PULSE ShowerSpas 1011-III-CH Kauai III Shower System, with 8" Rain Showerhead, 5-Function Hand Shower, Adjustable Slide Bar and Soap Dish, Polished Chrome Finish

I literally spent more than a year going back and forth about purchasing this shower head system. Looking back, I wish I had not waited so long. I was mostly hesitant about installation. I'm a fairly handy mom/wife. I do quite a bit of woodworking but when it comes to plumbing, especially attaching parts that go back into the wall, I get super nervous. That being said, the installation of this overall was really not that bad. The most nerve-wracking step was drilling into my tile for the lower part of the mount as I opted for this part to be secured with screws as opposed to only relying on the sticky back. I'm glad I did that because it really helps me to feel more secure about the overall sturdiness and strength of the unit over time.I purchased two of these so I could install them in both of our showers and I feel like I got an outstanding deal because I took a little bit of a chance and chose the option to purchase second-hand, open box. Because I did that, instead of paying $170 for the polished chrome, 2.5gpm, I paid only $90. So I essentially got two for almost the same price of one. In one of my showers I did, as others have mentioned, have to purchase a longer nipple in order for it to reach the plumbing inside the wall. That was not a big deal at all as we have a plumbing parts store close by and the part was only $3. When I drilled the holes for the lower mount I marked the depth of the drill bit with a piece of tape so I wouldn't drill too far and possibly hit pipes (this distance is clearly stated in the instructions). I also went about 1/4" at a time and was constantly cleaning out the hole and looking with a flashlight to be sure I wasn't hitting anything in the wall that I shouldn't be.The other part that was a bit scary was checking for leaks inside the wall, I decided to use q-tips to poke around the pipe while the shower was running so I could pull them out and then check for any drips. This worked great. So even though that process scared me so much to the point I was almost about to hire a plumber to install it, I'm so glad I was able to save the money and do it myself. You just need to take your time and double check each step as you go.We've had these installed now for a little over a month and I am so happy with them. The biggest upgrade for us was that the location of our shower heads are very low so this upgrade allowed several inches of head room above where the plumbing comes out of the wall. That was by far the number one reason I wanted something new and finding this system allowed me to gain the height without having to redo the plumbing...huge bonus in my opinion and obviously a big money saver as well. We are happy with the water pressure and love the spa like feel this has given our 1980's shower.One last thing I want to address for anyone interested...YES, you CAN use BOTH shower heads at the same time. That was another part of the reason it took me so long to finally purchase was because I kept seeing conflicting information about that feature. Everyone who answered the question said "No, you can only use one shower head or the other, not both" and that is absolutely not true. What I think people have confused about this question is that when you turn the knob to change shower heads, if you go all the way one direction you get just the rainfall head and then if you go all the way the other direction you get just the handheld head. There is no set position though. It's a very smooth transition to change it and therefore if you want both shower heads to run at the same time you simply turn the knob halfway instead of all the way. Granted, you will notice a difference with the pressure when you have both heads running together but I wanted to be clear that it DOES work both ways.I feel these shower head systems are made with good, quality parts and will last for a very long time.

Update after 3 years: the actuator stuck so when I turn the wand off no water comes out the shower head. I removed the actuator and installed a shower head shut off valve. See picture. Now I can have the wand on, or the shower head on, or both. The flow out the wand has gotten much stronger. It should come this way!!!!!!!!!I have not installed this yet. I will update my review after it gets installed which will be in Sept or Oct of this year. I read the reviews and decided to email Pulse Support on suggestions for the possible water flow problem. They recommended I remove the flow control in the Inlet Fitting (#2) and the Hand Shower (#10). I wish I had blown into them before removing the parts so I could tell the improvement. For the Inlet Fitting I used a small screw driver and pried the C ring towards the center and up. You have to get both sides free from the grove it is in. Once you get this out use a needle and poke it through the screen and pry it off. Then use a pencil with an eraser inserted in the wide end to push the remaining parts out where the screen was. There are 2 plastic parts and a small spring that will fly all over if you are not careful. Looking at the bottom of the Hand Shower there are 4 spokes connecting in the center that has a small hole in it and a tiny black nipple stick up through it that holds a black membrane in place.. The black part is like a heart valve. It lets water in but not back out. This part is held in place by what I will call a silver lock washer. Open a medium paper clip and with a needle nose pliers bend the tip at 90 degree angle and about 1/8" long. Poke this through one of the 4 openings. The membrane will let you in. Turn the paper clip so the hook faces the side wall of the Hand Shower and pull up. Move from hole to hole and work the lock washer up and off. You will be left with the lock washer and a thick yellow plastic part. Again, I wish I had blown through it before I removed it so I could feel the difference this made.Now for the interesting part. Items 22, 23 and 24 come pre-assembled to the Top Tee (#4) and the Shower Arm (#5). If you blow into the Top Tee in the direction of water flow you can feel the are come out the bottom of the Top Brass Fitting (#24). If you put your thumb over #24 to simulate the water being turned off to the Hand Washer it will cause the Actuator to move up and the air will be diverted to the Shower Head. You will also notice that there is significantly more obstruction to the Hand Shower than to the Shower Head. This is due to the design of the Actuator and removing parts from it (brass wheel with holes in it) will not help. BTW if you ever remove this part make sure you push it back in all the way. It must go through a hole at the top for it to work properly! I plan to have my plumber install the unit with the 2 sets of flow control parts removed. After I move in and try it out I am considering making the following modifications. Remove the Actuator which will give great water pressure to the Hand Shower. Install 100% Shower Head Shut Off Valve ($29.97 from Amazon) before the Shower Head. Now I can run the Shower Head and the Hand Shower at the same time and control each of them separately. There are cheaper ways to go but the other valves don't shut 100% of the water off. This part is chrome plated brass with a brass ball valve (high quality).BTW - don't even think about removing the flat rubber washers (#21). These washer do not obstruct the flow. Your fittings will leak if you do. Also, I blew through the Shower Head and you don't need to remove and black part inside it. It has great flow.I will update this review after I move into my new house. :-) Hope this helps.Update as of 11/14: we have moved into our new house and the shower is fantastic. Did not have to make any additional modifications. The wand works great. Love the shower head.Update as of 6/16: love this shower. Works GREAT. Forgot to mention both the shower head and the wand have rubber cover with nipples. If the get plugged just rub them with your finger and it cleans them. Would buy this again in a heart beat!

Very impressed with the quality of this fixture. All metal construction and the chrome plating is flawless. Diverter valve is brass and high quality look and feel. Comes in sections that can be assembled and taken apart relatively easily with precision O ring compression like fittings and includes extra O rings for repairs. Take your time with the instructions as it is detailed but not exactly well worded. Do everything exactly as they say and in order.The main rainfall shower stream shoots straight down in exactly the pattern of the head in an 8" circle. It does not come out cone shaped. I found that the pressure was fine and didn't take the check valve out of the fixture, although you could do it with a set of small split ring pliers. The hand held has 4 settings that work well too. The guts of the hand held are plastic, but its covered in a chrome metal covering and seems to be of high quality. Its also easily replaceable. I like that the hose has an offset swivel at the bottom that allows it to encircle the faucet handle instead of blocking it with the hose. There were several look alikes for less money on Amazon but I opted for the Pulse shower spas name brand. Glad I did. Really like this shower head.

I was looking for a combination overhead / hand shower that had the diverter knob at chest height. The ones with the diverter knob up on the shower head are no good if you are looking for a shower that shorter people can use easily too. It does have a pause function, which is great, but I wish it was a button. Instead you have to "turn the dial" on the hand shower to get it to pause, meaning you have to pass through several spray patterns to get it to pause, and then back again to the pattern you want. I bought this shower so I can bathe my german shepherd, and let my elderly mother use the shower when she visits, she is at least 7" shorter than me.Build quality of the main unit (overhead shower and slide bar) feels very nice. The kit even includes little packages of grease for the o-rings. The hand shower does feel a bit plastic-y and cheap, compared to the rest of the unit. The attached soap dish was an attractive feature for me, but it is a bit high at the lowest point you can install it - likely because my shower arm is pretty high up. Also, be careful when re-installing the hand shower holder on the slide bar - it has an upside and a downside which they don't mention in the instructions, it does not work if you install it upside down, both sides look the same to me. The bottom of the slide bar attaches with a sticky pad, you peel the backing off. My tub surround is smooth, shower has been up 3 weeks, no issues. You do need to wait at least an hour for the adhesive to set before you take a shower.Installation was pretty easy (I'm a handy mid-forties woman). Instructions were a bit murky on the pipe nipple part though. You have to remove your old shower arm (not just the shower head), then screw a pipe nipple into the pipe inside the wall the shower head was connected to. They include a 2" pipe nipple which they say will fit "most" applications. They give directions for measuring, in case you need a different length (which you will need to buy at a hardware store). The instructions say to make sure you take into account any tile on the wall, etc. in the depth measurement. My tub surround has about a 1/2" 'lip' at the top, so I added it in to the measurement. Needed to buy a 2.5" nipple according to the measurement directions. As it turns out, the included piece would have worked great. The piece I bought ended up making the shower arm stick out past the decorative bezel (about a 1/2" funnily enough), which is a bit of an eyesore. I wasn't about to disassemble the whole thing to change it though, it works. Directions could be clearer.Overall, I am happy with this shower. Feels like nice quality. The rain shower head is nice, and it does have a ball swivel mount. Installation does not take too long.

Had this installed by my shower contractor. He made it look easy and the finished product looks great and works very well. Love it! The shower head sticks out a bit far from the wall (not the fault of anyone but me when I designed the shower enclosure), so I emailed Pulse with a question. No joke, less than 10 minutes later I had a reply. This is great service!

Brought first one for my first home and now the second one for my new home. Everything that is expected at a reasonable price.

I looked around a lot before settling on this shower and now that I've been using it for a month, am so glad to have found it. A plumber installed it in very little time, water pressure is good (it's a new build so that might be a factor), you can run the rain shower head and the handheld at the same time by simply turning a knob 90 degrees, and it looks amazing.

What a quality item this shower spa is. It was not overly difficult to install at all and the item itself is well-built and heavy, meaning it is not cheap and light-weight. We are enjoying the feel of the shower heads and also the look of this system. The price was excellent too. Just an all around positive experience.