would love a new shower

blondie21

i want to put in a new shower on the wall where the bath taps are .have been advised to go for
a - thermostatic shower
b - power shower
c - electric shower
funds are a bit low so want to do it the cheapest way .
c requires a electric wiring from meter box to bathroom at cost of over £200
any advise for me as to which i should go for?

kat21

depends upon your budget really, you could look in your local paper to see if anyone installs and provides showers?. The other thing you would need to know if going for an electric shower do you have a suitable fuseway to take the load. Perhaps a thermostatic shower might be the best solution. Try your paper first for supply and fit.
kat21

lightspeed

Hi,

I am by no means an expert but heres my understanding:

a thermostatic shower will offer a good performance providing the pressure (flow rate) is of a decent standard. This option will allow you to manually control temperature coming from you hot/cold water supply. I believe that this type of shower is better operated with a combi boiler because you will have a constant supply of hot water at mains pressure.

a power shower contains a build in pump to maximise flow rate. I "think" that some electic supply may be needed to power the pump but this can be spurred off an existing socket with minimal work, in general these showers are best suited to cylinder tank fed systems with low pressure and are not used with combi systems.

an electric shower offers one thing that the other 2 dont, a ever ready supply of hot water even if your boiler fails. They heat the water directly using a coil within the shower unit. Depsite the advantage of a hot shower at anytime, electric showers often offer a below par performance compared to both thermostatic and power showers. The reason for this is that the water fed from the cold mains is heated as it passes through the shower which in turn slows flow rate and therefore the pressure you receive. If you were to buy an electric shower i would suggest that you go for a high 'Kw' to ensure maximum performance. As you have already stated, this will require a Part P qualified sparky and could be costly.

I have used all 3 shower types and found that a power shower gave the most impressive performance. Thermostatic showers, if used with a combi boiler, also give good pressure and would therefore be my choice if you have a combi boiler. Many would say that electric showers are ok and do a decent job but personally i really like a good shower and the lack of pressure is really noticeable when comparing electric showers to the other two types.

A thermostatic shower is by far the most simple to install but performance will hinge on the quality of your water pressure and CH system.