Turn it up: GROHE SmartControl

The team at GROHE are anything but superficial.

You see, when it comes to design, they’ve always married aesthetics with technology-led innovation inside their products. With over 100 years in business under its belt, the premium sanitary manufacturer has successfully positioned itself in a highly competitive market as the brand that not only meets consumer expectation, it shapes it. For GROHE, intelligent design is something to be experienced – and enjoyed – not just looked at.

I’ll be honest with you. I’m more of a bath than a shower man. But that’s just me. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that I grew up in a house where showering was akin to Russian Roulette – a tap turned on momentarily in the kitchen would result in the immediate nose-dive in water temperature in the bathroom to Siberian levels.

No such bone-chilling adventures await users of GROHE’s award-winning SmartControl dynamic shower system, which, iceberg-like (no pun intended), conceals a wealth of innovative thought and detail beyond that which meets the eye.

The experience for the user starts before the water does. “How many times have you been in a hotel shower and stood there, not knowing how to operate it?,” asks GROHE design chief Michael Seum. Replacing confusion with intuition, GROHE have taken a cue from the way we interact with AV consumer products and created a control panel – either built into the wall or exposed – which, featuring a clearly laid out series of push buttons that also function as ‘volume’ dials, means that what you think you’re going to get is, in fact, What You Get.

Control freak
It’s not only about what you get, however. It’s also about getting what you want. With the user centre-stage, the system’s smart functionality radiates out from this. Conceived of in an almost modular way, SmartControl allows you to choose, at the touch of a button, one of three shower-spray modes – PureRain, TrioMassage (which massages your head and shoulders) and the Power & Soul hand shower.

To construct the precise shower experience you desire, you can then begin to customise it. An everyday ritual becomes an exhilarating event as you dial up or down – via the same button – the water volume, and select, if you wish, a second spray action at the same time. SmartControl’s technology means that your individual preferred settings are stored, so the next time you strip off and switch on, you’re guaranteed exactly the same experience.

Moreover, GROHE’s new ultra-sensitive TurboStat technology delivers water at exactly the right temperature within a fraction of a second and (music to my ears) keeps it faultlessly constant throughout the duration of your shower. And with the just the right amount of water being provided in the most efficient way possible, SmartControl dovetails with GROHE’s corporate commitment to developing solutions that marry technology with sustainability.

Now you see it, now you don’t
Rainshowers have become a standard specification in upper-segment contract and domestic settings. Yet, with SmartControl, the GROHE design team have introduced a shower system that transcends standardisation, giving architects and planners – via its sophisticated configurability – the ability to install an architecturally fluent product that supports their creative vision.

The permutations for installation are plenty. Beyond the exposed and concealed SmartControl variant – the former with integrated shelf, the latter available in either a super-rational round or square format – two or three buttons options can be specified, as well as either a chrome or white-powder-coating finish. The generous Rainshower 360 shower head, whose design allows the various spray modes to work in isolation or in tandem, also comes in a choice of two finishes – again, chrome or acrylic glass.

And then there’s the question of installation. The most simple option (plug and spray, if you will) sees the attractive exposed SmartControl unit connected via an exposed rail to the shower head. For ultra-clean architectural lines and minimal optics, on the other hand, you can opt for a configuration that comprises merely of built-into-the-wall unit, shower head and hand shower – three elements articulated separately. There’s a third installation option, too, that lies in the middle, which GROHE are calling “excealed” – no visible shower rail, but an exposed SmartControl.

Whatever your planning requirements, one thing remains consistent – the GROHE SmartControl shower experience itself. Dynamic, high-performing and, above all, joyful, it’s no wonder the company has described it as 3D showering. If the key to happiness is about being kind to yourself, I’d say this is a pretty good place to start. You can always take a bath another time.

© Architonic