Side by Side Comparison of: DELTA FAUCET vs Speakman

Incredible shower head - Best I ever used.

We recently purchased the Speakman S-2005-HB showerhead to replace another brand/model that had proven to be a disappointment (failed in <2 years, clearly made of cheap materials). I'd noticed the Speakman brand in hotels during business travel, so we decided to give them a try. While not super fancy, this is a good showerhead. The water flow is good, and the different spray/stream options accommodate different personal preferences (from light spray to pulsing stream). It's easy to adjust the stream options, using the knob on the bottom of the shower head; and the head accommodates some swivel to allow you to direct the stream per your preference. We're very happy with the Speakman S-2005-HB.

Second best shower head I have ever owned. The best one was also a Speakman. The pressure is great. The spray pattern is easy to adjust and covers a good surface area. Our old shower head was only a couple of years old, but it never even reached the back wall of the shower. The head is a fire hose in comparison. Also is a big help when cleaning the shower, since it can reach spaces the old one could not. Would not hesitate to recommend. Will be buying another Speakman in the future when we need to replace the other units in the house.

Great showerhead. Easy install. A little tape, then hand-tighten. Boom!The important part, as mentioned by others who are likely relaxing under a luxurious water stream as I type this:The restrictor can be easily removed. Drilling is unnecessary. All you need is a pair of curved hemostats ($3.60 on Amazon).Picture order goes from Right to Left (Sorry, I'm photo-dyslexic).Using the hemostats, first pluck the mesh screen with rubber gasket out.Using the same hemostats, grab the center white, plastic piece.I eventually went between the tabs. If a part of the white plastic breaks off, no big deal, as the whole piece has to come out anyway.By wriggling in, grabbing, and locking the stats, then pulling, it was out in seconds.Don't forget to replace the mesh screenRinse and repeat as needed!

East to drill out water saving insert with a 1/4" drill. Look, I want to save water like everybody else but if you need to take a 15 minute shower to get all the soap off when you can do it in 5 it kind of defeats the purpose. Inexpensive looks nice and hacks well. Use a s adapter to raise this shower head and point it the right direction. Home depot DANCO Model # 27042X S shaped shower pipe riser lifts the shower head up a few inches as it is a large shower head and this model points it the correct angle towards the bottom rather towards the back. IF you do this correctly you will be rewarded with a rain storm. If you have a small shower the angle odfthe riser I reccomend might not be correct as it isn't straight down but in a bath shower combo it rules

The Speakman S-2005-HB is the very BEST shower head I have ever used, and the fact that it is Amazon’s #1 best seller speaks for itself.First things first, this is a BIG shower head (five inches across) and the saucer extension around the perimeter makes it seem even larger. But size actually DOES matter. The internal impeller which makes the center massaging mechanism function is large and robust. That’s why the massaging action actually works and doesn’t just pulse the water stream like the wimpy old Pollenex design.The rain shower setting is better than any rain shower you have ever used. It’s like being in an Amazon rain forest except the water can be warm. And the 360 setting knob means that you can move from one setting to the next without ever getting to the last setting and being forced to go back. However, in order to make the thing actually function properly, it is necessary to defeat the internal flow restrictor/limiter.If you mount this shower head right out of the box, it will rate 7 out of a possible 10. Pretty good really, and still the best shower head I have ever used, but not quite a life changer. However, once the flow restrictor is defeated, it’s a solid 10 (maybe 11). You choose. The restrictor limits flow to 2.5 gpm. Without it, you can expect closer to 4 gpm with most city water.Here’s how it’s done.First, examine the threaded end of the 2005. Inside, you’ll see a convex debris screen with an integrated black rubber washer. The washer ensures a tight seal to the pipe and the screen filters larger debris before it can enter the showerhead. Remove this and set aside. Tweezers work well.Now you can see the real culprit. The restrictor is white plastic with spokes connecting the inner hub to the outer radius. If you look carefully, you’ll also note four white plastic tabs placed like compass points. Of course, it’s tempting to think that a firm grasp on these tabs will allow easy removal of the offending restrictor, but no such luck. Use your needle nose pliers, get a firm grip on a tab and prove it for yourself. The restrictor won’t budge, but you can break off the plastic tabs (no help). The tabs are for assembly only and they are no help when attempting removal. Nope, this fix requires power tools. So get out your hand drill and a ¼ inch bit … EXACTLY ¼ inch bit. And drill out that sucker. The ¼ inch bit is self centering (like they WANT you to do this) and since the restrictor is plastic, use a slow speed. But if you’re careful, then within a minute or so there will be nothing but white plastic shards remaining, and the restrictor will be no more.Now turn the 2005 over and tap it lightly on a towel. Use your tweezers, whatever, just get out all the plastic shards otherwise they will find their way inside the 2005 and that would be wrong.Reassembly is a cinch. Just replace the debris screen and gasket (remember that the screen should be convex, not concave) and press it into place without damaging the screen or the gasket.Now wrap some teflon thread tape on the pipe coming out of the wall, (believe it or not, they actually include some in the box). Install the 2005 (righty tighty) and enjoy a well earned shower.This is a DIY project you will thank yourself for every morning of your life. A high quality shower head like the 2005 should last at least a decade. So at $30 and over 3000 days … what’s that? … one penny per day? for a shower that will change your life? Just get this thing.

PLEASE NOTE: We have a typical well system. This review looks at how two Speakman units do on a well system. If you are on a municipal water supply you likely have higher pressure and water flow rate. I also removed the 2.5 gal limiter - more on that at the end of this review.I replaced our old Speakman Classic 32 (4 jet unit about $22 here on Amazon) with this S-2005-HB unit. Below is a review of both units.Speakman Classic 32 (found elsewhere in this Amazon shower head list) - A few years ago, and after trying quite a few mediocre shower heads, we stumbled upon this mighty little shower nozzle. It is about 2 1/2" in diameter with a more powerful spray than any other we had tried. It had only this one usable spray setting with maybe two dozens small, powerful streams but it made for a very nice shower experience. The Classic 32 lasted 4 or 5 years on our filtered well water system. However, it was slowly giving up the ghost to mineral deposits. I tried to clean out the jets a bit with a toothbrush but that only made it worse. We liked the Classic 32 unit so much I almost ordered a duplicate but decided to try a better Speakman unit instead.Speakman S-2005-HB - First thing you should note is that this is a big shower head - maybe 5 inches in diameter or about the size of the end of a 2 liter bottle! It is heavy, with a full chrome finish. The female 1/2" fitting is all metal too, as opposed to some with a female fitting made of chromed plastic. It really has two usable settings on the variable shower control lever.The first lever setting is a 4" wide rain shower with a lot of water flow from some 50 streams. Truth be told, it is not quite as powerful of a stream as the Classic 32. However, the Classic 32 has about half as many individual streams coming out so that makes some sense. Move the control lever 180 degrees and you have a very powerful shower message jet. This single massage jet is very impressive and effective - all the more so on our lower pressure system.The manufacturer claims that the lever allows unlimited, variable shower settings but that seems to be a bit of advertising fluff to me. I prefer to call it two settings only as the in-between positions on the variable lever really just split the water between the sets of jets, reducing both nozzles flow to the point of being ineffective in our installation. (PLEASE NOTE: If you have higher pressure and water flow rate, these in-between settings may be more useful. Please remember that I am on a well system).So what's the verdict? The less expensive Classic 32 is slightly more vigorous than the S-2005 on it's stream setting, but not by much. Having said that, the S-2005 does have a much wider coverage on your skin with more jets and it seems like the big nozzle delivers more water to rinse more quickly. The big difference between the two units is that the S-2005 also has that great massage setting that makes it clearly the better shower nozzle and maybe worth the extra few bucks to most people. On a well water system EITHER Speakman unit is better than most any other shower nozzle we have tried through the years!WARNING - Removing this restrictor is difficult so the following procedure is done at your own risk. You may also be subject to criminal prosecution and incarceration, ridicule from your friends, and nasty letters from the Audubon Society for being so "ungreen". But much worse, it will void your warranty so you are on you own now!Removing the restrictor - First, remove the black washer with stainless steel screen from the end of the fitting. The screen is easily bent back into shape before reinstalling it so just grab the screen with needle nose pliers and out it comes. Underneath is a round, white gizmo with an "o" ring in the middle of it. That is the restrictor. After I broke off all these little tabs trying to pull it out whole, I just drilled it out carefully with a 1/4" drill bit and took it out in pieces. Rinse it out, reinstall the filter screen and screw the nozzle back on to the shower nipple. It does seem to make the shower even better but it is a subtle improvement at best on my well system. Still, every little bit helps when on a well system.I hope this review was helpful to you. I try to give you the best info I can because I appreciate it so much when other reviewers give me the real facts I need to make an informed buyers decision.

We purchased this to replace the Moen shower head that came with the shower combo we bought for a bathroom gut/renovation. (The Moen showerhead offered just one setting). The Speakman performs as advertised, or should I say, as other reviewers describe. While there are multiple settings to vary the streams, straddling them is tricky. We like a bit of overall spray and firehose pattern, and were able to manage this. The power of this head is just as described. Where the Moen head had us using up much more water to get the soap off (sprinkling), the powerful spray of the Speakman means that we get clean fast, enjoy a jetted effect while we bathe and as a result, use less water. It's not cheap, but we highly recommend it.

We removed the water flow regulator and kind of regret having done so, for two reasons. First, the power is intense. This is like little lasers on your skin instead of soft thick streams. We should have tried it with the water flow regulator inside (as it is shipped) before we threw it away. Second, I'm not sure that we'll have enough hot water if guests try to use this shower back to back. A ton of water comes out of this. Overall, though, it's a very nice experience. My showers are much faster now given the force and volume of water coming out of this.I'm deducting a star because I wish the shower head had adjustable streams. There is a dial to adjust the stream, but in reality there is only one useable stream setting. It's a little too fine and and powerful for my tastes. I wish it were thicker and softer, less like little lasers. There is a massage mode which is fun, I guess, but you quickly leave it on the other mode. The in-betwee settings are blah and you won't use them.I'm guessing that I'd like this shower head more if I had kept the water flow thing inside. My partner used a flat head screw driver (and maybe some tweezers) to get it out. Then he threw it away, unfortunately. It took less than five minutes of trial and error for him to get it out, but he may have gotten lucky, I'm not sure.

This is a great shower head for the price. I actually have decent water pressure in my (rented) apartment, but recently I was "upgraded" to a low flow shower head. I was ready to buy a shower head out of the back of car like Kramer. This shower head produces great water pressure in all settings, was a very simple installation and is a great price. I took off one star because the flow restrictor was really difficult to remove. Other reviews talk about drilling it out, and I was able to damage it enough to increase the water pressure some, but I was not able to remove after 30 minutes of drilling. A few other notes: It is NOT metal, but I think it looks fine, feels a little cheap in the hand because of the plastic, but that does not impact performance. It is also larger than I expected, but that allows it to create a wide spray of water to really fill a medium-small shower with water spray. It also drips for a bit when you turn it off, but I think that (and the larger size) is because it's using some sort of chamber to hold water and create pressure.Overall: buy it. for $30 its worth a shot to get decent water pressure.

We tried the 1.5 gpm, $8 shower head - and although, as a man, it was fine for myself but my wife wasn't impressed at all. She had trouble washing her hair and gave up trying to shave so we tried this. This shower head works perfectly for all the family needs. I also had a restricter on and had it limited to less than 1 gpm - my wife wasn't aware that I had set it that way and came out saying how great - nuff said.

My old (and expensive) shower head failed. Replaced it with this one, which is larger than my old one, and plastic. Before installation, I followed the advice of others and removed (by destruction and extraction) the flow limiter. I can now get any amount of water I like, so that's great - and better than I had before.One note of slight caution to those who are thinking of doing the same: when you have a flow limitation and separate hot/cold water controls, you will be making adjustment much more sensitive. With the flow limiter, you can turn hot and cold up very high, and change one higher or lower, and you'll be able to change the temperature without changing the amount of water. But without the flow limiter, to get a milder shower (not tons of water) you have to adjust the hot and cold a bit more carefully because you'll be using a smaller angle to adjust. So it will be something that you'll need to get a bit used to... One possibility: don't remove the whole limiter - just punch a bigger hole in it to limit it, but not as much. Just a thought.UPDATE: I have the old style controls: one hot, one cold. If you have controls of "hot/cold temperature setting" separate from "how much water volume" then ignore this addition. For my old style controls, the wife had too hard a time adjusting the sensitive controls because I removed the water limiter. I probably should have tried it first before modifying the head. I've taken it out and replaced it with a Delta model, which she loves. And, no, I didn't modify the Delta Faucet 52625-PB-PK.

Got this on a lightning deal, but even with out this is a great buy. We also did have a pretty good contractor quality shower head when the house was built. We also are on a well system, but have good pressure.With that in mind this is a quality piece and even though it is overall plastic, it doesn't look it and feels solid. The continuously adjustable (360) knob to adjust between the 2 primary settings is nice because you can just keep rotating it. The ability to mix the massage and spray seems pointless, but it's a option with this as well.As I said, because we have pretty good pressure even from a well and our previous head was actually pretty solid, I wasn't overly wowed with this upgrade. That's more about the net gains and I don't get overly worked up about shower heads.Regarding the removal of the flow restriction...I didn't feel it really needed it, but since others claimed it offered so much more and with a well I know it will get clogged over time I went ahead with it. There's many other descriptions of this, but I wasn't able to easily separate the shower body to gain direct access (need a 1" or larger wrench and easy to damage since plastic). Others talked about drilling it out or ripping it apart to remove the entire white plastic unit. However, since it was pretty good to begin with and the mfg details (see link below) say only the black rubber o ring needs to be removed I went with that advice for now. I did just give and and remove the 4 plastic tabs that hold it in place and removed the o ring. The plastic components are still there which may still provide some restriction, but it is better without the o ring. Mfg claims double pressure. My assumption is this way I am still conserving, but with some additional benefits.[...]

eh. It is a shower head. It does spray with a bit more force than the one we have used for a few years. I did not remove the 'restricter plate' which seems to be what most users do. (Almost cult-like following on this shower head which I find puzzling. Am reasonably certain there are units from other manufacturers that would allow the water flow limiter to be removed - with similar effort - at less cost perhaps.)3 stars because it is plastic. Not sure that a metal one would be better but I don't think plastic supports the price.

Not happy with this. At full pressure it empties my water heater in very short amount of time. It also sprays up in your face when you have it pointed down. I took out the flow control and had to put it back in. Never had to do that before, but without the flow restrictor it would empty my 50gal water heater in 15 min! High pressure is nice, but it'll run you out of hot water fast!

It is pretty, reminds you of being in a fancy hotel, is easy to modify in order to get a high flow.I have had it about 6 months, using it for 1 shower a day.Now I find rust stains coming from the lower most nozzle, leaving another rust stain on floor of my shower stall.I guess they had to corners somehow- price too good to be true.Obviously there are cheap iron pieces internally- next time I will stick with brass.I fear the shower stall stain is permanent in the marble- cheap showerhead, expensive marble- BEWARE

It is a very good shower head. The spray is even and strong. My only dislike is that the width of the spray cone about 8 inches. Not very wide. So it doesn't cover your whole body. Now if you have high pressure, it's not really an issue, since so much water comes out. But if You have bit of lower pressure, and a cold bathroom in the morning, like I do, it feels a little cold around the shoulders. I do have another shower head that is much wider and covers my shoulders, but the flow or pressure is much lower, so I don't get that sense of deep cleaning. Especially when I wash my hair. Speakman definitely cleans it better. I want to like it a lot.

If you're looking for a 2 gpm shower head, this one is the best of the ones I've tried, but it's still not spectacular.First, the description on Amazon, as of this review (7 Sept 2015) is incorrect. The head is made out of plastic, not brass.As for its performance, this is the third 2 gpm shower head I've tried, the other two being one from Delta (52688) and one from Kohler (5240-CP). This one is the strongest of the three with the Kohler being the weakest. The spread is just adequate at the widest setting. At that setting, the intensity is not enough to feel fully rinsed off, which is where the narrow setting comes in handy. The narrow setting is really strong, but sadly, too narrow for an entire shower.I did not remove the flow restrictor to see how it would perform under full water pressure as other reviewers did, because that would defeat the purpose of a low-flow head. But I suspect this head, and all the others I tried, would be much better with more water pressure. Again, that would defeat the purpose of a low-flow head.Alas, there's no miracle to be had here at 2 gpm. Having said that, if you're looking to save water, this is perhaps the best model available. So why only 3 stars. Based on all the positive reviews, I had really high expectations for this head, and was disappointed when I took my first shower. Upon further review, it's hard to say which reviewers removed the flow restrictor and which did not. As designed, would their ratings change? So as designed, this is not an "I love it" product. It's closer to an "I like it product" but not close enough. I may have expected too much from 2 gpm and don't want others to expect too much either.

I probably should have looked more closely at the description, but just in case you are wondering, this only has 2 modes: loose spray, and massaging pulse. However both modes are excellent. Additionally, the mode switch is really easy to use: unlike those shower heads that make you twist the edge of the shower head, this one has a knob that is very easy to turn.Update: revised rating DOWN due to very misleading product description: "Adjust the smooth-turn T-handle to switch effortlessly through full coverage and combination spray, gentle rain, and therapeutic, pulsating massage streams." This is simply not accurate. There are only 2 settings. And "in between" doesn't count.

Does not fit on diverter. We have a hand held wand and this, using a diverter to choose one or both.The diverter male connection is .5” long, which is too small to fit and seal in the female end of this shower head. Caveat emptor.

I have to say that I am not impressed. First of all, I ordered brushed nickel and got chrome...secondly, this showerhead does not work as stated. It drizzles out of the head or one center shot. There are absolutely no combos. I am extremely disappointed.

More expensive speakman is much better. Plus I am a little upset with Amazon. Seems there is a charge to return this item even though i purchased the more expensive one as a replacement.

I have tried the Speakman shower head in hotels and have always had great luck with them. When I saw them available on Amazon, I decided to buy two of them, After the easy installation, I turned it on and noticed a very low pressure coming from the shower head. Additionally the knob that controls the spray pattern does not have any detents, so that you don't know where the knob needs to be to engage a specific array of nozzles and spray patterns.The pulse spray was extremely weak. So much so, that I could not get the shampoo out of my hair using it. Returned them immediately. Ciao.

Item is PLASTIC, made in U know where--VP's probably rolling in stock options due to cheap manufacturing costs. Have much older ones that are Brass that are much heavier and better quality. Will probably keep, but I did not notice the specs said they were plastic. Work OK. Would not pay more than about $25 for these, so 2 stars for "value". Buy USA.

I purchased this at the end of March 2015. It lasted until October of 2015. It was a good shower head while it lasted, I really liked it. Then the joint started to leak. Not the attachment but the joint that allows adjustment of the shower head. I expected this item to last more than six months... Very disappointing.

One would think a shower head advertised as having "High Pressure 2.5 GPM" capability would work well.Don't be fooled and don't waste your money, this shower head is the worst I've ever used.Cheap plastic and anemic water pressure just don't live up to the hype.

Didn't really help with "low flow".

Sorry .. not really the hard spray was expecting .. Still looking for that perfect shower head ..

I sent back the original order which was Brushed Chrome for Polished Chrome and received Brushed Chrome again. Not sure who is reading the return/exchange instructions.

After 7 months of use the bottom nozzle has rusted, which has left a pink stain on the bottom of my shower

There is no power behind the spray and it is very noisy. I can't understand how anyone would think this is powerful. The soft spray barely rinses you off. Do yourself a favor and keep looking