Grohe? Hansgrohe? Bristan? Hudson reed?

[PetiteMum]

argh! I amso confused! Just want a thermostatic shower.... Which one is the best brand?

that's odd. You don't look like a man

Aqualisa are really good showers, I've had two for the last 13 years and have installed 3 in my new home.

MrsJAlfredPrufrock this one with overhead and handheld here

and I am not a man!

and here

We have a Hudson Reed shower, our plumber was oohing and aaa ing over the quality bit of kit.

We just had this Grohe shower fitted, it's lurrrvely. Plus when we complained that it never got very hot, the Grohe helpline said chances are it's not been calibrated properly when fitted and sent out an engineer 2 days later free of charge to fix it.

Grohe is great.

We had a Hudson Reed shower in our last house. It was Okay but the parts used to come loose and it got stuck twice in the 'on' position, requiring us to call a plumber. It just never seemed great quality - perhaps we had a bad experience.

We have chosen Grohe in our new renovation because several plumbers have recommended and because we are members of a gym which was re-vamped about 6 years ago with Grohe kit which has never showed signs of age (and it must get hammered). We have fitted all Grohe taps, one Grohe shower and one Matki shower. The Grohe stuff is lovely and chunky and was heavy in the box.

We looked at Hansgrohe but it seemes to feature in 'lower end' kitehcn shops, who never stocked Grohe.

That's wrong sixties queen - hansgrohe is the designer end of Grohe, which is sturdy but lower end.

Obviously confused I am thinking of AXOR Hansgrohe vs Hansgrohe

We have had Grohe in this house and the last house and we have been very happy with them.

Am I the only person who read the headline to this thread and mistook it for a set of horribly pretentious Baby Names options ?!?

We're in the process of having a Grohe shower installed. We looked at Hansgrohe but decided against them.

Loads of hotels use Grohe

Hansgrohe is very top end and very reliable. Have also had hudson reed

Grohe is not as good as hansgrohe

Not as good or just not as nice looking? I agree that you see Grohe in loads of public loos so their "not as good" status must be marginal

I have Dornbracht.
Vola and Dornbracht are in a different price league.

I agree with PigletJohn (as I find myself doing a lot in here ) but my fav UK company is Mira

Vola and Dornbracht are in a different price league.

What - you mean cheaper and altogether representing far better value?

I'm rather put off Aqualisa because that's what we've inherited in the last two houses, and both of the power showers have gone wrong both times - the sort of wrong where they're still sort of working but not properly, so you just put up with them. On the other hand, I suspect that both times the showers were the absolute cheap as chips end of the range.

Have you looked at Aqualisa digital showers ?
www.taps4less.com/PP/AL-VSDCA01HC.html

Just got one and its great. Remote control so its hot by the time i go in the ensuite.

We have the same shower. It was fitted when we moved in and when it sprung a leak after 10+ years we replaced it with another.

Bizarrely it was cheaper to buy it direct from Aqualisa with their engineer installing it than it was for us to buy it from a plumbers merchant.

Ours is only in a tiny shower cubicle in our en-suite so we're happy with the regular shower head (I have a rainfall and handheld in our main bathroom and I hate the rainfall head - it's like being waterboarded in your own house!).

The best bit of ours is that we have an external button to turn it on and off too. The replacement one is supposedly a "smart" shower you can control from an app, but I've gone 44 years of my life without thinking "I wish there was a better way to control my shower"!