Blog Update!
For those of you not following me on Facebook, as of the Summer of 2019 I've moved to Central WA, to a tiny mountain town of less than 1,000 people.

I will be covering my exploits here in the Cascades, as I try to further reduce my impact on the environment. With the same attitude, just at a higher altitude!

Thursday, February 28, 2008

Super showerhead

Road Runner by EvolveI recently found out about this new, water saving showerhead by Evolve. I contacted the company to find out more about how they work and ended up getting a sample of the Road Runner. Here's the scoop.

All of Evolve's showerheads save water in that, once your water has reached 95° F (35° C), the water shuts off into "trickle/savings mode". In other words, the water more or less turns off and the showerhead starts drooling like a dog with overactive salivary glands.

This is fantabulous for people who turn on the water and wander off while waiting for it to heat up. So, if, while you are waiting, you tend to get engrossed in picking the lint out of your toes, tweezing the hairs out of your nostrils or deciding that, in fact, you really did need to take a crap, it will dutifully wait for you without wasting as much water.

The question I initially had about their products was regarding the water flow. Did they have a showerhead with a low-flow? And, if so, was it adjustable like some of the low-flow showerheads on the market?

Turns out they have one product on the market, the aforementioned Road Runner. It uses 1.59 gallons per minute (GPM) versus the rest of their products at 2.5 GPM.

Great! But can I adjust the flow to even lower if I want or does it have some sort of "pause" button? Well, not yet. It sounds like they are working on this technology for future products. If that's the case, then I think it will have a great appeal to the enviro-masses.

In the meantime, how was the Road Runner, you ask? Well, the trickle/savings mode only went into effect if I had the hot water blasting. I must use low temperature water when I shower because I was in the shower and ready for action way before the trickle kicked in. And the water was comfortable to stand in (most likely because of the 60 degree temps in my bathroom). I probably would need the temperature shutoff set to 85° or less.

As for the feel, the Road Runner has something called "Pressure Compensating Technology". Most low-flow showerheads use some sort of aeration and, as a result, the water pressure is generally pretty low. So, Evolve makes up for that. In a big way. For me, it was too much, even though the gallons per minute emitted are less than my regular low-flow showerhead.

Because the spray was so strong, I actually couldn't wait to get out of the shower. You see, my shower stall isn't very big and I couldn't get out of the way of the needle-like stinging, skin-removing spray. I'm telling you I was actually in pain. And, as you all know, I am not prone to exaggeration. No, really. In an independent study, Mr. Crunchy's report stated that the spray was "like needles" although he didn't find it as painful.

So while, the Evolve showerhead may not be for me, it would be great for people who dilly-dally while waiting for the water to heat up and who don't mind being flayed alive.

Alas, I so wanted to love this showerhead. I love the idea of the tricklies, it would just need the temperature cutoff set to "Arctic". And I would need to be able to reduce the blast. And then, I'd be real interested.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

I am so interested in this. Not because of the pain level showering but because of the Australian drought. Our water pressure has been reduced at the mains. When this is combined with water saving shower heads it is a disaster for people like me. It takes forever to get shampoo out and I have extremely greasy hair. So it needs washing most days. The water authorities want us to limit showers to 4 minutes and the current situation is frustrating. The low pressure means I need more time so this may be a solution.

DC said...

We just bought a Bricor B100 MAX low-flow showerhead last month and are very happy with it. It has a 1 GPM flow rate and has adequate pressure. It also has a spray adjusting knob so that you can make the flow more or less sharp. Our old shower head was 2.5 GPM, so this new one is saving us about 8 gallons every time one of us takes a shower. Bricor doesn't market its products to individuals, but they will sell you one of their showerheads if you e-mail them. They also make a 0.5 GPM model. The only downside is that they are a little more expensive -- ours was about $60 with shipping. They do, however, appear to make a quality product (no plastic). I am expecting ours to last for years.

Lisa Zahn said...

I love the super-high pressure prickly water feeling. I'll have to look into this showerhead!

Anonymous said...

We just installed a 1.5 gpm shower head, you can't adjust the pressure on it but it does have a button that you can push in that reduces the water to a trickle. It's made by Whedon Co. here in CT (USA made, second plus). My husband and I are both very happy with it, sells for under $15.00 here at the ACE hardware stores.

equa yona(Big Bear) said...

Now this might not be real original, but we live in a 100 year old house(reuse, recycle,repair)and our second story shower takes, oh about a gallon to get warm,not hot, mind you, but tepid. Our clever, hi-tech solution is, wait for it-A BIG JUG!!!TA-DA We then use the big- jug-'o-water to flush the stool. We also have a basin that fits in our sink and use the handwashing water to flush. We have disabled the auto flush thingy so you have to hold the handle down to empty the tank so we can control the flow without spending lots of dough on the fancy schmancy half flush-full flush toilet.

Jennifer said...

Hmm... actually, I think that is a SUPER water saver shower head! It's specially marketed to make it UNCOMFORTABLE to take a shower, so you take the quickest shower possible. :) I would keep it... think of how much water you will save avoiding showers!

I don't like the prickly ones, either.

Anonymous said...

I'm pleased to hear about how "prickly" it was...not because I want you injured, dear chicken, but because I love a good, hot shower with some PRESSURE. I don't like rinsing my hair in a drizzle. I thought using low-flow showerheads meant I'd feel like I was showering under a dripping water faucet, so this gives me hope!

Anonymous said...

We also have a Bricor showerhead (B150). It's great! The pressure feels just right.

Anonymous said...

Crunchy, perhaps just try lowering the volume of water at the hot and cold valves leading to the head.
Logical, no? Then again, I am a plumber.
And about the needlepoint flaying --
why, that could replace expensive acupuncture treatments and also those pesky and unexpected Spanish Inquisitions.