0203 409 4115
Showering can feel invigorating, but that largely depends on the quality of the shower itself. Of course, there’s no fun to be had in having to contend with a mere trickle of water, despite your best efforts to power up the spray, or suddenly feeling cold water when your home’s taps are in use.
For reasons like these, you should tread carefully with your choice of shower if you are about to fit out a bathroom. Fortunately, though, the “best” shower for your needs isn’t necessarily the most expensive; it’s largely a matter of matching the right shower to the right water system.
What type of water system does your home have?
Before settling on a specific shower, you must know what type of water system your home uses, as this can potentially limit your options. Fortunately, if you opt for an electric shower, any water system will suffice – but it’s not the same situation with, say, power showers.
If you have a high-pressure water system, it will be vented or unvented. If your system uses a hot water tank but not a loft-based cold water tank, the system is unvented. If you have a combi boiler which uses neither a hot water storage cylinder nor a cold-water tank and instead heats water on demand, then your home’s water system is of the high-pressure vented variety.
However, you might instead have a low-pressure water system, which would be the case if your home contains a cold-water tank and a separate hot-water unit. This system uses gravity to generate water pressure, which depends on how distantly the water drops from the tank.
Here are various shower types from which you can choose
As we have acknowledged, the exact range of your options will depend on your home’s water system. However, that water system doesn’t need to be a factor if you choose an electric shower, which works by fetching cold water from the mains and heating the water in a way akin to a kettle.
When the water reaches the temperature you have specified on the shower’s heat setting, that water will arrive through the shower head. The higher the shower’s kilowatt rating, the more powerful that shower will be – but you should make sure your home’s water pressure can handle that power.
Alternatively, you might want to jettison an electric shower for a mixer shower – which, to achieve the right temperature, would blend hot and cold water before spraying it. Certain models are designed specifically for high-pressure systems and others for low-pressure systems.
Power showers, like mixer showers, combine both hot and cold water. However, as – unlike mixer showers – they include a pump to help propel water through the shower head, power showers are well-suited to low-pressure gravity systems and should not be used with high-pressure systems.
If you would like to have a chat with us about the various shower options available, or arrange for us to both supply and install a new shower in your London bathroom, then just phone 0203 409 4115.