American Standard Delancey 1.8 gpm/6.8 L/min Tub and Shower Trim Kit With Water-Saving 4-Function Showerhead and Lever Handle - AMS-TU052508

It's a trim kit, so what you get is the finished side of the assembly: the showerhead, the tub spout side of the trim, the escutcheon and the lever handle. The pressure balance function lives in the cartridge that mates to a separate in-wall rough-in valve body, which is ordered on its own. On a new install, plan on the rough-in going in at framing stage and the Delancey trim going on after tile.

The showerhead is rated 1.8 gpm (6.8 L/min), which is below the 2.5 gpm federal maximum and below the 2.0 gpm threshold most water conservation programs use. American Standard states it cuts water use by 28 percent. For a property manager retrofitting a block of units on a water-savings program, that flow rate is the number to put on the submittal.

Yes. The Delancey trim has back-to-back capability, meaning hot and cold can be reversed at the cartridge quickly rather than repiping the wall. That's the situation you hit in hotels, dorms and apartment stacks where two bathrooms share a wet wall and one of them lands mirrored. The integrated check valves are there to stop cross flow between the hot and cold supplies in that arrangement.

Two things handle it. The double ceramic pressure balance cartridge holds output temperature steady when someone flushes a toilet or opens a tap elsewhere and the relative hot and cold supply pressures shift. On top of that there's an adjustable hot limit safety stop, which caps how much hot water can enter the mix, so you can dial the maximum down at commissioning and set every unit in a building the same way.

Four finishes: chrome (TU052508.002), polished nickel (TU052508.013), brushed nickel (TU052508.295) and brushed cool sunrise (TU052508.GN0). Chrome and brushed nickel are the two that usually match existing commercial and multi-family fixture packages; polished nickel and brushed cool sunrise are the warmer, more specified-look options. Order by the suffix, since the base number is the same across all four.

Maintenance comes down to one part. The mixing valve and the balancing spool are combined into a single one-piece cartridge, so a service call is a cartridge swap rather than rebuilding two separate components. Both elements are ceramic, and American Standard notes the ceramic balancing spool is unaffected by mineral deposits and harsh water, which is the usual cause of sticky handles and creeping temperature in hard-water buildings.

The head offers four spray settings rather than a single fixed pattern, selected at the head itself. In a rental or hotel setting that's the difference between a tenant living with one spray and being able to pick a fuller or a more concentrated one. The 1.8 gpm rating applies across the head, so the water saving doesn't depend on which setting someone leaves it on.

A lever is the handle type to reach for when the user may have limited grip, since it operates with a push or a closed fist rather than the pinching and twisting a knob or cross handle needs. The Delancey trim uses a single lever handle, and pairing that with the adjustable hot limit stop gives you both easy operation and a capped maximum temperature on the same opening.