Sorry if this post offends some people...

I believe in a shower that will knock you off of your feet if you don't lean into it. It should start peeling away your skin if you stand still for too long.

I'm having my house renovated, with one bath completely gutted and rebuilt and a second bath added. I'm pretty sure that code/inspectors will require that temperature controlled/flow limited diverters be used. Of course, I have an "allowance" in the contract for the fixtures and I get to choose the ones I want. Can anyone recommend diverters that, after the job is done and the inspectors are gone, can easily be modified to allow hotter water and more flow? Without tearing open the wall?

Thanks.

 

If you are on municipal water most codes now require a house to be equipped with a pressure reducing valve (PRV). So, you water pressure will be limited but if you get a PRV that is adjustable you can crank it up after your inspection and you get the Certificate of Occupancy.

Most/all faucets are adjustable and allow you to adjust how much cold water gets mixed with the hot at it's hottest setting. I don't know of a code requirement of a maximum shower water temp and if there is it's one thing my inspectors don't check. Anyhow it's easily adjustable with most/all fixtures and it can be done by removing the knob and escutcheon plate. It does not require cutting into the wall. You can also adjust the water temp setting on your water heater as most fixtures don't actually measure the temp of the water. They just blend hot and cold even at the hottest setting so raising the hot water supply temp you get hotter water out.

All fixtures sold in the US have a restrictor built in. You can not buy a fixture that flows more than 2.5 gallons per minute and many are going to even more reduced flow rates. On most it's located right at the inlet where it screws in place and can be removed with needle nose pliers. Hopefully Lawrosa or another plumbing expert will chime in but there is a single handle Moen faucet that I've noticed does not produce great flow volume and seems to have small internal passages for the water.

If you want really good, high flowing fixtures... take a vacation outside North America. Go shopping in a foreign hardware or plumbing store and get fixtures. Bear in mind that their fittings may not be ANSI/English and will likely be metric so they may need an adapter. Another favorite of mine is to buy foreign gas cans that don't have the stupid US/California required valves and spill prevention stuff.