Imagine the ultimate shower: a big rain head from the ceiling, a regular head and a hand shower for daily cleansing, and finally two banks of three body sprays each. It turns a shower into a human car wash.
Designing such a shower benefits from the expertise of a showroom expert. It does not mean you cannot play around while dreaming up your fantasy shower. However, there are some important things to consider when designing a shower.
The first thing to determine is how much combined water flow you can produce, as you want to size your shower drain appropriately. If you are lost in the soothing flow of water from your shower, a flooding bathroom will certainly jar you from it. In most cases when you have the potential to produce 15 gallons of water per minute it is highly recommended to add a second 2-inch drain or move up to one 3-inch drain.
Another issue with water flow is the amount of hot water you have on hand. If you are working off of an electric 50-gallon water heater, first figure up the total amount of waterflow your shower is using. For an estimate of your hot water usage, multiply that figure by 0.75. This gives a good idea of how much hot water you are consuming per minute. If your shower is capable of producing 18 gallons per minute, then it would be drawing approximately 13.5 gallons of hot water per minute.
With a 50 gallon electric heater the shower would be able to run for about four minutes before depleting your hot water. Electric heaters are slow to recover and it would probably be about an hour before you had hot water again. Options of gas water heaters or tankless water heaters could help alleviate the loss of hot water.
Eliminating a couple of body sprays, a hand shower, or a rain head can impact the depletion of hot water. A perfect solution does not exist, but with some work you might be able to stretch that shower time out to 20 minutes. Again, the best thing is to contact one of our showroom professionals and let them help design your shower getaway.
In addition to the options of conventional shower controls, several vendors offer electronic controls. Kohler has the DTV+ shower system. It allows you to control everything through a touch screen – heads, steam generator, and music. Kohler offers a nice selection of controls for the shower heads in both manual or electronic compatibility.
Showers have become a luxurious get away in master bathrooms. It’s the equivalent to having a spa experience in your own home. Make an appointment to talk to one of our shower experts today.