Which is the best shower to buy??

2

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  • benjus
    benjus Posts: 5,433
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    I've got a combi boiler and a Mira Excel shower. It's great - probably the best shower of any house I've lived in. The temperature is extremely stable and the flow rate is decent.
    I often found with electric shower heaters that you either set it to the top power setting and the water comes out too hot no matter how you set the pressure, or you set it to the lower power setting and you have to turn the pressure down to a trickle to get it hot enough. It varies depending on the time of year and the temperature of the mains supply. Maybe I was just unlucky and had low mains pressure, but electric showers never seem to perform very well.
    Power showers (i.e. a mixer with a pump) are good, but the one in my parents' house makes a lot of noise, and you can't use a power shower with a combi boiler anyway...
    Let's settle this like gentlemen: armed with heavy sticks
    On a rotating plate, with spikes like Flash Gordon
    And you're Peter Duncan; I gave you fair warning
  • cheggers
    cheggers Posts: 685 Forumite
    The best brand is a german brand not sure on the spelling its groher. These showers run off any combi boiler and are the best power showers on the market and are fitted in all the top hotels and gyms.
  • bernlyn
    bernlyn Posts: 132 Forumite
    it is grohe and they look great. the one i looked at came with a 5 year warranty
  • Alan_M_2
    Alan_M_2 Posts: 2,752 Forumite
    Grohe tend to be designed for high flow systems, you'd generally need a large combi boiler to run one of these (large combi= something the size of a washing machine and usually found floormounted - Potterton Powermax HE or similar) If you have a regular wall mounted combi boiler it's unlikely it will provide enough flow to operate a Grohe shower.

    Aqualisa and Mira make outstanding showers, for my money Mira have the edge on the electric units and the Mira Sport is the one to go for in my opinion, they come in three power setting, go for the middle one it's 9.8Kw from memory, there is one at 11Kw I think but the electrical supply will need to be 50 amp which isn't cheap.

    Does your bath take a dogs age to fill? If the answer is yes, or well it's ok but not what you'd call fast, then that's a sign you don't have enough flow rate for a standard shower and your choice is electric, or replace the boiler.
  • Most_Wanted
    Most_Wanted Posts: 59 Forumite
    I have read this thread with interest.
    I am in a dilemma as to what to do.
    My house has a conventional boiler with a cold water and hot water tank in the loft. (It is a bungalow).

    Ideally I would like a good water pressured shower that does not use up much electricity as it will be used everyday.
    I know that electric showers take in cold water and heat it - but is the water pressure enough?
    Power showers might be good choice but do they use more electricity than electric showers because of the pump they use?

    Any products that might fit the bill?

    Thanks in advance!
  • Alan_M_2
    Alan_M_2 Posts: 2,752 Forumite
    An electric shower is as powerful as the coil and the mains pressure it's connected to.

    A more powerful unit which heats the water quicker will cost more to run.

    If you're looking for a pumped shower you can't beat the Aqualisa Quartz pumped, it's not heating the water so draws far less current, it's just drawing enough to run a small pump, easy to install and in a bungalow the enitre processing unit + pump can be sited in the loft.

    available on Ebay here http://my.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?MyeBay

    at £400 delivered, that's for the whole lot for the off the wall unit and is by far the easiest installation of any pump shower available,
  • Most_Wanted
    Most_Wanted Posts: 59 Forumite
    How does this model compare to Mira?
    http://www.mirashowers.com/onlinecatalog/shower_features.jsp?item=156316&prod_num=Event+XS+Thermostatic&cat=Power+Showers

    For £200-£300 more what does the Aqualisa offer?
  • Alan_M_2
    Alan_M_2 Posts: 2,752 Forumite
    Design, flow, power, low noise (as the pump is sited in the loft and not on the wall of your bathroom) and ease of installation.

    If it doesn't bother you what the unit looks like or if it's a bit noisy then Aqualisa also produce the Aquastream, which is a competitive model the Mira unit you selected.
  • trace-j
    trace-j Posts: 783 Forumite
    Can I gatecrash, didnt see the point in starting a new thread?

    We've just moved into a new build 3 story townhouse. The guest bathroom (1st floor) has a bath, sink and loo. En suite (to floor) is fitted with a Grohe thermostatic shower, sink and loo. All served via a wall mounted combi boiler.

    We would like to install a shower over the guest bath but not sure how to go about it as the existing tiling around the bath would need adding to (only a splash back). Would like another Grohe installed but unsure of the mess it would make (and bits to buy) as I don't think there any pipes in the wall other than under the bath.

    Is it possible to buy a thermostatic bath shower mixer that replaces the existing hot and cold water bath taps without the need for any plumbing in the wall. Don't really want take down any existing tiling and then put it back.
    :idea:I got an idea, an idea so smart my head would explode if I even began to know what I was talking about:idea:
  • jennifernil
    jennifernil Posts: 5,580
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    Yes, these are available, we put one in our daughter's bathroom, to replace the miserable electric one. The make is Bristan. It was £180 from Screwfix. We added a different spray head and a riser rail, so about £200 in all. It is excellent. She has a combi boiler.
    To the poster with the bungalow...
    For regular CH with HW cylinder I would go with Aqualisa. They are good on a smaller head of water. Make sure you fit large pipes and separate take offs just for the shower from near each tank. If pressure is poor you could improve it with a pump.
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