Moen R8948W Glacier 48-Inch Grab Bar

Customer Reviews

Read this review before starting the installation!Moen equipment, usually near the top quality of their lines, has apparently allowed an accountant to make purchasing decisions regarding the fastening screws. They each stripped during installation AFTER the holes were pre-drilled with the specified 1/8in bit, either with an excellent Craftsman #2 screwdriver or with brand new #2 DeWalt bit using a Craftsman wall-powered drill using strong and consistent pressure. By the way, I have installed several grab bars around the house and have never had the grief created by this inferior batch of mounting screws.Literally hours will have to be spent to extract these stripped screws using a drill and an extractor, or by attempting to drive them in with punche and a mallet, or as a last resort to back them out an 1/8th turn at a time with a pair of channel-locks. Gee you saved a nickle or two! Look what it cost a customer.My recommendation is to go a hardware store and buy a few, or a box, of two to two and a half inch, flat head or even countersunk, self-driving screws (the heads are hidden by the shields anyhow). If using a power-drill, don't forget to use an extension to permit installation without marring the unit. 2INDENTS around Flange Covers--LOOKS CHEAP (but hey, suppose it's a cheap way to get them to snap on)The flange covers each have three slight divots/dents against the wall (separated by 120 degrees so there's no rotation where you don't see them). Presumably it was an easy and cheap way to help hold the covers in place but It reduces the aesthetic of the design. I think a perfectly circular design would give it a classier look.Also, I find the 1.5" diameter bar appears to be sufficiently thick that it has an industrial look--definitely brings "public restroom" to mind. I think a 1.25" diameter model is more understated and subtle. If you really want to have your grab-bars shout out "ADA Compliant" go with the 1.5" diameter. By the way, both diameters are acceptable for ADA compliance but true compliance involves far more factors than bar diameter. 3Great for bedroom Reviewed by account users female partner: I absolutely love this grab bar, and use it often. We have two of these installed next to and above our bed, and I use it during sex. One is horizontal, and installed just above the head of the bed, and the other is on the left side of the bed and is vertical. Great for grabbing, holding yourself up, or putting feet on. My children also use the one next to the bed to climb into the bed, because my bed is rather high for their little legs. In their world, that s what these grab bars are for. Works for me! Bar has many uses. Can be spray painted to match any bedroom decor. Ours are painted burnt copper with Rustoleum metal bonding spray paint, and looks a bit hammered because of the spray paints finish. Spray paint will be tacky for a few weeks, so don t install (or at least grab) it right away if you spray paint it. Once installed, touch up is difficult and stinky, for the bedroom. 5Great Item-One CaveatWith the two top big box stores having few selections of grab bars, either online or in-store, I was happy to find these premium grab bars on Amazon for a really excellent price.I'm not the handiest person in the world, so I really liked the built-in template on the ends which allows some variability in exactly where you place the screws (the instructions tell you which positions are critical for each end). There are not just holes, but kidney-bean-shaped cutouts which mean you can really aim well to hit the stud without having to do all sorts of contortions with the bar itself.Typically, I did manage to strip 2 of the screws, one on each end. I trotted off to the local hardware store, but could not find an exact match. Perhaps the screws were fabricated especially for the grab bar, or perhaps the identical screws were just not stocked there.Though I did use the similar screws from the hardware store, I drilled 2 extra pilot holes, so that if I can manage to get the replacement screws, I'll add them.I emailed Moen about getting these screws, and will update this review after their response.UPDATEMoen's response to my email was that they didn't have spare or replacement parts for this kind of item. Instead, they said they'd send me a whole new grab bar assembly. I felt kind of bad about this, but I wanted to make sure my tub installation was rock-solid, so I accepted their solution, all the while feeling somewhat like a freeloader. I took two screws from the new package and used them where I'd already placed the first grab bar. The left-over new bar I will use somewhere else, where safety is not such a big issue. I have to say that Moen customer service went above and beyond. 5Excellent safety grab barGreat price for a great product. This is the 2nd safety rail I've installed but the first one that I put into a stud wall (first one was into concrete masonry). If I had to nit pick and find a flaw, there would be two which would be the stainless steel fasteners stripped very easy especially with a cordless drill. I ended up drilling as far as I could with the cordless drill until the screw would start to strip and hen I just finished it off the old fashioned way by using a screwdriver. If you want to use your cordless drill, I'd suggest using a different screw first such as a galvanized screw to start it off and then use the SS screws. Also it would be nice if there were a 16" grab bar so it could be installed horizontally and it both studs without having to put it at an angle. Like I said, I'm nit picking. This is a great safety feature and I'd buy these again without hesitation. 5Great for horizontal installation on 16 inch-on-center studsI started this project with a 36" grab bar from a big box store (32 inch bars were simply not available at any brick and mortar store anywhere even online). I knew that I would have to end up positioning the 36" bar on a diagonal due to the studs being on 16 inch centers; however, the angle that resulted was too steep to be of practical use in a stand alone shower. Had it been a tub/shower combo, the diagonal might have made sense. So I was glad that Amazon could ship me this 32" bar very quickly. The quality is identical to the big box brand. I was able to attach each end of the bar with two screws. I've included a photo of the tools I used for the installation. Professionals will probably laugh, but hey, if you've got 'em, and they help you to do a better job more comfortably, then use them. I wouldn't go out and buy a hammer drill if you don't have one for this project, but it probably reduced the time I needed to drill through the tile. This was my first occasion to use the C.H. Hanson magnetic stud finder. It could not find the nail through the tile, but quickly did so on the wall above the tile, and I used a 4 foot level to extend the line from the pointer on the stud finder down the length of the stud over the tile. This project probably took me about half an hour to complete. 5Grab bar looks great and functions excellent!Wow! Great product! The "peened" section makes this bar ideal for wet areas. I installed this in our master bathroom shower. The "peened" section allows for a great grip, even when the bar is wet. Grab bar looks great and functions excellent! The 36 inch Grab Bar was installed on the long shower wall and the 24 inch Grab Bar was installed on the short (below shower head) wall.If you are mounting the grab bar to ceramic tile, make sure you get diamond tipped drill bit to drill the holes. I used two (2) Moen SMA1015CH, Home Care Securemount Anchors, Chrome so, I needed a 1/4" diameter diamond tipped drill bit and a 1-1/4" diameter diamond drill bit. Drilling the holes was easy. Follow the instructions to make sure the holes are drilled in the correct place. It took me about one (1) hour to install two grab bars. 5Cheaper than surgery for sure, hey, cheaper than one ambulance call or even an out-of-town plane fareWhile the stainless bars without covered endcaps are cheaper, these allow for more flexible placement of the screws, which is good when trying to hit a stud in the wall or go through the grout line rather than the tile. We positioned these on both sides of the toilets and on each wall on the first stud outside the shower. The bars on the sides of the toilet are positioned horizontally to aid in lowering onto the toilet and raising back up while the bars next to the shower are positioned vertically to aid transitions in and out of the shower.We used a separate product, attached with suction cups, in the shower to avoid drilling the tile and grout. Both our seniors appreciate this help, one due to arthritis and the other due to a knee injury. Well, I suppose we're seniors too, but just young seniors ;-). I suggest installing these as soon as your seniors will agree to let you do so.For the garage, we used a different solution, installing stair railing on the wall in an L shape approaching and then alongside the doorway and step. There are lots of you-tube videos showing various placements, and they come in many lengths. We used all 24" grab bars except in the garage and shower as noted.We also attached two 24" stainless grab bars to a post and installed a second post two steps below to create a needed two-step stair railing for a dining/sunken den transition. We used a wooden platform upholstered in carpet in front of a stair to create a wide enough step to hold a person and a walker, and also used stair railing on the sides to allow walker-free assistance for two step transitions in the bathroom and family room. 5Does NOT include SecureMount anchors--that will cost you an extra $12 per anchor!I've got nothing bad to say about the bar itself, but the information here is very misleading--this does NOT come with the SecureMount anchors. Yes, it comes with wood screws, but those will only be useful if you have studs located exactly where you need them--which is unlikely to be the case, especially for the bars that are not in length multiples of 12". The SecureMount anchors work like a champ--in both drywall and through synthetic marble--if you have the appropriate 1.25" hole saws, they are easy to use, very secure, and well designed (even has integrated gaskets for when you mount them in the shower). I was able to install 4 bars (2 in drywall, 2 in synthetic marble) in less than 1.5 hours using the SecureMount anchors. But those SecureMount anchors will set you back $20+ per pair, which sucks when you think that they come included with these grab bars. 5 stars for a good grab bar, minus 2 for misleading descriptions and thereby a misleading overall price. 3Moen Makes A Good Product But Amazon Doesn't Care If It Gets Damaged In ShippingBy design it's hard for a grab rail to go wrong. It's fine and strong and looks good. The shipping of the grab bar (Amazon's boxing) is a different story. I imagine the person who put the grab bar in the shipping box thought "Well this is very solid steel and should survive any trials during shipping, so I'll just place the item loose in the box without any cushioning or bubble wrap." But, it is clear to me that shipping boxes do get placed down hard at times during transit, and this was obviously the story with this shipment. One of he clean looking caps, at one end of the grab bar was dented badly. The caps are made from a much thinner gauge steel. They need not be as sturdy as the grab bar itself since they are cosmetic and are intended to cover up the screw hardware that holds the bar to the wall. I needed to put the bar into service right away because my wife was coming home in a wheelchair and I needed to prepare the bathroom so I didn't complain or demand a replacement to be shipped. Instead I spent a good while with pliers and hammer to reshape the cap so that it would fit again and do its job covering the screws. It's not beautiful. The ding is mostly hidden by the fact that bath towels hang on the grab bar most of the time but the ding is there. The rest of the bar and the cap at the other end looks just fine. 4

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Moen R8948W Glacier 48-Inch Grab Bar

Moen R8948W Glacier 48-Inch Grab Bar

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