The 3 Main Types of Delta Shower Valves: Their Use Cases and Compatibility

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Delta Faucet Company has long been a trusted name in the plumbing industry, among both trade professionals and consumers alike. However navigating their shower lineup can be confusing as they do not have that a traditional lineup of shower valves. They opted to go a different way than their contemporaries like Kohler, Moen & American Standard.

In comparison to these other American brands, the Delta brand has a small lineup of shower valves

• The Delta R-10000, a main shower valve design for Showerhead only or tub spout +showerhead combos
• The Delta R-22000, a main shower valve with an integrated 3 way diverter, designed for 2 or 3 ways custom shower setups
• The Delta R-11000, a standalone Diverter Valve, designed to work with the Delta R-10000, to provide it with custom shower capabilities

What is most glaring about Delta’s lineup are the valves that are not available. Delta Faucet has no standalone thermostatic valves or volume control valves.

This is a clear sign that Delta decided to opt out of the higher end custom shower market, and solely focused on the entry and mid level. Delta has a sister brand called Brizo that offers more options for custom thermostatic showers.

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Delta uses the same valve for Pressure balance and thermostatic

Most American shower brands have a clear distinction between their thermostatic and pressure balance shower valves. Normally, when you buy a valve, it is comprised of the housing and the valve cartridge.

Delta Faucet decided to go against the grain and follow the footsteps of a german company called Hansgrohe, and only offer a valve with the housing body. The cartridge is instead shipped with the shower trim chosen by the homeowner.

While this is a departure from the norm, it allows the homeowner the time to make a decision when they’re choosing their finished products as they can change their mind without having to make any drastic change to the rough.

With other brands, if you pick a type and decide to switch at the last minute, you would need to change the rough plumbing or just stick with your decision.

While this is a welcomed addition for most, it can be quite confusing when shopping for shower trims. Even professionals may struggle with a Delta catalog as they are not used to how it works.

To make this easy to understand, we have decided to dive deeper into the two main shower valves and its matching diverter.

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Delta R-10000 : A basic rough valve without a built in diverter

The DR-10000 is Delta’s go to shower valves for most people. It’s a brass rough valve body that serves as a housing for the cartridge that is sold separately. It accommodates both pressure balance and thermostatic valves but the key differentiator with this and the other valve is that it has not built in diverter.

The DR-10000 is only able to handle single function by itself. With that being said it can also handle two or three function showers with the use of diverter tub spout (for tub and shower cases) and a 2 or 3 way standalone diverter (the R11000).

There are quite a bit of variations of the R-10000 valve but they all serve the same purpose. They just come with a variety of connections for different use cases, but the truth of the matter is that most people need only one of the following two versions,

The R10000 is what most people install in their homes. With that being said, we highly recommend you to buy the one with stops as it allows the plumber to service the shower valve without having to shut the water off for your whole house. If you live in apartment building, it’s a requirement to use the one with the service stops in many jurisdictions, as servicing a valve without stop requires the plumber to shut off the water for the whole building.

Compatible trims for the r-10000

When it comes to picking out a Delta shower system, figuring out which compatible trims to get is a great source of confusion. Where most brands have a single pressure balance trim for their main valve, Delta has three: two pressure balance trims and one thermostatic.

• The Monitor 14 Pressure Balance Trim
• The Monitor 17 Pressure Balance Trim with integrated volume control
• The TempAssure 17T Thermostatic Trim with integrated volume control

With this many choice, it’s easy to see why so many people get confused. Not only do they have to deal with 3 different types of trim, but each type has 5 different variations

• Shower Valve Trim only
• Shower Trim with showerhead
• Tub and Shower Trim
• Shower Trim with Shower arm (no showerhead)
• Tub and Shower trim with shower arm (no showerhead)

Example of compatible shower trims: Delta Trinsic Collection

In order to illustrate what works with the R-10000, and help you make sense of the available options, we will use the Delta Trinsic collection as an example. All the possible variations of the trim is available within the Trinsic collection.

Delta Trinsic Showerhead only options

Delta Trinsic Tub & Shower Trim Options

Delta Trinsic Shower Valve Trim Only Options

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Delta R-22000 shower valve with integrated diverter

The Delta R-22000 is a newere addition to the Delta shower valve lineup. It is essentially a standard shower valve box like the R-10000 that is paired with a diverter within the same valve body. Like the R-10000, it’s just a housing body, the cartridges ship with the trim and not the valve.

The Delta R22000 is a response to other valves in the market that have been making a push to handle more function within one valve body. This allows the homeowner to have less hardware on the shower wall, while still being able to accomodate more than two outlets.

While the stacked valve has been gaining popularity amongst shower manufacturers, most typically reseverve the three way stacked valve for thermostatic shower functions and not pressure balance valves.

However, Delta has decided to buck that trend, and offers this option for both pressure balance and thermostatic shower trims.

Compatible Shower Trims for the R-22000

Just like the R-10000, the Delta R-22000 is a valve that can accommodate a variety of shower trims. compatible with both Pressure balance series (Monitor 14 Series, the Monitor 17 Series) as well as the TempAssure series of trims.

The monitor 14 series trims are comprised of two handle, one larger main handle at the bottom, and a smaller diverter handle above.

The Monitor 17 series is a three handle pressure balance valve trim: one handle for volume, one for temperature layered directly on top of the main handle and a smaller diverter handle above.

The TempAssure diverter trim is also comprised of three handles similar to the Monitor 17 series, however it ships with a thermostatic cartridge making it a thermostatic shower valve trim.

In addition to the 3 different sets of shower trim, each series offer two different types of diverter handle:

• A 3 setting diverter handle that does that only allows one outlet to be on at a time. This type of diverter is ideal for jurisdictions like California who have a mandate to minimize water usage.
• A 6 setting diverter that allows sharing between any two functions. As a result there are 3 settings for single function and another 3 setting for dual functions.

In other words, each shower trim may be available in a total of 6 different variations

1. Monitor 14 Series with a 3 setting diverter
2. Monitor 14 Series with a 6 setting diverter
3. Monitor 17 Series with a 3 setting diverter
4. Monitor 17 Series with a 6 settign diverter
5. TempAssure 17 Series with a 3 setting diverter
6. TempAssure 17 Series with a 6 setting diverter

Not all delta collections offer a trim for the R-22000

It’s important to note that not all the collections have a compatible shower trim for the R-22000. The R22000 shower system offers the ability to get a custom shower and that comes at a higher price point.

For this reason, we believe Delta decided to focus on a select few higher end collections and for the rest of the collections they offer a “catch all trim” in these three categories

1. Traditional
2. Contemporary
3. Modern Angular

Here is a breakdown of the available collections for the R-22000. Most trims are available in all 6 options but some may have less. Others have even more options if they offer multiple handles for the same trim.

Collections	#of Options	Series
Tetra	All 6 options	two of each series
Trillian	All 6 options	two of each series
Pivotal
Kayra	4 options	Monitor 14 & Monitor 17 only
Stryke	12 options	6 lever handle options 6 cross handle options
Dorval	8 Options	6 lever handle options, Additional 2 cross handle trims for Monitor 14 only
Traditional*	All 6 options	two of each series
Contemporary*	All 6 options	two of each series
Angular Modern*	All 6 options	two of each series

Example of compatible Shower trim for the R-22000

The example we use above for the R-10000 doesn’t have a specific compatible trim for the R-22000, however to should be able to use the catch all collection of contemporary to match the Trinsic. Afterall, the handle is identical and we believe that Delta used the trinsic look for this collection since the Trinsic has quite a universal minimal design.

Unlike the R-10000, the shower trims for the R-22000 are only available a la carter. This means that there are no pre built packages with showerhead and tub spouts. This makes sense since the R-22000 is aimed at the custom shower market, which means the user has to pick out exactly what they want for each component in order to build the custom shower.

Delta Contemporary Shower trims with 3 setting diverter

Delta Contemporary Shower Trims with 6 setting diverter

Delta R-11000: Multichoice Diverter Rough Valve (standalone)

The Delta R-11000 rough shower valve body is the default and only diverter standalone diverter valve for the Delta Brand. It works in conjunction with the basic shower valve, and is designed to bring additional shower functions to the R-10000 rough shower valve.

Like the other valves in Delta’s lineup, the R-11000 is rough valve housing only, it does not come with the diverter cartridge, as this ships with the desired trim. This allows this rough diverter to be extremely flexible, as the homeowner can decide to purchase the rough valve, and decide later on whether or not they want a 3 setting or a 6 setting diverter.

Like the R22000, the 3 setting diverter trims are used for single functions only, while the 6 setting diverter allows any two functions to operate simultaneously.

Compatible Shower Trims for the R-11000

Compatible diverter shower trims are limited to a total of 14 collections for the R11000. This is not surprising since the Delta diverter trim is an added component that is used for custom showers. Delta does not want to invest in additional inventory for their entry level collection as their target market rarely opt for additional shower outlets.

Delta has a total of 40-45 collections for their standard shower trim, so this means only a third or so of their collections have compatiblity with the diverter valve. Here is the full list below

1. Ara
2. Ashlyn
3. Bowery
4. Cassidy
5. Dorval
6. Dryden
7. Linden
8. Saylor
9. Stryke
10. Tesla
11. Trinsic
12. Vero
13. Victorian
14. Zura

It’s important to note that there is hardly any synergy between the R11000 shower trim and the R-22000 trims. This means that while shopping for your bathroom items, your chosen collection will either offer an integrated diverter or a separate standalone diverter. The choice is essentially made for you based on the seletion input. While this may be a good thing in some circumstances, it may limit your options.

There are only 2 collections that offer trims for both and that’s the Dorval Collection and the Stryke Collection. Otherwise, the others may have compatibility with the aforementioned “catch all ” collections of the R-22000: Traditional, Contemporary & Angular Modern. These trims are not available for the R11000 standalone diverter valve.

Example of compatible Shower trim for the R-11000

It’s important to note that there are no series of diverter valve trims. All diverters are compatible with the Monitor 14, 17 and the TempAssure series. your choice of diverters is much more streamlined. You only need to pick between a 3 or 6 setting diverter.

Delta Trinsic Shower Diverter trims

What’s missing from the Delta shower valve lineup?

As we mentioned before, Delta has made the decision to streamline their shower valve lineup by offering only two main valves and one diverter that are quite versatile and can be used with a variety of trims and use cases.

Despite their versatility, these valves do not cover all the potential use cases that can be solved with other manufacturer’s valves. Delta has essentially made a business decision to stay away from the higher end custom shower market.

As such, the company is missing some key valves offered by their competitors.

No Separate Thermostatic Valves and Volume controls

While Delta offers thermostatic shower system with volume controls in their TempAssure series, these solutions are limited as they’re only offered in an all in one deal. While you can use this setup in a custom shower with 3 outlets or less, it severely limits your choice in terms of layout and individual control of each outlet.

A separate thermostatic valve and volume control setup allows the homeowner to strategically place the volume control in a manner they deem user friendly. For example, if you want to place a volume control closer to your handheld shower to indicate and another one closer to your display, you won’t have this option as everything is handled from the main shower handle trim.

Furthermore, you won’t have total control over each outlet if you so choose. With separate volume controls, you’re allowed to turn on each outlet independently of any other one or have them all on at the same time. That level of flexibility is not available with Delta’s TempAssure systems as they are restricted to two outlets at any given time.

No Push Button Diverters (or sliding Diverters)

Most tub & shower systems, are equipped with a diverter at the tub spout. It’s an inexpensive way for a shower faucet manufacturer to offer a 2 way diverter system without needing to add a more costly standalone diverter.

However, some users found this system a little clunky, and rather have a simple diverter button (or slider like the Symmons valves) at the shower trim handle instead. This gives the user a more seamless experience and accommodates cleaner looking tub spouts without a diverter.

Delta, however, opted not to offer this option, you either have to deal with basic diverter tub spout, or opt in for a more elaborate 2 in 1 system with the R-22000.