34745000 Grohtherm Cube Shower Set with Tempesta 210, Starlight Chrome

The big shower head is rain shower not a lot of strength but the shower handle has jet power if you want or rain shower, it works great! The fixtures are beautiful!The only thing I wish it could have is the material to minimize the water spots for showing so much but could be related with the water in our city.....

I hired a licensed plumber with 20+ years of experience to install this unit. He was unable to install. I hired a second licensed plumber with 20+ years of experience. He was able to install it, but did not install it correctly. He noted that many of the parts were plastic. I was used to Grohe products that had knobs made of metal. On this unit, the temperature control knob and fixture switcher knob - the two main knobs - were BOTH plastic! As much as we liked the design aesthetic, it's complicated to install...and PLASTIC. I'd recommend you find another brand.

I've had this for a while now, in the box, waiting for the plumber to come and install it. I live in a very small town, in the middle of nowhere in New Mexico, where we have exactly one plumber in town. He's 70 something years old, has been plumbing since water was invented, and travels in an old blue Chevy pickup with his dog. This guy may be old and slow, but he knows his stuff. Unfortunately, he doesn't need the work, but knows he's the only guy in town, and takes on jobs between laying on the beach in Aruba, fly fishing in Montana, and visiting his sister 3,000 miles away in Maine. So, you make an appointment, and hope that in two months from then, he decides to come home. In any event, he did come back, and showed up at my door last week to install this GROHE Shower System. I've had the bathroom wall torn down to the studs since his trip to Tijuana, so all he had to do was change out the old plumbing pipes with new, hook up the new GROHE Rapido SmartBox, run a pipe for the shower head, and another for the Elbow, where the hand held shower fits. I figured maybe 2 hours tops, but between taking care of the dog, going into town to eat at the local diner, stopping to drink coffee with my wife, and telling me all about how Tijuana isn't like it was in the old days when you could ride down there on a horse, steal a Texas Longhorn or two (they did come from Mexico), and hope to make it back across the border alive, after a shootout with Mexican Banditos. At the end of the second day he finally had the job done, and gave me a bill for 16 hours labor, and the tab from the diner. Two days after that, I had the shower walls up, sealed, and ready to finally use this. This looks great. GROHE makes world class plumbing fixtures. Based in Germany, they engineer plumbing fixtures and accessories, and have it down to a science. This Tempesta 210 shower set comes with rainfall shower head and arm, a handheld shower that hangs from a sliding bar so you can adjust the height if you want to use it without actually holding it, and the elbow that attaches to the wall and where the hose for the hand held shower attaches for water supply, and the heart of the unit, the GROHE Rapido SmartBox, that controls water temp, and directs where the water is to come out at. The color is called Starlight Chrome, although it looks like regular old chrome to me. Apparently, the Starlight finish is 10x harder than the standard chrome finish, virtually impossible to scratch, and supposed to last decades and still like new (I'll update this is 30 years and let you know how it looks). The GROHE Rapido SmartBox has two round, sleek looking handles that work as smooth as anything you've ever turned on a piece of plumbing. The top diverter handle lets you control where you want water, and how much pressure. This unit has a hot water temp limiter, keeping scalding hot water out of the mix. The bottom temperature handle lets water get to the desired temp in a few seconds, and keeps it at that temp. The Radio Smartbox is pretty amazing, and will fit a multitude of different trim pieces from GROHE. Use standard !/2" pipe to connect. I was reading about the Radio Smartbox, and was pretty amazed how many configurations you can achieve with one rough in, some configurations require a different trim piece than the one that comes with this set. All can be purchased separately, no need to buy another smartbox. Showering with this is amazing, with controls that are so easy to use for exact water settings. Nothing even close to a standard bath/shower diverter you find in almost all homes. I don't think I'll ever be able to go back to the standard plumbing for tub/shower, not after having this installed and getting used to it very quickly. This sells for $519.99 (as of this review), plus my plumber cost (I won't even begin to tell you about how much that was, but lunch at the diner was only $8.86). I know it may be a lot of many to many people, but if you own your own home, and need new plumbing in the bath/shower, this GROHE shower system is something you may want to seriously consider, or at least the Radio Smartbox. The Smartbox will be the last time you'll have this expense, as it should last for decades, standard plumbing hardware for this will most definitely not, and the cost of replacing that alone after about a decade will cost more than the Radio Smartbox. At the very least, take a look at the GROHE website and read about it, it's worth the time to do so. This is an amazing piece of plumbing hardware, gives an unbeatable shower experience at this price range, and worth every penny. Well done by GROHE

Overall, Grohe quality is very high and is recognized, within the industry, to be first rate. That said, we had a terrible time getting this installed. The installer knew what he was doing, of course, but the Grohe wall unit/valve was broken, as is a common problem with this model. They have a protrusion that is meant to stick out through the tile, to guide the installation process, only to be cut off later, which is often broken. It makes installation difficult to have broken plastic sticking through the wall, where it was intended to make it easier. That is a huge design flaw. The plastic, which is meant to be thrown away, is so thin, it arrives broken quite often. I am told this is unimportant, which is why they don't put more plastic into that portion of the valve unit, again, because it meant to be recycled. Well, he cut himself on the jagged plastic a couple of times and it was bent open in such a way that we had to tie string around it to hold it in a round shape, for it to perform its intended function of providing a round template for the wall finish. Next, we dealt with the shower pieces. Overall, quality on those was high although the shower spray was not quite as good as on the Moen in the other bathroom. Personally, I prefer a better water spray and this felt a little anemic. It was quite good, given flow restrictions, but just not as good as the one in the other room. The controls are intuitive and easy to use. The appearance of the kit is attractive, again, overall. The inclusion of temperature labels is unattractive and actually a bit annoying after a while. In looking at the pictures it didn't seem to register as anything that would bother me but, standing there, in the shower, it is a bit like being told you have dementia. That said, this would be an excellent set for someone with dementia, as it is marked clearly to give instructions on use, every single time you use it, as though you have never used a shower before. To be honest, I found that this was a solid four star shower set. The endless problems with the valve box and the use of a screw-in box, rather than a sweat connection, knocks this down a star. A sweat connected pipe fitting will never leak. A leak would be physically impossible. A screw in connector can actually develop leaks over time, although it is relatively rare. The need for a round opening being so important is negated by getting cut up by the round portion of the valve box and having to work on it to make it round, as broken pieces like that don't tend to stay perfectly round. When it comes to the other parts, I felt that this was on par with what I have seen and tested. The water flow was not to my particular preference but was solid and works well for others in the home. That is a simple preference issue and not worth removing any credit. As such, as to performance of the shower arms, this performs very well and is a five star unit. Unfortunately for Grohe, their valve needs some work to be a five star unit. They have to invest in better plastic for the removable portion or do away with it altogether, in order to make this a valve that I would recommend over a Delta or Moen valve. Good luck in making your choice. Again, overall, this is a top quality set. Were it not for the difficulties with the valve, I would have given this five stars. Unfortunately, the valve was the hardest to install that I have ever seen, including sweat connect valves that require a torch to install. The jagged plastic proves dangerous and the box ends up not being able to be leveled using the method recommended by the manufacturer. We leveled from the other side of the wall, because that plastic protrusion was too jagged and would not give accurate readings. Some people don't have both sides of a wall open when putting in a new shower valve and would not be able to level the unit's face due to the faulty design for this valve's outward facing side. That is just too much trouble to be worth it for some people and I count myself among them.

My family absolutely love Grohe. Almost all of our fixtures are this brand because we have found them to be high quality and really last over the years. Our sink is going on 5 years without one issue. This was a big setup, we had to have our contractor and plumber set this up. It was a process for sure. Not sure if my husband would have been able to do this himself. The box it arrives in is huge to say the least, very heavy so important to note if you are carrying this up flights of stairs. Quality is incredible. This is also a kit so everything you need is here, if you bought the extra things you needed instead of the kit it would cost an additional 80+ dollars. I love this and its a really great buy.

My feedback is really positive because the product has a brushed nickel finish that really stands out. The finish is stylish, sleek, and adds a contemporary touch to any bathroom decor. Highly recommended!

Valve housing arrived completely cracked and the tabs that help align through wall was also broken despite packaging appearing fine. Components were of poor quality (cheap plastic). I expected better quality for the price. I would spend the extra money and buy a delta system.

Not a fan- this unit is all plastic- completely over-engineered (typical German). All little plastic parts and gears- took my about 1/2 day to assemble. If I had to do it over again- I’d look at Kohler or Moen.