About Shower Parts
Unless you are buying an all in one shower cabin, you will have to combine various different shower parts to install a shower in your bathroom. While it is a challenging task, it is also one of the most enjoyable parts of modelling a house.
Every household must have at least one shower. Sometimes you might need two or three of them if there are more people in your household. Even though logically, the shower is just a functional item in your house that you use to freshen up, it has become a thing of decoration in the bathroom. Every year, we come across newer and newer designs of them. But this wide range of options also makes it harder to make a choice. Read this article to know more about them. Having a better understanding of them will help you when you are shopping for them.
Most important components of a shower
When it comes to a shower, there are components that are necessary, and there are those that are optional. Examples for optional parts include body jets, control valves, panels, curtains, dual valves, etc. But there are some essential parts without which a shower wouldn’t be usable. So, whenever you are installing one in your bathroom, the first priority should be for those essential items. After getting them all right, you can move on to other less important bits. Here is a list of the four most important components of a shower.
The head
The most conspicuous part of a shower is obviously the head. Depending on the model in your bathroom, the head can be four or five times the size of a valve. Basically, the head is a steel housing that consists of tiny pipes that connect to the main water pipe. The network of smaller pipes in the head spreads out the water evenly across its surface. Therefore, it is not difficult to design shower heads in a lot of different varieties. But usually, the design of the head matches the design aesthetics of the valve.
The valve
A shower is completely useless if you can’t control the flow of water through it. You should be able to open and close a valve whenever you want. In a shower, the part that makes it possible to do this is the valve. Unlike a faucet, you won’t see the entire part of the valve in most cases. This is because many models hide the actual valve under the valve, and only the valve handle is visible outside. A valve can have two or three positions depending on the model. In models with only two positions, it will be either open or close. In models that have three positions will have an extra position for cold water.
The pan
The pan is one of the most basic components of a shower. But it does the important job of containing the water and not letting it flow out onto the bathroom floor. If your pan happens to leak, the water will stay under the pan and will eventually rot the floor or dissolve the grout. While this can happen to stone flooring, you have to be even more careful if the flooring is made of wood. So, if you notice a leak on the pan, you should immediately fix it or replace it. Shower materials come in a wide variety of materials.
The drain
A shower won’t be usable if the drain is not working properly. It is the part that handles the wastewater, filters it, and routes it to the sewage system. However, the drain itself consists of a few different components. The part that is visible outside on the surface of the floor is the strainer. The strainer covers the drain and keeps objects that are too big to flow through a drain from falling down into the drain. The strainer is also the part that has more emphasis on appearance. While you won’t find a lot of variations among the rest of the drain parts, strainers come in a lot of sizes and shapes.
Tips on buying Replacement Components for a Shower
Every home needs at least one bathroom, and every bathroom needs to have showers. And it is several different smaller components that make up a shower. But finding the right ones can be harder than you might imagine. Because there are so many different types of them, choosing one out of them can be an overwhelming task. However, it can be easier if you know what criteria to consider in them. Here are some tips that you can follow while shopping for them.
- Design – While it might seem that design itself does not play any functional role in the working of a shower; the design is important because the components you choose can affect the overall aesthetics of the bathroom. You can make the bathroom appear futuristic with modern-looking components for your shower and make it look traditional with traditional looking ones.
- Features – The second most important thing to consider in replacement components is the features that they offer. For most people, having hot and cold-water controls is essential for shower valves. Shower heads play a vital role in the way water flows out from the shower. Some shower heads spread the water out more evenly while some others make it more concentrated. Some high-end showers offer features like body jets.
- Durability – Nobody wants to change their damaged component in their shower once every couple of years. That is why you should make sure that the components you are buying are going to last for years to come. But how do you make sure whether or not they are durable? Most people cannot check the material and the manufacturing process to know if they are durable. So, the only way to do it is to buy the replacement components from reputable manufacturers.
- Cost – When you go shopping for replacement components for your shower, you will find that the cost of them varies quite a bit. There are cheap ones that will cost you a few hundred dirhams to really expensive ones that will cost you a few thousand dirhams.
Besides replacement components of the shower, there are many other items that are going to be helpful in your home. These include kitchen sinks, bathroom faucets, garden faucets, sauna accessories, heaters, toilets, basins, and many more. The good news is that you can find them all easily using our shopping search engine. That way, you can also compare the prices and features of different products and pick the best one among them. Also, don’t forget to check out other amazing products from the bathroom fixtures category.
Question & Answer
Are all shower fittings the same size?
There are two ways you can measure the component of a shower. One way is to measure the actual size of the components. But all of us know even without measuring that not all of them have the same size. However, is it possible to fit a replacement part designed for a particular model on another model? Well, because most stopper valves used for household plumping are the half-inch stopper valve, you can fit any head and valve with another model of the same part. In that sense, valves and heads are of the same size.
How does a shower valve work?
Shower valves use three different types of mechanisms: pressure-balance valves, thermostatic valves, and single-handle valves. Among these three, single-handle valves are the simplest. Not surprisingly, their features are also limited. Thermostatic valves are very advanced. They can detect the temperature of the water and control the volume of water that comes out of the heads. Thermostatic valves are really useful because you can set the temperature of the water and save yourself from scalding in the shower.
Do a shower use more water than a bath?
That depends entirely on how long the shower lasts. On average, a person uses seven to eight litres of water in a minute while showering. So, if he showers for five minutes, he will be using up around thirty-five litres of water. But you have to keep in mind that he might not be running the water for the entire five minutes of the shower. So, the actual amount of water will be less than this. But a bath uses much more water than this. A typical bath would hold around 130 to 200 litres of water. Therefore, showers use significantly less water than a bath. If you are looking to buy replacement components for your shower online in the UAE, Shops.ae is the best place to be. Here, you can choose from 500 shops and brands including Kohler, Grohe, American Standard, Mira Showers, Aqualisa, Triton Showers, and Gerber.