Eco- water-saving showerheads - experience?

[Lobster]

I read an article in the paper last week about replacing your showerhead with a more eco-friendly replacement, which draws in air to mix with the water, reducing water consumption by 50-75% but still giving a decent shower.

I'm very interested in this, TBH primarily to save on energy rather than water per se, but they seem quite expensive (in the 20-50 quid bracket) which is a bit too much just to try on the offchance.

Does anyone have experience of using these things? Do they do what it says on the tin, ie save a lot of water but still provide a good quality shower? We have a very good one at the moment (unvented HW cylinder) and I'm not interested in simply converting that to the quality of a poxy electric shower!

Google has quickly thrown up the following examples - anyone tried any of these, or reccomend any other models?

ThanksDavid

[David]

>

One from green essentials will only give 8 litres a minute.

[Edward W. Thompson]

I have a Mira one. Works fine and I assume it saves water, it certainly works as well as its non-eco-friendly equivalent :-). Haven't condsidered the pay back period which obviously depends upon its use.

[chudford]

I have the Mira Eco shower head and it works well with a pumped shower system. I think it gives a more refreshing shower than the ordinary head. I think their claim of 75% saving is a bit optimistic though.

[A.Clews]

Thus spake chudford ( [e-mail]) unto the assembled multitudes:

I don't understand how the shower head itself can produce a saving. I have an Aqualisa Quartz (the pump is in the attic, close to the CW tank, with a

5 or 6 metre pipe run to the shower head) which pumps 12 litres per minute (or 18 on boost setting), but surely fitting a different showerhead still means that 12 (or 18) litres per minute is arriving at the shower head, and that's gotta go somewhere?

[Lobster]

Well, imagine if you fitted your 18L/min pump with a hypothetical hyper-eco showerhead having a single, pinhole-sized orifice for the water to come out of... clearly it won't be able to achieve anything like 18L/min - that figure will depend on the downstream resistance to flow.

AIUI the idea of these eco jobbies is that they do constrict the flow of water, but at the same time 'inject' air into the water so you get aerated water, which 'feels' similar to the normal stuff.

Anyway - that's two positive reviews of the Mira one; I might go for that. Dear though, at 35 quid at B&Q: does anyone know if the ecocamel one is OK (40 quid for a pair of them)?

David

[chudford]

es:

I'm not an expert as you may have guessed, but as far as I know the shower pumps only deliver what is demanded.

The pump only delivers 12 litres per minute into an unrestricted system and if you restrict the flow by turning the shower tap down the flow reduces.

The pump impellor is connected to the motor by a magnetic coupling and if you restrict the flow the impellor will just keep rotating and maintain pressure but provide less flow. The pumps have a flow detector so if the flow is reduced to zero the pump cuts off.

I guess these eco shower heads work by reducing the flow and mixing the water with air through a venturi effect.

[YAPH]

>Dunno, an aerating shower thingy sounds good: the champagne water from the taps in the washbasins of our local Safeways bogs are really nice to wash one's hands under so the same effect from a shower seems a really neat idea, especially if it can be applied to the poxy flow from electric showers to produce the effect of a half-decent flow.

Heads up: there's a restrictor you can get for nowt via your leccy or suchlike company, the "eaga shower smart" which, I'm pretty sure, isn't an aerator. (A) it's free, (b) you can tell by blowing and sucking through it from both ends that it doesn't draw air in. TBH I haven't actually tried it ... watch this space, I'll use it when I next have a shower (which will be this month whether I need it or not :-))

[Dave Starling]

I have used one for the past few years bought when in the USA from Home Depot for about $5. Admittedly its for a fixed outlet rather than a wand style which is what you appear to be looking for. Its very basic (size of a 10p sized can on a swivel) and the nearest I've found online is called oxygenics. If you google that you will find some hits. Theres also a demo of one on youtube.

A couple of points with these types of shower. Yes they do use much less water - mines 6 litres/min. They don't give you the rainfall effect of a standard shower and by the time the water hits your feet it feels much cooler. They kick out a lot of mist and you do need to have a good extractor setup as things get foggy very quickly in a small bathroom!

Another curious quirk is that after about 5-8 mins you just feel like you've had enough water on you and want to get out. This can be handy if you have teens who can easily take 30 minute showers with the traditional rainfall style showerhead ;-) Some parents have been known to crave back to gravity heated hot water because they had a limited quantity before going cold, unlike the infinite hot water systems we now have.

Dave

[Lobster]

AFAICS these things are specifically for use on decent-flowe showers, ie not electric ones.

Thanks for that - duly ordered one too! Might as well try that first...

David

[A.Clews]

Thus spake chudford ( [e-mail]) unto the assembled multitudes:

Ah, I think I understand now. When I read Lobster's reply I thought that the pump (which I had understood to be a direct impeller) would still be trying to push 12LPM down the pipe and risk damage due to the flow restriction, but your note about the magnetically-driven impeller makes sense. Thanks for the explanations.

I do notice when I first switch on the shower and wait for it to reach the set temperature from cold (about 8 seconds due to the length of pipe run in the attic), there is often a sudden dip in the flow rate a few seconds in, but it appears to gradually increase again.

[Tim Downie]

Are they all magnetically coupled or only the fancier one? Many pumps boast about their long life seals (ceramic or otherwise) that I can't see would be needed if the pumps were magnetically coupled.

Tim

[Lobster]

>>> I have a Mira one. Works fine and I assume it saves water, it

Just thought I'd close the loop on this thread, as I've just bought a Mira model. It does indeed work very well in terms of its performance. I can't put a number on what savings it makes, but you're aware of less weight of water hitting you although it's still a perfectly OK shower.

It does seem to be markedly affected by other water-using appliances, much more than the old showerhead - I suppose that's to be expected.

One downside is that you seem to need the water slightly hotter than before, presumably due to the cold air being mixed in with the water, and this must be offset against the savings made: yes, you use a lower volume of water overall, but a larger propertion of that comes from the hot pipe than before.

David