American Standard Reliant 3 2.5 gpm/9.5 L/min Tub and Shower Trim Kit With Showerhead, Double Ceramic Pressure Balance Cartridge With Lever Handle - AMS-TU385502

Trim only. The TU385502 kit gives you the showerhead, shower arm and flange, metal wall escutcheon, metal lever handle and a slip-on diverter tub spout, and it is made to go on American Standard Flash shower rough-in valves. The rough-in valve body is a separate order, so on new construction you buy the Flash valve first, rough it in, then hang this trim at finish.

No. The Reliant 3 TU385502 trim is specified for American Standard Flash shower rough-in valves. Tub and shower trim is valve-specific, so if the body in your wall is another brand or another American Standard valve platform, this handle and escutcheon will not land on it. Pull the existing trim and identify the valve body before ordering.

Pressure balance. It runs a double ceramic pressure balance cartridge, which is a ceramic disc mixing valve plus a ceramic balancing spool in one piece. The spool holds output temperature steady when hot or cold supply pressure changes, so a toilet flush elsewhere in the building does not spike the shower. That is different from a thermostatic valve, which holds a set temperature by number rather than by balancing pressures.

It is built for a tub and shower opening. The kit includes a slip-on diverter tub spout, and the diverter in that spout is what sends water up to the head. Without a tub spout to divert at, there is nothing to control the outlet, so for a shower-only stall you want a shower-only trim kit instead.

Yes, there is an adjustable hot limit safety stop that caps how much hot water can mix with cold, which is what limits the risk of a scald at the outlet. It is set at the trim during install, so on a multi-family or hospitality retrofit you can dial the same maximum across every unit. The Comfort Zone feature widens the usable range of the handle sweep so the tenant can still fine tune within that limit.

2.5 gpm (9.5 L/min) maximum on the included 4-1/2 inch (115 mm) Easy Clean showerhead. That is the standard full-flow head, not a low-flow one, so if your jurisdiction or your spec calls for 2.0 gpm or 1.8 gpm you will need to swap the head or fit a restrictor. The shower arm is a standard 1/2 inch connection, so a different head threads on without touching the valve.

The Reliant 3 has back to back capability, meaning hot and cold can be reversed quickly and easily. That covers the common case in apartments and hotels where two bathrooms share a wall and one valve ends up plumbed reverse. You correct it at the cartridge rather than repiping the supplies.

The mixing valve and the balancing spool are combined in a single one-piece cartridge, so a service call is one part pulled and one part back in rather than rebuilding a stack of components. The sealing surfaces are ceramic disc, which is unaffected by mineral deposits and hard water, so scale is not what usually takes these out of service. For an MRO shop stocking spares across a property, that is one cartridge number to carry for every Reliant 3 opening.

Two: polished chrome (TU385502.002) and brushed nickel (TU385502.295). The suffix on the model number is the finish code, so if you are standardizing a building, order by the full number including the suffix rather than by the base TU385502.

Integrated check valves are built in to eliminate cross flow, so hot does not migrate into the cold line through the valve. That matters on recirculating hot water systems and on shared supply risers in multi-family, where cross flow shows up as warm water at the cold tap on another fixture.

Metal lever handle, and the wall escutcheon is metal as well. That is the durability question on a rental or dorm bathroom, where plastic handles are the part that snaps first. A lever is also easier to operate with a closed fist than a knob, which is what accessible-use specs generally look for in a handle.