Bathroom showers

Bathroom showers are for many the most important and loved fixture in the bathroom. They offer a refreshing and cleansing experience that prepares us for our daily routine.

Refreshing shower

There is no arguement that the luxury of a long soak in a bath can not be equalled by a shower, and that the best solution is to incude both a bathroom and shower in your bathroom design. However the bathroom shower does have many advantages. Having a shower is quicker, cheaper and more environmental than having a bath as a shower is instantly ready and uses less water. They also take up less room than a bath, so they are ideal for small bathroom designs, en-suites and additional bathrooms.

Most people will include a shower of some description in their bathroom design, but there are a baffling array of shower types to choose from. So here is a brief guide to inform your shower choice:

Electric showers - These draw water from your home cold water supply and heat only the water that is used. Available in a variety of powers and prices, electric showers provide a cost effective way of getting a hot shower on demand.

Mixer showers - A mixer shower uses a valve to mix hot and cold water from your home water supply to achieve the flow nd temperature desired. There are two types of mixer shower, a manual valve allows you to regulate the temperature often by a single lever, or a thermostatic valve which regulates the temperature regardless of demands on the water supply elsewhere in the house.

Power showers - Are essentially the same as a mixer shower but with the addition of a pump to give more power to the water flow. The pump is often integrated with the mixer valve in a wall mounted unit but can also be kept seperate for asthetic purposes.

Multi jet shower

These are the three main types of shower, there are others such as Venturi showers that use a different flow method and panel or multi jet showers that combine more than one shower head or jet for a luxury soaking, but they are not so readily available or affordable.

Once you have decided on the most suitable bathroom shower you have to decide on where to put it. If you fix your shower above the bath you need to consider additional waterproofing which might include bathroom tiles, shower curtains or other types of splash guard. Or you may decide on a seperate shower enclosure or entire shower room/wet room.

What ever your bathroom shower choice we hope that you will find the right advice and tips on our bathroom design site.