American Standard Reliant 3 2.5 gpm/9.5 L/min Shower Trim Kit With Showerhead, Double Ceramic Pressure Balance Cartridge With Lever Handle - AMS-TU385501

Trim only. The Reliant 3 TU385501 kit gives you the showerhead, shower arm and flange, metal wall escutcheon and metal lever handle, plus the double ceramic pressure balance cartridge. The valve body behind the wall is separate, and this trim is made for American Standard Flash shower rough-in valves. Ordering it without a Flash rough already in the wall leaves you short a part on install day.

The included "Easy Clean" showerhead is 4-1/2 inches (115 mm) and flows a maximum of 2.5 gpm / 9.5 L/min. That is the standard federal maximum, but it will not satisfy jurisdictions or green building programs that cap shower flow at 2.0 or 1.8 gpm. For those jobs, spec a lower-flow head and use this trim's arm, escutcheon and handle as-is, since the head threads on standard.

Yes. The Reliant 3 cartridge has back-to-back capability, so hot and cold can be reversed quickly without opening the wall or reworking the supplies. That is the fix for back-to-back bathrooms where one shower ends up with the supplies mirrored.

Pressure balance. The Reliant 3 uses a one-piece double ceramic cartridge that combines a ceramic disc mixing valve with a ceramic balancing spool. The spool holds output temperature steady when hot or cold supply pressure changes, which is what protects the user when a toilet flushes elsewhere on the line. A thermostatic valve is a different animal, it senses actual water temperature and holds a setpoint, and it uses a separate volume control. If your drawing calls for thermostatic with separate volume, this is not that trim.

There is an adjustable hot limit safety stop built in, which caps how much hot water can mix with cold and reduces scald risk. It is set during trim installation, so a maintenance tech can dial each unit down to a house standard. The Comfort Zone feature keeps a usable adjustment range below that stop rather than compressing everything into a narrow band of handle travel.

Two finishes. Chrome is TU385501.002 and brushed nickel is TU385501.295. Both carry the same showerhead, arm, escutcheon and lever handle, so the only decision is matching the rest of the bath fittings.

The trim is for shower and tub applications, but what it physically controls depends on the rough-in valve behind the wall. The kit ships with a showerhead, arm and flange and no tub spout, so a tub/shower install needs a spout ordered separately and a rough-in valve with the tub port. On a shower-only opening it is complete as supplied, aside from the valve.

Metal lever handle and a metal wall escutcheon, not plastic. The lever style also takes less grip strength than a knob, which matters in accessible units. On the wear side, the ceramic disc mixing valve is what keeps it from developing the drip that drives repeat service calls, and ceramic is not affected by mineral deposits or hard water.

The cartridge is one piece, so both the mixing valve and the balancing spool come out together instead of being serviced as separate parts. For a maintenance crew that means one part number to stock and one pull to restore temperature control, done from the front through the escutcheon without opening the wall.

No. Check valves are integrated into the Reliant 3 cartridge assembly to eliminate cross flow, so you are not adding external checks at the supplies. That also means a cross-flow complaint on an installed unit points at the cartridge rather than at missing hardware.