suggestions for a better shower head????

[centerline]

im looking for suggestions for a shower head that will give a wider spray of water.
the one that i have now sprays about a 2inch pattern at 24inches from the shower head, and I would prefer to have one that has about a 5inch spray pattern....

due to heartlands use of the plastic fittings in the 1/2" pex line, which only have a 5/16 pathway thru them, more water flow and pressure is not an option without replacing all the joints with metal fittings, or upgrading to a larger size line thruout the freshwater plumbing system....

those of you who have a good spray pattern from your shower head, what brand or type are you using?.... thanks

[JimK-NY]

centerline wrote:

....wetting down in the shower, stopping the water, then soaping up from the the feet to the head, and then rinsing well usually consumes about 1.5 gallons of water.....

I would imagine that is the case if you use something like the Oxygenics showerhead that blasts at a gallon a minute. My whole shower, from toes to the top of my head and a good rinse takes about a gallon or less with a shower head that can be dialed back to low flow.

[centerline]

JimK-NY wrote:

Sandia Man wrote:
A gallon a minute is pretty good IMO for a showerhead.....

Not for me. I regularly stay in places without hookups and often where water is scarce. I use 1 gallon of water or less for my daily shower. I wet down with a dribble of water, soap up and rinse again with a dribble of water. I have also solved the waste issue adjusting the temperature. I only use the water heater for showers and know how long to run the heater to get the water to a comfortable temp. My only waste is about a cup of water getting the hot water from the tank to the shower head.

the rating of the shower head is more about how much water the head will flow at whatever pressure it was tested at.... and 1 gal per minute is pretty good when compared to the 2gpm flow of residential shower heads.

what YOU prefer is irrelevent to the RATED gpm flow of a given shower head, which can be user adjusted by lessening the flow or pressure thru it with either knob on the mixing valve, and by the selection of pump one chooses to use..

as you and others have also stated, conserving water is necessary for those of us who prefer to boondock away from the crowds of rv "park" hoppers, who generally have an unlimited supply of both water and power, and never have a need to learn how to conserve water in the shower.
wetting down in the shower, stopping the water, then soaping up from the the feet to the head, and then rinsing well usually consumes about 1.5 gallons of water..... we have used this same method for years on both our boat and in the RV.

personally, every shower I own or have ever owned has had a mirror installed in it, so that I can shave while there, which also saves a little bit of water

sometimes when we know we will be taking on water, we may splurge and waste a bit of water while taking a longer shower, but once a person gets used to the military type shower, it seems like a waste of time to stay so long in the confines of the shower stall.

we also carry a 5gal shower bag that can be filled from any fresh water source and left out in the sun to warm up... there is enough water in the 5 gallon bag for 4 showers that will adaquatley clean and rinse all your pits and bits, but only 2, maybe 3 showers if you need to wash down your entire body thoroughly, which is necessary if you have been riding ATV's or horses all day....

and there are those people who live in the hot, humid areas, where taking a couple showers a day is nice, and sometimes necessary, but i think most of us take a shower once a day, or every second or third day when needing to conserve water when boondocking for extended periods....

[JimK-NY]

Sandia Man wrote:
A gallon a minute is pretty good IMO for a showerhead.....

Not for me. I regularly stay in places without hookups and often where water is scarce. I use 1 gallon of water or less for my daily shower. I wet down with a dribble of water, soap up and rinse again with a dribble of water. I have also solved the waste issue adjusting the temperature. I only use the water heater for showers and know how long to run the heater to get the water to a comfortable temp. My only waste is about a cup of water getting the hot water from the tank to the shower head.

[Sandia_Man]

A gallon a minute is pretty good IMO for a showerhead, no wonder our Oxygenics has proven a water saver for us. We shower daily without exception, twice if we are swimming in river, lake, or ocean, great to know we are using just a couple of gallons if even that much since it is rare we run showerhead more than 2 minutes total. We have been RVing for 3 decades and boondocking is easily our favorite method, all the stock showerheads in the various rigs were changed out for Oxygenics versions, we noticed a significant reduction in FW usage compared to stock, a more invigorating stream was an added bonus.

[dedmiston]

This weekend I was thinking to myself, why is it that the residential shower at home always feels "pretty good" but showering in the RV feels so amazing? It was especially dusty and grubby at camp this weekend, so I showered every night before bed. I don't know why this feels like such a luxury.

[Cummins12V98]

I have the Oxygenics with an added shut off valve where the hose connects to the head. By using the valve I can fully shut off the water and it's the same temp when opened. With the lever on the head only shutting it iff there is still some flow and when re opened you have to wait for the temp to even out.

[agesilaus]

JimK-NY wrote:
The Oxygenics works great if you want a fairly powerful spray. It is horrible for conserving water if you do not have hook ups. Check their webpage. The Oxygenics heads are designed to use a full gallon of water per minute and they do not work at all well if you need to conserve water.

That is why 'Navy' showers are recommended for water conservation. Run the water get wet, shut the water off, soap up. run the water to rinse. Does not matter what shower head you use. And just for your info, in the Navy we went weeks or months without even a "Navy" shower on submarines.

[JimK-NY]

The Oxygenics works great if you want a fairly powerful spray. It is horrible for conserving water if you do not have hook ups. Check their webpage. The Oxygenics heads are designed to use a full gallon of water per minute and they do not work at all well if you need to conserve water.

[_1Flyboy]

X10

[Michelle_S]

Ditto the Oxygenics Shower head.

[agesilaus]

The Oxygenics is probably the most popular: Oxygenics Shower Head
They work on low flow making your limited hot water supply last longer. There are several different versions not just the above. We have had one for years.