Nice people thread part 8 - worth the wait

lostinrates

PasturesNew wrote: »

I agree.... maybe I just shower oddly, as I found out at Xmas when I stayed at a sibling's and struggled to get the shower going .... I get in the shower, I take it off the wall, then I point it at the base (away from my feet), then I turn on the shower and wait until the water's got warm before replacing the unit and stepping under the water.

I can't think of any shower where I'd be able to turn it on and wait outside with the door open .... as it'd splash everywhere and/or my arm'd get drenched in cold water once I'd pressed the "on" button as I tried to get my arm out of the way.

Maybe ceiling showers are only for tall people with big arms that CAN reach.

I later take the shower off the wall holder to: rinse more efficiently all over and chase the final soapy suds and any debris down the plughole.

For ceiling showers you should put the on /off out side of it then get in when its warm and steamy.

But a hand held still does things a fixed ceiling cannot, like when shaving legs and cleaning feet and toenails properly. And, as you say, clean the thing.

vivatifosi

Lir, can you go for a shower with a retractable hose? One of my neighbours has one of these, it sits discreetly in the wall but can be pulled out to do the stuff that the other shower can't do. They also have a main monsoon type shower.

lostinrates

vivatifosi wrote: »

Lir, can you go for a shower with a retractable hose? One of my neighbours has one of these, it sits discreetly in the wall but can be pulled out to do the stuff that the other shower can't do. They also have a main monsoon type shower.

Wow, that sounds brilliant, I have never seen one!

LydiaJ

My preferences for shower design are (not in any particular order):
1) Adjustable height - I tend to use it at two heights: just below collarbone level, and above head height, but definitely still at an angle. I never want the water to be falling vertically from above me.
2) Can be taken off the wall and pointed at feet etc.
3) Enclosed by solid door/screen not flapping curtain.
4) Controls are for flow and temperature, not hot input and cold input.

If I have those features, and it can make plenty of really hot water, then I'm happy and not really bothered about anything else.

ATM I have a basic mixer shower over the bath. It looks rather like this:



The only problem with it is that the person in the shower gets nearly scalded whenever anyone else in the house uses a tap or loo, so it's being replaced soon with a thermostatic version, which I hope will solve that problem.

LIR - It's perfectly possible to bring up a family without a shower head to use in the bath, but it does come in handy sometimes. DD likes it if she wants to have bubbles in the bath but also needs to wash her hair. Quite apart from its use in human ablutions, it's also useful for cleaning large items - in the past I've used a shower head in the bath to clean out paint trays, shampoo the dog, etc. Obviously you have to clean the bath very thoroughly afterwards!!

GDB2222

Lydia, I have a similar shower arrangement to you, except that the mixer is thermostatic. I prefer all the pipework to be surface-mounted, as showers do go wrong from time to time, and it makes sense to be able to sort out issues without disturbing the tiling. I also want it to be adjustable and detachable, for the reasons you gave.

LydiaJ

That's interesting, GDB. Do you find that the thermostat works well enough to keep the shower at a comfortable temperature regardless of what the rest of the family are doing with water elsewhere in the house?

lostinrates

GDB2222 wrote: »

Lydia, I have a similar shower arrangement to you, except that the mixer is thermostatic. I prefer all the pipework to be surface-mounted, as showers do go wrong from time to time, and it makes sense to be able to sort out issues without disturbing the tiling. I also want it to be adjustable and detachable, for the reasons you gave.

Hmmm. That's a good point, I prefer things not surface mounted but you cannot really put a removable panel in a wet room/ shower. Hmmm. Hmmm.

michaels

All our taps and showers are thermostatic and work fine, you can probably just notice if someone turns something else on as it takes a second to adjust but no danger of scalds or getting cold - and they are all tiled in so if the break it will need retiling - and thermostatic ones do seem to get really stiff after a while especially as we went for the cheapo taps at 150-200 each rather than the quality ones at £1000+

Spirit_2

We only have one bathroom and an outside loo so I do not feel well qualified to advise on taps and stuff but will say what we have.

Sinks and bath have Perrin & Rowe taps with a hand shower that comes off the bath taps like a telephone cradle thing. There is also a shower over the bath. The taps are really nice and when we redid the bathroom we kept them as we did like anything better.

All pipes are let into the walls or under the bath and tiles with no access point . So if it comes to it we will have to break tiles. We did have to do this before so we are prepared for the risk.

We have a very nice over head 'rain' shower which is in a box in the garage or under the spare bed. We bought this then spotted the flaw...low ceiling....tall husband....he could not fit underneath it

fc123

PasturesNew wrote: »

Yeah, I've been thinking "chicken and egg". Do I create a personality first, or a product..... and, coming from the marketing end, I was thinking to create "me" first, then the product .... but that's just putting it off. Also, the whole "packaging" end of it's under development (aka f4nnying about on pinterest looking for ideas). I know that packaging/branding is important so wanted to get it right from the start.

Happy with the name I've chosen - registered a domain and with etsy/folksy, so that's tucked up. The name has "a life story", part of the "me/personality" part of the branding.

I've not seen/no experience of instagram - probably because I've not got a poshphone. Low income leads to lack of life engagement, which can stifle progress

Had a bad night tossing/turning .... but think I know what products to lead with - and about 4am this morning I decided (mathematically) that the best bet is to lead with something rare that I've got - and to head for the US market with that as access to what I've got is more rare there than here. So much stuff "going for peanuts" as people aren't taking a business view (supported by benefits/don't have to make money from it) that I need to really work the "personality" end of marketing to build the "sense of must have".

Difficult without proven skill or ability

The products will have the 'personality' in them once they are made. Then you enhance/highlight it with the blogs etc.

Just start at the beginning

lostinrates wrote: »

This immersion stuff is really interesting.

I wonder if I have to keep my system if I could have an immersion like viva's fitted? The immersion supplied is ineffective because of the size of the tank, and only takes the chill off the water.

We are changing to a mega flow cylinder as it means all showers/baths etc can work at the same time (rather than one run cold as the feed goes to something else) as it was kind of the point for them to be used at the same time.
It's about £1500 plus fitting and removes the need for a tank in the loft too.
None of the showers need to be power showers once it is fitted.
We currently have a power shower and it is noisy butnot annoyingly so.

lostinrates wrote: »

Do you think I should have the hand shower on the tub then?

Your shower sounds really good.

I'd prefer a quiet shower, but tbh, hot water of any reliable sort with some power sounds fab.

You can have both. The shower we have bought for downstairs has a large square head and then a mini one fitted about half way down.

Can't wait until it's all fitted.....night no 2 with no heating again and it snowed all day here...in April !!!

NDG, did you finish all your renovations on the place you bought?