Oct 02 2008

ER Project House: Testing Low Flow Shower Head

Published by Daox at 12:07 pm under Conservation, DIY

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I recently picked up a low flow shower head from my parents.  However, I wasn’t sure of the flow rate of my current shower head.  Was it worse, or better?  Well, this is how I found out.  Here are the two shower heads.
Original shower head.  It says 2.5 gpm max on it.
Low flow shower head.  It says 2.0 gpm max on it.
To carry out the testing, I took an ice cream bucket I had laying around (1.125 gallons) and used it to catch the water comming out of the shower head.  I timed how long it took to fill the bucket up with each shower head.  Here are the results.
Original shower head = 40 seconds to fill = ~1.69 gpm
New low flow shower head = 35 seconds to fill = ~1.93 gpm
Aha, my original shower head which says 2.5 gpm max on it actually flows LESS than the one rated at 2.0 gpm max.
After that, I decided to play around just a bit more.  On the original shower head, there is an adjustment in the middle.  This lets you adjust the water stream size that comes out of the head.  So, I snugged it up a bit and tested it again.
The results were quite good.
Original tweaked shower head = 53 seconds to fill = ~1.27 gpm
I think we have a clear winner here.  I guess the lesson is to make sure you test your new ‘low flow’ fixture before you trust it.  You also might be able to tweak your existing shower head.  I was able to get a solid 25% reduction in flow just by adjusting the shower head.If you liked this post, please sign up for our RSS Feed to get updates.

Related posts:

  1. Basic Water Savings Tips: The Shower Timer
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  4. ER Project House: DIY Solar Clothes Dryer
  5. ER Project House: Insulating the Attic - Part 1

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3 Responses to “ER Project House: Testing Low Flow Shower Head”

  1. # Yahon 03 Oct 2008 at 4:14 pm

    Yeah, the reason why your old shower head is apparently more economical, is commonly known as “rust” & “hard water sediments”.

  2. # benon 05 Oct 2008 at 7:28 pm

    Always “bucket-test” appliances that use water.

    It’s really the only way to know for sure is to check the amount of water yourself.

    Found out my new washer uses 20 gallons instead of 35 to 40 that my old one used.

    Did that just by filling 5 gallon buckets during the rinse and spin cycles to find out the total water use.

  3. # Freshly Greenon 07 Oct 2008 at 12:05 pm

    Testing Your Shower Head…

    Your existing shower head may be as good or better that that snazzy low-flow shower head you’ve been eyeing in the building-supply store.
    Eco-Renovator <a href=”http://ecorenovator.org/er-project-house-testing-flow-shower-head/”……

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