The official shower complaint thread.

[Jack Arnott]

Just what it sounds like. I am amazed at how many things can go wrong with a shower, and in so many different combinations.

Today's shower. Very nice overall. A small, cozy, cute room. Very old, and comfortable.
The shower is vary small, and only a shower, walk in. The shower head is about 7' (2M) high, so very nice in that regard, and good water flow.
First, there is no door to slide shut. Just a permanent wall for 2/3 of the entry or room side of the shower. (The shower is about 2.5'x4.5'.) (2/3Mx1.5M) This causes two problems. No steam trap inside, and the water sprays out. The entrance is at the far end from the shower head, and this to me is wrong. I would think the head on the same end as the entrance would have less spray outside. And also the head is just slightly offset to the wall. I would offset it to the room, and spray back into the shower. And lastly the adjuster is slightly sticky. So to get the right temperature it has to be wiggled back and forth, like focusing a manual camera, until it sets on the right spot.

I am sure that with all the traveling we do, or even our home shower, or those of family's we stay in that there should be a wealth of fodder for this thread.
Pile on.

 

[Bennett Prescott]

Re: The official shower complaint thread.

I am also picky about showers. I like a simple, traditional spray... my favorite are the all chromed steel heads you can get for about $25 at Home Depot. I put them on all my showers. It is mandatory that the head be at least 6.5', and preferably 7', off the floor of the shower. Good flow is a must as well, but that is rarely a problem. Temperature control, though, is - even at nice hotels.

 

[John Roberts]

Re: The official shower complaint thread.

The shower room in those old WWII barracks at Ft Riley, were not so confining, or lonely. But even those were a refreshing respite after enough time in the field w/o.

JR

 

[Dick Rees]

Re: The official shower complaint thread.

I am also picky about showers. I like a simple, traditional spray... my favorite are the all chromed steel heads you can get for about $25 at Home Depot. I put them on all my showers. It is mandatory that the head be at least 6.5', and preferably 7', off the floor of the shower. Good flow is a must as well, but that is rarely a problem. Temperature control, though, is - even at nice hotels.

The best showers are the ones in the little room right outside the sauna.

This reminds me of the Seinfeld episode where they're looking for better, higher pressure shower spray and end up purchasing new shower heads from a guy selling them out of a white van parked behind a warehouse.

So far I've managed to stifle the urge to reference the notorious "golden shower".

Oops.........

 

[Tim McCulloch]

Re: The official shower complaint thread.

The shower room in those old WWII barracks at Ft Riley, were not so confining, or lonely. But even those were a refreshing respite after enough time in the field w/o.

JR

I think Riley still has those showers.... but then again the Army has been building up Ft. Riley for the last 10 years.

You're only recognize a small part of it today, John.

 

[Milt Hathaway]

Re: The official shower complaint thread.

I wish hoteliers in the USA would join the rest of the world and put hand-held shower nozzles in their showers. There are parts of me that need rinsing that don't get rinsed by the nozzle stuck in the wall.

Worst temp control ever was a hospital I spent a week in. The combination of high-volume commercial toilet valves randomly killing the cold water pressure and super-hot water under constant pressure made for a short exciting shower every time.

 

[Greg Cameron]

Re: The official shower complaint thread.

Good flow is a must as well, but that is rarely a problem. Temperature control, though, is - even at nice hotels.

I've often wondered what it would take to design a shower valve with automatic temperature & pressure compensation where it would detect shifting of the hot water line's temp and pressure a few feet back in the pipe and then adjust accordingly. Sounds like something that could make someone a lot of money to design and patent.

 

[Greg Cameron]

Re: The official shower complaint thread.

There are parts of me that need rinsing that don't get rinsed by the nozzle stuck in the wall.

Couldn't agree more. A handheld shower is an essential remedy to Gig Butt® issues along with proper after shower topical treatments.

 

[brian maddox]

Re: The official shower complaint thread.

I am also picky about showers. I like a simple, traditional spray... my favorite are the all chromed steel heads you can get for about $25 at Home Depot. I put them on all my showers. It is mandatory that the head be at least 6.5', and preferably 7', off the floor of the shower. Good flow is a must as well, but that is rarely a problem. Temperature control, though, is - even at nice hotels.

bennett hit my pet peeve on the, ummm, head. I'm 6'4" and i've got an old tired body. bending to take a shower is no fun to say the least, and i'm continually surprised at how many shower heads i find that are coming out of the wall about my chin level or worse. maybe it was 6' up before they put in the tub or shower unit, but once you add that rise, it gets pretty stupid.

temp control is important. and decent pressure helps. but having to stoop to wash my hair [which i have a lot of] and my face puts me in a really poor mood...

 

[John Roberts]

Re: The official shower complaint thread.

I think Riley still has those showers.... but then again the Army has been building up Ft. Riley for the last 10 years.

You're only recognize a small part of it today, John.

I have no desire to recognize it. Even while I was there back in the early '70s we moved from the fire-trap wood barracks into brand new (brick) buildings with dormitory style 4 man rooms (vs 40 man rooms), but we still had communal bathrooms.

Give my regards to Custer hill,,, IIRC the only hill in KS. It seems Custer would be a name for the Army to forget, but they probably didn't name the hill.

The coldest I have ever been in my life was walking guard duty around empty buildings during the winter there... It was so cold it was a tough decision to remove a glove to unscrew the top off the brandy bottle in my pocket to take a slug. When it snowed everybody headed for town, because the poor suckers who stayed on post have to pull all the KP and guard duty for the troops who manage to get "stranded" off base. . It was remarkable how some people would get stranded as far away as Topeka, when it didn't even snow there.

Being in the army was a world class education in how to "sham" (avoid work).

JR

 

[Josh Millward]

Re: The official shower complaint thread.

Oh yes... really good showers seem to be hard to find. Thankfully I was able to get one in my house.

The keys for me seem to be:
1. Unlimited hot water (as long as the power is on)
2. A high shower head
3. Good flow at a reasonable pressure (this does mean a decent volume of water)

So, when my ancient 40 gallon LP fired water heater died, I ponied up and bought the electric on demand type. It requires three 50A 240V circuits... in the instructions it recommends not using plastic pipe for at least the first 10 feet coming out of the unit... because it could melt. Also, I put a riser arm on the shower. You know you can usually unscrew that down tilting arm coming through the wall in your shower and replace it, right? At my local Lowe's they had these little arms that come out, tilt up at a 45 degree angle and rise about a foot. Then I put a nice shower head on it from which I had removed the little flow restrictor. Taking showers at home is a joy now.

Unfortunately, this means that when I go pretty much any place, I don't like the showers.

LVH (formerly Las Vegas Hilton) wins my award for the showers that piss me off the most. Zero water volume... this means if you are up early to shower, it could be a LONG wait for hot water and the showers take forever because I require a certain volume of water to wash the soap off my body... restricting the flow that much does NOT help.

 

[Evan Kirkendall]

Re: The official shower complaint thread.

It amazes me how much showers vary across the world.

Japanese showers are the most consistent, from what I've found, though the head is always too low. But, the temp is always very good and so is pressure. I also love the hotel mirrors that don't fog up!

UK showers are hit or miss. The little electric ones that have the box attached to them are annoying. Low pressure and unpredictable pressure.

Austrialia loves the half glass wall showers. I usually end up soaking the whole bathroom with those.

Europe/Middle Asia are always all over the place. It seems the higher end hotels are always pretty good, but anything else is a crap shoot.

The USA is surprisingly terrible for me. Nicer hotels seem to have it down, but down south shower heads always seem to be too low!

I personally am I big fan of multiple shower heads. I love the waterfall shower heads from above, and detachable ones too. Gotta be at least 7' high, good pressure and lots of hot water available. I hate running out of hot water after a long day! Whenever I finally buy a house, I'm going to put a lot in to my bathroom!



Evan

 

[Brian jojade]

Re: The official shower complaint thread.

Actually, most modern shower faucets have this built in already, at least to some degree. They measure changes in pressure of the water and adjust accordingly. The more fancy ones will actually detect the pressure and make changes as needed. The really fancy ones use electronic temperature sensors and can keep the temperature quite accurate.

How Does an Anti-Scald Faucet Work? | eHow.com

 

[Andrew Broughton]

Re: The official shower complaint thread.

Funny, I was just commenting the other day about how bad some of the shower designs were in most of the venues.
Like, why is there no place to put your soap and shampoo? I don't want it on the floor of the shower, so why didn't the designer build in a holder part way up the wall?
Why is the (non-adjustable) show head pointed to fire all the water outside the shower, soaking the floor?
Stupid stuff like that makes me wonder what, if anything, the designers were thinking? Have they never used showers themselves?

 

[Silas Pradetto]

Re: The official shower complaint thread.

Oh yes... really good showers seem to be hard to find. Thankfully I was able to get one in my house.

The keys for me seem to be:
1. Unlimited hot water (as long as the power is on)
2. A high shower head
3. Good flow at a reasonable pressure (this does mean a decent volume of water)

So, when my ancient 40 gallon LP fired water heater died, I ponied up and bought the electric on demand type. It requires three 50A 240V circuits... in the instructions it recommends not using plastic pipe for at least the first 10 feet coming out of the unit... because it could melt. Also, I put a riser arm on the shower. You know you can usually unscrew that down tilting arm coming through the wall in your shower and replace it, right? At my local Lowe's they had these little arms that come out, tilt up at a 45 degree angle and rise about a foot. Then I put a nice shower head on it from which I had removed the little flow restrictor. Taking showers at home is a joy now.

Unfortunately, this means that when I go pretty much any place, I don't like the showers.

LVH (formerly Las Vegas Hilton) wins my award for the showers that piss me off the most. Zero water volume... this means if you are up early to shower, it could be a LONG wait for hot water and the showers take forever because I require a certain volume of water to wash the soap off my body... restricting the flow that much does NOT help.

I somehow doubt that it requires 150 amps @ 240 volts, unless it supplies a firehose volume of hot water.

I installed an instant tankless hot water heater for a friend, it is 60 amps @ 240 and flows near 5gpm at full temp. It conveniently uses PWM to adjust the temperature, so it maximizes electricity savings. The interesting thing with these instant hot water heaters is that as the pressure decreases, the water gets hotter. So, if you turn on the cold water to balance the temperature, the reduced flow to the hot water unit will actually increase the temperature of the hot water, offsetting the added cold water. To a point, adding more cold does not decrease the shower temperature.

If I acquire a house someday, I'm definitely getting a tankless instant hot water heater.

 

[Kemper Watson]

Re: The official shower complaint thread.

I somehow doubt that it requires 150 amps @ 240 volts, unless it supplies a firehose volume of hot water
If I acquire a house someday, I'm definitely getting a tankless instant hot water heater.

The electric models are power hungry. Not sure about the technology on them but I usually sway customers to the gas models.. I've gotten no complaints about these:

-:- Navien America -:-

I can make any shower do what you want.. I'm in the book...LOL

 

[W. Mark Hellinger]

Re: The official shower complaint thread.

Liz and I live for the most part of 10 years on the road, living on the road in a coach, with the coach parked at night in RV campground or truckstops when available. We learned some about 25 cent showers... what to take to the shower and how to make effective use of the water at 25 cents per ? seconds or minutes.

 

[Tim Weaver]

Re: The official shower complaint thread.

For years I used to take the pressure regulator out of the shower head at every hotel. These days they seem to be not using them as much. It seems like hotel showers have gotten much better over the last decade.

 

[Ben Lawrence]

Re: The official shower complaint thread.

 

[Brian Bolly]

Re: The official shower complaint thread.

My biggest pet peeve is smacking the back of my head on the shower head - I'm 6', so that's just unacceptable. I don't generally run into temp or pressure issues on the road, but it seems that I do run into situations where vertically challenged plumbers installed the shower facilities all too often.

At home, an indirect fired DHW tank, great Moen shower heads and higher than normal water pressure (+/- 80 psi at the entrance) lets us run 2 showers, washer and dishwasher simultaneously with no drop in pressure or temperature. As much as I hate this old house sometimes, that's one of the perks.