How often does this happen? You start the shower so that it can warm up and then you’re distracted by other things. Maybe the kids call you from another room, you start folding clothes, reading an article in the newspaper. Suddenly 5, 10 or 15 minutes can suddenly pass and the entire time you’re wasting hot water. Evolve Showerheads has a solution. And it’s not the typical reduced flow showerhead. What they’ve done is add a temperature flow valve that auto-senses when the shower reaches 95 degrees. Then it slows the water to a trickle – saving otherwise wasted hot water. When you’re ready to enter the shower, pull the flow cord and the warm water flow resumes! How’s it work? A quick 3 minute YouTube video that I created last night follows.
Evolve produces several models of showerheads. In honor of Earth Day, I decided to use their RoadRunner model which features a 1.50 GPM low flow output which is effective with water pressures ranging from 40 to 80 PSI. All Evolve showerheads feature ShowerStart technology which turns hot water off as soon as the temperature reaches 95 degrees. Then when you are ready to enter and start to shower, pull the cord and hot water starts flowing.
Installation is simple. Unscrew your old showerhead. Wrap a small amount of plumbing tape around the pipe. Screw on the RoadRunner. It attaches easily to any standard 1/2 ” shower pipe.
Although I had to use a wrench to remove my old showerhead, I did not use any tools to install the RoadRunner — I screwed the showerhead onto the pipe and was ready to go.
On of the features of the RoadRunner is low flow water. Water is released at a reduced rate of 1.50 gallons per minute. While showering I hardly noticed the reduced flow and it felt similar to a regular flow shower, though with slightly “thinner” streams of water. The pressure was the same or better than my prior showerhead.
The company claims that this reduced flow water saves 8 gallons of water every 5 minutes. By their estimates this flow reduction combined with their ShowerStart, equals $19 of monthly savings for the average family. Given that the showerhead costs $39 — your payback may start as early as the third month of use.
Seeing is believing — so here’s a quick 3 minute YouTube Video of the Evolve RoadRunner Showerhead in action.
Link: EvolveShowerheads.com
Cost: RoadRunner Showerhead – $ 39
What I Liked:
– Easy way to do you part to save natural resources – and money!
– Simple installation
– Low flow waterhead without the feeling that your shower is trickling
What Could Be Improved:
– Still need to check water temperature very carefully before stepping under the shower – must pull cord from outside shower and re-adjust temperature
– Once the cord releases the water you cannot re-use the cord to stop the flow of water – which seemed like a natural task for an eco-friendly shower adapter.