Nordic shower head review
The NordicEco shower looks great but how does it stack up against the competition?
Gallant shower head
Water conservation is an idea close to the hearts of anyone who wants to do their bit for the environment.
Making a few changes at home is always going to be a good thing and your shower head is something that can be quickly and easily changed.
So far we’ve reviewed the Mira and Eco Camel shower heads and both of them have a lot going for them. The main issue for all water saving shower heads is getting the balance right between water saving and the power of the shower.
The Nordic Eco shower has a cleverly designed screw/turbine that is the secret behind how it works.
When the water reaches the shower head it rebounds from the underside of the ‘screw’ and is retained in an expansion chamber, where it builds up pressure. When the pressure reaches a certain level, the water bounces back and out of the chamber many times per second
This clever piece of simple technology achieves the performance of a shower head with much greater flow, significantly reducing the water usage at the same time. So how does it stack up against the competition?
The test is the same for all shower heads at Daisy Cottages, and this ensures fairness. The same 2 litre jug, the same stopwatch and repeated fillings of the jug to average out any mistakes.
The Nordic Shower head filled the jar in a staggering 25 seconds, making it the most economical one so far tested.
- NordicEco shower: 25 seconds for a 2 litre fill. 4.8 litres per minutes.
- Original Antique shower head: 6 seconds for a 2 litre fill. 20 litres per minute.
- Mira, setting 1: 17.5 seconds for a 2 litre fill. 6.9 litres per minute.
- Eco Camel 14.8 seconds for a 2 litre fill. 8.1 Litres per minute.
The design of the NordicEco shower also differs from others in that it introduces no air into the stream, and the manufacturers claim that no limescale will ever build up in it because it has no sieve plate.
The adjustable setting on the Nordic is continuous - that is you can change it from a wide spray to a solid stream of water, and fine tune it to anything in between. This also makes it the most versatile and adjustable shower head as well. The reduced water consumption does mean that the pressure of the shower is lower than the others but it is barely noticeable.
All in all this is a fantastic shower head and it can be found priced between £39 and £49 so it’s good value for money too.
Hi, I have a stupid question – do these eco shower heads work on any type of shower? Ours runs directly off the bathroom taps (mixer).
Thanks
Helen
Helen
We also run our shower off the mixer taps in the bathroom and its great. But I think we have a high pressure boiler. I think the best thing to do would be to ask the manufacturer direct. Ours is great through, you would never know it was actually saving water.
Daisy x
Hi Helen,
firstly there is no such thing as a stupid question!
We have a built in bathroom tap mixer and they are all tested on that so they do work for those. I think they are designed to work on any shower that has a standard shower head fitting.
I have no idea if they work on those funny cheap rubber ones you push over the taps though.
Hope that helps
Mr Dg
x
Googled Nordic Eco Shower – any good? and found a great site … yours! Have you any idea – will this work with a combination boiler where water flow seems critical or would we have to ask Bosch? Thanks.
Hi Simon
Thanks for the kind comments about the site. Not sure about the boiler question. Probably worth asking Nordic? I’ve just bought one myself actually!
Good luck.
Best wishes
Sallyanne
Just a quick note to supplement this review. I bought the Nordic shower head after reading this review and have regretted it; I am not keen on it for three reasons:
(1) It is incredibly large and heavy compared to my previous shower head. As I use the shower handheld quite a lot, I find it is cumbersome and at times gives me a strain in my elbow when using it.
(2) It is VERY noisy, probably due to the turbine inside. So noisy that on some settings (they are not all equally noisy) it is unpleasant to have next to your ear when washing your hair.
(3) I don’t like most of the settings, even though it is continuous, I cannot find an ideal kind of spray. The problem is that most of the settinigs are very splashy, i.e. water being poorly directed and radiating outwardly in a wide arc. This is not very useful when I wash my face or hair leaning over the bathtub, or even when the showerhead is in it’s fitting on the wall as everything around tends to get splashed. It is not easy to direct the water where it is supposed to go, and because the water is so scattered there is less force in the centre where you want the pressure – a bad design I think.
I would appreciate advice on how the other two eco shower heads compare on these criteria, as I am planning to buy a different eco shower head and get rid of the Nordic one. It really spoils my enjoyment of showering with its noise and splashing.
P.S. An add-on to the previous review: I have now bought the Mira shower head so am able to compare the merits of the two. The Nordic wins on water pressure – even though it apparently uses less water, it feels slightly more powerful, which is a good thing. But the Mira is better in that it doesn’t splash and disperse the water as much.
In terms of size and weight, the Mira is also similar, so not much lighter and similarly cumbersome if you like. Similar shape and size, maybe a tad lighter but not sure.
Like the Nordic showerhead, the Mira one is also somewhat noisy / noisier than a normal showerhead, although it has a deeper and somewhat less unplesant sound to the Nordic one, to my ears anyway.
Hope this helps readers to decide which showerhead is preferable to them.
Dear Mr Daisy Green,
I need your help, please, as I’ve got confused of so much information, brands and models…. I’m thinking between Nordic and Eco Camel brands. So my question is how to choose the right brand and model which will suite for my bathroom shower? I don’t have any idea what is my home code level or water pressure level (do you know how I can find it out?). All I know is that we have hot water boiler.
Also which one do you have in your own bathroom?
Thank you for your honest opinion!
Kind regards
Zivile
Hi Zivile,
We use the Mira one, mostly because of its three different spray settings. I like it on the middle setting, and Mrs Daisy likes it on the power setting. The Nordic we reviewed didn’t have this, and for us it was a really significant option.
R
Dear Mr.Daisy Green
I just bought Eco shower unit. I wasn’t sure whether it will work on my Electric shower. I fitted it and tried it on. I must say I am very impressed. It uses less electricty and it is very powerful as though it is a power shower.
The only downside is that it is quite noisy on certain variiable settings. I think it is a great invention.
AT
This is very interesting and a very useful way to help decide which shower head to choose. Just to confuse things, Ive now found an american design called Oxygenics, which uses the water combined with air system. Does anybody have any experience of this one. Ive checked it out with my plumber and he seems to think the spec will fit over here in the uk. Its roughly the same cost £40-50 depending on the model.
Hi Gill, a friend in Sweden sent me this shower (Nordic Eco), South Africa (where I am) is a semi-arid country and we do not have a lot of water. I like the shower so much that I’m now importing them into SA. To answer your question, The Oxygenics shower that introduces air into the water stream actually cools the water down, causing you to open the hot water tap even more, thus using more electricity. Think about it, if you want to cool your coffee you blow air over it. The air only serves to increase the water pressure to give the feeling of a good shower. The Nordic Eco shower gives a high quality shower without using a lot of water, go ahead and get it.