Just when you think things cant get any more Star Trek…. I just installed a Moen iO Digital Vertical Spa at my house. Pretty cool! We love it. The installation was very simple. Moen has come up with a really cool quick connection fitting for connection piping to the digitally controlled valve. Other than a couple of wires, there isn’t a whole lot of extra work for the plumber. We were able to install this unit with very little need to use the instructions. We have installed a couple of the Kohler digital shower valves, and they are a quite a bit more complicated. The iO Digital is a straight up shower valve. Kohler digital shower valves have the ability to run your music, steam, and lighting but,We have had quite a few bugs with the Kohler systems. Once we get them worked out, they seem to work great, but calls to the tech support, and the waits for replacement parts get a pretty old..
My first Moen digital experience has been nothing but positive. So, you just push a button! The shower pops on and takes you to your last setting (or a pre-set). The hot-cold dial has very cool red-blue illuminated indicators that let you know at a glance how hot your water is. Besides the illuminated display, the control display has the actual degree displayed. That is pretty cool as well. The illuminated dial flashes if the valve is unable to deliver your requested temperature. I will say that this happens pretty much every time you turn off-on a function (rain head, body spray, hand shower). If I had a suggestion to Moen it would be to tighten up the temperature control. Tankless water heaters can deliver hot water at an extremely accurate temperature regardless of pressure, and flow changes, so we know that it’s possible. Don’t get me wrong. It is not a big deal. You turn on the hand shower, and there may be a four degree temperature drop on the other functions for a few seconds. No scalding or freezing just a noticeable drop in temperature. An advantage of the digital control is the clean look.
This one control is replacing 5 valves! Some of the elaborate master shower systems we do look more like an old battleship boiler room. Another advantage is it is very clear what head your are turning on. With the boiler room style shower, you have to experiment with each valve to find the one that turns on the function that you are looking for. The shower The first thing I notices was the Moen Rainshower Showerhead. It feels great. A weakness of many of the showers I work in seems to be the hand shower. They always seem to have week performance. Moen seems to have this dialed in pretty well too. The pressure is great out of the hand shower, and has some great functions as well. Body sprays, well yeah, they are nice.
Did mention that the thing comes with a remote? This is for the extremely lazy that can’t afford any energy to lift up their finger to press a button. The paperwork says that you can start the shower from your bed. This is a fact. You can. I have. Then I asked myself why. I will throw no stones If it makes you happy to turn the shower on from bed, we have the thing for you! So its 2 thumbs up from Brad And Sarah!
https://www.moen.com/iodigital/digital-shower.popup
Thanks Moen for sending us this unit for a review. Brad Casebier Radiant Plumbing Service Austin Texas
