Bath or Shower?

[Steo]

That really doesn't sound ideal. It wouldn't be very comfortable having to have a lukewarm shower. Maybe that's ok during summer on an extremely hot day, but you clearly don't want that when it's colder outside.

I do know that the huge holiday home we stayed in a few times when we went to Tramore had two electric showers. Only one of them could ever be on at a time though, which made sense. The rest of them seemed to be pumped electric ones, where we would also have to make sure to heat the water beforehand (the room I was staying in had one of those). The pumps were there to greatly up the pressure from them, but they wouldn't have used much power, since they are only pumping, with no heating elements. Maybe it's something similar to this you mean, as you get to mix the hot and cold to adjust the temperature based on where you set the dial to.

[Master]

Hmm, as far as the Electric Showers I've encountered go, I believe they did have some form of flow control, so I suspect they might have had some pump inside, but I believe the water line in was purely cold water and the unit itself had a heating element that was controllable.

As for the mixed tap shower, I think they were just straight from the tap, the old-school setup where you pull the plunger to have them go out through the showerhead instead, and the taps controlled the amount coming through and pressure. That's how it is where I'm at presently, but the hot water isn't in a tank, but a boiler so it's heated on demand in that sense, but as far as pumping goes, I don't think there's anything of that sort happening here.

For thermostatic showers, I don't know if they use pumps, might be some do, some don't, but from what I understand (and I admit, I'm not a plumber or have much knowledge on this front), I think they're effectively just an electronically controlled version of the old school setup of mixer tap and showerhead. Rather than you having to adjust the hot water and pressure by messing with the taps, the thermostatic valves can be set, and they adjust flow and amount of hot water to your desired parameters. In which case, I think they'd be dependent on your hot water main, so that'd probably be a case where you'd need to ensure you have heated water going into your hot water line.

[Steo]

Yeah ours just works with flow control. I think it has two heating elements, one smaller, one bigger, and it will go:

1: Cold
2: Small element
3: Bigger element
4: Both elements

It only gets hotter and colder because of changing the speed of the flow other than this.

The mixed tap ones, I've seen those as well. My grandmother's house had one for years. It was as simple as turning the hot and cold taps and trying to get the temperature as you wanted. Some places have enough pressure to not really need a pump, but they do seem to be commonly used in gravity fed systems.

Also yeah this is pretty much what I think they are, where some will be pumped, and some higher pressure ones won't need it. Basically, the ones we had in there were pumped. You had two dials, one called flow, and the other one was for mixing the hot and cold. Turning up flow all the way would be literally like a power washer, and aside from that, it was all up to just adjusting the bigger dial to get your preferred temperature. I must admit, I did like how it was so powerful, that even putting the flow setting less than half way was far more powerful than our shower at home is. I would never even think of maxxing it out due to this. It really did make you feel like you were being cleaned properly, even if you hadn't been using one of those shower puffs. I definitely need to use those at home to feel even remotely clean though.

[Master]

Ahh I see, next time I encounter an Electric Shower unit I'll have to see if I can have a peak at its internals.

Yeah in the matter of pressure I'm in the same boat, I think there's a baseline to what I consider sufficient enough to feel as if it's removing dirt rather than just "trickling" (for want of a better phrase).

Though considering my past with sensitive skin I do have to be careful cause too strong and too warm will aggravate things, I suspect it disrupts the skin barrier and if you've got issues with being able to maintain your skin moisture, that's the sort of thing that can let allergens in.

[Steo]

I'm sure that's how it works anyway, it's just referred to as a "heater can" that the water passes through as far as I know.

That makes sense also, I feel like we're in that situation in this house where you kind of can't win. You get options to make the shower head more focused by adjusting it, but then you're only getting more of a focused beam in the end and it's not really spread out enough. Having the water come through everything on the shower head just makes it far less powerful, especially on colder days where you have to reduce the flow even further to have the water get hot enough (since the tank is in the attic and of course, the attic will be very cold on those days).

I also have the same issue with my skin. It seems to be really sensitive and I'm almost sure I get dermatitis or something on my hands. Even my face gets dry a lot too, so maybe these are things I should think about too (regarding the temperature of the water maybe). I do like it to be hot enough to be comfortable of course, though if the room is already warm, it doesn't seem as bad. That said, we usually would put the heating on a while before having a shower if it was winter anyway. Who wants a cold bathroom.

[Reese Riverson]

And here we just have water heater which just stores a lot of hot water, and being on propane it's not electric. Which is nice because the water stays nice and hot even in the event of a power outage. Hehe

I do like a nice hot shower, it's often steamy in the bathroom when I do run it.

[PluMGMK]

Is the propane flow not controlled by an electric circuit though? Our propane boiler is no better to us in a power outage than an electric one would be, for that exact reason!

[Pirez]

Is the propane flow not controlled by an electric circuit though?

[Reese Riverson]

Is the propane flow not controlled by an electric circuit though? Our propane boiler is no better to us in a power outage than an electric one would be, for that exact reason!

Our water heater has a pilot light, and it relies on a thermocouple to keep the gas valve open when it calls for heat.

Timestamped:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmI8HjMH5vs&t=199s

[Steo]

I think I may have the same thing Plum is referring to. We have central heating which uses gas, but our boiler and water pump still need electricity to work, as even the boiler has to ignite and have its exhaust fan run, and the pump of course needs to move the water around so the boiler doesn't blow up.

There is a valve in what we often refer to as the "hot press" (essentially a closet where the hot water cylinder is stored), which is electrical. On our control panel downstairs, if we want the heating on, the valve will turn one way, if we want hot water, it turns the other way. If we want both of them at once, it will turn half way.

Issue is though, we do still need electricity to actually use it for several reasons, and while it uses far less power than heating elements, it will still be useless in the event of a power outage unfortunately.

[Reese Riverson]

Which yeah, if you guys have to have actual boilers, water pumps, and exhaust fans, I can see why you gotta have power.

Traditionally our water heaters here are self sufficient if they are merely gas of some kind, with the thermocouple controlled valves, and are a natural induced draft design.

[EdgyRabbid]

I'd be curious to see if there has been any study on the hygeine of baths. I do think showers probably do take more water though long term, but I suppose on how long you shower.

I do wonder if there is a difference when it comes to hygiene.

Fun fact: Its recommended to women on their period NOT to take baths during it. I don't know why though.

[Steo]

Which yeah, if you guys have to have actual boilers, water pumps, and exhaust fans, I can see why you gotta have power.

Traditionally our water heaters here are self sufficient if they are merely gas of some kind, with the thermocouple controlled valves, and are a natural induced draft design.

That makes a lot of sense then in your case. It's probably a little more sophisticated here with our setup. We do still need power for it though, unlike yours. You get that benefit there on the off chance of a power outage. Some people still also use gas for their cookers, though we also happen to have an electric hob and oven. We are pretty much screwed when we have no power.

I mean, I guess I can still have a bath, assuming the water was already hot, and use candles if it happens to be dark out? Just about anything else along those lines, we need power for.

[PluMGMK]

We really need to look into getting our EV charger reconfigured for reverse charging, for these kinds of scenarios...

[Steo]

So it seems our electric shower may be giving up again. The best part of a decade ago, the carbon brushes in the motor had worn down, a couple of days before Christmas ironically. I was lucky enough to get a set of them on Christmas Eve of all days, where they left them in a local hardware store for me to collect.

However, fast forward around 7-8 years, and the pump really sounds like it's dying. It might just be the carbon brushes wearing down again, but at this point, the shower is about 18-19 years old. It probably makes sense to just replace the entire unit with a modern Triton one rather than continuing to try service an old T90si. It should be relatively easy to fit anyway, we know where the valve is to isolate the water, and of course, to turn off the power. There's no point getting electrocuted.

Anyway yeah, now we just need to get a replacement, as I can't see this working for much longer. It really sounds like it's struggling to work.

[Master]

That's understandable, it's always nice to be able to repair your hardware, but I know there comes a point where the repair costs more than a replacement. I do wonder if there've any improvements to the underlying capabilities and technologies in electric showers. I haven't really come into contact with one recently, so I've no frame of reference, all I have is memories of an old 00s era electric shower from when I was growing up.

[Steo]

We basically had two different ones to my knowledge, and we've had this one since around 2006. We got another 8 years or so when I replaced the worn down carbon brushes in the motor though at this point it just made sense to replace it. It's very old now.

My brother found one on a second hand site that seems to have been only manufactured in 2022. It looks relatively new, like it was only used a certain amount. The person who sold it happens to have a van for bathroom fitting or something of the likes, and my guess is that someone with a lot of money replaced their bathroom again despite not having this appliance for very long. I'd imagine he just brought the shower home with him and thought, well I might as well sell it for a few quid instead of throwing it away, since it works. It was as cheap as 40 euro, while a new Triton T90Sr costs about 280 euro. Even if anything was broken, it's a modern enough model to buy brand new parts for. The old one, you're buying used parts well over a decade old, so it's inevitable that replacing it makes sense.

[Kiza/Raybox]

I am the shower cat, because this is the only way I keep myself clean. PLUS I live in the dorm, so it's a shared shower... oof... T^T