Mains shower or electric?

[Lightsareon]

I have a pros and cons list as long as my arm and electric wins hands down in our particular case but I'm having trouble convincing DH they're not vastly inferior to mains ones in terms of 'performance'. Opinions would be helpful even if you agree with DH please

Electric. Then if/when your boiler breaks, you can still have a hot shower.

I may speak from experience.

Mains showers are so much better in my experience

That's exactly the kind of thing I have on my pro's list for electric HirplesWithHaggis and I entirely agree with you but DH won't budge on the 'performance' issue so I'm trying to get a purely objective answer on whether mains really are better in terms of the 'shower experience'. God I sound like a wanker but I can't think how else to put it

We have the aqualisa one installed last year and so much better than the electric ones.

That is the only advantage for electric as far as I can see.

Heats up slowly... shit pressure usually... not very nice to look at...

Having suffered the pain of 3 days of washing in the winter having to boil a kettle I'd say electric.

Another vote for electric after 2 weeks without a boiler last winter. The heating you can manage without, washing in cold water or from a bowl of kettle boiled water is horrendous.

They may not be as good as a mains shower, but having the option to wash if your boiler breaks is priceless!

If you are lucky enough to have more than one shower in your house, then definitely mains for the shower in the family bathroom and electric for the en-suite/ secondary shower.

and when there is a power cut...

and when there is a power cut...

Power cuts don't generally last as long as boiler breakdowns...plus modern boilers need electricity to run (at the very minimum the ignition).

DH won't countenance an electric shower, he thinks they are a safety hazard. I think some countries don't allow them. (I'd quite like one)

They are a useful 2nd shower in case of an emergency but I have never used one that has been a patch on a decent mains one.
Sorry OP I'm afraid I'm teamDH on this one.

We have one of each, with a pump on the mains one. I'd pick the pumped mains shower hands down over an electric, unless you have a hot water tank and lots of people all wanting to shower at a similar time. Both are quite expensive to run.

It is fabulous having an electric shower when your boiler breaks, but that is probably once or twice in a 10 year period. Not often enough to compromise everyone's shower every day. A lot of people have options to shower at work, at a gym or leisure centre if you really can't make do with basins and kettles.

plumbers prefer mains.
says it all.

Mains.

No point having shit showers daily on the rare off chance that your boiler goes off.

Electric showers don't rinse the shampoo and conditioner out of my hair. And it's not even that thick.

neither will work in a power cut. But the electric shower will work in a boiler breakdown.

and of course a bath (uses the same amount of water as a power shower unless you keep the latter far shorter than most on here do) will work if knew the power cut was coming and heated a tank of water first. Vital backup here with overhead power lines on windy days.

definitely mains for me

swapped from an electric a few years ago now and would never go back.

It depends on your water pressure. My pressure is awful and the shower is mains fed. It's shit and I hate it. I dream of a power shower.

The mains option is complicated by there not being a full wall behind the taps, there's a weird alcove there so we would need to put in a section of wall to attach the shower to plus tiling etc, With the electric option it could just go the other end of the bath, although that would still be a fairly big job plumbing and electrics-wise I imagine, it's just weighing up which is worse!

It's also complicated by the fact that we have an old fashioned boiler and a hot water tank, and these houses are hotter than hell in summer so to me there's a case for an electric shower meaning we have to use the hot water less so the tank isn't constantly heating the house, upstairs was unbearable last night. I still don't know

Main shower as why would I want a higher electric bill?

I always had main showers and have had great showers. First thing I did in my new house was rip out the electric shower. Also they tend to be very ugly.

If you have a MegFlow type hot water tank (where all your taps are mains pressure) then a mains one is the way to go. The have much better flow and so much more enjoyable.

If you have a boiler breakdown then just stick the immersion heater on and you have a lovely tank of hot water to use.

If you have a combi then electric sounds a better bet if your worried about a breakdown.

Electric is better when the house is full of guests, as you don't run out of hot water at shower time

"With the electric option it could just go the other end of the bath, although that would still be a fairly big job plumbing and electrics-wise I imagine, it's just weighing up which is worse!"

Electric showers 'pull a lot of electricity' it might mean you have to upgrade your consumer unit. It sounds like you could do with insulating your hot water tank, or a new one as you're wasting energy 'heating your house'.

But anyway I agree, why put in an average shower on the off chance your boiler will break down? Have a look at digital showers, we're hoping to get one when we upgrade. Building up the section of wall would male it loads easier to fit - you wouldn't have to channel the walls. How will you deal with the pipework/wiring for electric?

All depends on your budget too.

www.mirashowers.co.uk/showers/digital-showers/mira-mode-dual-rear-fed-pumped-for-gravity/

I would never live anywhere without an electric shower...it's just soul destroying not having hot water when the boiler breaks and they KNOW how to exercise their power!

we have a 10.5kw...and it is fine, not fabulous, but plenty of flow, I have no bother with conditioner and getting properly wet/rinsed off which you will do if you go with anything less KW wise.
People are usually surprised to be told it is an electric shower when they stay so it certainly isn't feeble.

Ideally I would have another shower installed, esp now we have a spanking new combi boiler (I hate them but needs must when the oil range breaks down and a new one is going to be £15grand ) but funds for a new bathroom are thin on the ground after replacing the boiler!