Current very old electric shower has sprung a leak internally so has been decommisioned.

Looking at new showers just a bit confused by the range of say an 8.5kw shower. They seem to range from £65 to £230 for something like a Triton. Are their any particular features that are worth having. Does a standard manual temperature control actually fluctuate. Do you get better quallity components in a more expensive shower.

Are you sure your old one isn’t repairable?

http://www.showerdoc.com/shower-spares/

I used the above site and fixed mine for £12. Great site with lots of help, how to’s and parts.

Saved me a fortune and shower as good as new.

The Triton helpline is pretty good too, they’ll tell you which model to buy for like for like replacement, they still use the same screwhole positions and wiring routing on loads of models so you can swap the shower without mess and hassle.

If you decide to buy new, I can’t recommend: http://www.alertelectrical.com/ highly enough – they were very helpful to me & very well priced.

I have a Mira Sport, the top power one they do, and it’s great, not sure i’d bother with anything lower TBH.
Only disadvantage would be new mounting/pipe run & you’ll probably need to run new thicker cabling for it – that gets expensive as you need a sparky in to install (sometimes) and sign off (always).

Most manufacturers showers are virtually the same internally across their ranges, you pay extra for the different front panels/higher ratings and nicer spray heads.

If you get the same make, then it should be a straight swap, so pretty easy to fit.

If you are putting in a higher rated shower then you’ll likely need 10mm square cable. The most common size is 6mm sq, which is ok in most cases to 8.5kw.

If you want a basic shower, then Screwfix do them from £70.
Alan

“Are their any particular features that are worth having”

Yes an non electric shower!

Do you have a combi boiler and reasonable pressure? If so I’d move straight to a mixer shower. Much better experience and cheaper to run than electric.

We’ve been using an electric showers for quite a few years but will stop when the boiler packs up and is replaced with a combi.

The water is very hard where we live so we’re on our 3rd shower in 6 years!! The heater scales up every so often so it needs replacing so worth factoring in replacements if your in a hard water area.
Using a 9.5KW gainsborough as they’re fairly cheap to replace.

Had to buy 10mm cable though but worth the extra power in winter for the faster flow, might try the 10.5 KW next.

I’ve replaced 2 lately in separate houses and have used a Triton Cara in ours and a Wickes Aquatronic in the other, both are the same model, both perforn okay IMO and they have multiple options for water entry, so easy to fit.

CAUTION you will almost certainly have to upgrade your cabling back to the board if you dont IT WILL CATCH FIRE.. Mira do a universal with water and electric fittings front back left and right ..