Rain shower head

Rain Shower Head Size, Shape and Material

Bigger needs more pressure. An eight-inch head gives a good rain on an ordinary supply. Ten inches and above cover more of you but spread the same water thinner, so on a weak supply they feel like drizzle. Choose the size the pressure can fill, not the size that photographs best.

Round or square. Purely a matter of matching: round head with a round shower arm and a round mixer plate, square with square. Mixing the two reads as an accident.

ABS, stainless or brass. ABS heads are light, chrome-plated and cheap to replace; they suit most homes. Thin stainless steel heads are light and hold their finish well. Brass heads are heavy and solid, and need a solid arm and a firm elbow in the wall to carry them.

Rubber nozzles are worth insisting on. In hard-water areas the nozzles scale up within months. Silicone nozzles rub clean with a thumb; fixed metal nozzles do not, and the head goes patchy and stays that way.

Pressure, Heater and Position

Test the pressure before buying. A condo on a pumped supply will run most heads. A landed house fed by gravity from a roof tank may not on the upper floor, where the tank is only a metre or two above the head. Run the existing shower tap into a bucket and time it; a slow fill means a small head or a booster pump.

Hot rain needs a storage heater and a mixer. An instant heater cannot push enough hot water through a large head. The hot rain shower people picture runs from a storage or multipoint heater through a mixer tap, often a concealed one with a diverter to a hand shower. Cold rain from a bib tap and an arm is the simple alternative.

Position it over the standing spot. The head should sit above where you stand, not against the wall, which is a question of arm length. Set the outlet high enough that the finished head clears the tallest user.

Keep a hand shower alongside. A rain head does not rinse the floor or wash a child. Most full bathrooms pair the overhead with a hand shower on the same mixer, or choose an exposed shower set that carries both.

Screen the wet zone. A rain head drops a lot of water straight down, and without a glass screen or a curb it spreads across the whole floor. Plan the floor fall toward the trap at the same time.