Which is the best shower to buy??

We put in a shower as we got our bathroom done at the same time we got central heating fitted for the first time in our new house.

Your choices are generally between electric/ mains/ power - I *think* power needs storage, not a combi but not 100% sure. Electric is cold feed only and has it's own internal heater (think they start about 8.5kw and I'm sure I've seen 13kw ones) - the bigger the heater the more water you can heat in the same amount of time and thus the better a shower you can get, at the expense of using more electrickery. Having an electric means you will need to run sparks directly from your consumer unit to the bathroom.

If your combi has a decent output (ie it's reliable and you have a reasonable water pressure) then a mains is ideal, it's what we got - a whole shower cabinet with tray and shower for a couple of hundred quid from B&Q on a promotion 6 months ago (IIRC it was called shower 2 go or similar) - this just takes a cold feed from your cold main and a hot feed from your combi and you change the ratio with the controller bit.... no sparks etc to run to the bathroom, but not totally sure what options are available for mains if you're just adding it to a bath and not putting in a whole cubicle.

If you have a bath then to check that you can take a mains shower, get a tap connector shower (sub £5 sort of thing) and see how good the water force is to make sure you'll get decent shower pressure.

Personally I don't rate electric showers, but that's possibly just because of my experience of low wattage units with practically a dribble of water coming out of them, even less on a cold day when the water is colder to start with so takes longer to heat up.

Hope that helps a little!

A lot depends on what you mean by your combi boiler being unreliable. If you have a low flow rate off the mains then it is best to stay away from a mains shower and go for an electric (for the reasons people have already said). The most reliable brands tend to be Aqualisa and Mira. Their showers last well, and quite importantly, are backed up with a good spare parts service if anything goes wrong (you can still get spare parts for showers over 20 years old). For a basic electric shower, the Mira Zest is a good choice, and costs around £110. The output in kw is important in terms of the flow rate that will be achieved through an electric shower. An output of 10.5 kw will give approx 30% more flow rate than the basic 7.5kw electric shower, but will also require more substantial electric cables and be more expensive to fit as a result (check out Mira Sport 10.5kw).

If you have a decent flow rate through the combi boiler, a mains shower is a better choice and cheaper to install. The Aqualisa Quartz (already mentioned) is an excellent shower and has won several awards. If you got the off-the-wall model it would be easier to fit and thus installation cost should be cheaper - you'd need the standard one rather than pumped for a combi boiler. Apart from that, I'd recommend the special combi-friendly showerd from Mira - I've got the Combiflow which is easy to operate and great for these systems; the 415 / combiforce is a cheaper option.

Why not just ask a couple of plumbers to come and give you a price. They can then advise you on whether your combi is suitable or not. Better to get a professional opinion on site really. I'd go with recommending Mira too, excellent after sales service too.

If the quote aint free find someone else...lol
Plenty of plumbers in yellow pages.

I've got one directly off the mains and I've got an electric one. I much prefer the electric one. Mine is 8kw and for me it's perfectly adequate but remember it has to be wired directly off the mains so that is an added expense.
In my case I decided to have my consumer unit changed so now it trips out if I have electrical problems - much better than the old fuses I used to have