 My
wife and I want to replace our bathroom and have
a shower fitted but with so many types to choose
from, how do we know which one is best for us?
There are three main types of showers each with
their own advantages and disadvantages.
The simplest to consider is gravity feed. This
type of shower has cold and hot water fed from
header tanks and the water is mixed at the shower
control to obtain the required temperature. These
showers are fine if you can get enough head of
water for your shower by for example putting the
headers tank high in the loft, otherwise you shower
flow will be a bit of a let down.
The Power Shower works on a similar theme but
the water is pumped using an electric pump which
is activated by switching the shower on. This
is required where the house construction won't
allow the installation of a header tank at a height
where a good head of water can be achieved. There
are several companies who produce this type of
shower with several variants on this theme. Both
gravity feed and pump showers depend on there
being a tank full of hot water available heated
by your normal boiler/immersion heater.
Finally, there is the electric shower. This type
of shower depends on a combination of the pressure
of your cold water system and the use of lots
of electricity to achieve a good flow of hot water.
Generally speaker, the higher the rating (watts)
of the unit, the higher your flow of hot water
will be. The main advantages of this type of shower
is the ease of installation but they won't generally
produce the same volume of hot water that a power
shower will. |
