I found the Moen Digital Shower system while doing research for our master bedroom & bath remodel. I debated between this and the Kohler digital valve system but in the end, went with Moen. It seemed based on reviews that the Kohler system was quite buggy and it seemed a bit overkill in terms of features that we didn’t intend to install (steam, audio, lights, etc.). We were attracted to the digital shower systems for the same reasons others have mentioned of not getting doused with water by controlling from a remote location. We have an open shower design with the position of the digital controller in between the shower sprayers and the bathtub. Three of the four digital valves are used for the shower (rain head, 3 body sprays, and hand held) and the fourth valve connected to the bathtub.
The install was quite straightforward and as I am fairly handy with DIY projects and doing the rest of the remodel myself, it didn’t pose any huge challenges. As the controller is attached to an insulated wall, I ran a length of metal conduit through the 2x4 in the attic directly to the location of the controller before I insulated and tiled so it was easy to run the 30’ cord from the controller to the digital valve and to make it easier if I ever need to service or run a new cable.
Upon installation, we did experience a mechanical issue. After using the fourth valve “D” that is connected to the bathtub, it would have a very slow drip coming out of the tub filler at the rate of approximately 1 drop per two minutes. I could get the drip to stop by running all of the shower valves at the same time then opening and closing the bathtub valve to get the valve to reseat properly. Even though we don’t use the tub that much, after paying for a premium product, going through that was not a very elegant solution. I contacted Moen customer support and they were helpful and good to work with and gave me some tips to troubleshoot. In the end, the troubleshooting tips did not work but they stood by their equipment and replaced the 4 valve outlet. In the end, I see this as a positive for them and would not effect a negative rating at all - things will happen and if they are taken care of in a good manner (which they did), then all’s well by me!
Generally, I would say that my wife and I like the system. It’s not perfect (I’ll get to that in a bit), but It is overall an easy to use and intuitive interface that doesn’t require a steep learning curve. It’s nice to have it regulate the temperature and have the 2 main presets on the controller unit for both my wife and myself based on the spray heads we use and desired temperature. Also, we have a bathtub setting on the U by Moen app that we set to 105 degrees and to time out at 11 minutes so that the tub fills to 3/4 full. The buttons have a firm press to them which I like although maybe a haptic feedback of a slight click would be nice to know that your press was firm enough to engage the function of the button. The firm press which in my opinion, gives a more quality feel to the unit, and does allow for cleaning of the controller unit without false activating any of the functions.
So on the good side, when we would like to take a shower, it has worked every time, maintained temperature, and has done its basic functions well. That said, following are several things that as one reviewer pointed out, show signs of the company being relatively new into the connected home foray. Hopefully the Moen designers and engineers can take this as constructive feedback to provide an even better consumer experience . . .
Display Interruptions: Sporadically, maybe on the cadence of once per hour, the display will flash off, go to a dark screen for several seconds, then to a blank home screen without the time of day but with the message of “Connection Unavailable” as if the system is rebooting itself. After a minute or so, the connection seems to re-establish itself and the time of day reappears and the screen displays the expected information again. Not a show stopper, but with it doing it often enough that it seems as if every other day you witness it happening, at some point it doesn’t really seem as elegant of a device as one would wish.
Display Lighting: As another reviewer mentions, we wish also there were more options with the brightness of the display. Even the low brightness setting is still quite bright but as the door to our bathroom is lined up between the controller and our bed, it was too bright for us to sleep comfortably without having to choose to tape a card over the display every night or turn the display to off (only coming on after pressing one of the buttons to operate the shower). Because we liked the clock function of the display (when it is on and not rebooting itself), we normally resorted to taping a card over it every night until we finally got to the point in the remodel of installing a barn door to the bathroom. If one of us needs to use the bathroom at night, we are still conscious of it being too bright as we enter and exit the bathroom as the other is sleeping. It would be nice if there were an even dimmer setting or even better if there was a light sensor to sense the ambient light and automatically adjust to a very dim setting when there is a dark environment.
Home Screen Menu Graphics: The colors of the display graphic that the Moen design team have chosen actually goes fairly well with the overall color scheme of our bathroom so we can’t really complain but it seems as if offering a palette of background color choices in the app would not be too difficult and be a nice consumer feature. And, again, we agree with another reviewer that the motion graphic of the falling droplet theme could be improved. It is probably a graphics hardware limitation, but the visual appears to be quite “choppy” and does not leave the highest quality impression. It could be a nice option just to turn the motion graphics off or to explore a couple different themes for the consumer to choose from.
WiFi Connectivity: It’s bad! So bad that I thought the first controller unit I had was defective in the reception of the WiFi signal. I returned the first unit and received a second. When I had the same problem, I started investigating further which led me to finding a note on their “Connectivity” issues section in their FAQ page stating “The controller is not getting a strong enough signal from the router to show up in the list (due to bathroom materials, distance, etc). In these cases, we recommend using a repeater/extender to boost the signal range.” By Moen using this statement, it seems they recognize they may have a handicap in receiving WiFi signal. When I noticed this I started testing the signal strength using my computer. I was reading around -68 dBm which is generally in the very good range but I was still losing connectivity on a very regular basis and getting the message “Connection Unavailable”. The WiFi router this unit was connecting to was in the middle of the house and one floor down (2 story house) so not very far away. I decided to borrow a longer 30 foot ethernet cable from work and place the wireless router in the room directly below the bathroom for several weeks. Doing this gave me an even stronger signal measuring -60 dBm (the lower the number the better). Now it was staying connected for much longer periods of time and requiring only an occasional resetting of the WiFi connection - maybe once per month. Even once per month is still too often to have to reset the WiFi setup but better than never keeping a signal on the device. After this test, I bought a longer ethernet cable off of Amazon and bought another router (Airport Extreme) and set the second one up in “Bridge Mode” in the room directly under the bathroom. Now, the status flashes between a “Fair to Good” connectivity report whereas before I was getting only “Poor to sometimes a Fair” status. How I knew what status the controller was recognizing, leads me to my next point.
Hidden Features / Lacking Documentation: How did I know what the controller unit was reporting? I found that by pressing the “Down Arrow” button for around 5 seconds brings up a status screen on the display showing a slew of Technical Information including: Registration Status, Network, WiFi Connection Status, WiFi Signal Strength, IP Address, MAC Address, Serial Number, Firmware Version, and Valve Firmware Version as well as two options that refer to the hard buttons on the right side of “Reset WiFi Credentials and Reset to Factory Defaults”. The WiFi Signal Strength also has a corresponding color to the status of the connection: Poor = RED, Fair = YELLOW, and Good = GREEN. This was very helpful information but I did not find anything written about how to access this in any of Moen’s documentation. It seems strange they did’t include it somewhere. I can’t believe a consumer is going to be able to mess up their system by getting into this menu but it certainly can be useful when trying to diagnose and troubleshoot issues. If you do access the Technical Information page on the display, one can revert back to the normal home screen simply by pressing the round “Power” button.
Missed Software Update Releases: So back when we were evaluating which shower system we were going to build into our bathroom remodel, CES (the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas) was going on. A press event that Moen gave there stated that they were very proud to now offer connectivity for Amazon Alexa and would be offering Apple HomeKit compatibility by the second quarter of the year. This was January 2018 so in other words, it should have been delivered to customers by the end of June 2018. As a family that is part of the Apple eco-system, we have been anticipating the release of this feature and have seen Moen state within their FAQs that it would be released for each of the subsequent quarters of Q3 2018, Q4, 2018, Q1 2019, and now Q2 2019. As I write this review, let’s just say that I’m not holding my breath that they will be coming with the foretold updates to include greater connectivity, not only for HomeKit, but also new features for Alexa and Google Assistant as well.
The missed software release dates (by now almost a year) are maybe the biggest signal that a company that has a traditional model of being hardware centric, is a bit out of their league when it comes to the software side of things. I haven’t given up hope yet that at some point, they will be able to remedy some of the niggles out and take advantage of a platform that allows enhancing the end consumer experience (something that definitely wasn’t possible with their traditional business model of faucets and valves) but unfortunately, they don’t seem to be resourced with the adequate coding talent (and perhaps corporate culture) to create a seamless and fully elegant end consumer experience to their offering in the connected home environment. As mentioned, they are really not that far off and maybe I’ll be pleasantly surprised that within the next stated deadline they come with an update that will bring the necessary polish to an overall pretty good product. Here’s hoping. After all, they still have two weeks left until the end of the second quarter 2019!
| Manufacturer | Moen |
|---|---|
| Part Number | TS3302TB |
| Item Weight | 1.3 pounds |
| Product Dimensions | 0.5 x 8.69 x 3.38 inches |
| Item model number | TS3302TB |
| Is Discontinued By Manufacturer | No |
| Color | Terra Beige |
| Style | 2 Outlet Controller only |
| Finish | Coated |
| Power Source | Corded electric |
| Installation Method | Wall Mounted |
| Item Package Quantity | 1 |
| Display Style | Button Controlled power screen |
| Included Components | Faucet Trim Kit |
| Batteries Included? | No |
| Batteries Required? | No |
| Warranty Description | Limited Lifetime Warranty |
