Siroflex vs. Moen

Moen is what most Americans buy when they want a “nice” shower head: a household name, a wall of options at the hardware store, and fixtures that match the rest of the bathroom. The Siroflex Ultra is a $12.95 plastic head from Italy that you have to seek out. This should not be a close fight, and it is not, just not in the direction the price tags suggest.

Where Moen wins

Credit where due:

• Finishes and coordination. Moen sells entire bathroom suites. If your towel bar, faucet, and shower head must match in brushed nickel, Moen is the answer and the Ultra is not playing that game.
• Features. Magnetic docks, handheld combos, multiple spray modes, rain cans. If you want features as a category, the big brands own it.
• Availability and support. Any hardware store, established warranty service, easy replacement parts.

Where the Ultra wins

• The actual spray. The Ultra’s 80-hole face delivers a dense, even, brisk blanket of water with no dead spot. Multi-mode heads split their engineering budget across settings; the Ultra spends all of it on one perfect pattern. On modest water pressure the difference gets bigger, not smaller.
• Longevity of the business end. Plated finishes and rubber spray nozzles are where shower heads go to die. The Ultra has neither: solid LEXAN, no plating, no rubber tips, and a face that unscrews by hand for a vinegar soak.
• Price, absurdly. One mid-range brand-name head costs as much as outfitting several bathrooms with Ultras.

The verdict

If your bathroom is a design project, buy the fixture that matches your faucet. If your bathroom is where you shower, the Ultra gives you a better ten minutes every single day for the price of a sandwich and a coffee.

More match-ups: Delta, High Sierra, Speakman, or back to all comparisons.