Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)First, let me say that I am in favor of conservation. I myself consume less than the EPA daily recommendations for water use per person and am pleased by that. But I also believe that we should be free to choose ourselves how we wish to conserve and not have these choices made instead by government bureaucrats. There is something very wrong with the concept that you can dump thousands of gallons a day on your lawn to keep it green in the desert, but then are forced to use a low flow shower or toilet whose savings pale in comparison to other methods, while often producing very unsatisfactory performance.
Federal law prohibits the manufacturer from selling a shower head that uses more than 2.5 gallons per minute, but the law DOES NOT prohibit the home owner from using own a shower head that uses more water. Therefore, it is perfectly OK for you to decide you want a shower that uses more water if you want. However, since the early 90's finding such a shower head, other than older, used ones, has been difficult. Often customers don't even know this. They go to the Big box store and see a rain shower head that is 12 inches across and assume that more water comes out of this head, when in fact it is just decorative and the same amount of flow comes out of such a head as one with only a 1 inch diameter. Do not confuse flow with pressure. Just like a garden hose, you can increase pressure by restricting the outlet port without actually changing flow rate. So, some shower heads have more force behind the jets, but fewer jets to compensate for this in terms of flow.
I am a professional shower builder. I am the guy you call if you want a super luxury $30K plus shower. I have been dealing with this issue since the regulations first came out. In the early days after the regulations were first imposed most shower heads just came with a flow restrictor in the inlet neck added to existing designs to meet the new guidelines. Back then it was just a simple procedure to just remove the restrictor and go back to old school flow. Over time, however, more and more shower heads have gotten away from this technique and have just been manufactured with inlets built in to the correct 2.5 gpm size. These are very difficult to modify without damaging the shower head.
Over the years we have developed some tricks when building showers to try to tweak more flow through the heads which have become standard practices for me. While these techniques have helped some, the bottleneck has always been the shower head itself, and adding more heads doesn't necessarily help. Adding multiple low flow heads adds water volume but does not give the same effect as more concentrated, heavy streams which is what most people think of when they think higher flow. Especially women when washing their hair. And for an awful lot of my customers who have been wanting an old school, or European kind of shower experience, this has not been a satisfactory solution.
This shower head is the solution. It comes with a flow restrictor bushing that allows it to comply with federal reguations, but the homeowner is free to not use the restrictor. At least under current regulations as of this writing. If you install this head without the bushing you will get an old school flow through your shower head that everyone I know who has them has found very satisfying and refreshing. While the head has setting on it to adjust the pattern, the net result that my customers have desired and achieved is heavier and more vigorous streams of water over the body. In fact, many of my customers report taking shorter showers because they feel clean much faster. This shower head truly does solve the problem that my customers have been clamoring about for years.
The shower head is also very well built. This is not a cheap head that just gives you more flow. This is a high quality shower head of German construction (It is interesting that in Germany where they are far more environmentally conscious than we are in the US, they don't get worked up over shower head flow like we do here). This head is made of solid brass and you can feel it. It is a very heavy shower head and the fit and finish are excellent. These heads are perfectly at home in very expensive showers. The head comes in four different finishes that can be used to match almost any shower equipment you find these days without problem. I have never had to worry about a discerning customer complaining that these heads don't match the finish properly with the other expensive bathroom fixtures they have chosen. In my book, this shower head is a winner and worth the money. I will continue to use them as long as they are available. I fear the day when they too fall victim to the insular bureaucrats.
There is a downside to these heads that I do feel compelled to mention. Unlike low flow shower heads, if you take a hot shower with one of these you will steam up the bathroom very quickly. Your contractor grade shower exhaust fan may not be up to the task of removing all that steam quickly enough to keep you from being surrounded by London Fog. Especially in a very small bathroom. Not that this would be a problem for most people, but if you shower like this often and cannot remove the humidity, it might lead to increased mildew issues.
Another thing that could be a potential problem. If you are the kind of person who likes to get in a hot shower and just stay there a long time getting warm. With this head you will get warm very quickly and it feels great! Trust me. But if you have a small water tank and stay there long enough you will run out of hot water much faster than you would if you had low flow heads. On the other hand, in my opinion the hot shower is far more refreshing with this head than with low flow heads and you won't need to stay there as long to get refreshed. But if you have kids who use too much water as it is, and every shower in your house has one of these heads and you have a lot of people taking showers at once or consecutively, your water heater may not be up to the challenge. Of course you could always go with a tankless water heater system to solve this problem. I highly recommend tankless water heaters regardless of the flow of the shower heads anyway.
I just love these shower heads and given the number of my customers who do as well, I believe there are many people out there looking for this product. If you are, this is it.
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Giessdorf 8 Jet Adjustable Spray Shower Head, Gold
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