Moen Shower Heads

Moen, the kitchen- and bathroom-fixture company in North Olmsted, sweats the ...

When you're standing in the bathroom-fixtures aisle at your favorite big-box home- improvement store, what's going through your mind?

You might remember the crappy sink faucet in your first apartment, or the brand your dad always bought or what the plumber recommended.

"It's a little overwhelming to stand there in a sea of faucets," said Jack Suvak, senior director of Moen's market research and insights department.

Suvak understands. His department tracks societal, behavioral and housing trends, as well as purchasing behavior. His team is deeply interested in what we want a kitchen faucet to do, and why sometimes we take a shower to wake up and other times to relax.

That's why there are functioning showers in the basement of Moen's world headquarters in North Olmsted, where engineers jot notes with grease pens while they bathe.

I saw the showers -- technically called the Real World Test Lab -- during a recent tour of the facility. I learned a lot about the company's selection of kitchen faucets, kitchen sinks, bathroom faucets and accessories, and showering products for wholesale, retail and commercial markets.

I left appreciating everything about kitchen and bathroom faucets, from the way the handle fits in my palm to the quiet shush of the water.

My tour included time with Moen's industrial designers, whose cubicles were beautiful and way too neat. These are the folks who worry about whether the faucet's opening should be flat or square, what the sheet of water looks like as it comes out, and the sound the water makes when it hits the sink. Who wants a sink that roars like Niagara Falls?

The idea is to create a total experience -- how the faucet cleans, feels and sounds, said industrial-design manager Ji Kim.

Next, we wandered through the quality-test lab, where machines pulled rows of faucet levers on and off, on and off, and swung shower heads left-right, left-right, a billion times until the poor things wore out. I felt a little sorry for these faucets that get sacrificed for the greater good and vowed to stop taking out my frustration on the lever of my kitchen faucet.

We continued to the basement, where a little kitchenette lets the company see how easy -- or not -- its products are to install.

There are showers, too, but not like the ones we have at home. These are souped-up showers with instruments measuring water pressure and humidity. Moen employees hop in to determine firsthand whether the spray from the shower head is right and whether the shape of the water will envelope the bather in a warm mist.

Pegasus S11E7800CP 8-Inch Power Shower Shower Head, Chrome Review ...

I know moen shower heads get great reviews. But pegasus is better.But i really wanted to get the best shower head. Last year i went to New York city and stayed at the Jane Hotel. Highly recommend by the way. Their bathrooms are unisex with closed shower stalls. Anyway, they had AN INCREDIBLE rain shower. The thing was so big it dumps a waterfall on you. I loved it so much i called the hotel later and asked where they purchase them. They said restoration hardware. The ones at restoration hardware range from $400-$600 and put out 5-6 GPM (gallons per minute). This is extremely important to know about when purchasing a raincan shower head. Federal regulations stipulate shower heads must be no more that 2.5 GPM. Pay attention to this review. I ACTUALLY BOUGHT FIVE DIFFERENT BRANDS OF 8 INCH RAINSHOWER SHOWER HEADS TO COMPARE QUALITY. I doubt the other reviewers did this. I purchased a Delta (not bad actually), three Pegasus shower heads (pegasus is the home depot brand), and the MOEN velocity. I returned all of them except for the MOEN and the PEGASUS 8 inch power shower in chrome. Moen showerhead does not put out that much water. It is self pressurized so it does have force. But its not much different from a normal showerhead. Let me reiterate that the entire charm of a rainshower is the quanity of water it dumps on you. The moen is a anemic little rain. Also it only has two settings. Another problem with it is they dont design it to be disassembled for cleaning. Really good rainshowers come with a wrench to dissassemble. This needs to be done when you have hard water. The lime builds up inside and cloggs all the holes. I called and spoke with a technical advisor at moen about this. They said to soak it in vinegar. For maybe $15 more, you can buy Pegasus 8 inch solid chrome plated brass "power shower" shower head. It has rubber nipples too, just like moen, to prevent corrosion where water comes out. But where moen only has two settings, PEGASUS HAS FIVE SETTINGS. In addition it comes with the wrench for dissassembly and cleaning. IN ADDITION THE PLASTIC 2.5 gpm REGULATER IS REMOVABLE!!! This means you can use the water saver or not. I choose not to and this baby puts out 5-6 gpms. THE FORCE IS VASTLY BETTER THAN MOEN WHEN REGULATOR IS REMOVED! If you choose to use the 2.5 gpm regulator, honestly the pressure is not good and I would go with the moen. In addition I highly recommend buying the pegasus 17.5 inch Victorian s curved shower arm. It is $87.

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