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The smart home provides you with efficiency and comfort in one. What’s commonplace in the living area or kitchen lags behind in the bathroom. Yet there are many ways to bring your bathroom up to date: Shower toilets that clean themselves automatically, smart faucets for your washbasin with integrated hygiene function or smart lighting systems in the mirror cabinet are some of the best known.
To transform your bathroom into a smart bathroom, you have options such as additional devices outside the shower, smart showerheads with Alexa control or smart shower systems. Depending on the manufacturer and model, these come with different functions.
For this reason, some criteria such as shower functions, smart functions, energy source used, sustainability and the difficulty of installation should be considered before buying.
Table of Contents
Why Should You Take Smart Showers?
Showering seems simple enough: water on, shower off, water off. If you don’t have any experience with smart technologies for your home, you may find it difficult to imagine improvements.
Smart showering is better than traditional showering because it has two key advantages: It gives you a personalized shower experience and saves time and resources.
Especially comfortable
Depending on how you set up your smart bathroom, the added convenience can look something like this: You set the desired temperature while you’re still lying in bed. When you jump into the shower afterwards, the water is warm.
Perhaps your app also offers the option of setting different shower scenarios. Then you take a cold shower in the morning and a warm one in the evening, once with blue and once with violet light or to different songs.
Saving resources at all levels
Even if your shower requirements are low, it’s worth investing in smart shower technology. While you minimize the necessary time through the presets, you can save even more.
Smart showers collect information for you: they monitor your water consumption, the pressure of the water and its temperature. Accordingly, you no longer unknowingly use too much and wastewater.
You can also save electricity, gas or oil, depending on what you use to heat your water. Some smart showerheads even produce the electricity for the smart functions themselves by using their own water flow.
So smart showering saves you resources and therefore money. In addition, avoiding water waste is good for the environment. So you shower more sustainably with a smart shower.
Smart Showers: What Are Your Options?
If you want to take a smart shower, you have several options. You should decide which one is right for you based on three criteria:
- Budget
- Experience with Smart Home
- Requirements for your shower experience
Option 1: Smart showers with technical additives in the bathroom
If you first want to try out whether a smart bathroom is something for you, you can approach it step by step. Instead of upgrading your shower straight away, get the technology that interests you in the smart shower experience.
A waterproof Bluetooth speaker is a good start. If you find that showering with it is just as great as you imagined, you can upgrade to a smart shower.
This method is budget-friendly, because there are models under fifty euros. After upgrading to method 2, use your waterproof Bluetooth speaker elsewhere in your home. That way, you won’t spend the money for nothing.
Option 2: Smart showerhead with Alexa control
Your shower experience will be really modern with a smart showerhead. This method is perfect if you are willing to jump in at the deep end when it comes to smart homes or if you already have some experience. Maybe you already have an Amazon Echo* with Alexa voice assistant in your house.
The smart showerhead has an integrated speaker. There are also many other functions. Exactly what these are depends on the manufacturer and your model.
Some common features are:
- Control via app on the way to the bathroom or via voice control from the shower
- Answering calls directly from the shower, even on models not equipped with Alexa
- LED display to show water consumption or temperature, sometimes with color coding
Option 3: Smart shower system
If you are an old hand when it comes to smart home and have the necessary budget, a shower system is the best choice. This will cost you the most, but will also offer you the maximum comfort and features.
The cost of the system is twofold: first, you need the system itself, which often costs several thousand euros. Secondly, the installation should be done by plumber and electrician, who also want to be paid.
In return, shower systems offer you every conceivable advantage:
- App or voice control
- Regulation of temperature, pressure and consumption
- Setting times, sounds and light
- thanks to hand and overhead shower at least two sources of water
- different jet settings, even when using the overhead and hand shower at the same time
- Storage of several scenarios, in which you can adjust all settings from water to sound to light perfectly to each other and to you
Option 4: Combine your options
If you want to shower smart but don’t want to invest in a shower system, you can combine your options. This way, you can customize your shower experience to suit your individual needs.
A smart showerhead provides you with basic functions such as monitoring your water consumption and an additional function such as the integrated speaker. Additional functions such as light settings can be created separately via smart lighting in the bathroom.
This method has the advantage that you don’t have to spend so much on smart showering. You can use the remaining budget to make the rest of the room smarter.
This option makes particular sense if you want to control functions such as the light independently of the shower. After all, you also use it when you’re not showering. So the investment pays off twice.
What Should You Look for When Buying?
If you have decided to buy a smart showerhead, you need to choose the right model. For this, you should consider a few points:
- Shower options
- Smart functions
- Energy supply
- Sustainability
- Installation
What options do you have for showering?
If you buy only one smart showerhead, you usually have only one shower. There are differences between them as well.
The number of nozzles varies greatly between individual models. The more nozzles you have, the higher the water consumption. However, certain shower settings work better with more nozzles.
In addition to the number, the angle at which the jets are attached is crucial. At least one part should be angled so that the water hits your body exactly. This improves the shower experience and avoids wasting water.
What smart features are important to you?
All smart showerheads have basic functions such as measuring water pressure or temperature. No matter which model you choose, these functions are yours for sure.
Some brands are characterized by a particularly simple display of this data. Colored markings for the temperature range are one possibility. If you want to see at a glance how a value currently stands while showering, you should invest in a model that includes this feature.
Besides the basic water consumption functions, other features will be just as important to you in smart showering. Each model shines here in different areas.
If you are looking forward to listening to music while showering, you will need a model with a good speaker and microphone. The same applies if you appreciate the option to make calls on the side. With this type of showerhead, you should also pay attention to the power supply and playing time, so you don’t have to constantly recharge.
What are the options for energy supply?
Smart showerheads with Alexa control run on electricity. But of course, you don’t plug them in while you shower. Instead, you run off batteries inside them.
To recharge the batteries, you have to charge them in between. To do this, remove the speakers and connect them to the charging station. The most popular models are designed in such a way that this is quite simple.
If sustainability is important to you, you can look for a showerhead that is powered by a hydroelectric generator: With these, the speaker is charged by the flow of water while you shower. This means you don’t have to recharge and you save electricity, which is good for the environment and your wallet.
How difficult to install the showerhead?
Smart showerheads are easy to install. Installation is more difficult for complete shower systems. These must be professionally installed by a plumber and an electrician.
You hang smart showerheads in the shower just like normal showerheads. Then you have to connect them via Bluetooth or Wi-Fi with the corresponding app and your Amazon Echo to control them via Alexa.
The products either come with a description or you can access it online. Just follow the steps and you should have no problems.
Best Smart Showerheads with Alexa
Once you have decided what is important to you for your smart shower, you can start looking for suitable models. Many manufacturers offer various models, but there are usually one or two that stand out from the crowd and convince in tests.
The following products might be something for you:
Moxie Showerhead
The Moxie showerhead from Kohler* has a particularly good speaker. It is therefore ideally suited if sound quality is important to you.
DreamSpa AquaFan LED Showerhead
The DreamSpa AquaFan LED showerhead* has over one hundred nozzles and makes showering a luxurious affair. The LED lighting shows the temperature without having to check a display.
WaterHawk Showerhead
The WaterHawk showerhead* is the right one if you care about sustainability. It is powered by a hydroelectric generator and continuously displays water consumption.
Related Questions
Which manufacturers offer Alexa-controlled showerheads?
The smart showerheads from most manufacturers are compatible with Amazon Alexa. Among the best-known are the American manufacturers Moen, Kohler and SmarTap, as well as the French manufacturer Elmer. In Germany, for example, devices from the manufacturer Devolo can be connected with Alexa.
What other Alexa-controlled products are suitable for a smart bathroom?
Smart bathtubs and faucets for the sink are suitable for controlling water consumption. Smart light switches, light strips or lamps control the light in the bathroom. Air and fragrance diffusers are used for aromatherapy. Smart thermostats control the temperature through Alexa.
Where should an Amazon Echo be placed in the bathroom?
The Amazon Echo* is not waterproof, so it should be placed away from the sink, shower, and bathtub. As far as possible, the Echo should be placed away from the toilet to avoid bacteria build-up and possible water splashes. The Echo requires a power outlet.
Conclusion
Smart showering offers you comfort and efficiency. Depending on whether you get smart devices for the bathroom, a smart showerhead with Alexa control or an entire shower system, you have various functions at your disposal.
You can listen to music, make calls, regulate your water consumption or program your shower experience while you shower. This makes showering fun and saves you time and money at the same time. It’s also good for the environment.
When choosing the right model for your purposes, you should be guided by five criteria: your desired shower and smart functions, the operation by battery or via a hydroelectric generator, the sustainability of the model, and the ease of installation. Models that have won tests include the Moxie showerhead from Kohler*, the DreamSpa AquaFan LED showerhead*, and the WaterHawk showerhead*.
Attention: When installing electronic equipment, please be sure to observe the manufacturer’s safety instructions. You have to take care of your own safety. The information on this site only helps you to learn.
Disclosure: This website is the property of Martin Lütkemeyer and is operated by Martin Lütkemeyer. Martin Lütkemeyer is a member of the Amazon Services LLC Affiliate Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to enable Web sites to earn advertising revenue through advertising and linking to Amazon.com. Links marked with * are affiliate links.