Lio Gio
When I was a boy, my father installed a flow restrictor on our shower head to save water. Since we lived in one of the rainiest regions of the United States and regularly suffered from floods, I’m not sure why he felt compelled to do this. It must have seemed like the right thing to do. From that day forward, our shower trickled rather miserably, no matter how far we opened the taps.
So when I needed a new shower head a couple of years ago, I didn’t insist on a low-flow shower head. I was afraid of giving my family members an incentive to bath—using even more water—in order to avoid the trickle. Only when the sales person at Plumblink handed over the shower head did she mention that it was a low-flow design. In the intervening months, I have suspected that she was wrong. This shower head, a Lio Gio from Bossini, sprays with such abandon I could not fathom that it could be saving water.
Our shower water flows into the garden and the water is heated by the sun, so I don’t worry too much about shower water usage, and I hadn’t given the subject much thought again until I happened upon a U.S. Department of Energy guide to water-saving technologies. It said that switching from an older shower head, which would typically use 14 litres per minute, to a low-flow head could cut water consumption in the shower by two-thirds or more. Low-flow heads typically use 9.5 l/minute, but some go as low as 3.8 l/minute.
And the guide says they won’t leave you shivering under a trickle:
customer satisfaction surveys—such as the one undertaken by SBW Consulting for the Bonneville Power Administration—have shown that well-designed, lowflow showerheads provide showers that are just as satisfactory as those provided by older models with more forceful flows.
Inspired by this shower of information, I decided to take a stopwatch and bucket into the shower and find out what was happening in my house. At full force—a spray so strong that I would normally turn it down—my Lio Gio used 7.6 l/minute. That’s not the best you can buy, apparently, but still is below average consumption even for a low-flow head. Then I visited another house with armed with my bucket and watch to test an older shower head. It was using 15 l/minute, double my shower consumption.
There are many purchases you can make to save water. Buying water-wise plants to re-landscape your garden is probably the most significant one on the list. A new, efficient dishwasher or dual-flush toilet will also save a lot of water. But these are all fairly major purchases. If you want to start saving water—and the energy used to heat it—without spending much more than a couple hundred rand, the shower is a good place to get your feet wet.
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June 26th, 2007 at 3:23 pm
where can you buy low-flow shower heads in SA?
July 18th, 2007 at 3:40 pm
When I wrote that post, Plumblink had 28 Lio Gios, on order, to sell at an estimated price of R371.45 incl. VAT for shower rose only. It’s pricier than most, but the only one I can recommend from personal experience. Plumblink stocks other low-flow shower roses from R280 or so. Plumblink is in most major SA cities and a few minor ones. You will find a list of all their branches at http://www.plumblink.co.za/.
I’m sure that you can find low-flow shower roses at many other retailers, I’m just not as familiar with them. I must warn you that many salespeople simply don’t know about the flowrates of different shower heads. Even at the head office of Cobra, I have struggled to get flowrate information. I am awaiting a response from their R&D department, however and will post whatever answers I get.
Don
July 18th, 2007 at 4:50 pm
I’ve now spoken with the product manager at Cobra, and I wasn’t very impressed. Cobra has no data on flowrates. They do sell a flow restrictor that cuts any of their shower roses to 6 litres/minute, but he doesn’t recommend it because it is likely to clog. I like to buy South African when I can, but in this case you’re best off going with an imported shower rose from a country where they have experience building low-flow heads because of government restrictions. (My shower head is Italian.)
He did tell me that government regulation is coming in South Africa, which will probably restrict showers to 10 litres/minute. At that time, SA manufacturers will have to come up with flowrate data. In the meantime, he offered a simple (and simplistic) test for choosing a shower head. “If it is small and has small holes, it uses less water.” He also admitted the obvious, which is that the fashionable shower roses that look like a watering can, or anything labeled “rain shower,” wastes water.
One last useful thought he had was that a key to domestic water saving is to make sure that all the water to a house flows through a pressure reducing valve, rather than placing this valve at the geyser intake.
Don
July 23rd, 2007 at 12:49 pm
A Greener House reader contacted me asking about low-flow shower heads from Siroflex. I hadn’t heard of them, so I did a little digging. This is what I was told:
“The Siroflex shower head is manufactured in Italy and fully imported by ourselves. (Siroflex International, SA) It can be found at all “Builders Warehouse” branches in JHB.
The shower head comes in two models, one has a built in water saver and the other doesn’t incorporate this device. However the device is fixed in the former model and cannot be removed but rather replaced as in the latter model. They are available in either white or black. The shower heads have standard 1/2″ thread for easy installation and can adjust directionally by means of a swivel. They incorporate a strainer for collecting solid impurities, corrosion in pipes and for easy maintenance thereof.”
I have no personal experience of this shower head, but it should be considerably less expensive than my Lio Gio. The reader who first contacted me about Siroflex said that the Builder’s Warehouse in Roodepoort was out of stock when she checked recently.
Don
February 28th, 2008 at 12:00 am
Hans Grohe make a very cunning low-flow shower head which causes the water to come in very small droplets with lots of air entrained, using a ceramic disk with very small holes. This gives the impression of lots of water. The entrained air is, I suspect, ionised, which also helps to make the shower feel good.
May 4th, 2008 at 12:40 pm
I am new in Cape Town, staying at a Christian Renewal Center which tries to stay affordable. I think there is opportunity for great cost savings by using low-flow heads, and came across the above comments. Thanks for the tips. Which model of Hans Grohe would Mikes comments pertain to? Any Siroflex dealers in the Cape Town area? Any other ideas on where/what to look for? I’ll also go to the Plumblink store in Belleville tomorrow to see what is available.
Thanks
May 7th, 2008 at 11:36 am
Grohe has a line of products they call WaterCare in the U.S. Any product in this line should be low-flow. But I can’t find these shower heads on Grohe’s South African website. The shower heads I see there (Rain Shower, Movario, Sena, Relexa and Tempesta) all use too much water to even be sold in America.
I have contacted both Mike and Grohe for more information and will let you know when I hear from them.
The website for Builder’s Warehouse shows five
stores in the Cape Town area. See this link: http://www.builderswarehouse.co.za/Stores.html#. They may stock Siroflex, but you should phone first.
Let us know what you learn.
Don
May 9th, 2008 at 12:04 am
My comment of 28 Feb refers. My memory played tricks on me. I’ve checked and find that the head I referred to is made by another European firm, RST, which I think may be German, or possibly Spanish. It’s called a Profilence 1540 and sells for about R360. There’s a web-site http://www.rst.co.za with full details, including stockists. I found stocks in a local George plumbing shop today.
I’ve had one for about five years and I just looked at the ceramic disk to see if scaling is a problem – it isn’t. As I said, what I like about it is the entraining of air, which gives the illusion of volume. All of the people who’ve stayed with me have commented specifically on this – they all liked it. I’ve also found a SA web page on which John Ledger endorses this fitting.
I’ve just done the stop-watch thing and reckon about 8 l/min at full bore, but I tend to throttle mine. My hot and cold water are both subject to the standard pressure regulator.
I’ve also had a look at the book “Ecohouse”, third edition. It says 0.2 l/sec is a target volume for a low flow head.
A final comment about Grohe. Iseem to recall that Grohe & Hans Grohe are different, with quite different ranges.