The Shower Manager

As we get ready for water rationing this week, we can't help but remember the timed showers that the East Bay water rationing of our childhood brought. For many households, the biggest percentage their water goes to showers (surpassed, of course, by baths) and one of the best ways to cut back on your water usage is to start taking shorter ones. The Shower Manager is a timer that installs between your showerhead and the wall, and "limits shower times so you don't have to!"

We find it interesting that the Shower Manager was originally developed for parents to "stop their teen's excessively long showers" but is now being remarketed as a "green living" tool. While we think installing a timer to turn off the water on your teenagers is a little . . . mean, this could be a great tool for those who want to remind themselves to take shorter showers.

The Shower Manager can be set to 5, 8, or 11 minutes, and doesn't actually turn off the water, but "cuts the flow by half when that time limit expires . . . to just enough to permit rinsing, but the restricted flow reminds the user that it is time to get out of the shower."

The Shower Manager is available for $119 on the Shower Manager website (discounts are available when you buy more than one.)

What do you think? Good idea? Or a little too harsh?

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Comments (12)

I think this is a neat idea, although you could go a lot cheaper and just keep an egg timer in the bathroom.

Far simpler and cheaper to simply put a waterproof clock in the shower to keep track of the time - I have one from IKEA that I think I paid $3 for.

"the biggest percentage their water goes to showers (surpassed, of course, by baths)"

I'm not quite sure how to read this. I've heard that baths take less water than showers (depending on how long the shower is, of course).

My father used to turn off the hot water when I was a teenager. This? Not harsh.

There are certainly cheaper alternatives, but keeping time on your shower isn't a bad idea. During much of my California childhood we were on water restrictions, and my dad routinely turned the water off while my idiot sister was lazily wasting water in the shower. Not harsh at all; reality needs to kick in to even stupid teenagers eventually.

my little cousins spend like 30 minutes in the shower when they use to live with us. ugh it was awful and then when it was my turn the rug they used was soaking wet!

i take navy showers!!

Parents might want to consider what their teens are doing in those showers...ahem. Everyone deserves some, erm, private time.

Uh... NO... I don't spend a lot of time in the shower, but I think that $120 for a device that limits the amount of water you use is plain silly... I don't spend too much time in the shower simply because I have to get out the door to get to work.

WARNING — The Shower Manager does not allow ‘full flow’ of water to your shower head as advertised. They ‘recommend’ that you don’t use it with an ‘ultra-low-flow’ shower head, which, they apparently didn’t know, has been the only kind legal to manufacture in the US since 1992. So, don’t be disappointed when your 5, 8 or 11 minute shower isn’t as satisfying as it was before. This device reduces flow to both full flow and ‘low flow’ shower heads during your shorter shower, then cuts THAT in half when your time is up. It works, just not nearly as well as I had hoped.

Some people just don't get it...

The shower manager trained my two kids to take shorter showers in less than three months.

What is that worth? Long term, short term emotionally?

Once I installed it and set the ground rules with the boys it did it's job. I rarely had to nag or follow up. And now I don't have to nag at all because it has become habit.

Cold showers are no longer a problem for my household. And I like it! Thank you Shower Manager.

While not perfect or pretty it did what I expected and that is good enough to get the Glad Dad's thumbs up.

Just my two cents - Take it for what it is worth.
The Glad Dad