There is no shortage of top bathroom brands in Germany, Villeroy & Boch's toilets, hansgrohe showers, and contemporary faucets are all absolute luxury goods in their respective categories, and Viega has made the floor drain, an inconspicuous bathroom accessory, a work of art.
 
Domestically, Viega is not as well-known as many of its German counterparts. Although it is a very powerful pipe manufacturer with a long history, Viega does not have the rich topicality of sanitary ware brands. However, in recent years, with a very designed strip floor drain, Viega has won the favor of many users in another way.
 
For those who see the Viega Advantix Vario for the first time, it is not easy to associate it with a floor drain, which is very different in appearance. The Advantix Vario panel is only two centimeters wide but more than one meter long, making it even more slender. In a limited width, the Advantix Vario's floor drain grille is made into a stainless steel horizontal bar, and the caps with the Viega logo on both ends give the whole a simple atmosphere that is difficult to achieve with traditional floor drains.
 
At a time when ordinary 8~10 cm wide strip floor drains were not yet popular, Viega's avant-garde design was quite eye-catching, and won top design awards such as the 2011 Red Dot Award Winner and the 2013 German National Design Award.
 
At present, the Advantix Vario is divided into two series, the Advantix Vario Shower Channels Wall and the Advantix Vario Shower Channels, which are almost indistinguishable in appearance, but the former is installed at the root of the wall, while the latter is installed on the ground like a conventional floor drain. In contrast, the wall drain is well hidden, relatively novel, and will not affect the overall sense of the ground. The strip floor drain of the floor model is more flexible, whether it is installed in the corner of the wall, or instead of the water retaining stone to divide the dry and wet areas of the bathroom, the effect is relatively good.
 
Compared to conventional floor drains, the most important feature of the Advantix Vario is the "base", which is simple and elegant in appearance, but the base components hidden under the ground are quite complex.
 
The base is a key element of the Advantix Vario's usefulness, which can be adjusted in height to accommodate different floor thicknesses by cutting the relevant parts. With the increase of installation height, the drainage speed of the floor drain will also be accelerated, and the maximum drainage speed of this base is about 0.8L/s, which is much faster than the traditional floor drain. Structurally, the base of the Advantix Vario is compatible with the function of a trap, so that there is no longer a need to install a separate trap for the floor drain. Its shape is similar to a U-shaped pipe, and after drainage, a part of the water body can be intercepted to form a water seal, so as to prevent back-odor. It is worth mentioning that, according to Viega's official information, the drainage noise of this floor drain base is only 19 decibels, which can be described as quiet.
 
However, it is important to note that floor drains with pedestals such as the Viega are not suitable for all dwellings, as the pedestal needs to be buried in the ground, and the Advantix Vario needs to be installed at least 10 cm deep, and can generally only be used for drained toilets on the same floor as the downslabs (i.e. sunken toilets). The thickness of the floor of the interlayer drainage toilet is generally not large, and there is often not enough space to embed the floor drain base.
 
Due to the large difference from traditional floor drains, the construction method of floor drains in Viega is also different. The current domestic decoration market is relatively chaotic, and the level of the construction team is uneven. Problems often arise on many of the more mature installations, and for niche products like the Advantix Vario, more worry is inevitable.
 
Although the installation parts of the floor drains of the two series of Advantix Vario are different, the installation steps are basically the same, which is basically divided into six steps: pre-embedded base, backfilling the ground, leveling and slope finding, making a waterproof layer, laying floor tiles, and installing panels. It's just that the wall drain has an inner wall structure of about 2cm, so it is necessary to make a layer of plaster leveling on the wall. In addition, it is necessary to calculate the thickness of the floor tiles to leave a suitable space for the drain vents in the wall row. It should be noted that since the Viega strip floor drain is only designed with tile adhesive in mind, it is best not to use cement mortar during installation, otherwise there will be a problem of too much floor thickness. Also take Viega wall drain as an example, the thickness of its tile adhesive needs to be between 10~28mm, and it is not easy to reach this level with cement mortar.
 
Finally, users who purchase are reminded that the Viega series floor drain is divided into two parts: the base and the panel, and sometimes they need to be purchased separately. Among them, the base generally has two kinds of installation height above 70mm and installation height above 95mm, and the water seal depth of the 70mm base is only 25mm, and the water seal performance is weak. In foreign countries, this pedestal is usually used for the renovation of old houses with insufficient ground thickness, but the drainage of the same floor in China generally does not have similar problems, so it is not recommended to buy.
 
Overall, the two series of Viega Advantix Vario have outstanding appearance and good design, but there is little experience in such products in China, and the market audience is small. On the other hand, the high price also makes it difficult to popularize these two series, and they can only be bought in a few stores such as Home and Red Star Macalline, and the price is often tens of thousands. Even if it is overseas shopping, the price of the floor drain of the two series of Viega is 400~500 euros, and the average price of the ordinary floor drain is less than 100 yuan, I am afraid that only users with a very rich budget will consider it.