Originally Posted by
mplskoi
Here is my concern about this unit- how the top is set up. Many, or most, showers are set up with a spray bar at the top. Say it takes 40 holes (at 1/4 inch) drilled into a spray bar to get a nice even (but fairly unobstructed- for efficiency reasons) flow. If some of the holes start to get a bit plugged up from algae or other debris then the pressure builds enough that it should keep as many clean as necessary to maintain a nice flow. I have seen this in my shower. I have maybe 60 holes in it. Some will start to get a little plugged up. But the others aren't spraying like they are under a lot of pressure so I know I am ok.
And I realize that we are all trying to send clean water to our shower. Mine comes out of an RDF. But even super clean water has enough ammonia in it to start to grow some amount of algae.
And this is my concern- with this type of set up if algae starts to build up on that top distribution tray there is no way that the pressure of the flow will clean it out. I can imagine a scenario where a shower goes unchecked for months at a time (that is the point of RDF to shower isn't it? turn them on and ignore them?) and over that time the distribution tray gets plugged up to the point that most water is spilling off to the side and down the sides. It does appear in this model that there is room for that- overflow can run down the sides? or possible that the holes right under the distribution stay open from the pressure of the flow and the rest flows off to the side? What if algae grows to the point that chunks of it flow over and block the side overflow area? Now does water start to overflow the top?
This might not be a concern for anyone else, but I think I would prefer the top to be a spray bar. And of course that modification could be done in 20-30 minutes.
Nice set up in every other way. I like that it can be broken down for shipping. Good engineering there.