Rain shower or hand shower: which suits an HDB bathroom?

Rain shower vs handheld shower at a glance

If your flat still has the handheld set on a slide bar it came with, keeping it is the simpler choice. A rain shower makes sense when water reaches your bathroom at a steady pressure, your heater can feed a wide head, and you are fine with fixed hardware overhead.

Quotes depend on how much has to change: your heater, where your mixer sits and the state of the wall around it. You can browse plumbers in the directory to see who lists shower work and what they publish.

Water pressure and high floors

A rain head can only share out the water it gets. Feed a 25 cm plate the same flow a palm-sized handset gets and each nozzle gets far less, so the shower feels thin. That is the usual story behind rain shower low water pressure complaints.

Test what you have before you buy. Run your current shower fully open with the heater on. If it already feels weak, or the flow drops when someone opens the kitchen tap, a bigger head will make that more obvious. Work through the weak shower pressure guide first; a half-closed stop valve, a kinked hose or a clogged handset filter is simpler to fix than a disappointing new fitting.

More pressure is not the answer either. PUB's water fittings maintenance infographic says to keep the water pressure in all pipes under 35 metres head, because excessive pressure leads to higher flow and waste.

Heater type matters

The heater often decides this before the shower head does. An instant heater warms water as it passes through, so it has limited flow at a comfortable warm temperature; open the mixer wider and the water cools. A small handset needs little flow to feel full. A rain head needs more, so you may have to pick between a warm trickle and a full but cooler shower.

A storage heater keeps a tank of hot water ready, so it copes with a rain head more easily. The catch is tank size: when several people shower one after another, the last person may get a cooler shower.

Gas is another route. HDB's plumbing and gas works guidelines say gas water heaters follow City Energy's requirements, gas pipes must not be concealed in partition walls, and gas appliances must not go in bedrooms. The gas vs electric water heater comparison walks through both options.

Water use and WELS

A bigger head does not automatically use more water. How much a shower uses depends on the head's design and the pressure behind it, not on its diameter.

PUB's Water Efficiency Labelling Scheme (WELS) page lists taps and mixers among the fittings the scheme covers. Showerheads fall under its voluntary labelling, so some heads carry a label and others do not. When you shop, look for the label on the box and compare heads by their ticks, not by how big they look. WELS ticks explained shows how to read one.

Time matters too: a ten-minute shower uses more than a five-minute one from any head.

Installing a rain shower in an HDB flat

There are two common ways to do a rain shower in an HDB flat. A riser column set puts an overhead head, a handset and a diverter on one exposed pipe, fitted to the existing mixer. A concealed set puts the mixer behind the tiles with an arm from the wall or ceiling, which means new pipes inside the wall.

PUB's Plumbing Works page lists simple plumbing works a handyman may do. These include replacing or removing any tap or mixer, and replacing or removing a shower hose or a showerhead connected to a tap. Other water service and sanitary plumbing works need a PUB Licensed Plumber, and that includes laying new pipes to move a mixer or to feed a concealed arm. The guide on what needs a licensed plumber explains the split.

Concealed work has a further limit. HDB's renovation guidelines say that for concealed waste or water pipes in floor finishes or walls, the floor slab and wall must not be tampered with. HDB discourages such work because, if it is not done properly, it may cause water leakage to the unit below. The concealed vs exposed pipes comparison covers the trade-offs.

Cleaning and limescale

Minerals in hot water leave white crusts on a rain head's many small nozzles, sending jets sideways or leaving dry gaps in the spray. Rub soft rubber nozzles with your thumb each week. For heavier build-up, unscrew the head and soak it in a descaler, following the maker's instructions. Never mix bleach with acid-based cleaners or ammonia. A handset simply unhooks to soak in the basin. The same deposits build up on screens; see shower glass limescale. PUB's maintenance infographic also advises checking pipes and fittings regularly and replacing faulty or corroded fittings promptly.

Questions