"AAA" Showerheads - Is there any that are better o

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I agree with you. I have just moved house, and have the newer style efficient shower heads. I stand there in the shower for twice as long, and feel very cold as the water just doesn't cover enough area.

Are the highest flow shower heads restricted to 9l/min? I'd rather have less efficient shower head, AND spend less time in the shower.[/quote]


I agree totally. Ridiculous because I'm standing in the shower much, much longer than I'd like to or need to. Same with the rest of the family.

How environmentally friendly is that????

If you look at Melbournes water storage at:

http://www.melbournewater.com.au/content/water/weekly_water_update/zoom_graph.asp

and compare the year 1999 and this year, you will see that there is a very close correlation. If that happens, we will be starting the new year at 30% and be heading towards 20% mid next year. Expect some serious restrictions if that happens. When you start getting to the low percentages, you get problems with muddyness and purity.

Much as they are hated, flow restricted shower heads are going to be essential to get us through this.

Melbourne could be in serious trouble water wise. The desal plant won't be ready.

Don't you mean 2007 and 2008 there is a close correlation 3Xb.

I put one in my shower it lasted a whole 2 days before I got Glen to exchange it for the old one in the other bathroom!!

I love my showers….its my only pleasure these days, so when I get under the shower rose I want water…..not dribble!

If I’d know they were ALL getting changed over to water saving I would have bought 5 of the old ones to keep me going for quite a whew years!

Nope, In 2007, we started to get substantial rises in dam levels in late June and that didn't happen this year. In 1999, we hit bottom in mid May and stayed there until early August. So far we are exactly parallel to 1999, just with a 30% lower starting point.

1999 saw a moderate increase in dam levels in mid August but by then it was too late and we only managed a 3 or 4 % increase and that stalled and was wiped out by the end of December. In other words, we seem to be exactly paralleling a year where the dam levels reached their lowest point in the year, didn't properly recover and were back to their lowest point in the year by year end.

If I am right, Melbournes water storages will reach 20% before the middle of next year. At that point, if we don't get rain, we will be down to drinking water only - NO SHOWERS!!! Phew!!

We may be lucky because the year that followed 1999 (ie 2000) was very good with a 20% increase but there are no guarantees.

3xb - whats your snowfall this year - isn't it up?
Look at 03.
You need to look at the big picture - what has happened now - as well as - what has happened in the past.
I'm not advocating you'll have lots of water as I'm not in Vic and I do not know your seasons.
But prudence is certainly worthwhile.
Steve

Snowmelt is not a great contributor to Melbourne's catchments, and overall not a huge contributor to those Victorian catchments which have larger storages.

The prognosis from CSIRO for the next few months is pretty grim...pretty much way below average until January....January is expected to be "normal"....i.e. bugger all because it's the middle of summer...got the figures at work I'll pull them out if I remember.

My builder has these taps as standard in the shower:
http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/ff285/agardner5/genx.jpg

I just measured the current shower head in my bathroom and it is about 20 litres a minute.. This one will only be 8 litres a minute...

Can you still get high flow shower heads?? I hoping I can upgrade it to a high flow one as I can't stand the water saver shower heads.. I have really sensitive skin (I have eczema) and the water saver heads hurt my skin..

If you are still looking....

My SO is a chunky fellow - 6'1" & 96kgs - and hated the water saving showerhead I picked up at Bunnings...said it didn't pump out enough water...to get wet he had to stand under there for 8 hours (OK, I'm exaggerating there )...so, anyway, we went searching for something suitable and found the Satinjet Genesis Wall Shower (on Upswept Arm) at Reece. Cost a lot of cash but he is very happy with it...the head is huge. Not the prettiest looking device but does the job AND saves water

HTH

Looks fine to me....
http://www.savewater.com.au/products/Sa ... pswept_Arm

LOL - I was doing some sums in my head and thinking you must have had the biggest house in Australia!!

Yippee !!!!!!!!!!!
Had the plumber out because our stupid water-saving showerhead lost almost all water pressure !!!!!!! Some kind of grit clogged up the filter & as a result, there was almost no water getting through !
We stopped using that shower not only because it was pretty much impossible to have a shower in it but also because it was impossible to clean it, for the same reason.

Well, the wonderful plumber removed the useless water saving filter & lo & behold, we had torrents of water streaming out of the showerhead. He said that he gets requests to remove these filters all the time. I'm not !@#$%^ suprised.

No apologies to eco-friendly forum members .... these devices don't work. We actually stayed under the shower longer to get rinsed.
Our family members have always been conservative water users, so removal of the filters won't encourage us to have longer showers but will mean we're actually in there a lot less because we can actually get clean & rinsed in a shorter period of time.

YIPPEE

So does that mean you can just get a plumber out to remove the filter Southies?

Enjoy your nice strong showers from now on!

Completely agree Southies.... I have long hair down my back and it is an absolut pr*ck to rinse it with those watersavers. I get in the shower, shampoo, then condition.... while my conditoner sits in my hair, I wash my face and my body... (I'm a very thorough latherer ) then rinse everything off. ALWAYS around 3 to 4 minutes all up with a normal shower head.
With a water saving shower head it takes me 3 to 4 minuts to get the shampoo out... then another 3 to 4 minutes to get the conditioner out.... false economy.

Jo

I guess so. I mean I called him out because there seemed to have been a blockage in that particular showerhead. So I asked him if the filter could be removed while he was clearing the blockage ? So he did. NO problemo. So I don't see why anyone can't do the same.

He also said that these filters aren't always located in the same place. Ours was located where the plumbing comes out of the wall. Sometimes they're in the hand piece.

Cool! Maybe I can get ours to remove it while he installs it!

This prediction of mine is proving to be very true. Looking at the graph, it is clear that we are not getting enough rain. This time next year, we could be in very serious trouble.

What happens when we start to approach 20%? What do stages 4, 5, and 6 look like and when do they cut in?

Anyway, I'm off to predict the next great depression....

Oh dear! I've got a handyman coming to install my new water saver shower head (I got it from Origin Energy when I switched to Green Power)...does anyone know if these are equally bad as the others?

I have long hair and it usually takes a minute or so for me to rinse my hair as it is. I couldn't deal with less water pressure!!

But the shower head looks really nice...the guy isn't a plumber, but said he could install it. Could he take out the filter I wonder and then install it as normal?

Anyone who is "handy" can take out the filter, its really not all that hard

I changed all of the Alder Vito Duo Slide Rail shower heads in our new house to a standard Alder Vito Directional shower head purely for this reason. I also took out the shower head from our old house to put into the new one. I despise those water saving heads as I have trouble rinsing my hair too . It takes twice as long, and I don't have that time to waste with 2 kids getting ready for school!

3timesbuilda - Melbourne is already in a dire situation when it comes to our water. We've had below average rainfall for both September and now looks likely October on what are usually our wettest months. 3a water restrictions in my opinion should never have been brought in, and we should have gone straight to stage 4.

The cut off or trigger point for stage 4 used to be around 28% in December (from memory), but 'convieniently' I can't seem to find any information on it on the Melb Water site anymore. Apparantly, stage 3a will stay until at least November 30th to minimise impact on industry.

Things are very scarey for Melbourne. 1997 was an exceptionally bad year for Melbourne, and we have never recovered from it. 12 years of drought have really taken their toll.