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high flow shower heads?

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housewolf

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jack stand said:
You'll probably find that the valve is highly restricted internally well below the 1/2" supply lines entering it.
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Probably? Maybe. 13.5 gpm 3/4 mixing valve feeding three volume control valves. Valves control body sprays, overhead, and handheld. It took me the better part of a day to pipe this sumbich. I put a little thought into my shower, no door to clean either.
IMG_4396.jpeg
 
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dcg9381

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housewolf said:
Probably? Maybe. 13.5 gpm 3/4 mixing valve feeding three volume control valves. Valves control body sprays, overhead, and handheld. It took me the better part of a day to pipe this sumbich. I put a little thought into my shower, no door to clean either
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Mad respect for the copper skills, but PEX makes the job a lot easier. UPONOR fittings if you're flow concerned.
I really like doing the plumbing in showers... So many cool things to be done with simple diverter valves.
 
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housewolf

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dcg9381 said:
Mad respect for the copper skills, but PEX makes the job a lot easier. UPONOR fittings if you're flow concerned.
I really like doing the plumbing in showers... So many cool things to be done with simple diverter valves.
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I guess it depends on personal experience. After having a masters plumbing license for 40 years, I finally got the chance to do the plumbing in my own house. My brother, also a (residential) plumber, just about had me talked into pex. The fact I didn’t have any experience or tools to do pex pushed me back to copper. All my experience has been large commercial so I’ve never done any pex. I could have done it differently using diverter valves but the volume control valves allow me to use any or all and adjust the flow independently.

Since I can’t wrap my head around “multi quoting”, I’ll second the endorsement for the Speakman shower heads. A guy I hunt with, also a plumber, carries one when he travels. For a small shower head, they really do a great job. I think I have a couple in my parts bins.
 
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TRWham

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Danno1 said:
.


The hotel quality Speakman's flow pretty good.


.
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They flow the same as any other 2.5 gpm showerhead, but do so at a higher velocity, which is what you feel. We have customers who specify a rain shower head then complain it's too soft, but it's working exactly as intended.

jack stand said:
You'll probably find that the valve is highly restricted internally well below the 1/2" supply lines entering it.
Click to expand...

Moen tells us any of their current valves will flow 6 gpm or better, so we generally advise no more than 2 fixtures on a valve. The other limiting factor for high flow, multiple device showers is hot water capacity. A typical 40 or 50 gallon water heater will only support so many devices, especially if there are several showers at once or even back to back, so plan accordingly. I did the math on a project some years ago where the client went wild in the Hansgrohe store. He insisted on keeping his 40 gallon water heater and could enjoy maybe 5 minutes with everything running before the water was cold.
 
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reader2580

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I have a Moen shower head that I bought in 2014. It came with the Moen shower valve I bought. I assume it is 2.5 GPM, but it has plenty of flow for me.
 
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Caa311

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Virginia
housewolf said:
Probably? Maybe. 13.5 gpm 3/4 mixing valve feeding three volume control valves. Valves control body sprays, overhead, and handheld. It took me the better part of a day to pipe this sumbich. I put a little thought into my shower, no door to clean either.
IMG_4396.jpeg
Click to expand...
I'm getting ready to do that in my master bath! Body sprays on one end and hand held and maybe sprays on the other end.
 
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lund

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Actually, American shower fixtures generally are pretty bad regardless of price. I was surprised in Japan (my wife is Japanese) that even cheap box hardware store fixtures are super. You can adjust the pressure and temp independently and they really work. You can go from geyser flow to low etc. They last long. Best of all is they are cheap too and have a relatively standard mounting (seems 1/2" NPT or close enough equivalent) where you just tap into hot and cold outlets flush with the wall (use liberal teflon tape ... seemed funky to me but works fine and does not leak). So you can swap them out super easy when they age and scale badly. I retrofitted our home to these and I notice the difference whenever I travel.

If you have access to Japanese products you might want to look into them.

Here is an online pic of a standard setup:

1744334185913.png


For those being snide, low flow toilets in the USA really have become much better via improved design relative to years ago. But low flow showers ... not so much so in my estimation. But part of that is our crappy mixer valves and adjustment mechanisms. In the pic above, one end of the horizontal cylinder is a knob to adjust the temp and the other end of the cylinder is a knob to change the flow pressure and output (shower wand that you can mount on a rail if you want and the spout for filling tubs). Note that you can replace these easy without breaking into the wall or cutting out from behind. So replacement can literally be 15 min if that.
 
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BurtEggley

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I am working against myself but lots of old stock high flow stuff on ebay. Just have to know which rocks to turn over to find it.

One of the guys I used to work with had a best friend who was high up in the reclamation facilities here. Most of the water than goes into houses ends up back in the rivers and aquifers anyway. San Diego had reclamation lakes in Santee over 60 years ago. Only the water that evaporates from the lakes and rivers, plus the lawns etc., gets lost. So for every drop saved of water in your faucet, there is one drop less that diverts thru your house. Only the filtering and electricity is lost in the process, plus the chemicals and equipment cost.
 
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The Cobbler

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BurtEggley said:
Only the water that evaporates from the lakes and rivers, plus the lawns etc., gets lost.
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actually, it's not lost, it does come back down.
but I do somewhat agree with your post, I live between 2 of some of the largest bodies of fresh water in the world. what goes down the drain ends up in the other lake , where it would have gone anyway. I don' t see how I am wasting water... wasting other resources, yes .
Now, in a place that has very little fresh water, I would accept that "wasting water" is not prudent thing to do and I try not to " waste Water "
 
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spyerx

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Here in ca they put restrictors in the valve and heads. I removed them Prior to the plumbers installing during our build. I turn the shower up 1/3 and it’s blasting. Newport Brass fixtures and valves.
 
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Innovate1

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About 20 years ago lived in a small, older house for a few years when planning and building this one. Wife came home one day with a big shower head and asked me to install it without the restriction washer. She got in and said "this is great!". Several minutes later she yelled "I think something is wrong with the hot water!". And the tub was half full of water. Nothing wrong with the water heater (Gas BTW) but she just used all of it. And the drain was small and maybe a bit plugged by gunk. Put the restriction in and lived with it. In the new house we oversized everything. 1" pipe coming in and at least 3/4 to all the areas. 130k BTU condensing water heater. She thought we should have 4" shower drain but convinced her 3" was plenty. No problem now.
 
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Jackfre

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I got a call from a customer who was unhappy with his shower. I was the Rinnai Rep at the time and was asked to go help the plumber out. I meet the homeowner and plumber and see this enormous custom head with dozens of brass nozzles. Plumber says the system checks out. HO says I paid $4000 for the shower head, which he did not buy from the plumber. I go check out the water heater install, Everything checks out. The single unit is making 4.8 gpm at the flow and temp rise which is right on spec. We then got a 5 gal pail and filled it really quickly. The HO getting pissed off keeps telling me that he paid $4000 for the shower head. Me, going through the numbers makes no difference.. “I paid $4000 for the shower head…” He had a 20 gpm $4000 shower head on a 4.8gpm hot water supply system. I told him he will need a larger gas supply and three more tankless units to feed said shower head. As I left the building I hear him fading into the background, “I paid $4000 for the shower head…”

So, got Hot Water?
 
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1982fxr

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Phoenix
metalmagpie said:
Shower heads are in the news. They have apparently been deregulated and are no longer confined to 2.5 gpm.

If anyone sees a new unrestricted shower head for sale, please post a link. I want to buy one!
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I bought one from Amazon last year. Love it. Can't Maxine wanting higher pressure.
 
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dcg9381

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paulsomlo said:
I'll keep my 2.5 gal/min head - water is incredibly expensive here and getting more so every year.
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Yep. We're on water collection and I had to put back the restrictors that the plumber removed. Biggest cause of water use in our home is a large top-load washing machine. It can go through 100 gallons in 3 washes. I get the preference for water volume in the shower.
 
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paulsomlo

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While reading this thread, I just got my latest water bill - $79.53. And that's indoor use only, watering hasn't yet started here. I run the dishwasher once a week, do laundry once a week, and shower 2 or 3x each week (short showers).
waterbill.png
 
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