Customer Reviews for KOHLER Anthem Shower Digital Control in Vibrant Brushed Nickel

This shower is completely unreliable. Roughly 1-2 times per week the shower will refuse to stay on for more than a couple seconds. When this happens during the week it makes me late for work, which is a major, major issue. Between this and my Koehler bidet, it’s incredible that these products fail at the very simple idea that when I turn on a product meant to dispense water, I shouldn’t have to guess whether it will actually dispense water.

I installed this myself during a bathroom remodel. Excellent system and worked flawlessly out of the box. Once I downloaded the app, the firmware update was seamless. Very easy to control and understand for someone be who’s never used it before. The temperature control is very precise. I have it on a 3-faucet, 1 rain shower, 2x body sprays, and a hand shower. I also have the remote button that I haven’t tried out yet as we’re thinking of the ideal spot

I had this installed in the master bathroom in my new, dream house. I have had it for less than 2 weeks. I have the mechanical controls in all other rooms. It is almost impossible to make this work. I have never been so frustrated in a shower. Taking a shower should not be this difficult. I get constant error messages (error 50). I factory reset many times, unplugged and plugged it back in and updated the firmware with no success. After waiting in the shower for 15 minutes, I stepped out and went to my kids bathroom for a shower. If I had known these issues, I would have gone with the good old mechanical controls.

I bought this several months ago and have had repeated problems with the rain head shower constantly leaking or dripping. The plumber who installed the shower head has been working with Kohler over this time period. Last week it was suggested he remove the shower head which he did and found that the shower head was full of water and determined there was no solution to the constant dripping. Very disappointing news considering the amount of money we spent on the various Kohler shower parts/items. Further, my thinking is Kohler is well aware of this issue and continues to sell/supply this rain head shower product. I wouldn’t recommend this item unless you want your rain hair shower to constantly drip.

I went with this because I really love my 10 year old DTV and this looked like a huge step up in functionality and ease of use. I have a 6 port valve using all the ports, steam, and stereo. Kohler needs to start over in the UX department. This thing is totally clunky and it difficult to figure out just exactly what it is doing. Once you get things going, when you want to shut it down you have to go through a maze of menus to turn everything off. How hard would an "all off" button be Kohler? Huh? When adjust steam I then have to navigate through 5 different steps to adjust shower temp. Sometimes it flashes,sometimes it doesn't. What does it all mean? I have no idea. If i want to turn the stereo up or down - 4-5 levels of menus to do it and then get back to where you were. Then when you do shut it off it tells you how much water you used and what time it *was*. That's fun. But in 2 minutes it's useless information. How about displaying something useful - like maybe the time? What a concept. etc etc etc. This thing needs to be completely reworked in my opinion - and they probably will do it on the next generation that wont be compatible. LOL. Jokes on us. As far as support is concerned - well don't get me started. Half the engagement is them asking you to document what you have when i know quite well that the system phones home and tells kohler exactly what i have and how it is connected - they just waste your time and hope you will go away because they don't have answers - just more questions. I actually had a support person ask me if I could check to see if it was connected to wifi - and then in the very next message told me what wifi I was connected to. Um. Why are you asking me things you clearly already know? And oh by the way, if it wasn't working then how the heck did you know what SSID i was using? So very disappointing.

The digital system is very disappointing. It generates less than half the pressure that our old traditional system did.

While the digital controller looks great, the experience is lacking. The water pressure is half what we originally had before installing this system.

have had one for year and a half. temp started fluctuating randomly after about 6 mos. they sent new thermistor. ok for about 6 or 8 more months then both temperature and flow started randomly wandering with NO other hot or cold water demands running. they blamed it on my water heater. i have a top of the line 40 gal tank heated of my boiler. going to replace it with an analog temperature-controlled valve. always used kohler fixtures before, but i am done with them now.

We have less than half the pressure than we used to with a traditional hand valve. We are very disappointed in the performance of this product. It should at the very least be better than traditional products, and for the price, deliver even more capacity and capability. Do not buy this product if you enjoy a strong shower pressure.

I just bought this product and am having terrible problems installing it. It is just too finicky to trust as my main shower. Getting the steam system hooked up to the shower and having it all on WIFI is just not worth the trouble.

This product is plagued with issues. I have spent many hours on the phone with Kohler trying to make my anthem 4port controller work. Actually two different ones. Still not functional.

I did a steam shower in my master bath and got Anthem to run it. I can't recommend enough...very easy to use and the result is the best shower I've ever taken. Hard to imagine anything better.

Constant problems, haven’t had my shower working for a month now. Brutal

We went with the anthem + digital valve, invigoration steam generator connected to the system controller. We are able to seamlessly control these and other accessories we plan to add via the digital controller. We are very happy with the innovation kohler has bought to our shower experience. Recommend it to anyone considering a bathroom upgrade. You won’t regret it.

It’s been all most 2 years now I have using the shower, I have had 2 updates till now, 1 update resolved the random errors I used to get and shower use to reset while taking a shower resolved. 2 updates today haven’t seen any new changes, but the warm up function still not working, issue is that if the warm up mode is on, all connected outlets come on, I have all 6 in use. Please resolve this issue. Thanks

We had this system installed in our remodeled bathroom in September 2023. For the most part, it has worked beautifully and we've been ecstatic with it. However, it is not without issues. It has to be re-paired with Amazon Alexa every 3 months, unlike every other Alexa skill out there. Why? Who knows. Because Kohler says so, I guess. Lately it has been needing to be re-paired every 2 weeks (today was the 3rd time). Also today it said there's a firmware update, but when I go to update I get a message that the shower is offline and I need to check the wifi connection. How? There's no wifi settings on the shower setup or in the app, or in my Kohler account anywhere. There is an Advanced/Locked section of settings that requires a PIN on the in-shower control and I have no idea what the PIN is or how to find it; we didn't set it and we can't get into these settings. The shower and all its components is gorgeous and feels wonderful, but these tech issues are enough to drive you crazy, especially 18 months after install.

Does it look good? Absolutely. Does it work good? No. Often times when trying to turn it on, the system goes through some sort of update, and I have to wait multiple minutes before the unit will respond. Less than ideal. In addition, if the face of the unit is wet, or if your fingers are wet (like, when you're showering), the touch screen is non-responsive. I hate that I order this for our new construction home thinking it would be amazing. It has been nothing short of a pain, and a HUGE regret. Bathrooms are not ready for digital, or at least Kohler is not.

I have an older cape code style home near my town's downtown area, and the Kohler Anthem has been a game changer for sure. Besides the obvious conversation starter that a digital valve is, it helps so much with keeping consistent temperature in an area of town that can sometimes see variations in water pressure. Only criticisms so far is a lack of certain functionality. I don't use Alexa or Apple, but I do use Home Assistant and so support there would be much appreciated. Imagine being able to turn on and off your bathroom fan with the shower! Also, the ability to view the time on the display, or combine outlets with a single customizable button would be much utilized.

Instructions for installation were not clear...for my professional plumber/installer. As an end user, I love the final product and really love the remote on/off.

I’m just installing this and the instructions provided are very very limited they don’t have a complete instructions or even a video to set up your complete shower the support even on the ohine is very limited and by chat is worst. Need to attach much better instruction or to have a line to call and have support available, it looks there only one persine in the whole company to help you

Extremely happy with this controller. 1) You can set the desired temperature. 2) It preheats the water before you get in the shower. 3) Then, with the second controller inside the shower select a desired shower feature (or all 3). 4) App works great.

I bought the Digital control, along with the 6 port valve and a single on/off remote control in March 2022 in anticipation of a bathroom remodel a few months later. Delivery timelines then were long and we ended up accepting chrome finish rather than the originally ordered polished nickel due to supply shortages. The remodel was mostly complete in September of 2022 at which time I began using the controls daily. Setting aside my initial frustration that the mobile app did not support the Anthem control when the shower was complete, I can say the controller is easy to use and the Kohler Konnect app (compatible with Anthem in a software update Oct/Nov of 2022) is a nice compliment for setup management. I've been using for six months now with no issues. My favorite feature is the remote on/off. I step into the bathroom, click the button to turn on the shower, give a moment to heat up, then open the door and step in. No more cold water startles. One review complained about all the shower devices going on when started. That's controlled by the "Shower Warm-Up Mode" setting. Turn that off and the issue will go away. I'm hoping to see an app update soon that will allow selection of which devices to use for warm up. For now, it's all or nothing.

One of the hardest things about doing a bathroom remodel is WAITING for it to be done so everything can be tested and used.... I don't know who has had more fun testing it... The General Contractor, the plumbers, my wife or I? We have the three port with digital controller; a waterfall feature, hand wand feature and body massager. ALL three can run at the same time without losing much water pressure or they can each be run independently. You can choose what feature you want the shower to start with and what temp. You can control the temp, water pressure and turn on/off other fixtures while taking your shower. Have a setting you absolutely love? Save it as a pre-set and link your shower up with your Alexa! When I woke up this morning, I simply said "Alexa, turn on morning shower", less than 2 seconds later the waterfall feature was on and the water was warming up to 100 degrees ALL without having to take a step out of bed. A few minutes later the shower paused (setting to tell you the shower has reached your desired temp), crawled out of bed, stepped into the shower, hit the start button and my shower was pumping at a beautiful 100 degrees. My wife likes a little bit colder shower and prefers the hand wand so she has her own preset. "Alexa, turn on my shower" and she's good to go. After a long workout or long day, "Alexa, turn on Massage Shower"... All three features turn on to 90 degrees and I walk into a shower bliss! Afraid someone would yell through your window to turn on your shower? It auto-shuts off after so many minutes (a setting you define up to 30 minutes). Time will tell how well things hold up, but for an initial install and use, it's by far exceeded our expectations. Pros: Great looking MOST everything feels of good quality. One you create pre-sets and link your shower to Alexa, it's MORE AWESOME! Can have multiple pre-sets Can set default (simple on/off) temp, which features you want to come on and water pressure. Can define max hot temp Can adjust water pressure up or down Can run one feature or up to six (with the correct valve) Does what Kohler says it can do! Cons Can't set variable temps to each feature. Meaning one can't run at 90 degrees while another feature is at 100 degrees. Can't set variable water pressure. Would be nice if the Rain and massager could be set at 100% while the body wand was at 50% for example. Install instructions are HORRIBLE. Seasoned plumbers had to call Kohler more than once to get things plumbed correctly. "Test" function/instructions are missed if you blink while reading the instructions. Would not recommend being installed by a novice by ANY means. Suggestions: If you considering this for your shower, you most likely are new construction or a remodel, make SURE you have adequate plumbing. We ran all new Hot and Cold separating this bath 100% from the original plumbing and 2nd bathroom. We did this as we were adding an additional vanity as well as two additional shower features. With its own water line, we have strong water pressure to the new shower and no issues if someone is taking a shower in the other bathroom at the same time.

I ordered this item since April of 2022, It is now December 2022. Every month I am recieving an email saying the item is back stock. The crazy part is you need this to turn on your shower, there is no other method - we had to buy another color just to test our water pressure and close up our walls. Meanwhile, Kohler is marketing the gold color is their emails when it has not been in stock for almost a year.