American Standard Patience 1.8 gpm/6.6 L/min Tub and Shower Trim Kit With Water-Saving 3-Function Showerhead, Double Ceramic Pressure Balance Cartridge With Lever Handle - AMS-TU106508

No. The Patience TU106508 is trim only, and it's built for use with American Standard Flash shower rough-in valves. You get the 5 inch three-function showerhead, shower arm and flange, brass wall escutcheon, metal lever handle, and a slip-on diverter tub spout. The valve body has to be ordered separately, so on a new install budget for the Flash rough-in as a second line item.

It uses a double ceramic pressure balance cartridge, a ceramic disc mixing valve plus a ceramic balancing spool in one piece. The spool holds output temperature steady when relative hot and cold supply pressure shifts, which is exactly the toilet-flush case. There is also an adjustable hot limit safety stop so you can cap how much hot water is allowed into the mix, which is the setting property managers usually dial back in senior housing and student units.

Slip-on, and it's a diverter spout. That means it slides over a copper stub-out and sets with a setscrew rather than threading onto a nipple. If your existing rough-in has a threaded nipple, that's a different spout connection and this one will not land on it.

The showerhead is rated 1.8 gpm (6.6 L/min) maximum, which American Standard describes as a 30 percent water saving. That puts it below the common 2.5 gpm baseline and at the level multifamily and hospitality retrofit programs usually specify for shower fixtures.

Yes. The cartridge has back-to-back capability, so hot and cold can be reversed quickly without repiping. That matters on mirrored bathroom stacks in apartments and hotels where one riser feeds two units and the supplies land on the opposite sides.

The mixing element is ceramic disc, and the balancing spool is ceramic too, which American Standard states is unaffected by mineral deposits and harsh water conditions. That's the reason to pick a ceramic cartridge over an older rubber-seat balancing unit in a hard water market, and it's why the handle operation stays smooth.

The Patience uses a one-piece cartridge, mixing valve and balancing spool combined, which American Standard notes simplifies both installation and service. So a maintenance tech pulls the handle and escutcheon, swaps the single cartridge, and is done, rather than dealing with separate mixing and balancing components. Integrated check valves in the assembly handle cross flow between hot and cold.

The head is 5 inches (127 mm) with three spray functions, at a 1.8 gpm maximum. Three settings is usually a full spray, a concentrated or massage pattern, and a combination, selected at the face of the head. Water is diverted from the tub spout up to the head by the spout's built-in diverter, not by a separate valve in the wall.

Metal. The kit ships with a metal lever handle and a brass wall escutcheon, which is what you want in rental and institutional bathrooms where a plastic handle is the first thing to crack. A lever is also the easier shape to operate with a closed fist or forearm.