Power shower without the hassle of electrical wiring
Disadvantages:
You may want to spend too much time in the bathroom !
Recommend to potential buyers:
yes
Full review
As far as I am concerned, a shower is essential at the start of the day, and often necessary later in the day, when I return from work with the odour of feet ingrained into my skin and hair (apologies to those of you who are eating!).
Imagine then my horror and devastation when our shower recently spat the dummy and broke, and even my resident DIY expert couldn’t fix it. In fact I think he made it worse. (Why do all Steves ‘mends’ yield several spare bits!)? Needless to say we required a replacement and quickly!
When we originally moved into our house in 1998 it had no shower, and we soon put that right, as having to face getting out of bed and into a bath every morning was not my idea of fun. However it was not an easy process finding the correct type of shower for the job. I had previously imagined that you could just buy whatever model took your fancy, fit it, and jump under that refreshing spray…WRONG!
As you will no doubt know if you have faced the same dilemma, the type of shower system that you fit is dependant upon certain factors - The availability of a satisfactory fuse box and electrical wiring system, whether or not your plumbing system is gravity fed, or if you have a combination boiler system.
Now, we already knew what type of shower we wanted. It was simply one which would give us a powerful spray, unlike some of the purely gravity fed showers that we had used in the past, that provide a mere dribble of warm water if you are lucky, the wind is blowing in the right direction, and theres a J in the month.
We consulted Geoff, our local plumber/gas fitter who informed us that if we wanted such a powerful shower we had a couple of choices. The first was to install a power shower. The drawbacks to this solution were that as we lived in an old house, the fuse box was not adequate to cope with the extra strain that an electrical power shower would place on it, and therefore we would have to face the bill for having an electrician fit a more suitable fuse box, and then the cost of the shower unit and plumbing costs on top. All in all Geoff, our plumber estimated that we would have to spend around ₤400 to have our dream shower. We decided that this was too much for us to spend, having already spent loads on moving in.
The second plan, and the option that we eventually chose, was to install what Geoff described as an ‘aqua power’ shower. Puzzled? Well we were. He went on to tell us how the system works.
The Hydroflo shower works by harnessing the power of your mains water, and apparently it works upon the same principle as a carburetor on a car, (not that I a mere woman know anything about what goes on under the bonnet of my trusty steed!). Cold water is passed through a narrow restriction tube (venturi) and causes the hot water to be drawn in and be mixed with the cold water. By controlling the amount of hot water introduced, the shower mixer controls the shower water temperature.
Venturi showers give a higher water flow than an electric shower and can be used when the stored hot water pressure is too low to work a gravity-fed mixer shower or conventional power shower.
We were both a little dubious to say the least. How on earth was water power alone going to be able to provide us with the sort of shower that we were after? Anyway we decided to give Geoff the benefit of the doubt and he set to work getting us a shower unit and fitting it.
It did not take long for him to run some pipes behind our wall to where we wanted the unit situated, and then to plumb in the unit. We were now the proud owners of our very own shower.
Unfortunately, due to a fault with a sealed component within the unit, we have now had to replace it with another. As we have never had any reason to fault the shower in the past 4 ½ years we decided to purchase another Hydroflo shower.
The shower has been revamped since we purchased our first, and these days the unit is more compact and prettier to look at. Therefore we now have an extra piece of wall, which Steve now has to paint to match the rest of the bathroom!
This time we fitted the unit ourselves, as all it took was for the old shower to be removed, and the new one fitted onto the existing pipe work. Simple, even for someone like me!
Being totally infantile, we tossed a coin to see who would have first try…I WON! I was not disappointed either. The spray was powerful enough to give me an invigorating pounding, and the heat control was superb. Even when Steven got to have his turn the verdict was the same.
The benefits of having a Hydroflo shower are that you need no electrical input at all, and the unit can be plumbed direct to your existing cold and gravity fed hot water pipe work, and push-fit connectors make the job of installation even easier.
Installation requirements…
- Gravity fed plumbing system. - Not for combination boilers. - Minimum 0.3metres, Maximum 5 metres head of hot water. - Minimum cold water pressure 1 Bar. - Minimum 60 degrees C hot water temp, and a max of 75 degrees C.
The shower unit comes complete with a shower head, soap dish, riser rail and bracket, 1.5 metre flexi hose, and includes full fitting instructions and fixing kit. However I would suggest that if you are not a confident DIY-er, then you should contact a plumber to come and fit the unit for you. After all you can do without flooding you bathroom!
We bought our unit from a plumbing supplier (Stevenage Plumbing Supplies – 01438 316394) who we located via the Internet. The unit cost us ₤123.60 including postage. It was delivered to us within two days of ordering it, and has been an excellent replacement for our old shower.
If you want more info on the product and stockists then you could try contacting the manufacturers Gelson Professional. Their address is:
Gelson Professional Central Way Andover Hampshire SP10 5AW
I have no doubt that if you are considering fitting your first shower, or replacing your existing unit, then this unit would be an excellent choice. Why don’t you ask your local plumbers merchants for some information? You may well save yourself a huge amount of money, and end up with a satisfying shower too.
** Since starting to write this op (which has taken me ages!), my brother following our recommendation, has also bought, and fitted a Hydroflo shower (or rather Steve fitted it for him), and is equally impressed. The model he has is the latest in the range, and is chrome coloured. So even those of you with ultra-trendy bathrooms will find something to suit!
****STOP PRESS*** Whilst browsing B&Q for a new shower for our new house I found the aquapower shower (now called H20 Hydro Power Shower)! Even better is that the price of these little beauties has fallen to around £70 depending on which colour finish you prefer. So no excuses now...go and get one
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