Electric or mixer shower for your Barking bathroom? How they work, which suits a combi boiler or a cylinder, and what each means for pressure, cost to run and installation.
Send a photo or a quick video of the room on WhatsApp. Or ask for a free fixed quote with no obligation. We will tell you straight what it needs.
An electric shower heats cold mains water itself, inside the unit, as it is used. A mixer shower blends hot and cold water that already comes from your boiler or cylinder. Electric showers work independently of the boiler and suit homes with poor hot water supply. Mixer showers usually give a stronger, more comfortable flow when the hot water supply is good, such as from a combi boiler.
Many Barking homes, including most of the Becontree estate houses, now run on combi boilers, which supply hot water at mains pressure. In those homes a thermostatic mixer shower is often the better choice, giving a good flow with no extra unit on the wall. In homes with a hot water cylinder and low pressure, or in a second shower where the boiler would struggle, an electric shower is often more practical.
Installation differs. An electric shower needs its own dedicated circuit from the consumer unit, sized for its power, and that work must be done by a qualified electrician. A mixer shower needs hot and cold pipes run to the valve, often concealed in the wall when the bathroom is being redone.
If you are planning a new bathroom, we will look at your boiler, water pressure and electrics and recommend the shower that suits them.
Heats cold mains water inside the unit. Independent of the boiler.
Blends hot and cold from the boiler or cylinder. Often a stronger flow.
A thermostatic mixer usually works best.
An electric shower can be more practical.
Electric showers need their own circuit, fitted by a qualified electrician.
Mixer pipework is neatly hidden in the wall during a new bathroom.
With a combi boiler and good pressure, usually a mixer. With low pressure or a busy boiler, often an electric.
Yes. It heats its own water, which is one reason people keep one as a backup.
Usually yes, a dedicated circuit sized to the shower, installed by a qualified electrician.
Yes, a thermostatic mixer is a common and good match for a combi boiler.
It depends on your energy tariff and how you use it, so we would not promise one is always cheaper.
Yes, including Becontree, Longbridge, the Gascoigne estate and the town centre.