ELECTRIC SHOWER HEAD JOHN- T

LEON(MI)

Member
what do you think about these instant electric hot water shower heads.e bay # 152525055997. there are different versions.must be used on a gfci circuit. daughter wants longer showers at her house.all views welcomed.thanks.
 
Haven't tried one.

Notice it pulls 50 amps! That will require running a special circuit, 60 amp breaker with 6ga wire. Not something you can just plug in!

I would be leery of it. Made in China. On demand heaters have a reputation of not delivering consistent temperatures. At that price, there can't be much to it.
 
I would not trust it as far as I can throw.Just replace water heater with larger unit.Would not want to read about person eletrocuted in shower.Scott
 

How long does she want to stay in the shower? If her water heater will not provide warm water for at least 20 minutes, maybe it's time for a replacement?
 
I looked it up and found one on eBay for $30 with free shipping. There is a similar unit on the Home Depot website for $123, but it states not for use if your incoming water is ever below 70F.

With my search results, the following YouTube video was there. Looks interesting, and the guy making the video appears to be taking a safety approach, which is prudent when you have electric and water coming into contact with each other. You should watch the video and see how the manufacturer and engineers are so proficiently protecting you from electric shock.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FuQ_AAkkgIg

Lastly, the one on eBay.....120V, 50A. 50 amps?? Wow, that's quite a lot! We're not talking about running a 14 ga. wire. No, we're talking MUCH heavier wire! And the whole thing with the safety of it all falls on two points - a small wire inside the shower head that is supposed to remove the shock before it gets to you, and the hope that your home and electrical system is properly grounded.

I bought a small point-of-use instant hot water heater a couple years back for a sink. In the middle of Winter, the temperature of the incoming water means I cannot even get slightly warm water out of that faucet if flow is more than a trickle, and there must be a minimum water flow to cool the heater. So, we basically have hot water 2 months of the year, warm water about 8 months of the year, and cool/cold water the last 2 months of the year. ...But then it gets really cold here!

It's a low-cost device and, with what I saw of the inner workings of this thing from the above video link, I don't think I'd be willing to try it at this time. I'm sure it works, but I feel there needs to me some better engineering involved before it is worthy of providing a shower in this house.
 
They are common in Mexico and down through central and south America, but even the natives call them "suicide showers"
 
When my sister and BIL lived in rural Honduras we visted them once and they had an electric shower head in their house. It just didn't feel right standing under the stream of water with an electric power cord going into the shower head but it beat the freezing cold it would have been otherwise. The slower you ran the water the hotter it was.
 
Thanks for providing the link to that YouTube video. I really liked it. That guy was entirely credible---funny, but credible. Seeing how the shower head works really makes me want to get one. I probably will this week if I have enough money left after buying a pet cobra which can sleep in my bathtub. I particularly liked his advice to make sure you ground it or you will probably feel a "tingle" when you shower. I was also very impressed that what was grounded was the stream of water itself. What a concept. That video was made by a British guy (guessing, from his accent) in the Philippines reviewing an electrical shower head which was made in Brazil. I don't know what parts of the U.S. that would be legal in, but maybe it's not as dangerous as it looks---except that my guess is that it's exactly as dangerous as it looks.

Stan
 
Sorry Ive had NO experience with them. In an RV or home some are going to an instant on demand water heater versus any huge storage tank system which are more energy efficient as you ONLY heat water when using and needing it. It appears a hand held unit requires an extreme amount of current flow and that coupled with the fact it's used in a wet shower MAKES IT SOMETHING IM NOT GOING TO TRY. Instead Id install an instant on demand self standing unit right in the bathroom or just buy a bigger regular hot water heater........

John T
 
Well, I for one do not want electricity anywhere my shower. The bathroom light is as close as I want electric.
One thing is certain - 50 amps is enough to make sure you are not only dead, but fried to a crisp.

Personally, I cannot see the virtue in "on demand" water heaters. I just can't wrap my head around it. The amount of time that my teakettle takes to get hot convinces me that these things must take an enormous amount of heat energy (in whatever form) to make water hot. Now consider water flowing past some sort of heating element at "shower" speed. How long must every unit of water be exposed to the heat? Not long I would think. So, putting such an enormous rate of heating into a flowing stream of water just does not compute for me.
 
jimg.allentown, I think there are a couple of factors involved that are not being sufficiently taken into account here. One is that the flow of water has to be low enough, or reduced enough by some limiting device in the shower head itself, that the heating elements have a chance to keep up with demand. Another is that the temperature of the incoming water has to be high enough for the relatively small amount of heat being added to make it hot. The amount of heat being added will remain constant, so if the incoming water is cold, the shower head might not be able to make it more than lukewarm. These factors might explain why these devices seem to be most popular in parts of the world where water pressure is already low, and water coming into the dwelling is tepid.

Stan
 
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What could possible go wrong.
 

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