Oxygenics Bodyspa Shower 100 Series Full Review
Posted: 17 March 2008 by Chris Haslam
With deep, hot baths fast becoming a guilty, unspoken pleasure the thought of something to make shower time a little more luxurious really grabbed our attention. The Oxygenics range of showerheads has been designed to give you a luxury hotel showering experience while saving water -- and thanks to the power of oxygen, as the marketing blurb leads us to believe, it can all be done without a drop in water pressure. Great idea, but does it work?
The showerheads differ from regular or flow-restrictor designs by mixing air into the shower water, often called the 'Venturi principle'. There are small holes in the front of the showerhead and a hidden valve that sucks in the air as the water is forced through it. The result is a bubbly oxygenated shower just like those found in posh hotels and spas. Because each drop of water is 'plumped with oxygen' Oxygenics says you won't notice that there's less water being sprayed onto you.
The look of the BodySpa showerhead is certainly an acquired taste -- but nevertheless it was easy to install onto our existing shower by simply unscrewing and replacing the heads. The kit comes with a 150cm hose, wall bracket, washers, plumbers tape and a flow control valve that fastens between the showerhead and the hose. At £40 the BodySpa isn't cheap, but nothing else in that price range (and there are hundreds of options) gives you the chance to save water.
The BodySpa is designed to work best with pumped systems with two or more bars of pressure. We decided to try it out on three different showers: a non-pumped mains fed combination boiler, a pumped electric and a pumped power shower. The first non-pumped shower spray was disappointing -- and although the BodySpa did improve the overall pressure of the water, there wasn't enough of it to create a satisfying shower. This seemed odd because the existing shower's performance had always been good.
Secondly we tried it with a pumped electric shower and the results were much better. We enjoyed a bubbly shower with much more force than with the previous showerhead. We did think it took a little longer to rinse shampoo from our hair because of all the mixed-in air, however.
Finally we tried it on a pumped power shower and it worked extremely well with an invigorating spray that was considerably more powerful than the existing showerhead. At all three pressures the showerhead made quite a lot of noise thanks to the 'accelerator fin' inside. It wasn't unbearable but you'll certainly notice the chugging while you wash.
But did it save us water? Yes. With the electric shower it used 1.6 litres of water in twenty seconds compared to 2.2 litres with the existing showerhead. With the pumped shower the results were similar with 2.25 litres flowing from the original and just 1.6 litres from the BodySpa.
Ethics scored poorly, however, since the only detail we've been able to glean about its manufacture is that it's made in China and the US. Beyond that, we don't know anything about the working conditions under which it was manufactured.
If you've got great water pressure and love your showers body-tinglingly powerful, the BodySpa is a really good investment that won't compromise on shower quality. If you're a family with a water meter, Oxygenics estimates you could potentially save up to £150 a year. Plus if you're using a naughty water-hungry shower pump you can start enjoying high pressure spa-like showers with a little less guilt.
Thanks to Bright Water for loaning us our sample.
Quality
Value
Ethics
Green
