The official shower complaint thread.

[Grant Conklin]

Re: The official shower complaint thread.

When I built my house, I had these installed in both of the showers.

It doesn't do any thing fancy, other than allow you to set the temperature once, and change the flow without messing up the temp. Works great.

 

[Josh Millward]

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.

Yes, I questioned this logic as well. However, it sure works well... so I'm not going to argue. There were terminals in the box for all that wire, too. I was surprised that they wanted that much power.

Certainly, if I ever build a house, a smaller instant water heater will be going into each bathroom and into the kitchen. There will be cold water distribution throughout the house, but no hot water distribution. All hot water will be heated at the point of use.

 

[Tim McCulloch]

Re: The official shower complaint thread.

Yes, I questioned this logic as well. However, it sure works well... so I'm not going to argue. There were terminals in the box for all that wire, too. I was surprised that they wanted that much power.

Certainly, if I ever build a house, a smaller instant water heater will be going into each bathroom and into the kitchen. There will be cold water distribution throughout the house, but no hot water distribution. All hot water will be heated at the point of use.

I suspect it uses multi-stage heating that kicks in as water flow increases.

 

[Kemper Watson]

Re: The official shower complaint thread.

Yes, I questioned this logic as well. However, it sure works well... so I'm not going to argue. There were terminals in the box for all that wire, too. I was surprised that they wanted that much power.

Certainly, if I ever build a house, a smaller instant water heater will be going into each bathroom and into the kitchen. There will be cold water distribution throughout the house, but no hot water distribution. All hot water will be heated at the point of use.

I've not seen a point of use heater that will produce enough water for a shower. Some make that claim, but I have my doubts. Distributed hot water (for now) will still be cheaper with one bigger unit and hot and cold piping to each area

 

[Josh Millward]

Re: The official shower complaint thread.

I've not seen a point of use heater that will produce enough water for a shower.

Baloney. That was true some years ago. But it is not the case any more. The big one I have is intended for whole house operation. I've seen smaller units intended for point of use that were mis-used for whole house applications and they worked just fine... as long as you were not using multiple appliances at once.

I think it would be a lot easier to just run a 40-60A 240VAC circuit to a bathroom rather than put in twice the piping for both hot and cold. Especially if this assumes that you are installing copper pipe.

Plus you get the benefit of having the hot water right there when you turn on the faucet rather than having to wait for two minutes for the hot water to flow from the heater to your point of use.

 

[Kemper Watson]

Re: The official shower complaint thread.

Baloney. That was true some years ago. But it is not the case any more. The big one I have is intended for whole house operation. I've seen smaller units intended for point of use that were mis-used for whole house applications and they worked just fine... as long as you were not using multiple appliances at once.

I think it would be a lot easier to just run a 40-60A 240VAC circuit to a bathroom rather than put in twice the piping for both hot and cold. Especially if this assumes that you are installing copper pipe.

Plus you get the benefit of having the hot water right there when you turn on the faucet rather than having to wait for two minutes for the hot water to flow from the heater to your point of use.

The small point of use heaters that range in price up to $150-250 produce a maximun of .5 gallons a minute at 70*in-100* out.. In no way enough for a shower.. The units that produce 3.5 gallons at 70*in 100*out are in the $6-700 price range. You do the math. 4 to five per house, plus the wiring.. I've installed quite a few of them. Probably 40 in the last three years..I've done my research. BUT, I would never install an electric one in the first place..

And for instant hot water, most have a recirc option..Still cheaper than several units per home

 

[Craig Hauber]

Re: The official shower complaint thread.

One thing I've discovered, that's not recommended by manufacturers, is to jack up the temperature on your tank-type heater. Less GPM used to maintain the same temp at the showerhead means the tank of hot water will last longer during a shower. Of course there's more risk of scalding and the recovery time on the tank is slightly longer. If you have small children it's probably not advised to turn it up too high either, but generally I've found the initial factory setting is way too low.
The tankless electric units aren't recommended (by factory) for use at the latitude where I'm currently working on some houses. They recommended cascading 2 of them -which would mean an unreal amount of power draw and about $1800 worth of heater! A basic large tank unit and insulated pipes is far more practical. (I'm actually going to look into a recirculating type system as I have all the walls opened-up) Minimizing elbows and excessive valves, avoiding long thin lines and careful planning of routing and fixture priority can really help with pressure drop issues even with crappy supply pressure. You can essentially eliminate the toilet-flush freeze/scald blast from an operating shower.

 

[Gary Green]

Re: The official shower complaint thread.

I saw this thread title and I thought it must be referencing Paul Anka....He refused to use the shower in our star dressing room with our shower head. Someone went and got him another. Does he do this everywhere??
(But, he didn't like the soup spoons, towel color or just about anything else.)

 

[Christian Tepfer]

Re: The official shower complaint thread.

...
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.

...

My impression as well. That and the breakfast quality is the main reason for my preference of higher class hotels.