Any thoughts on shower panels?

14 years ago

Does anyone have any thoughts on shower panels? One of the baths here is a small shower-only bath and I've thought about putting in a shower panel when we redo it--it needs everything--to try to make it a tad more luxurious. (I wouldn't spend the money on separate body sprays here--this is a cheap townhouse.)

I've found a couple that I rather like, this one:

but I've read a few comments elsewhere to the effect that the shower panel is the contemporary equivalent of shag carpeting. Not so sure I really care about that, but I'm curious as to whether there are any major disadvantages to doing this instead of a traditional behind wall valve setup?

Also, the one in the image is from Signature Hardware. Does anyone have any feedback on their quality for fixtures? I know that as a business generally they have a good reputation.

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Comments (4)

charliehorse99
14 years ago
Thought about them too.

They tend to use a lot of water with body spays. I.e, not eco.

Also, I worry about the mounting points and messing up the title. With a shower panel the mount points are all proprietary, so you can only replace it with the same model. With in-wall shower heads etc, they seem to be a bit more interchangeable-- although valves embedded in a wall aren't easy to fix either so maybe this isn't a real con.

I was looking into "shower pipes" which seem a bit more modern.
writersblock (9b/10a)
Original Author
14 years ago
>I was looking into "shower pipes" which seem a bit more modern.

Or a lot more retro, depending on your point of view. :)

It's certainly a valid point about the body sprays, although AFAIK it's pretty much true of most body sprays, not just those in panels. For me it's not something I'd want to use often, just thought it might be nice to have occasionally.

In any case I couldn't find one that would work well here since we have only a 7-ft ceiling in the bath and they're all too long to be mounted that low (body sprays become ankle sprays).
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kawamida
13 years ago
Would love to hear feedback about what you chose in the end.

I'm looking into a purchasing a shower panel (Hansgrohe 06549000 Solaris Interaktiv Shower Panel: http://www.hansgrohe-usa.com/pics/hruo0400.pdf) for my basement bathroom reno. Ceiling height will be about 7 ft (as good as it gets for a 100 year old urban semi).

Can't seem to find any install instructions online, but height of unit is 55' and height of stand up shower area will be 84'. That leaves me with, say, 15' to clear the floor and 14' to clear the ceiling. Wouldn't that be enough? I guess I'm ok with ankle spray....

Here is a link that might be useful: Hansgrohe Solaris Interaktiv
writersblock (9b/10a)
Original Author
13 years ago
Hi, kawamida. After a lot of consideration we decided to do just a regular standard shower, for a couple of reasons. We really don't care all that much about body sprays and would prefer a water-saving high-pressure showerhead for the main shower. All the panels in our price range had fixed rain showers and for those, ceiling height really does matter. A rain shower that you need to crouch to get under didn't seem like a great idea. Your bar-mounted shower head would eliminate that problem, but for us that model would be out of our budget.

After looking at the shower panels on houzz we realized that for our small shower they would all just be too crowded looking. Also, we decided we wanted a cleaner look, with as little stuff on the walls as possible.

I'd do a search on houzz for "shower panel" and "shower column" to be sure you're comfortable with the placement in low-ceilinged showers. If you are, then go for it.