This valve is totally unique in the industry and demonstrates our unwavering commitment to sustainable production. The shower valve or as we refer to it, the ‘engine’, took over six years to develop and has been on a long-term test for nearly a decade. The results of the test have been independently reported by Greenwich University, and we’re proud to say that the results more than exceeded our expectations.

Dr Charles May, Materials Course Director, at Greenwich University, has recommended that as a result of this test, the guarantee period for the Kanth shower valve engine should be between 20 and 30 years.

Unique Benefits

Producing a shower valve engine that will last a lifetime has only been possible due to the development and precision ofthe manufacturing process and material composition.

The production process starts with the material. Each of our engines is machined out of a solid brass ingot with a material composition specifically formulated by Kanth and our partners Smiths Metal Centres Limited. This firmly sets us apart from our competitors, as 99% of current shower valves are sand castings with no or little thought given to the material make up.

Using computer-controlled machines, each ingot is precisely milled, drilled, bored and polished internally to extremely tight tolerances to create the valve engine.

The resulting combination of our material composition and manufacturing process provides multiple benefits only found within a Kanth valve:

• No fluctuations in the temperature control providing a completely consistent water temperature at all times
• No restrictions internally, resulting in an outstanding flow rate
• No loss in performance - our shower valve engines will deliver optimum performance throughout their entire life

Designed for a Lifetime

Once our shower valve engine has been installed, you will never need to take it out of the wall again. Its unique design allows both easy access for servicing the shower valve and to conveniently update if ever required.

If you decide in five or six years that your bathroom is looking tired and in need of updating, you simply replace the tiles and everything else that’s cosmetic. Our shower valve engine stays firmly in place concealed within the wall. The front plate and handles (the trim kit) can be purchased separately so should you decide for a change in style, colour or simply a refresh – you can do so relatively inexpensively. We design all our trim kits to be interchangeable for this precise reason.

In the past you may have needed to purchase a new shower every four or five years. With a Kanth shower valve, you will never need to purchase and install a shower valve again – so it’s goodbye to the throwaway society!

We provide a 25-year guarantee on each shower valve, compared to most manufacturers who offer no more than a five-year guarantee. Our engine is truly in a class of its own.

Following almost four years of extensive research and development, we’re proud to have launched our exceptional range of overhead showers – a range centred around a dedicated three-part system which is not only an industry-first, but totally unique to Kanth showers.

The range’s journey started with a simple goal – we wanted a shower which would be ultra-powerful with no loss of flow, and which would last. We started by painstakingly researching the number of holes required to give the optimum spray performance, and we then designed a system that not only provided a perfect flow of water through each nozzle but which was easy to clean. This unique patented system also ensures that as soon as the shower valve is turned off, the shower head stops instantly – so no irritating drips!

In designing the body of the overhead shower, it was important to us that we combined aesthetics with ease of maintenance. Each product is machined from a solid ingot of brass, providing purity of material, strong walls and minimal parts. We offer three installation methods: flush to the ceiling, ceiling arm-mounted, or wall mounted. Unlike other manufacturers who attach the shower arm to the top of the shower head, we attach ours to the side of the shower head – making it the ultimate in elegance.

Our Kanth shower handset range also uses our patented three-part system – delivering a range which is not only exceptionally stylish, but which is high-performing, and long-lasting.

Most manufacturers produce their handsets solely using the ABS injection moulding method. However, due to the process’s inherent nature, it results in products which are extremely lightweight, aesthetically inferior, and non- durable. Design restrictions associated with the injection moulding process also mean that our competitors handsets developed through it all look alike, with a higher potential for mould split lines.

Years of research and prototyping has seen us develop a distinct process which uses a combination of ABS injection moulding together with brass.

First, we developed tooling for low volumes and for a minimum wall thickness of 2 mm. The wall thickness of the ABS is extremely important as this provides the quality of the component once chrome plated.

Next, we designed the product and engineered the tooling to ensure no mould split lines. This overcame the aesthetic design issue by moulding the handle separately to the head of the handset. We then introduced a mechanical fixing that connects the two parts together.

Each shower handset includes a face plate manufactured from 3mm thick solid brass with a supporting 1mm thick brass sub-plate, which – apart from its main function – adds weight to the product. This innovative process delivers a product that is outstanding in every way – with the quality of brass, but the lightness of ABS.

The unique, dual function KRU retractable shower is a true industry first. Performing as both an overhead shower and a handset with a retractable hose which is completely hidden from sight.

The patented design is minimal and contemporary, with no compromise in its engineering. Years of research, testing, and refinement has resulted in a product that is not only beautiful in its form, but which has been created to deliver optimum levels of usability and maintenance.

Patents for the KRU were granted in 2011.

The Kanth slide rail has been specifically designed to be used with the Kanth shower handset. It features a unique shower handset locking system and an easy-to-use invisible slider mechanism to adjust the shower height.

As with all our products, we conducted extensive research prior to design to ensure that we delivered just what our customers wanted, and it’s this research that led to the innovative features of our slide rail.

For one, the Kanth slide rail locking mechanism ensures that the handset cannot fall off the rail whilst the shower is in use.

Secondly, the invisible sliding mechanism enables easy operation with wet soapy hands, with the added benefit of it being tucked away behind the rail so it can’t be seen from the front – stylishly simple.

Our mini but mighty Kanth body jet features the power of a handset packed into the smallest of forms.

The core design feature of our body jet is its size and depth – it has a protrusion from the wall of only 30mm, which is less than half that of our nearest competitors – creating much more space within the shower cubicle itself.

Not only have our engineers been able to innovatively reduce the size of the jet system, but they’ve ensured that despite being small – it is powerful and high performing. Each system incorporates a minimum of 36 jets – the same amount as our smallest shower handset.

Each body jet component is precision-machined from a solid brass ingot with the engineering processes totally unique to Kanth. Just like our overhead showers and handsets, the body jet features our three-part patented system.

We thought long and hard about the design of the Kanth monobloc tap before adding it to our range. Introduced due to customer demand, we knew we could only include it if we could make it exceptional. And we’re proud to say that we have.

Upon undertaking extensive research, we discovered that existing products on the market not only all looked the same but worked on the exact same principle. We decided that this was a product we could innovate.

A standard Monobloc tap works through lifting the lever up for flow, and then turning it to the left or the right for hot and cold. 99% of monobloc taps available are also manufactured by casting.

Casting has many disadvantages, especially for products supplying water. As a manufacturing process, casting suffers from abrasive surfaces, which on internal faces cannot be fully removed. This encourages limescale build-up inside the product, subsequently shortening its life.

Because the cast part cannot be completely flat, when finishing a casting (such as in chrome plating), the process will highlight these waves and ripples – with the polishing process distorting this even further.

The molten nature of casting can also result in porosity during cooling which can lead to faults, cracks and possibly even leaks. Further still, the material can become contaminated with iron, graphite or other non-brass composites resulting in pitting which leaves a star effect on the surface when the low temperature melting material separates during polishing and plating.

The Kanth monobloc components are all machined out of solid brass to give an excellent finish to the chrome plating with no waves all ripples, and smooth bores running throughout.

And, because innovation is in our blood – instead of simply using the same operating system as everybody else, we simplified it further using a sequential tap cartridge. This works by turning the handle clockwise steadily increasing the flow and progressively raising the temperature from cold to hot.

The chrome plating finishes are superb and the flow rate is far superior than any other product on the market. There will be no build-up of limescale inside the product and – because the brass is made to our own unique specification – it has a much longer life, the combining result of which is totally unique to Kanth.

The Kanth three-hole basin mixer is designed to be simple, minimal and elegant. And, it came with a big engineering challenge – how to produce a 90 degree spout from solid brass?

This type of spout has only ever been produced as a casting or extrusion – with casting particularly encouraging limescale build-up on the inside which naturally shortens the product’s life. The alternative of producing the spout as an extrusion or tube would require a lot of brazing at both ends which, once chrome plated, would see the brazing lines remain visible.

We knew that neither of these manufacturing processes would create a product which would meet our exceptionally high standards. And so, we innovated a completely different way of manufacturing these products.

Through having special brass ingots manufactured to our own specification, we were able to both machine and bend the material.

The process is as follows:

• We cut the material to size – about 350 mm in length – and then we CNC-precision machine two 5mm holes the full length.
• After the drilling process we bend the bar material by 90° and then machine a recess to house the aerator.
• Next we machine all the way around the four sides of the formed spout and chrome plate.

This is a massive engineering job with many difficult to execute processes which all require specialist tooling designed and made in-house.

This is a manufacturing process totally unique to Kanth.

The end result? A truly outstanding product of the very highest quality.

All of the Kanth spouts are manufactured in this way,including:

• Three-hole basin spout
• Monobloc spout
• Wall mounted basin spout
• Wall mounted bath spout

Most brassware manufacturers will have two or three products in their tap range for the bath and basin. This is due to the standard manufacturing process of casting, with each product requiring its own set of tooling – making it very expensive. In addition, each product needs to be manufactured in very large quantities, so no manufacturer can afford to produce multiple varieties.

This is naturally a major disadvantage for the customer due to there being so many different shapes and sizes of basins and baths.

The team here at Kanth has invented a system that allows us to produce 14 different configurations for the bath wall mounted valve, and 14 different configurations for the basin wall mounted valve (please see the product page forall 28 different configurations).

This is achieved from eight different components that are universal to bath and basin. Each piece is precision-machined from a solid brass ingot and with no tooling required for the manufacturing process, we can be as flexible as required – producing our range in either high or low volumes.

As with our patented shower valve engine, we offer a 25-year guarantee for our tap valves.

The other major advantage is that when our customers’ tastes change and they wish to re-vamp their bathroom, they simply need to purchase the individual handles and spouts from us – as the tap valve remains in the wall. All of our handles and spouts, from the original to new designs, will be engineered to fit the current wall mounted valves.

This is totally unique to Kanth and we have a patent pending on this 28 configuration system.