The New York Times
Of course we are aware of the great things that come with going green. And using a low flow shower head is a great way to get started for those who are new to living a more sustainable life. Low flow shower heads are often frustrating - misty weak pressure that hardly washes the soap and shampoo well. This can result in longer showers which can defeat the whole purpose. And there no conservation in that. So the New York Time reviewed 17 low flow shower heads to reveal just wimpy pressure + sporadic spray = more time needed to wash the shampoo out of your hair. Where's the conservation in that? So, we're happy to see The New York Times review of 17 low-flow showerheads. Criteria included how well each could deliver an acceptably robust shower.
And the top low flow shower heads are . . .
• Evolve Water Lily: Technically not low-flow, this showerhead gets points for automatically reducing the water flow down to a trickle when it gets hot, and stays that way until you get in. It also had the most satisfying and powerful massage spray. But caveat: the water can be quite hot when the reactivation lever is flipped.
• The Kohler Purist: With a flow rate of 1.75 gallons-per-minute, this shower head got good marks for delivering a wide, pleasant spray. However, the wide spray was a little weak. It has three settings (the highest of which is good for soothing sore muscles and rinsing out shampoo come from just the inner holes), easy switching mechanism, and great look.
• The FloWise from American Standard: also has three settings... a needle-like full spray and a less strong spray this is more comfortable. It's rated at 1.5 gallons per minute.
• The Moen Envi: has a with a flow rate of 2 gallons-per-minute, provides a strong, satisfyingly rain-like experience, adjustable via a lever allowing it to be either full flow or a gusty spray and works best when pointing directly down.
• Single-Action Models: the two units tested both put out 1.5 gallons per minute but had no adjustable flow. The $76 Delta shower head was engineered to give larger drops for a "wetter" feel. The Real Goods one was cheap but has a sloppy spray.
• The Waterpik Ecoflow: the new Waterpik model showerhead has 5 spray settings, most of which were providing pretty good pressure power. Strongest pressure came from the "soaker" mode, which the reviewer said was quite satisfying. He also liked the feature of being able to cut the spray to under a gallon per minute.
Read the entire article for more information at The New York Times.
Images: Tony Cenicola for The New York Times
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