LED shower heads are starting to pop up all over in modern bathroom design. These sleek fixtures light up when you turn on the water, casting a vibrant glow in an array of colors that can transform the inside of your shower into a modern statement piece or a relaxing spa getaway. But while LED shower heads are certainly a novelty, they aren’t only for show.
How Do LED Shower Heads Work?
LED shower heads contain small LED lights dotted in between the spray nozzles. But while LED faucets for kitchen and bathroom taps often rely on batteries to power the lights, LED shower heads are almost always hydropowered. That means the water moving through the shower head itself is what illuminates the lights. One cool side effect is that the brightness of the lights depends on the intensity of the water, meaning you can get the ambiance you want simply by altering the flow.
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Visual Temperature Gauge
Some LED shower heads have only one color setting, but the vast majority have at least two if not four or more. In many cases, these colors are triggered by a change in the temperature of the water flowing through them. This gives you a visual indicator of the temperature of the water, and, like a more traditional thermostatic valve, can alert you if the water reaches scalding temperatures. Unlike a true anti-scald valve, an LED shower head won’t turn off if the water rises above a certain temperature (usually in the neighborhood of 120 degrees F), but the light will begin flashing red, alerting you to the danger.
Multitude Of Colors
LED shower heads that have more than two color settings (though the most common are red and blue for cool and hot) can give you an even more precise indicator of the temperature levels of the water you’re about to step into. Those from Sumerain come in green, blue, purple, red, and flashing red, in order of increasing heat. If you like your shower a specific temperature, LED shower heads offer a great visual guide to get it exactly the way you want it without any danger of freezing or burning yourself.
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Chromotherapy
In addition to offering a pretty cool style and unique safety options, color-changing LED shower heads can actually be good for your health. Various colors and especially various colored light have been shown to have a positive impact on mood, and by choosing a shower head that can produce many multiple colored lights, you can help set your mood for the day right from your morning shower. Of course, this is a little more difficult with a shower head where the colors are linked to temperature, but models where the color can easily be changed offer a simple way to introduce color therapy into your morning routine.
DIY Installation
What’s especially nice about LED shower heads is that while they offer a whole lot more technological punch than your average shower head, they aren’t any more difficult to install. Without any external power source or any other odd parts, installing an LED shower head is as simple as unscrewing the old shower head, cleaning the shower arm, and screwing on the new one. The water flowing through the shower head will provide the light, and long-lived LED bulbs should last for the life of the shower head.
Part Of A Larger Shower System
While LED shower heads are easily installed on their own, they also make a nice addition to a larger shower system, and work well as part of a custom shower. Because many LED shower heads are rainfall shower heads, they can easily be added as a secondary or even tertiary shower head, in addition to a standard and hand-held shower. If you’re planning on building a custom steam bath, LED shower heads also blend quite well with built-in chromotherapy devices that install directly into your shower wall.
LED shower heads offer a great combination of style, comfort, and safety, a sleek and beautiful option for a modern spa bath, while staying in the same general price bracket as other luxury shower heads. What interests you most about LED shower heads – the style, the safety, or just the novelty? Let me know in the comments!
