We’ve got an electric shower that’s pretty dire and I’d like to replace it with something that doesn’t scorch unexpectedly or only emit a thimble full of water. My wife is convinced they are all rubbish and is hesitant to spend any money on it, in a bit more hopeful…

Any recommendations that won’t burst the bank? It’s going into a downstairs shower room with water feed into the bottom right of the current shower box.

Thanks!

Yes. Some are better than others but the a more powerful one will probably need a complete new wiring in thicker diameter and its own breaker in the consumer unit and will still be poor compared to one run off a decent combi

Are you a combi boiler with half decent water pressure?

They needn’t be rubbish in terms of maintaining a constant flow and temperature but they all tend to be a bit rubbish at power

Some are OK but more hot water = more power so the comments about potential wiring changes come into play.

I don’t know what your hot water set up is but as this is a downstairs shower even a gravity fed hot water system should surely give enough hot water for a decent shower? I’d just do that, stick in a thermostatic mixer using hot and cold feeds.

We’ve got a Triton 10.5kw electric shower.

Sure, it’s no jet wash style power shower, but it’s perfectly fine.

Gets a bit weaker throughout the winter as the incoming cold feed gets even colder (so you have to slow the flow rate down a bit, by turning the dial further round to ‘hot’).
But it’s fine for us….no signs of random scorching or thimble full flow type scenarios…..

We’ve got a 10.5Kw one and it’s fine. As above – it’s not going to knock small children off their feet but flow is good.

You do need to look at the wiring though.

” The thing about bathroom accessories is I can sell you your dream bathroom – I’d be delighted to but it don’t mean a ting if it ain’t got that swing.
The old WP.
Water Pressure”

Mark Corrigan , Peep Show

They’re fine so long as you’ve got decent flow and pressure. If your household pressure is low then yes, you’ll get a boiling trickle if someone is using water elsewhere.
We’ve used them for many years with no problems.

No problems with our Mira unit apart from when the heater can split *cough*

You really do need an RCCB

They’re fine so long as you’ve got decent flow and pressure

Now there’s a thought. My experience of electric showers has been of hooking them up to mains pressure cold water where someone flushing the loo or turning a tap on has no discernible effect. If your cold supply is more variable you are going to feel it!

I thought the more powerful showers *had* to be on a mains feed now?

Our combi boiler (iirc) has a 30+ kw water heater in it and is boosted so the first 50L is full flow at max pressure only after the first 50L has gone does it go down to 30kw. I like a shower with really good flow. NO electric shower gets close to this. Yes a modern high power electric shower is better than the old ones but its still nothing like a decent showwer

which is great if you have a combi boiler…

which is great if you have a combi boiler…

and no other users of hot water when you’re having a shower.

All types of showers have their pros and cons you just have to make the best decision for each situation.

For the OP get the highest rated one that your existing electrical system can take. The cost of an electric shower will be ballpark the same as the shower fittings that you’d be buying for a hot water supplied one anyway.

I’m with your wife (figuratively that is, not literally) even the most powerful electric shower (we had special wiring put in for it) is rubbish. Every morning I walk several more steps to go and use the shower in our main bathroom as it is not electric as opposed to the electric one in our en suite. If I had lots of money I’d rip out the electric one and replace it but that would basically involve a whole new bathroom!

If you are going to spend money on new wiring for the shower it might be better spent on either upgrading your hot water system or fitting a pump to the shower.

Bear in mind that pumped cold water usually requires a supply from a header tank under water by-laws. You also need to be certain the hot water supply has an adequate header to avoid collapsing the tank.

We installed a 9.8kw Mira, Sport I think, 3 years ago (slightly smaller cable but lecky was adamant a few decimal kw points made do difference) and have reasonable wp. It’s rubbish compared to the combi.

We’ve a combi fed shower, and an electric one downstairs..
Fairly decent mains pressure..
The combi fed is lovely 🙂 lots of powerful hot water..
We had the leccy one just in case of boiler failure/gas outages..

I use it after riding as it’s downstairs – it’s ok..not as good, but acceptable…

If I could only have one, it would be combi fed all day long..

DrP

Currently considering one during the renovation but sacked it off as even the decent ones weve fitted in projects arent that good. Im upping the combi to a 35 kw that will run two mains pressure showers. Chances are they’ll rarely run together.

HOWEVER, leccy showers are great if you get a boiler break down….

Electric shower will only get to a maximum rating of ‘good’, with ‘average’ or ‘ok’ being more likely

Mains fed shower, or one running from a tank with a pump or similar, we have the former, has a maximum rating of ‘awesome’ or ‘excellent’, and is often at that level.

You’ll be getting marginal improvements only, but if you’re water pressure is dodgy then you’ll need another solution

They are all, without exception OK. I even had a 10.5kw one in a flat once and that was best desribed as “meh”. The worst bit being that in the winter, when the cold water feed is, well, colder, you could really tell the shower struggled to cope. I always wondered if something like this may have helped to just take the edge off the incoming water stream.

I thought it was pure physics….
Water takes power to heat it up, the more power the hotter the water/faster the shower will deliver the water at x temperature.

If you don’t have enough power then you’ll struggle to get a hot shower with good flow (worse in winter as the incoming water temperature drops).

High Kw showers need thicker cable than you may have.

and no other users of hot water when you’re having a shower.

Not always, our ideal combi can comfortably feed both of our showers at once.

and no other users of hot water when you’re having a shower.

Our combi fed mixer shower works just fine with other water being used, to be fair reduces it to more like an electric one in terms of flow but no change in temp.

I also thought electric ones were less cost effective than combi boiler fed ones ie electric cost more to heat water than gas ?

We have a Mira Sport, top of the range one and it’s really good. We also have a power shower that all in cost us about 2.5 X as much and if I was doing it again I would just put 2 of the electric showers in. With our power shower connected to a hot water tank, it drains it far to fast

benp1 – Member

Mains fed shower, or one running from a tank with a pump or similar, we have the former, has a maximum rating of ‘awesome’ or ‘excellent’, and is often at that level.

Whenever I’ve stayed anywhere that has a tank fed system (talking domestic here….), it’s always been a question of limiting the time in the shower, the amount of people who can have a shower one after the other or having to wait ages in between showers for the water in the tank to heat back up.
I’d want electric or feed from a combi, I reckon…..

I think the shower head fitted can make a big difference to the ‘feel’ of an electric shower. We bought a new showerhead for our Triton one (can’t remember why) and it made it much more ‘useable’ as the jet pattern seems to suit the water flow better.

Why do electric showers take a cold water feed? If they took a feed from the hot water system then they would normally have a lot less work to do and could have a tremendous flow rate.
Is it a water pressure problem?

Why do electric showers take a cold water feed? If they took a feed from the hot water system then they would normally have a lot less work to do and could have a tremendous flow rate.
Is it a water pressure problem?

I’m not wanting to set off the QI buzzer here, but if a shower took the feed off the hot water system, then it would be a combi-fed / hot water header fed shower…ergo NOT electric…I mean, maybe a pump might be needed for pressure, but it wouldn’t be electrically heated??

BUZZZZZZZZZZ

DrP

For instance, say I have an off-grid system with solar water heating and a back boiler on my stove.

At 7pm on a summer’s evening the water will have been heated all day by solar energy the electric shower doesn’t need to add any heat. The shower goes into “pass through” mode and costs me nothing.

At 7 am on a January morning the hot water tank is going to be tepid after last night’s log burning. But if I pipe it to my electric shower I can boost it up to toasty for minimal cost.

If I get home after weekend away the water will be cold and I’m back to a conventional electric shower.

Not useful?

HOWEVER, leccy showers are great if you get a boiler break down….

I fitted an immersion heater for exactly that scenario…

Well…we’ve got a Triton Quattro in the main bathroom, 10.5kw I think & It’s fine & MILES better than the old one we had in the en suite which was a mixer. But It’s not a patch on the Aqualisa we now have in the en suite, which is fed off the hot water tank & ancient boiler.

If you’re in a hard water area then it will scale up. Had to change/descale ours a few times over the years.
Get a 9.5kw or 10.5 would be better.