Raindrop Showers

[morpheus83uk]

Hello,

I am looking at getting a raindrop shower and I have read quite good reviews about raindrop showers and I am wondering what peoples opinions are on here. Also if they are water saving or cost a bomb to run?

I was also told that I would be better with a normal raindrop shower using a combi boiler opposed to one with Air Power (http://www.hansgrohe.co.uk/1188.htm) as it will be fine and work the same. The air power ones are more for gravity fed systems apparently. How true this is I don't know however it would be good to know as if I can get a raindrop shower which is Air Powered which saves me water and money this is a bonus. However if this is what an raindrop shower head is then that's fine I am just a little confused on the matter.

Many Thanks

James

 

[morpheus83uk]

Can anyone help with this?

 

[SFK]

Dear morpheus83uk,
I have a combined raindrop shower and hose shower that is similar to this (which is the first image I could find).

My completely personal view of raindrop shower is:

Raindrop Shower:
Water drops straight onto your head and covers all off body which I quite like.
But you always get your hair wet (which some hate) or you have to hang your head sideways out of the water.
And you cannot direct the water to clean out shower afterwards.
Water Feels nice and soft as there is no pressure (my water pressure is not great).

Hose shower:
Water can be directed onto body / head / face / hair.
Water covers front of body but not back or vice versa.
Water Feels more vigorous from directorial shower head (although my water pressure is not great).
Can use shower head to clean specifically dirty areas of shower tray, kids, dogs etc

Considerations
For me I find water usage is the same for both shower types as water flow is limited by the pipe size and thermostat
If having a raindrop shower make sure that you have enough Ceiling height to take the curve of the pipe above the shower head. I have been in bathroom where they did not consider the curve and the shower head ended up at 6ft.
I decided that I needed the shower head to high enough to give a rain effect but not too high that water is cold by the time it reaches me. And not too high that it looks silly or pipe hits ceiling. In end I made it so the head was just below the hight of the shower door.
If using a Shower similar to that shown in link above, consider if your shower tray is the correct size. For that shower the distance from the taps to the shower head is fixed (by the curved pipe). So if you have a very small shower tray then the head could be outside the shower, if you have a very big shower tray the head could be in one corner.


Never used a "Air Power" Shower. But have used taps in USA that mix in air. I always presumed (but have no idea) that it sort of makes the water bubbly so the stream of water out of tap is bigger, the water flows over the hands better, and so flow if water is needed. I guess it sort of worked. But then that Hansgrove shower head looks very narrow (small diameter) and I would guess that you get less of a rain effect (and water only on the top of your head and not on shoulders?).

Sorry - that turned into far too many words - but hope this helps, SFK

 

[morpheus83uk]

Firstly SFK thanks for responding and I appreciate the time taken to write it all!

I like the idea of a nice shower and also a powerful one however that will be in the en suite this one will be used when the other half is on nights or we have people staying over so it will get fair use. I also had the thought about the issue of the bar however when I looked at the one were going for (I cant find it on the internet) its going to be over the bath. it comes with its own rail and such so the height should be alright I would imagine and the pipework shouldn't be a problem either I hope anyway.

It has a hand held showerhead as well which will help with getting the water around the body. As for it soaking the head that's exactly what we want as the other half only has a shower when she wants to do her hair.

As for the air power shower I think your correct as that's what other people have said on the internet I am just unsure if it changes the experience drastically between a rainfall shower and one which has air power. I guess its something to ask the people in store if possible.

Thank You again fro your reply it was indeed useful.

James

 

[SFK]

morpheus83uk
Great to hear that. And interesting about the Air Shower. I only showed the "Bar" version because that is the first one I found on Screwfix. The internal wall ones look a lot nicer (if harder to fix if thermostat goes wrong).

Regarding the shower whose head was at 6 feet, it was a shower that was a bit like this (and was above a bath).

http://www.bathrooms.com/showers/sh...gclid=CNvgy6ahn8ECFQQIwwodZKgAwQ&gclsrc=aw.ds

The mistake they made was that they put the outlet pipe on the wall at say 7ft thinking that that was a good hight for the shower head. But they forgot about the 1ft drop due to the curve of the pipe and thickness of the head. And so everyone near 6ft tall had to bend their knees to get under it. :>

SFK

 

[morpheus83uk]

I m sure that made everyone oh so very happy!

I have since been reading everything I can about the air showers and it looks like they infuse air with the water making the droplets bigger so they "explode" on you when they hit you and give good coverage and as they are infused with air save money. It looks like they have a flow regulator built in to aid in the water saving as well which always helps. The other thing I have found is that it doesn't reduce the pressure when showering which is a big plus in my books anyway!

I have also found that with the taps I am looking at can have a flow regulator thrown in which will help saving water do you know if there are any regulators which infuse air to further create savings?

I am looking for experience and money saving if its possible which it looks like it is. I am just looking for the best solution so everyone gets what they want and the bills come down so we can save some money as well.

James

 

[SFK]

James,
Having a flow regulator in "Air Taps" makes sense as I presumed that they reduce the flow of the water but add the air to make it seem like a normal flow. And when used in USA this did seem to work - although it was a long way from explosive and there was a pressure drop.

BUT I was never satisfied they worked on saving water. When washing hands it does work (less flow and air makes water cover hands faster = less water). But when I fill basin to shave it makes no difference as I will use the same amount of water to get the same depth. Likewise for brushing teeth.

My personal water saving methods are:
1) Reduce flow of water to hand basin sinks by turning valve on flex pipe that is under the sink. My reason is less flow (and pressure) to basin does not effect me (tales a longer to fill basin) but reduces waste water (when taps left on by kids, when brushing teeth, when filling basin for shave as put less water in basin as takes too long to fill.
2) Don't use flat bottomed sinks in bathroom as uses more water to fill enough to get depth needed to shave.
4) Reduce flow of water to hand basin sink (if you have dish washer) as you do not need a large flow rate if not filling the sink to wash up.
5) Reduce head height of water in your toilets by changing ball cock point. But note that this cannot be done too much or the flow of water will be too low and you will have to flush twice to clear toilet using more water.

Of course this is all pointless in my house as the kids then leave the tap on (but at least it is at a lower flow rate!).

SFK

 

[morpheus83uk]

Yes that's one thing I am trying to do now is reduce the bills and also plan for the future so when kids arrive they cant waste as much water.

So an example is at 3 bar pressure which is currently set on my boiler the flow rate is something like 17 litres per minute however if I reduce this it goes down to around 7 litres per minute or something so its a big saving and once its done its done then for the foreseeable future.

I can see your points about water saving and they are good ones I am now trying to find a regulator which mixes air with the water and reduces the flow and its proving to be a nightmare unless I have found them and just don't know it! Which is more than likely the case!

 

[SFK]

James,
This following is an idea that I am not sure about - and would be interested to hear from any of the boiler experts if I am right or wrong.

To save money I reduced the tempertaure of the water producted by my Combi boiler to a few degrees higher than that I need for my shower, bath, shaving and hand washing.

Therefore when I shower I am not (say) heating the water to 60oC and then letting the mixer/thermostat in shower add cold water to cool it back to say 30oC. Instead most of the water coming out of the shower head is coming directly from the boiler at say 35oC. And when I shave I do not switch on both the hot and cold taps. I only use the hot tap. As far as I can see I am not saving water, but I think I am saving gas.

The counter argument I have had with friends is that 1) I am not using boiler at most efficient temperature. 2) I am using same amount of gas in both instances because the flow from the mains water is fixed. So normally I am using about same amount of gas to heat water to 60oC as the water flow through the boiler is half, as the other half flow of the water is going to the shower via the cold pipe.

However my water at 35oC helps as kids can never scald themselves in the bath/sinks. But they do now scald themselves at other peoples houses as they are not wary of hot water taps!

SFK

 

[morpheus83uk]

Yes I can see the sense in doing what you have said especially for the safety of the kids however I see the argument of your friends as well!

It is a difficult one to say the least the boiler experts will need to weigh in on this one.

Can you see your gas usage decreasing from your supplier since dropping the temp as this would then solve the argument I would say or give a good indication as to what the answer is...

One other thing I have just learned is that the waterfall taps require a certain amount of water pressure / flow rate so if I reduce it too much I wont get the desired effect however if I don't I end up paying more for water...

Its all a catch 22 I am going to speak to the people who I am looking at getting the stuff from to see what they say and go from that as if it all goes wrong I will just take it back to them since they said it was fine

James

 

[SFK]

Just done the maths.

It says if the cost for a Combi boiler to heat one litre of water by 1oC is the same whatever the flow rate through the boiler, then there is no cost saving in turning down the temperature of the Hot Water from say 60oC to 35oC.
>> However my gut feel is that boiler is more efficient at lower temperatures and hence there still is a saving of gas costs. <<

So, does anyone have the a graph that shows "gas usage against output tap water temperature for a Combi boiler". Or do they know if it is a linear effect, or more/less efficient as flow rate increases?

SFK