I’ve read following article on lowtechmagazine.com a while ago: Mist Showers: Sustainable Decadence?

I’m someone who showers quite a lot (sometimes up to twice daily), especially in humid summer weather. Usually, it’s one warm one with a bit of soap, to get rid of dust, smells/ sweat, chemicals and dirt, and to sleep better, and then sometimes a quick cold shower in the morning without any surfactants, especially when I’ve sweat a lot in the night.

According to the article, showering often takes up to a few hundred liters of warm water in some cases, which is super inefficient to heat up. Reducing the water usage would also extremely reduce energy consumption A LOT.

In my case, I don’t shower long, don’t have the lever opened completely, and don’t like (too) warm showers anyway. Still, I found the concept of spray showers very interesting, and I’m thinking about building one for myself. Someone has to do the first steps, right?

Does anybody here already have one, and wants to show their experience with it?

I also have a few questions:

  • Was it hard to build?
  • Do I have to consider anything, especially regarding safety and leaks (high pressure), clogged nozzles, and cleaning?
  • How does the experience of showering with them feel like? Do you still get as clean as with a regular shower head, even without soap?
  • How do guests react to it? Do they like it?

Thanks a lot! :)

  • @Vebred
    5•3 months ago

    I made a shitty prototype with irrigation mister nozzle heads from alibaba or somewhere similar. I used 3 mm tubing and made some connectors from 3d print.

    What I learned:

    • It’s a fun project
    • 3D prints of connectors and tube adapters will be leaky if you are not a pro and knows what type of plastic to use. (I’m not experienced enough.) I would recommend finding proper standardised tube adapters and purchase them instead.
    • You save some water, however the temperature feels much colder, and therefore your guests might not like it if your water is not hot enough.
    • I enjoyed the gentle feeling of it, however it is very different from a regular shower head, where it feels like your skin is power washed clean. I used my hands more for cleaning my water misted skin. I had a feeling I got just as clean.
    • I vaguely remember something with some mistborne disease which there could be a higher risk of, using this kind of system, but I don’t remember.

    I experimented with 1-5 nozzle heads, and the more you add the more it feels like a regular shower head, with the intensity the water hits the skin, aaand the more water you use… 3 was a minimum to me.

    I did not use it long enough to experience it clogging. I stopped using it because my fittings and tube adapters got too leaky to provide a proper pressure, and I didn’t have the patience to fix it. This post has made me want to get a go at it again :P

    I was also inspired by that article

    Cheers