Moen Water-Saving Faucets and Showerhead

I still remember Mrs. Symington, my high school biology teacher who had served in the Navy, telling us stories about 2-minute military showers where you were expected to get wet, turn off the water, soap up, then turn on the water to rinse. 

While I admired such water conservation, my own showers used to be quite profilgate (30-40 minutes). I'm pleased to say that I've cut that down to a more reasonable average 10-15 minute shower, but I still keep looking for ways to reduce my water use even further. 

That's why I was so pleased to find the Flow-Optimized Moen Water Saving Showerhead. This 1.75 gallons per minute (gpm) showerhead offers a 30% water savings over the industry-standard 2.5 gpm nozzle. Made in the USA, this simple but stylish showerhead can also lower your energy costs (by reducing your hot water usage). 

Available in Chrome, LifeShine® Brushed Nickel or Oil Rubbed Bronze, the Water Saving Showerhead can coordinate with many different Moen bath collections.

What sort of a showering experience does the Water Saving Showerhead deliver? Well, you won't get the tropical downpour feeling of a gigantic rain showerhead, but the Water Saving Showerhead's innovative spray formers concentrate the flow of water in a way that feels simultaneously gentle and soaking. Moen says that its designers have carefully arranged the streams of water to provide great full-body coverage, a claim that seems reasonable based on our personal testing. 

We also like clever design details, like the way that the showerhead has two flat places on its connecting nozzle that let you get a good grip with a wrench in order to fasten the showerhead tightly onto the water pipe.

If you're putting in new faucets, check out some of the WaterSense®-labeled lavatory faucets in the Fina™, Rothbury™ and Muirfield™ collections. The faucets use flow-optimized aerators that deliver water at a rate of 1.5 gpm (versus 2.2 gpm for traditional aerators).

Note that not all every faucet in a collection may have the flow-optimized aerators, so be sure to look for the WaterSense certification to  ensure you're getting a water-saving faucet.

Where to buy:

Use the "Where to Buy" link on Moen's website to  find a wholesaler that stocks the Flow-Optimized Water Saving Showerhead (MSRP $36 and up), the Fina faucets (MSRP $524 and up), the Rothbury faucets (MSRP $232 and up) and the Muirfield faucets (MSRP $78 and up). 

Moen also has a link on its site to online retailers that carry its products. It can be a little difficult to find certain products on these e-tailer sites, but we were able to find the Rothbury WaterSense faucets on Faucet.com, for example.