Post by Jinsei on Apr 17, 2008 13:02:19 GMT -5
I put off getting one of these for a long time, because I'd heard people talk about how they don't allow enough pressure to take a decent shower, which means that you'll use more time and water trying to wash the soap off. Well, about 6 months or so I bought one from Wal-Mart for $5. I don't remember the brand of it, but it's small and has a "Navy Shower" button on it, and is packaged on a blue background. The showerhead got misplaced after we bought it and I just found it a few days ago, so I installed it.
First off, let me tell you that there is absolutely no pressure loss by using only 1.6 gallons a minute as opposed to 3.5. There were some noticeable differences in it, but only because of the design of the showerhead. Our old one was large and had about 5 times as many water outlets as this one does, which means we were getting plenty of water with the old one, but this new one spreads the water out in a decent spray to cover the same area as the old one.
Second, the "Navy Shower" button... basically, this shuts the water to the showerhead off when you push it. If you're soaping up, there's no need for the water to be spraying, because it's not actually being used and if it hits you can wash the soap, shampoo, etc. off before you're ready. This alone cuts down quite a bit of wasted water. I take long showers, generally around 15 minutes each. By using this feature, I only used about 5 minutes worth of water for the whole shower.
So, I used to use 3.5 gallons of water for a 15 minute shower, or 52.5 gallons per shower! By installing this showerhead, it drops to 24 gallons, less than half as much water. But, I only use 5 minutes worth of water, which means that I'm only using 8 gallons for a 15 minute shower. This means that I'm using 6.5625 times less water than I was with the old shower head. Or, better put, my showers used to use 19,162.5 gallons of water a year... for myself!!! Now, it's 2,920. A savings of 16,242.5 gallons of water a year for just myself, not counting the rest of the family.
My recommendation? Buy a low-flow showerhead!
First off, let me tell you that there is absolutely no pressure loss by using only 1.6 gallons a minute as opposed to 3.5. There were some noticeable differences in it, but only because of the design of the showerhead. Our old one was large and had about 5 times as many water outlets as this one does, which means we were getting plenty of water with the old one, but this new one spreads the water out in a decent spray to cover the same area as the old one.
Second, the "Navy Shower" button... basically, this shuts the water to the showerhead off when you push it. If you're soaping up, there's no need for the water to be spraying, because it's not actually being used and if it hits you can wash the soap, shampoo, etc. off before you're ready. This alone cuts down quite a bit of wasted water. I take long showers, generally around 15 minutes each. By using this feature, I only used about 5 minutes worth of water for the whole shower.
So, I used to use 3.5 gallons of water for a 15 minute shower, or 52.5 gallons per shower! By installing this showerhead, it drops to 24 gallons, less than half as much water. But, I only use 5 minutes worth of water, which means that I'm only using 8 gallons for a 15 minute shower. This means that I'm using 6.5625 times less water than I was with the old shower head. Or, better put, my showers used to use 19,162.5 gallons of water a year... for myself!!! Now, it's 2,920. A savings of 16,242.5 gallons of water a year for just myself, not counting the rest of the family.
My recommendation? Buy a low-flow showerhead!