), two settings (hand held and shower) or three (hand held, shower, bathtub), so MAKE SURE YOU ORDER THE RIGHT ONE.Two complaints: 1) the dial that turns the water on/off could be bigger for those with arthritis or who need a larger thing to grab and twist. 2) the installation instructions are useless -- letters and pictures that meant nothing to me. Luckily, I had a plumber do the installation, so let him figure it out. All in all, though, this is a very good unit.

The components are composed of plastic, which is susceptible to degradation. Consequently, obtaining a replacement part becomes a protracted process, as the necessary component must be sourced from Germany. When you need to take a shower this can be a problem.

This review is for the Control Plate which is used inside a shower to control water flow and temperature. I need to be clear, here, that this control system requires a specific valve to function properly and the valve is terribly difficult to install, owing to a cheap/flimsy component on the front of the valve which is designed to be cut away and recycled after installation. Because it is disposable, the company makes it thin and easily breakable. It arrives broken quite often and they claim it doesn't matter, according to my installer, who contacted them for help. However, it does matter. In order to level the unit and set it into the wall with a perfectly round opening, you actually need that disposable piece to function properly, and it doesn't. So, this review, giving five stars, is for the control plate only. The valve is a four star valve owing to how difficult it was to install. On to the control plate....The control plate for this shower system is quite lovely. It is well made and very simple with intuitive controls and and easy action on the control knobs. I would prefer not to have the temperature labels as, over time, it starts to feel like they are telling you that you have developed dementia. It really isn't that difficult for me, even at my age, to readily recognize controls and remember how to operate them without directional arrows and numerical labels. As such, I feel this portion of the design beginning to irritate me after just a week of use. Others have commented on it as well, finding it innocuous in the first days but, after a few days of use, finding it irritating. They should do away with this design feature as the vast majority do not require constant instruction of how to operate a shower, or, in the alternative, they should market this for people who have difficulty remembering. As an aside, this would work beautifully for a person with dementia, who is having difficulty remembering how to operate shower controls.As to a comparison of the action, I found that the smooth operation of the controls was on par with Delta and Moen, that is to say the action is excellent, both smooth and easy.As this is a control plate only, there is nothing else to review. The installation of the plate is easy, but, again, the installation of the valve is quite difficult, owing to a design flaw. If you opt for this wonderful control plate, please check your valve carefully, upon ordering it separately, to make sure it has no breaks or cracks. Were it not for the difficulty with that valve, I would recommend this to everyone. Because of that difficulty, I recommend this only to people working with experience installers who can work around flaws in the valve and still get it installed properly. Good luck in finding what will work for you and your family.

Everywhere on the descriptions it says "metal" "Brass" "Chrome", including the specification sheet. It is a lie!! The large circular cover plate is metal, but the most important parts, the handles, are 100% plastic, including the inside, the attachment point, everything. It feels cheap, including when you turn the controls, just awful. So disappointed, because we installed a similar Grohe shower handle and associated rain shower head in our previous house, and it was wonderful. This is GARBAGE, for the exorbitant price of premium. Do not buy this, you can get better quality off the shelf at any hardware store. Now we are stuck, since we have the Grohe rough-in valve already installed behind our newly tiled shower.

The Grohe Rapido system is really clever and makes installation of these multifunction valves straightforward. It's the details that are frustrating. This is the second of these types of valves I have installed recently, the previous one was one of the ones with buttons to control the functions. Both of them come with diagrammatic-only installation instructions, which can be really hard to decipher, largely because they are wrong! As an example, on this valve it shows two orientations for the flow / diverter control, depending on whether you want it to switch each shower head independently or not. Only one orientation (nub down) works - in the other orientation, the showers don't turn off. Other diagrams show pieces in the wrong orientation. One tip - align the temperature control pieces before you put on the trim plate. And, seek out the Youtube install videos, they are very helpful. Lastly, I couldn't figure out if the mounting depth of the rough in box makes any different to the install. With the button press valve, I had to shorten pieces, according to the instructions. With this one, my box was mounted at the back of a 2x4 stud wall, with an inch of backer board and tile and the valve and plate went on fine. If it was at the back of a 2x6 wall, not sure that this would have worked, so check out the installation depths first.