A bewildering choice of shower heads

[nobes]

Now that I've got dates for the superstructure of the house going up, I'm starting to give thought to the bathrooms and I've been looking at showers and shower heads. Lots of them. Too many of them.

The principles of the different types, rainfall, wall mounted, those sideways spraying thingies, is easy, but how on earth do you choose? They vary wildly in price, too. Do you get an extra £2k performance out of a shower head that costs £2k more than another? If so, what is this extra performance? Or does it all just boil down to aesthetics in the end?

Are there any spanking bathroom showrooms along the South Coast that anyone knows of and thinks are worth a visit?

How did others choose their bathrooms?

 

[nobes]

Now that I've got dates for the superstructure of the house going up, I'm starting to give thought to the bathrooms and I've been looking at showers and shower heads. Lots of them. Too many of them.

The principles of the different types, rainfall, wall mounted, those sideways spraying thingies, is easy, but how on earth do you choose? They vary wildly in price, too. Do you get an extra £2k performance out of a shower head that costs £2k more than another? If so, what is this extra performance? Or does it all just boil down to aesthetics in the end?

Are there any spanking bathroom showrooms along the South Coast that anyone knows of and thinks are worth a visit?

How did others choose their shower head manufacturer for bathrooms?

thanks in advance for any help

 

[ChrisAtTech]

I'm also doing this right now but a little farther along. I've picked my products that go in the wall but they aren't installed yet so I don't have performance reviews. However, I can say that in my research a major price variation in a whole shower system had to do with the control valves. Do you want a simple mixing valve to turn on and put hot/cold water together; step up to a mixing valve that keeps the temperature regulated if the pressure changes (someone flushed something); or go farther with pre-set temperature controls where you dial in your temp then from then on just turn the water on/off and it hits your temp? Those top line valves were 7 or 8 hundred more than the basics and that's for a mid-range manufacturer.

From there the diverter valves for shower components are pricey based on what you're doing. If you just have a single shower water output to a head (with wand or not) then you don't need a diverter. As soon as you add a separate wand or body spray you need a diverter and they're pricey. From there, do you want to just turn one thing on at a time (if you have say shower head and body spray and a third thing). Or do you want to be able to have two of those on at once? Then you need a 6-way diverter, not just a 3-way.

As far as the actual knobs, it seemed like some materials and finishes were more robust and therefore more pricey (ie, brass components vs formed stainless) and then some were just more trendy and thus more pricey.