Showering gets smarter: Moen’s U lets you control temperature, duration, more

By Bruce Brown January 3, 2017

Does having to adjust the temperature and water pressure in your home shower drive you just a little crazy? Wouldn’t it be great if someone made it easy to control the settings, and even set up presets for different shower types and durations? Moen has tackled the concept of connected showers with the aim of improving the overall showering experience. The result is the Wi-Fi-enabled and cloud-based U by Moen Shower.

Available in two-outlet and four-outlet versions, the U has a digital water valve for precise, thermostatic temperature control. You can select temperatures from 60 to 120 degrees Fahrenheit. The two versions control either two or four shower devices such as shower heads, body sprays, and hand showers. All the settings can be configured manually in the shower for two preset profiles using seven buttons on the two-outlet version and nine on the four-outlet shower.

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With the U by Moen smartphone app, you can configure another 12 separate presets, assigning names, greetings, temperature, shower duration, and notifications. For example, you might have presets for waking up, for relaxing at the end of the day, for post-workout, for other family members, or any other type of shower you wish to configure.

The U has a 5-inch LCD screen for shower status feedback based on colors — as the water warms or cools, the screen cycles through colors until it turns white, which means it’s reached the requested temperature. It will also signal completion with a tone and send an alert to your phone if you configured that way.

The U has a battery backup on the 30-foot data cable between the shower valve and the controller. This will keep the water from turning icy cold in the instance of a power outage, for example. According to Moen, the system was also designed to keep the connections between the smartphone app, the cloud, and the shower’s digital controller secure.

Imagine what it would be like to be able to turn on the shower from bed to start it heating to your desired temperature and have it send an alert when it’s ready. You can also set showers for your children and limit the durations to move things along more efficiently in the morning without the kids arguing about who got more shower time.

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Digital Trends Contributing Editor Bruce Brown is a member of the Smart Homes and Commerce teams. Bruce uses smart devices…

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