By ANNE EISENBERG


In these digital times, even the venerable bathroom faucet is getting an update. Companies like Moen and Hansgrohe are now replacing faucet handles in tubs and showers with touch screens and other electronic controls that are smart enough to store all the details of time and temperature of a favorite shower or bath - and produce them at a touch.

With the RainBrain shower from Hansgrohe, the mix of hot and cold water, its volume and flow, and even music from a favorite MP3 playlist can be retrieved by tapping a small screen, said Nicolas Grohe, director of marketing and product development for the American branch of the company in Alpharetta, Georgia. (Hansgrohe is based in Schiltach, Germany.) The RainBrain will be offered in the United States beginning in March, he said, and cost about $4,500.

Even amid a deluge of water, users can easily tell the system to regulate the shower heads, which pour water from overhead and both sides, as well as a handheld sprayer, Mr. Grohe said. “The dials and controls are big,” he said. “It’s difficult to miss them.”

A bar marked with a plus sign, for instance, makes the water hotter, a minus cools it. If users prefer a quick alternative, there’s also a rotary dial.

The menu button on the touch screen offers a program called Scottish shower that varies the water temperature, automatically switching from hot to cold. “You can tell it how hot and cold you want it,” Mr. Grohe said, or set how long each cycle lasts.

Another Hansgrohe program, Cascade, turns different shower heads on and off in rhythmic, pulsing jets. The company has posted a simulation of the control panel on its Web site.

Another electronic system, ioDigital, was introduced in May by Moen, a company based in North Olmsted, Ohio, that is known for its faucets. The system is available for a standard single-head shower (about $1,200), for Roman or whirlpool tubs (about $1,300) and for a shower with multiple heads, called a vertical spa (about $2,500), said Mark Knurek, senior product manager.

The control panel for the ioDigital shower or bath can be mounted in the shower, on the rim of a bathtub or outside the shower on a wall, he said. The assembly can be placed in the wall behind the shower, for example, or farther away, so long as the location is an interior wall insulated from the outside.

“We’ve put the assemblies into crawl spaces, in vanities and even in basements,” Mr. Knurek said.

In May, Debbie Brown, a chemist who lives with her husband and two children in Bath, Ohio, decided to use ioDigital to retrofit a shower and whirlpool tub in the master bathroom. She liked the option of electronic controls to replace the old, defective faucet handles, in part because there would be minimal damage to the bathroom.

“We didn’t have to tear up the ceramics,” she said.

The electronic control panel for the bath is on the wall above the tub, as is the shower control. A fiberglass specialist filled in the holes in the tub where the faucet handles once were. “You can’t tell anything was there,” she said.

Installing the new shower controls was straightforward, too, she said.

Mrs. Brown likes the new, streamlined look of the bath and shower. “And you don’t have all of the handles to clean,” she said.

She also enjoys being able to program the water temperature. Each family member has a different setting, saved with a number from 1 to 4.

“I’m No. 1,” she said. “I set the temperature I want, hit the button and the water is right where I want it all of the time, instead of never quite right.


Shower controls from Moen can recall details like preferred temperatures.