apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

It takes me about 8 minutes - but I also brush my teeth in there. That doesn't include shaving my legs - a whole other process.

But can't help thinking that this company is using the green movement to sell cheap plastic crap. Doesn't really make sense.

If you want to know how long your shower is, look at a clock before you go in and after you get out. If it takes longer than you want, then shower faster next time.

If you want to get real fancy, set the timer on your cell phone. Or if you want to be old school, grab a timer from a board game or a kitchen counter. But don't buy more plastic to be green.

Why is it shaped like a Star of David? Am I missing something here?

Yeah, my typical shower routine clocks in at 16 minutes. I have long, thick hair that takes about 3 minutes just to saturate with water, so until it's shampoo-ed and conditioned, it takes a while.

I see shower timers as a greenwashing gimmick.

Though you save water, the myriad shower timers being produced consume materials and energy, probably offsetting your good deed.

Its not shaped like the Star of David shanti... lol.

And I used to have long thick hair and I still managed to take a 5 minute shower every morning before school.

I combine everything I do. Shampooing takes about 30 seconds. While I condition, I soap up and do a quick shave. After that is rinsed, I do my face and I'm out. My showers are really fast because I climb right back into bed until its time to leave for work.

The only problem is that I have to run my water for about a minute before I'm able to get in otherwise it will be too hot. Thanks shoddy plumbing. I still need to talk to my landlord about that. Thank god I don't pay for water.

I know they make things that can be attached to your shower to hold the water until it gets hot and then you can have it come out the nozzle. I wonder if that would work the opposite way? As I have the same problem my water gets scalding.

They also make things that go on your shower head so that you can stop the flow of water. You get wet, stop the water, lather up, turn water on and rinse. I remember this from Calif water rationing days

I'm pretty sure I'm somewhere b/n the 10-15 min. mark.
Also depends on if I'm washing my hair that day or not.
That shower coach seems fun!

I can't believe they didn't call it the ShowerGlass! Opportunity lost!

Ugh, not for me, I need that time in the shower to wake up so my showers never are less than 10 minutes long and I have to wait a little bit before the water is hot, but usually no more than 30 sec to a minute.

And I shave in there too, usually the last thing before a final rinse to get all the shaving cream and rinse my hair as well since I get it wet and then shampoo it and let it sit while I finish the rest of my shower before the final rinse.

I wouldn't buy this ugly product, but I love the hourglass in the shower idea. It would create a sense of urgency. I do a lot of things right to lower my consumption of resources, but long showers are my biggest weak spot.

I like the idea of looking throught your board games for a timer. Or a kitchen timer. I should try this out.

i take about 15 to 20 minutes in the shower. and yes it s a shower not bath. i just like the flow of water running down through my body. and changing the temp from hot to cold. 5 minutes is only the time it takes for me to rinse myself before i even use the soap. and 5 minutes to soap up and another 5 to 10 minutes for final rinse.

Most mornings I'm only able to jump in and out of the shower. When I have 20 minutes to take a shower, I will. It's a luxury I'm willing to pay for- and you can't convince me that a couple long showers per week is going to murder the earth. My water & energy consumption is otherwise fairly faultless, thank-you-very-much.

The last thing I need is an unattractive plastic doo-dad trying to make me feel guilty in the one place that I can relax. Ugh.

Yep, never using one of these. I want my long shower in the morning.

I don't want accessories that lecture me. The recent Dwell on Design show in LA had tons of this crap, and I'm tired of it.

Unfortunately, my hair is very thick, so just getting it wet enough to shampoo takes 2-3 minutes. Srsly. I do turn the water flow way down while I lather up with soap, but overall, I am not nearly as conservative with water as I could be. Total time = ~15 minutes.

Now that water restrictions have been implemented in LA, my showers last no longer than 7-8 minutes (including leg shaving). I can only imagine what kind of finds are going to be levvied on us Angelenos.It's especially frustrating when many of the county operated sprinklers all over LA are still going off during the days and times the citizens can't use theirs.

As if that isn't Draconian enough,now the mayor wants Angelenos to "help" cover the county expenses for Michael Jackson's funeral.

Local gov't can suck it and so can the makers of this timer.

okay. water conservation to individuals that do need long relaxing showers in the morning is near impossible. however, tell that to those theme parks and hotel/casinos that use water just for show, see how big of a change to water conservation it will show. and if more hotels used those inventions that recycle water then there wouldn't be such issues

My shower's down from 15 minutes to 7, and I'm still looking for ways to cut time, this shower timer would absolutely help me stay conscious of my time and accomplish that. One way I reduced my shower time, and I do this regularly, was to cut my long hair and donate it to Locks of Love:
http://www.locksoflove.org/

Seriously, I can't believe how much whine is being served as a result of this post... pretty sad.

If you want to cut the amount of time you spend in the shower, you're better off buying a showerhead with a manual shut off valve and taking Navy showers. I was recently on a cruise where the temperature control was separate from the flow control, and I preferred shutting off the water when I wasn't actively wetting or rinsing, mainly because the shower stall was so damn small.

Amazing, both the comments in general ("Star of David"? please...) and the justifications for water-wasting.

Unbelievable.

Lack of clean water is one of the biggest problems in maintaining civilization. A lot of our beautiful country is built on fairly arid lands in the West. We can't expect the natural resources to keep up with the increasing population.

Yes, I take a good long shower. Like a lot of things that we think we know the length of, our perceptions of the length of time we spend in the shower are probably off. Any of us can feel ourselves getting mad, but how accurately could we guess our blood pressure? There are very often good reasons to check perception with reality. If I'm being a greedy pig with natural resources, sooner or later I should be told.

I'm not sure I want to live with a shower timer. On the other hand, I'm not sure I want to live with neighbors who couldn't care less about the resources they hog. And the Angelenos who curse their "local government" are part of the problem. What's your constructive alternative? It's better to live by laws than by native greed.

I have one of these and found it helpful. I used until about a year ago, when we moved. Our apartment had slick tile on the bathroom walls, but our house has rougher stone (or fake stone/resin) shower walls. The suction cup won't stick to the tiles. Does anyone have an idea of how to affix/hang it?

Why not just use a clock. lol

FIVE MINUTES? I need at least 8 to 10. I'd rather take a little more time than not be clean.

Wow. I see a lot of people justifying selfishness and wastefulness here, with nothing more than a "nope, I don't care, I'll use as much water as I want." And then Americans have the gall to complain about how China and India use resources, too, so why should we have to cut back?

Appalling. Something to consider: if everyone lives by the code of "Me First," where are we going to end up?

And "akay," the poster who claims that it's better to use as much water as he/she pleases, instead of buying one of these gadgets and saving hundreds of thousands of gallons of water over time, along with the energy to heat that water? Are you serious? Nice try. Justifying wastefulness much?

It's amazing, how defensive people get about their own selfishness. I don't know why I expected more people to care about their resource usage, but I'm really disappointed at the very high percentage of naysayers.

When government imposes restrictions on the residents yet does not abide by the same restrictions THAT is an issue that effects EVERYONE in the community.

Thanks to the people who wrote in to their councilperson, contacted city hall and local news stations, the county has ramped up the reprogramming of county sprinklers. And we continue to write and call and bug city hall. I am proud to be one of these people.

And this timer can still suck it.







So if bei

Me too shanalulu! Appalled! I grew up with tank water, in rural australia where droughts are frequent. If we stayed in 5 mins it was a crime. More like about 2-3 was allowed. If you wanted to wash your hair you were expected to turn off the water while you did so. Leg shaving was never, ever done while water was running. I have running water now, but still dont have long showers. I can't believe people can even try to justify a 20 min shower.

These are commonplace in Australia now with the ongoing drought. Except they typically are 4 minute timers. In Melbourne, we are asked to restrict water use to an average of 155 litres per day per person.

I guess I just don't see the point of all this whining...taking a shorter shower is better for water consumption. Trying to take shorter showers, even by just a minute is helpful.

On a similar note, did you know that 10% of all water in New York fails to get where it's going because of plumbing leaks in the infrastructure? And numbers are similar in most metro areas? Lets talk about how to fix that!

Hm, before reading all the comments I would have considered my 6-minute wash-lather-shave-rinse-enjoy routine to be a sign of both a shower-lover and a water-conserver... but now I see that I must be either 4 minutes longer to be considered a shower-lover, or 4 minutes shorter to be considered environmentally friendly. Sigh, stuck in the middle again :(

Rucy - I've heard some not-so-great things about Locks of Love. Apparently they sell a lot of their donated hair to commercial wig-makers, it's not nearly as charitable as it seems. Besides, I love my long hair and I'm not going to cut it off just to save water.

That said, with hair down to my hips I can take a ten-minute shower including washing and conditioning my hair, washing my face and shaving my underarms. Most of the time I shower in about five to eight minutes. I love hot showers, and I'm thankful for our gas hot water, but I try to keep my long showers for a once-a-month treat. Otherwise we'd be paying out the wazoo in gas bills.

nessaneko, there are a lot of organizations that use ponytails, I've also donated my hair to a local students group that's experimenting with oil-spill-clean-up technology and to a friend who had a custom wig made of all her friends and family members hair (to see her through cancer treatments) - neither accessible to this board in general so I offered Locks of Love. Very long hair is a luxury, it wastes water for nothing more important than my ego (and it'll be surprised to learn it's pretty useless), so unless I'm growing it for a purpose there seems little point in just having it. I love my quick showers now and this morning, being more conscious of the time (yes I brought in a clock), I cut it down to 5 minutes! (and for the naysayers I am completely clean, pffft!).

People who build on the moon then complain about no water are idiots. The same thing applies on terra firma.

A good way to conserve water would be to not build on arid lands. Areas that aren't suppposed to support more than grasslands or scrub are not supposed to support our current life.

Instead of building out we should be building up (and underground) and reclaiming the housing development tracts for nature.

Silly thought, I know, instead of imposing restrictions on those who have managed to live where resources are bountiful and sustainable. Ridiculous.

I'm all for quick and effective showers but I have to wonder about how there seems to be more than enough water where I live to keep the golf courses hydrated.