American Standard Town Square S 1.75 gpm/6.8 L/min Tub and Shower Trim Kit With Water-Saving Showerhead, Double Ceramic Pressure Balance Cartridge With Lever Handle - AMS-TU455508

No. The TU455508 is a trim kit: showerhead, tub spout, escutcheon and lever handle with the double ceramic pressure balance cartridge. The in-wall valve body has to be ordered separately, so budget for a rough-in valve on new construction. On a replacement where the existing American Standard valve body stays in the wall, the trim is what you are changing.

The showerhead is rated 1.75 gpm (6.8 L/min), below the 2.5 gpm federal maximum, which American Standard describes as a 28 percent water saving. That flow rate meets the 1.8 gpm ceiling most water-conservation specs and green building programs write in, which is why it shows up on multi-family and hospitality renovation packages.

Pressure balance. It uses a double ceramic cartridge that combines a ceramic disc mixing valve with a ceramic balancing spool, which holds outlet temperature steady when a toilet flushes or another fixture draws on the hot or cold line. It reacts to pressure change, not to temperature directly. If you need a fixed temperature setpoint you can dial in, or separate volume and temperature control, you want a thermostatic valve instead.

Yes. The Town Square S valve has back-to-back capability, so hot and cold can be swapped quickly without repiping. That is the usual save on back-to-back bathrooms where one wall feeds two tub valves and one side ends up reversed.

Yes. The cartridge has an adjustable hot limit safety stop that caps how much hot water is allowed into the mix, which is how you set a scald ceiling at the valve. It is adjusted during trim installation, and it is the setting property managers and healthcare facilities usually want dialed back before turnover.

Five finishes, all under base number TU455508: Chrome (TU455508.002), Polished Nickel (TU455508.013), Matte Black (TU455508.243), Brushed Nickel (TU455508.295), and Brushed Cool Sunrise (TU455508.GN0). The suffix is the finish code, so a property standardizing on one look across units orders the same base number with the matching suffix.

No. Integrated check valves are built into the Town Square S valve to eliminate cross flow, so hot does not migrate into the cold line when the valve is closed. That is a common inspection item on remodels where the old valve had no checks.

It is a one-piece cartridge, so service means pulling and replacing a single unit rather than rebuilding separate mixing and balancing components. The sealing surfaces are ceramic disc, which is what keeps handle operation smooth and resists mineral deposits in hard water. For an MRO crew maintaining a lot of identical showers, one-piece cartridges are the reason to standardize on a single valve family.

It spreads the useful temperature range over more handle travel, so a small turn of the lever makes a smaller temperature change and users can fine tune where they want it. Practically, it means fewer complaints about the shower going from warm to scalding in a quarter turn.