recommend me a shower...

[queenrollo]

the shower we were bequeathed by the previous owners is dreadful. the whole thing needs ripping out and replacing. The tiling etc is in hand, I am blessed with friendly tradesmen to do this.

but i will need to buy a new shower and have just realised there are so many companies who make them and I have no idea what is good and what i should avoid.

I want a mixer, no power shower or electric......but most companies seem to offer the full range.

so who should I consider giving my DH's hard earned cash to?

[fresh]

Do you just need the shower riser (I.e. The shower head, controls etc) or do you need an enclosure and tray as well? If the former, I recommend Grohe. If you need the whole kit, Matki do pretty good all in packages.

[queenrollo]

thanks fresh, our shower is actually fitted into an existing alcove so it's a tray, door, shower head and controls that we need. Will bookmark both your suggestions for future perusal.

[conculainey]

what type of boiler do you have and do you have a water tank in your attic? this is important when buying a shower.

[seb1]

What about this Triton we have this one Other triton I couldn't work out the difference so bought the one that was on special at the time and it is great.

[queenrollo]

conculainey

our main heating system is a solid fuel boiler, but we also have an immersion......i guess i need a plumber to look at it first and tel us what we need? I know i need to check what the bar pressure? is.....
and as far as i know there is a water tank in the attic....haven't actually been up there (too many huge spiders )

Thanks seb will bookmark those too.

[conculainey]

you will need a water tank in the attic to give you a good head of pressure for a non power shower, the higher the storage tank the better. I would go with a power shower or preferably an electric shower as they are cheaper to run than using an immersion to heat the water and will save you having to light the fire to get warm water in the summer months. An electric shower is cheap to buty itself and the plumbing is very basic but the electrical end of the work is quite expensive and must be carried out by a qualified electrician.
You can test for water pressure by simply connecting a cheap shower hose to your bath/basin taps and lifting it to over head height and see how good the flow is, if it is weak you will need a power shower or a standard electric shower.

[queenrollo]

unfortunately the electric options will be far too expensive for us, having discussed it with electrician when we had partial re-wire done. We just can't afford to have the electrics upgraded for it.
Our solid fuel heating system runs all year, as it's an anthracite system so it's not good for it to be idle over the summer and is actually cheaper than other forms of heating.

The current shower works well (as in water pressure) it's just that it's quite old and the rest of the unit is beyond redemption!

thank you for your advice though, it will duly be passed on to the breadwinner!

[LankyLegs]

I think a good value shower is the aqualisa colt www.aqualisa.co.uk/Our-products/Browse-showers-by-range/Colt/ as it includes all the accessories and kit you need rather than having to buy the items seperately. I think you can pick it up for around £300 or so... but not sure what your budget is...

[queenrollo]

i think we have about £1500 to play with for the whole refit so it depends on what building work will cost at before we know how much to spend on the shower.

[TracyK]

Mira.
We bought one for our upstairs ensuite and it was so good - we got a 2nd one. Not too £££ either.

[Sillygilly7]

I would recommend Matki - yes they are a little more expensive but they last so much longer and the customer service is so much better than Grohe. You can get any parts replaced free as they do a 10 year guarantee which is more than most other companies. I had a Grohe before Matki but found the product deteriorated quite quickly and their customer service was horrific. We have the classic elixir brassware and colonade enclosure now and we have not had a problem so far. Hope this helps