Safe alternatives to a "suicide shower head"?


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Old 11-02-17, 12:56 PM
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Safe alternatives to a "suicide shower head"?

Hi all. In my house we have three bathrooms. Two upstairs, and one downstairs. I have a standard tankless waterheater that feeds everything in the house except for the bathroom downstairs, since this is a small bath with only tubing for cold water. Is a concrete house, so adding additional water tubes is not possible. The only solution I find is to add the so called "suicide shower", but i've read so many negative things about this, that is even illegal in the US to install these? (I mean, look how they are called). I would like to know, in the United States, what would be the best option, or standard option to add hot water to a bathroom without hot water plumbing? Thanks!
 
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Old 11-02-17, 04:05 PM
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Have you ever used a suicide shower? They do work and I've never been killed or even shocked by one but I'm very good about not touching the shower head at all when it is energized. You are right, I don't think they are permitted in the USA... and probably for good reason.

Can you run new pipes on the surface? It's not entirely pretty but it's an easy way to add a hot water line for minmal cost.
 
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Old 11-02-17, 04:13 PM
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I have to agree with Dane. You would need some type of local water heater and that may be more obtrusive then running a pipe on the surface.
 
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Old 11-02-17, 04:24 PM
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A point of use unit under a vanity would be your best bet..

But you need to explain to us how a bathroom in your home has cold water only? This would not be allowed by code as I know it...

But for what ever reason, if you can find the cold water line that feeds that bath you can install a small electric heater and feed a mixing valve to the cold water line to that bath... I believe you would need to set the temp to 120f or less.

All water out of the fixtures to that bath would be that temp...
 
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Old 12-06-17, 07:23 AM
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Originally Posted by lawrosa
A point of use unit under a vanity would be your best bet..

But you need to explain to us how a bathroom in your home has cold water only? This would not be allowed by code as I know it...

But for what ever reason, if you can find the cold water line that feeds that bath you can install a small electric heater and feed a mixing valve to the cold water line to that bath... I believe you would need to set the temp to 120f or less.

All water out of the fixtures to that bath would be that temp...
Thank you all for your comments and suggestions. Not sure why this particular bathroom has only cold water. Its main purpose is to be a toilet for guests, since it is located next to the main entrance, but even though is small, it has a toilet, a faucet and a shower. Everything in this room has only cold water. Everything else in the house has cold and hot. I thought there might exist something similar to the suicide shower, but correctly done. Something like a tank-less water heater, but designed small enough to be installed directly around the area of the shower head, and enough to provide hot water only to one shower.
 
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Old 12-06-17, 09:01 AM
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Those are called point of use heaters. They don't store any hot water..... they heat it on demand. It doesn't really make a difference what you install there.... it needs plumbing and electric. It WILL look out of place.
 
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Old 12-09-17, 12:20 PM
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All concrete, floor also? Concrete can be penetrated just not easily. Is all the piping near the bathroom? It would be a lot of work. but worth it.
Sid
 
 

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