Speakman
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Speakman was founded in 1869 when brothers Allen and Joseph Speakman opened a plumbing and steam fitting workshop in Wilmington, Delaware. The brothers developed the world's first adjustable shower head and went on to earn more than one hundred patents covering showerhead, faucet, and emergency fixture design, including the Anystream Shower Head introduced in 1927.
Demand for showering equipment grew sharply during World War I, when Speakman supplied showerheads to military training camps and exposed large numbers of servicemen to hot showers for the first time. The company remained family owned from its founding in 1869 until 2017, when it was acquired by a private equity firm and became part of Professional Plumbing Group. Speakman remains headquartered in Wilmington, Delaware.
Product Lines
Speakman organizes its catalog into kitchen, bathroom, commercial, and safety product groups. Kitchen offerings include pull down and fixed faucets, sensor faucets, and garbage disposals. Bathroom products cover faucets, shower heads, handheld sprayers, Roman tub fixtures, shower valves, toilets, sinks, and related accessories.
Commercial fixtures include commercial grade faucets, sensor operated fixtures, metering faucets, laboratory faucets, and anti ligature products designed for institutional settings. The safety line covers emergency showers, eyewash stations, portable eyewash units, combination shower and eyewash stations, along with the valves, alarms, and signage that support an emergency fixture installation.
Why Contractors Specify Speakman
Facility and safety contractors specify Speakman emergency fixtures because plumbing and safety codes in many jurisdictions require eyewash and emergency shower equipment in facilities that handle chemicals or hazardous materials, and the safety line covers that requirement with combination units, alarms, and signage sourced from a single manufacturer.
Institutional and commercial contractors also turn to the brand's anti ligature and sensor operated fixtures for healthcare, correctional, and public restroom projects where those fixture types are specified by design standards. Speakman's century-plus patent history in shower and faucet design also gives contractors a manufacturer with a long documented track record in the specific fixture types being installed.
How to Choose Speakman Products
Selecting Speakman safety fixtures starts with confirming which combination of eyewash, drench shower, or combined unit a facility's hazard assessment and applicable code require, since chemical handling areas typically call for different equipment than general industrial space. For bathroom and kitchen fixtures, matching valve type, pressure balance versus thermostatic, to the application affects both comfort and scald protection, with thermostatic valves generally specified where precise temperature control matters most.
Commercial and institutional projects should confirm whether anti ligature or sensor operated fixtures are required by the facility's design standards before specifying a standard faucet or shower valve in their place. Local plumbing code requirements for flow rate and water efficiency ratings should also be confirmed for any faucet or showerhead selected for a project.
Frequently Asked Questions
What types of emergency fixtures does Speakman manufacture?
The safety line includes emergency showers, eyewash stations, portable eyewash units, combination shower and eyewash stations, and the associated valves, alarms, and signage.
Does Speakman make fixtures for healthcare and institutional settings?
The commercial line includes anti ligature fixtures, sensor operated faucets, and metering faucets designed for healthcare, correctional, and public facility applications.
How long has Speakman been manufacturing plumbing fixtures?
Speakman was founded in 1869 in Wilmington, Delaware, and has been designing plumbing and shower fixtures for more than 150 years.
Is Speakman still a family owned company?
Speakman was family owned from its founding in 1869 until 2017, when it was acquired by a private equity firm and became part of Professional Plumbing Group.
What is the Anystream Shower Head?
The Anystream is a showerhead design Speakman introduced in 1927, building on the company's earlier invention of the world's first adjustable shower head.
