Shower Head Comparisons

Hopefully the below comparisons will help you in deciding which shower head is best for you.

We are assuming that you have 'normal' water pressure between 40 - 60 psi and do not have a low flow mixer valve (the cause of many shower head flow problems.) Shower heads installed without a flow restrictor will always give a stronger shower and have more water flow - unless - you have a low flow mixer valve in your shower. Shower heads installed with the legally required flow restrictor will always give a much weaker shower. Federal law requires that we ship a 2.5 gpm @ 80 psi flow restrictor with every shower head.

On a personal note from Steve Hall, all of the shower heads in our house are installed WITHOUT the flow restrictors. We take a great shower everyday! Do we waste water? I don't think we do. It's not a waste when we are using the water to get cleaner and rinse faster than with a pitifully weak low flow shower head. We do use a flow control valve behind each shower head though. This allows us to regulate the flow rate of the water coming through the shower head. I even turn the water flow to a mere trickle while soaping up and shampooing. I like my morning showers! Do you?

There are other factors that may affect the actual flow from any shower head including: restricted pipes (i.e. old galvanized pipes), undersized plumbing, water flow to other sources (i.e. toilets flushed while showering or lawn sprinklers running), water filters, hard water build-up, sand and debris in shower head, etc. Handheld showers are are always softer than wall mounted showers even if you are using the same shower head due to restrictions caused by the hose, bracket and handle.

Standard wall mounted shower heads unless marked hand held.