Shower recommendations?

[shanghaismog]

I'm all out of brainpower with house build decisions. Anyone got a reasonably priced shower they can recommend? Have been looking at the Grohe Euphoria range. Doesn't have to be recessed, would like fixed head as well as the handheld bit. Someone save me from googling showers all day....(plumber is on hols).

Avoid "bar" mixers which are cheaper and not as good as the round ones.

Aqualisa are very good. You can see the entire range and list price on their website. Plumbworld and others will stock some models at reduced prices.

Great, thank you. Anything wrong with Grohe?

Grohe are just fine. We have also used Crosswater.

Hansgrohe/Axor are well made but not cheap. Depends on your budget.

In our last three houses we fitted Hansgrohe Axor (montreux) and Crosswater and were very happy with both, although Hansgrohe was better quality.....

Sorry for butting in but what is wrong with bar ones? We had problems with hard water damaging built-in shower mixers so are opting for external one now.

I agree that surface-mounted showers are easier to maintain and to replace than ones that are embedded in the wall. For some reason the bar ones do not seem to last so well.

IMO Grohe are overpriced and they do not appeal to my eye. Your opinion may differ.

PigletJohn, are there external valves that are not cylinder? I seem to remember you rate Aqualisa showers. Hard water kills valves sooner or later and I don't want to have shower retiled.

? not cylinder ?

what do you mean?

I meant the bar ones.

here are some examples of exposed ones

and here is a supplier with good prices

We've got this aqualisa quartz digital. www.aqualisa.co.uk/digital-showers/quartz-digital-exposed-digital-shower-with-adjustable-head/

The pipe work is exposed but it still looks nice. We have a pump above it in the loft which is quite an expensive 'silent' one. This is important if you don't want to wake the whole house up when the shower is turned on.

I'm no plumbing expert though so struggle to understand the difference between all the systems.

Thank you so much.

Hard water here, thanks for the tips

We've got a fab one from abode (we've had their kitchen taps for years & they are excellent quality so decided to try their showers too)
They aren't cheap but are very good and look good too . To keep costs down we bought only the valve from them and the heads from Pura (almost identical , good quality but cheaper)