American Standard 2-Handle Thermo Rough Valve W/Built-In-3 - AMS-R523

The R523 is the in-wall rough valve body only, the brass casting and thermostatic cartridge that gets set in the wall during rough-in. It ships with no finish (the single orderable configuration is a NO FINISH valve body), so the handles, escutcheon and any exposed trim are ordered separately in whatever finish the bathroom calls for. Plan on a matching 2-handle thermostatic trim kit to complete the installation.

Yes. The built-in diverter lets you feed either 2 or 3 separate outlets from the one valve, so a showerhead plus a handshower plus body sprays can all run off it without adding a separate diverter valve in the wall. The buyer picks how many outlets they pipe at rough-in.

It's a wax thermostatic valve that holds the pre-selected water temperature, and it has an adjustable hot limit safety stop to reduce the risk of accidental scalding. The maximum temperature limit can be set down to 104 or 109 degrees Fahrenheit, which is the setting most facilities managers use when standardizing guest rooms, dorms or resident bathrooms.

It will. The R523 is back-to-back capable, meaning hot and cold can be reversed at the valve. That matters on back-to-back bathrooms sharing a wet wall, where one of the two rough-ins always ends up mirrored. No special order code, the same valve handles it.

No separate stops are needed at the valve. Integrated stop valves are built into the R523 body, so the water can be shut off right at the valve for cleaning or cartridge service without killing the supply to the rest of the building. On a multi-family or hotel job that's the difference between servicing one bathroom and shutting a riser down.

Spring-loaded check valves are already in the valve body, and they stop hot and cold from crossing over between the supplies. That's the crossflow protection an inspector looks for on a mixing valve, and it's integral here rather than a separate pair of fittings to pipe in.

A pressure balance valve only reacts to pressure swings, so the temperature drifts as the incoming hot water changes. A thermostatic valve like the R523 holds a pre-selected temperature and lets you cap the maximum at 104 or 109 degrees. Choose thermostatic when the shower serves guests, residents or patients, when you want a fixed temperature limit set at the valve, or when you need more than one outlet, since the R523 also diverts to 2 or 3 outlets. Pressure balance is the simpler single-outlet choice.

The manufacturer part number is R523, an American Standard 2-handle thermostatic rough valve with the built-in 3-outlet diverter. It is ordered as the unfinished valve body, so there is only the one configuration to specify. Finish selection happens on the trim, not on this part.

The body is a high quality brass casting, which is what holds up in a wall you don't want to open again, and the working parts that wear are in the serviceable thermostatic cartridge rather than the casting. With integrated stops in the body, servicing that cartridge doesn't require shutting down supply beyond the fixture.