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Triple master contractor Ed Del Grande
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By Ed Del Grande
Q: Dear Ed, I never miss your column, and you have given me many ideas for home projects. Your sense of humor about home improvement makes it less intimidating to attempt small projects around the house. With that in mind I decided to change my shower head. But I have heard that there are "rain" type shower heads and "performance" type heads. What is the difference and what do you recommend? Thanks for being everybody's contractor! Cindy (Idaho)
A: Thanks, Cindy! I always enjoy hearing that this column helps people. and I'm here to address any type of home construction concerns. Also, as you can tell by many of our questions, a lot of professional contractors seem to enjoy this column as well. Many times they offer great tips for me to pass on to our readers, and we're "building" quite the building community across the county with this column!
Let's get to your shower question on the difference between a "rain" shower and a "performance" shower head. Just like the name says, a rain shower head will simulate a raining action with a delicate flow of water, just like a garden watering can. The secret is that this type of shower head uses gravity to pull the water out of the shower head, instead of pressure pushing the water out. A rain shower head is usually an oversize "eight inch" hollow chamber shower head with many large holes on the face of the head. Water fills the big head, and in turn the water in the chamber will lose most of its pressure and drip out of the drain holes to gently tumble down directly over your head.
The last part of the sentence is the important part: "directly over your head." See, rain shower heads a designed to be installed on the ceiling so they can rain down on you! Many people have put rain shower heads on a wall mounted shower arm, but may not enjoy the true rain sensation. Also, true rain heads tend to dribble a bit when installed on a wall.
On the flip side, a "performance" shower head uses water pressure pushed through a smaller, jet-like chamber with tiny shower-head holes to create a strong spray of water for the user. A performance head works great on a wall-mount shower arm because the pressure pushes the water out and away from the wall onto the user.
My advice: For a ceiling-mounted shower, use a rain-type head, and for a wall-mounted shower, use a performance head. But remember to always follow the manufactures recommendations for the shower head you choose. That's the best "mainstream" advice I can give you on showers!
Ed Del Grande was born and raised in a family-owned plumbing business. With more than 25 years of experience in every aspect of construction, he holds current Master licenses in pipefitting, fire protection and plumbing. If you have a question for Ed, send him an e-mail at eddelgrande@hgtvpro.com.
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