Shower head on wall or hand held

Looking to do a makeover of the shower controls and hand held head. Curious what people with cruising boats have as far as hand held, mounted or both.

Ted

Our shower head can be hand held or attaches to the wall plus it has a shut valve at the head. In the mornings with out running the generator, we have enough hot water for two showers if we each do a generous GI shower. The shut of valve is nice once you get the water temperature adjusted and water up.

Larry M said:

Our shower head can be hand held or attaches to the wall plus it has a shut valve at the head. In the mornings with out running the generator, we have enough hot water for two showers if we each do a generous GI shower. The shut of valve is nice once you get the water temperature adjusted and water up.

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I have the same setup. The shower head is seriously lacking. The components have non standard threads which made replacing the hose challenging. Shower controls need to be rebuilt or replaced. So, I decided on a makeover. After 3 weeks on the boat, it was nice to use the home shower in the bathroom that was recently renovated. I've upgraded the water pressure on the boat, so need a more efficient head. Lots to consider.

Ted

Hi Ted,
Sounds like we have the same set up. Handheld that has a wall mount with on the head shut off while "soaping", etc. I bought a new handheld this year, an Oxygenics from Camping World. They are highly rated as to good stream and low flow, with shut off at the head. However, I have not tried it yet. It is stuck at my US delivery station due to Covid restrictions. If we ship from US to Canada using a courier, the "added" on fees can be horrible, and they are not even listed when purchasing.

Our shower head is mounted on the wall and has about a 5' metal flex hose to the hand held shower head that has a shutoff at the head. We don't do GI showers. I'm not wasteful when it comes to showers but I do enjoy the luxury of a nice, hot shower when we're on board.

We put a Skandvik shower in one of our heads last year. So far we love it. It was not cheap but it also isn’t plastic.

firehoser75 said:

Hi Ted,
Sounds like we have the same set up. Handheld that has a wall mount with on the head shut off while "soaping", etc. I bought a new handheld this year, an Oxygenics from Camping World. They are highly rated as to good stream and low flow, with shut off at the head. However, I have not tried it yet. It is stuck at my US delivery station due to Covid restrictions. If we ship from US to Canada using a courier, the "added" on fees can be horrible, and they are not even listed when purchasing.

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Hi Tom ,

I've looked at the Oxigenics, they're available at Home Depot. Certainly one I'm considering. Several manufacturers offer a dribbling shutoff which would be desirable in my situation as I have a tempering valve at the water heater. The dribble shutoff should prevent the momentary spike when going to rinse off. Think they were one that offered it.

Ted

GFC said:

Our shower head is mounted on the wall and has about a 5' metal flex hose to the hand held shower head that has a shutoff at the head. We don't do GI showers. I'm not wasteful when it comes to showers but I do enjoy the luxury of a nice, hot shower when we're on board.

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I agree! Would like mine to more resemble my home shower, while staying fairly water efficient.

Ted

Comodave said:

We put a Skandvik shower in one of our heads last year. So far we love it. It was not cheap but it also isn’t plastic.

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I have an older model of theirs now. Buy a spare hose now, they're British threads.

Ted

Larry M said:

Our shower head can be hand held or attaches to the wall plus it has a shut valve at the head. In the mornings with out running the generator, we have enough hot water for two showers if we each do a generous GI shower. The shut of valve is nice once you get the water temperature adjusted and water up.

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Same exercise on my boat....works great!

A shower head on a hose..... Standard household shower head.
The AT uses a shower stall purchased from a big box home improvement store.
The mixing on/off valve has no identifying marks.
Yes, I do like a good shower so I have a very nice water maker onboard too.
I refuse to go ‘camping’ on my boat.

The hand spray from a home sink unit is very efficient , uses tiny water , and uses US plumbing fittings . Cheap too!

Another vote for handheld, with a wall mount. In fact, for the last 30 years, in every home that we have owned, we have replaced the shower heads with this kind of arrangement.

Larry M said:

Our shower head can be hand held or attaches to the wall plus it has a shut valve at the head. In the mornings with out running the generator, we have enough hot water for two showers if we each do a generous GI shower. The shut of valve is nice once you get the water temperature adjusted and water up.

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Yep, same set up we have.

Ted: This is the mixer we have. Probably similar to the one Comodave referenced. The hose threads fit the shut off just before the head. I bought 3 different shower heads from a box store to get one that fit wall bracket, wasn’t too heavy but didn’t feel like something from the Dollar Store.

https://www.iboats.com/shop/scandvi...bEYDuQX8fr20Tq_xk4InDplCltjombIBoCFpkQAvD_BwE

I've got the original 34 year old wall mounted handhelds with shutoff in my showers. They're not as good as a great home showerhead, but I'd say they're on par with an average one. Probably would be better with a higher pressure / volume water system, but as-is, they're plenty good enough for a water saving boat shower with no complaints. I can't say anything else would be significantly better in a functional sense.

I'm in the process of removing my old shower head and faucets. It was an okay idea in it's day, but we have used a different setup on other boats and like it more. We use a battery powered handheld that can be recharged with a USB port similar to this one. We have a collapsible bucket that we fill with the right temperature water and use on the back cockpit. It is easy to take a "navy" shower by turning it on and off (other styles have the switch right on the shower head). And you can look in the bucket and gauge how long to take. A gallon is about right.

Not everybody cruises where it is practical to shower on the back deck, but for us it works perfectly. If we are someplace where somebody might float by, I have some gardener's foam knee pads so that I'm only visible from the neck up. We even leave the wet towels outside. The only moisture that comes in is footprints.

I suppose that in a pinch we could fill the bathroom sink with hot water and use it in the bathroom but then we'd have all the mess, moisture and (sometimes) wet toilet paper. Getting rid of the dated shower paraphernalia in our little bathroom will also look better.

In redoing the FW system, I'm also thinking about changing the plumbing to the faucet in the cockpit to hot water. We really don't use it for much and I don't care if I use a little hot to rinse off boots or whatever. When taking showers, it would be convenient to fill the bucket there.

Yes, my wife is a trouper.

Marco Flamingo said:

We even leave the wet towels outside. The only moisture that comes in is footprints.

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For the towels thing, we found that small binder clips are perfect for holding towels to our lifelines for drying them outside without fear of them going anywhere.

Larry M said:

Ted: This is the mixer we have. Probably similar to the one Comodave referenced. The hose threads fit the shut off just before the head. I bought 3 different shower heads from a box store to get one that fit wall bracket, wasn’t too heavy but didn’t feel like something from the Dollar Store.

https://www.iboats.com/shop/scandvi...bEYDuQX8fr20Tq_xk4InDplCltjombIBoCFpkQAvD_BwE

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The mixer I have is the same, but the threads for the hose were different from the standard one found at Lowe's, Home Depot, or the hardware store. I'm going the single lever Moen or equivalent route.

With the increased water pressure, I'm probably using more water through the hand held head. Going to one of the home units with a 1.8 or 2.5 GPM flow might be more efficient and have a better spray effect.

Ted

Agree-wall mounted hand held-add a shut off valve to save water. Makes cleaning the shower easier too! We installed wall mounted hand held sat home during remiss also -love em way more than a fixed hed

I am planing to pair a Moen adjustable bar shower head with a shut off valve.


Links for reference to the products I am looking at.


https://www.amazon.com/Moen-Showerh...2e3521f8599801841b37fdba7f68e3&language=en_US


https://www.amazon.com/Weirun-Bathr...c1e0b6a458590b4e1263a26b104a35&language=en_US

I use a domestic shower mixing valve and a domestic portable shower head. Only difference is where plumbing comes out of the shower wall I put in a ball valve. Get temp where you like it and leave the mixing valve alone, and just shut the ball valve. Small water tank on our boat so gotta conserve. Get wet, valve off. Soap up. Valve on, rinse off. Can do a decent shower with two gal of water. Girls, different story.

We use the Skandvik spray head and hose. It's the only one that shuts completely off without dribble.

For mixing, we have a Grohe thermostatic shower valve. It has a thermostat in it that controls temperature precisely. One valve controls temperature, the other flow.

The majority of domestic shower mixers uses pressure differential to modulate temperature which doesn't always work effectively on boats because of varying pump pressure. The pressure method is slower to reacting to temperature fluctuations.

A “T” setup with a small water saver finer spray head that feels like good pressure w/shutoff slide pin. Easy to operate with soap in eyes. The “T” allows a handheld to also be used. Handheld is great for rinsing just feet or rinsing shower itself. I got the shower head at a home show. It is small and solid metal with a slide pin shutoff. Not sure of the name? Using shutoff when soaping saves many gallons with out any sacrifice, as many sailors know.

Nickair, I was a sailor for 7 years. On one sub, there was no such thing as a “Navy shower.“ The only time the water maker was shut down was in very intense situations. Another sub, they stored potatoes in a shower stall because the mess cook/officer were too dumb to find another place to store them. The second sub would run out of hot water because they refused to cross connect the crews’ HW system with the Chiefs’ NW system.
The destroyer was commissioned in 1944 and no longer were parts available to correct the deficiency in the hot water system.
When my sweetie’s parents were here from Vietnam, I told them ‘Take all the lengthy HW shower then wanted.’, because I was tied to the dock, have an 11gal HW heater (they recover quickly) and 150 gal of water.
Out to sea, I can cross connect to the ME for HW and start the water maker.

You and others can ‘play’ Navy and take Navy showers if you wish, not me, not my guests.

For my FW replumb I decided to remove the old wall mounted shower and the undercounter control faucets. But when I shopped for a new faucet, I decided to go with one that had a handheld sprayer. I don't know if it will ever be used for inside showers, but it is there. We will still be in the minority in the poll as those who bathe like mariners.

No need to worry about resale value. I can now claim that our yacht has a bidet.

Marco Flamingo said:

But when I shopped for a new faucet, I decided to go with one that had a handheld sprayer. I don't know if it will ever be used for inside showers, but it is there. We will still be in the minority in the poll as those who bathe like mariners.

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The pull out will definitely be used....It's one of the best water conservation devices on our boat.

I won't pretend to know what a navy shower is. When I was an avid camper and pontooner, I used a 1.5 gallon solar shower bag. I can get the stink off. Later, I wanted an upgrade so I painted a 2 gallon chemical sprayer black and used that for a shower. Worked good and no chemicals were ever run through it. Well, bleach from time to time.

ben2go said:

I won't pretend to know what a navy shower is. When I was an avid camper and pontooner, I used a 1.5 gallon solar shower bag. I can get the stink off. Later, I wanted an upgrade so I painted a 2 gallon chemical sprayer black and used that for a shower. Worked good and no chemicals were ever run through it. Well, bleach from time to time.

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Inside my stall shower, I have two engraved signs. One “Hot water is HOT”, the other sign reads, “3 GPM”. For some reason people think, ‘Gosh, I’m on a boat so their hot water is not really that hot.’

While searching for a new shower head on a hose, see if they still make a shower head with a “pulsating” position. Your mate will love you for it.

We have only 6 gallons of hot water with the wall mounted hand held unit. We usually do Navy showers with the spray head at the wall but prefer the foot operated shut off to fumbling for the shut off button on the head.
https://www.amazon.com/LukLoy-Válvu...ot+operated+water+valve&qid=1591123653&sr=8-1