Niagara Conservation Earth low flow showerhead (1.5gpm) review

[RobbMeeX]

First and foremost: I REALLY like this thing! The stream is intense! The massage is great on my back. As others have stated you will not know this is a low flow. It's adjustable from hard stream to softer to massage. I did not like the massage on my skull.

This thing retails for $10 on Amazon. But many folks (like myself) have gotten free ones through various outlets. Check your utility website for efficiency promotions.

I have seen ROI calculations like this thing will pay for itself in 5 months. Dunno, but I would definitely recommend it for the stream alone.

Niagara N2915CH Earth Massage 1.5 GPM Showerhead, Chrome

[MN Renovator]

I can also vouch for this shower head, the shower quality is great. I received two for free through my gas utility. If I didn't get the 1.5gpm version for free, I would have bought the 1.25gpm Niagara Earth head. Since I generally take short showers I'm not too concerned over the extra .25GPM but when compared to 2.5gpm, a 1gpm savings is significant. It also allows me to keep the water heater thermostat lower too(less standby losses) since it uses less hot water and the water temperature drops at a much slower rate as the water heater has a much better chance to keep up.

[Daox]

Put me in for loving this showerhead too. I have the 1.25 gpm model and as the others have said, you can't tell its low flow. It gives excellent pressure, and you really can't beat the price.

I also just checked out amazon (to grab the link) and found they have a handheld version of the 1.5 gpm head for those who like that. Very cool, and the price is also pretty great at only $17!

Niagara Earth Massage Handheld - 1.5gpm

[Daox]

I ordered two of the 1.5 GPM handheld Niagara Conservation Earth showerheads last week. I emailed Niagara Conservation to see if they had a 1.25 gpm handheld model in the works, and they do not. Anyway, one is going to a friend from church's house. I'm helping them out with some financial stuff and I definitely think that this is a wise investment. I also ordered one for myself. So, I shall be comparing the 1.25 gpm fixed head and the 1.5 gpm handheld in not too long.

[Daox]

Niagara Earth Massage Handheld - 1.5gpm

As mentioned, I recently ordered two of these showerheads. I got one for a couple at church who was going through some rough times financially and I went and gave them some financial advise and went through their budget. With the low price of this showerhead, I know it will pay for itself in about a month just based off the hot water savings. Anyway, I also ordered one for myself to try out too.

My current showerhead is the Niagara Conservation Earth Massage 1.25 gpm showerhead. It is a fixed head (it rotates as shown above, but is not handheld), and I absolutely love it. The handheld model is a 1.5 gpm showerhead. Unfortunately, my current on demand electric water heater can not handle the extra .15 gpm (it is supposed to be a point of use, not whole house water heater) and still get my water as warm as I would like it (until the solar hot water setup is in)... So, I decided to give it away.

I took it over to my future in law's house and did a sneak showerhead swap on them. Last Saturday I was over there and I took a shower, but before doing so, I swapped the showerheads. Their old model was a 2.5 gpm unit that had a similar spray pattern to the Niagara Conservation showerhead. However, the streams of water were larger and it really lacked pressure. The 1.5 gpm handheld showerhead was a nice improvement over the 2.5 gpm showerhead they had. And, of course, it uses 40% less hot water.

To compare it to the 1.25 gpm Niagara Conservation showerhead, it is fairly similar. The water streams are a bit larger and it has slightly less pressure. In all honesty, I do like the 1.25 gpm a bit better. I wish they made it in a handheld because the fiancee likes the handheld units. As mentioned above, I did contact Niagara Conservation and ask if there was a 1.25 gpm handheld on the horizon and they said no. I also looked if it would be easy to switch the guts from the 1.25 into the 1.5 handheld and I'm pretty sure I'd destroy one or both showerheads doing so...

Anyway, ever since Saturday I've been waiting to hear something from them. Well, a couple days ago I called them up to tell them something and I got some feedback. They thought it worked really nice, and they like it better than their old one. I also informed them that it'll probably save them around $20 per month in hot water alone. How can that not make you happy?

Anyway, I want to also qualify that number and show why its actually saving that much money.

My hot water heater uses about 9600W when its running. My showers are roughly 10 minutes long, so I use about 1.6 kWh per shower with my 1.25 gpm showerhead. A 1.5 gpm showerhead will use 10% more, so they'll use 1.76 kWh. Our electricity costs about .17 per kWh after fees, so a shower costs $0.30. They have 5 people in the house. They don't take showers every day, but I am guessing 2.5/day is average. 2.5/day for 31 days a month is 77.5 showers times .28 equals $23.19. If we run the same calculations for a 2.5 gpm showerhead, we get $0.54 cents per shower, and $42.00 spent on showers. That brings the monthly savings to $18.81! The showerhead only costs $18 plus shipping from amazon! So your ROI is right around one month. That is pretty hard to beat for a install that literally takes about 1 minute.

For you gas hot water heater guys, last time I checked, gas for me was about 1/3rd the running cost of electric, so you have a 3 month ROI. That is still amazingly good and well worth it.

[Daox]

MN Renovator asked me to do some flow and temperature testing on my 1.25 gpm niagara showerhead with the stiebel eltron DHC-E 10 on demand hot water heater I have.

First, the flow test was done. I found the niagara 1.25 gpm showerhead actually uses .77 gpm @ 58 psi. To test this, I took an ice cream bucket and filled it with a gallon of water, and marked that spot on the bucket. Then, I used a timer and filled the bucket to the gallon mark. One minute and 18 seconds later, the water hit the mark. This gives us .77 GPM. I also checked my pressure tank's pressure gauge and it read 58 psi before and after the test. I will note that my showerhead has been in use for a while now. It is quite possible that there is some build up on it and that this has reduced flow a bit. However, I don't think that this is a huge factor. I also believe the 1.25 gpm (and other ratings for showerheads) are done at 80 psi. If you compensate for the 58 psi, that would give you .9 gpm @ 58 psi. Perhaps the remaining .13 gpm flow loss is due to build up? In any case, that is what it flows.

The other test I did was to see how hot the water was coming out of the showerhead. There was some doubt that the DHC-E 10 would be enough to heat the water hot enough for his showers which he likes quite hot (and apparently so do I). I again filled the bucket with some water coming out of the showerhead and hit it with my IR thermometer. It read 120F after things settled down. This is after probably about a 30-35ft run from my water heater to the showerhead. Most all of it is insulated, and most of it is also 1/2" pex tubing. So, there shouldn't be a ton of heat loss. I also have a single handle shower control. I KNOW the dumb thing mixes in some cold water. I have adjusted it to negate this as much as possible, but I know for a fact there is still cold water being mixed in as I've turned it all the way to hot, and then turned a ball valve off to the hot water line. There was still a decent amount of water coming out when I did this.

Anyway, I hope that helps.

[MN Renovator]

Thanks a ton for measuring this. I had a few reasons to ask. The first being that I got two free 1.5GPM Niagara Conservation Earth shower heads from my gas company for free by mailing in the request form that they provide with their bill or the form on their site.

My 1.5GPM rated Niagara heads use 1.3GPM with whatever my city water pressure is during the winter, which I figure is higher than summer when everyone is watering their lawns and the water tower might not be as full. I found this interesting because I have a 1.5 GPM Waterpik shower head that uses 1.75GPM. So I had a feeling that maybe the 1.25GPM head and the 1.5GPM head from Niagara conservation were the same. I figured if they were different, I'd consider buying the 1.25GPM head and if they were the same I wouldn't drop the money. Since Daox is measuring significantly less water water usage than I am with my 1.5GPM, I'm going to buy the 1.25 now. .77GPM is great! ..especially compared to the 1.75GPM that my Waterpik uses which is over twice the flow.

I'm thinking of going with the 12kw unit since I keep my house with a very cold setback and if I get home and want to warm up with a quick shower, it's important that the water is hot enough. I'm still stepping down the flow to whatever the 1.25GPM head gives.

[natethebrown]

Anyone have the wife complain about not being able to rinse out their hair with this shower head?

[Daox]

Nope, not at all. Like I said in my review, the low flow shower head actually gives a little more oomph than a higher flow head (which I'm sure depends on design of the higher flow head) and the in laws liked it better because of it. My wife has very thick hair, and its long too. She doesn't have any issues with the showerhead.

[oilburner]

Originally Posted by natethebrown

Anyone have the wife complain about not being able to rinse out their hair with this shower head?

My wife would complain about our old shower head when the flow was turned down. It had to be on full blast to make her happy. Now all I hear is a sigh of relief.

I would like to include my thoughts on the Sava model since it is also made by Niagara. Our old shower head was part of a moen kit, and I hated every minute I used it. This new one is much wider and puts out a much stronger stream. I mounted a flow valve directly behind the head to control the volume of water and now I am able to turn it down to .5gpm during my entire shower. My wife turns it down also, but just a slight amount below full blast. The best part about this shower head is the value. I have not seen any other head with such positive reviews at any price range.