The Good: Easy to install, Easy to use, Surprisingly good flow, Affordable
The Bad: No "full stop" option, Base is not wide enough to allow the hose to go much to the side.
The Basics: The Hydroluxe Full-Chrome 24 Function Ultra-Luxury 3-way 2 in 1 Showerhead/Handheld-Shower Combo works surprisingly well and is a great showerhead!
When it comes to things like showerheads, I tend to leave the shopping to my wife. Indeed, I am very complacent when it comes to leaping in the shower, getting clean, and then getting out and getting on with my day. But, as one who is always looking for ways to spend time together (and, frankly, methinks, someone to wash her back!) my wife has been retrofitting our apartment's bathroom so we can share showers easier. Given that, like with many people, there is a bit of a height difference between us and that our shower area is not huge, showering together has been more of a chore than an act of love. That changed, however, when my wife bought us a Hydroluxe Full-Chrome 24 Function Ultra-Luxury 3-way 2 in 1 Showerhead/Handheld-Shower Combo!
The Hydroluxe Full-Chrome 24 Function Ultra-Luxury 3-way 2 in 1 Showerhead/Handheld-Shower Combo is a showerhead that is actually two heads; one rooted to the wall and a second that is hand-held, connected to the base of the first by a long, flexible, tube. This allows two people to comfortably shower with one another without forcing one person to be constantly standing somewhere other than right under the flow of the water!
The Hydroluxe Full-Chrome 24 Function Ultra-Luxury 3-way 2 in 1 Showerhead/Handheld-Shower Combo is a stainless steel showerhead assembly that easily screws into a pipe in one's shower. The primary showerhead sticks out 6" from the shower pipe. At its base is a 3 1/2" wide piece that is perpendicular to the showerhead and features the control dial and the cradle for the handheld showerhead. The handheld showerhead is connected to the primary wall-based unit by a 4 3/4' flexible hose. Both showerheads are 4" in diameter; the handheld showerhead is on a 5" handle, which allows one to grip it firmly when it is out of its cradle.
Installation of the Hydroluxe Full-Chrome 24 Function Ultra-Luxury 3-way 2 in 1 Showerhead/Handheld-Shower Combo is shockingly easy. When my wife purchased the Hydroluxe Full-Chrome 24 Function Ultra-Luxury 3-way 2 in 1 Showerhead/Handheld-Shower Combo, she announced that it had arrived and before I could leap up from my writing to muck up her efforts, she had already unscrewed the old showerhead and properly installed the new one! The Hydroluxe Full-Chrome 24 Function Ultra-Luxury 3-way 2 in 1 Showerhead/Handheld-Shower Combo is so easy to install that it took her less than four minutes to assemble and attach the Hydroluxe Full-Chrome 24 Function Ultra-Luxury 3-way 2 in 1 Showerhead/Handheld-Shower Combo to the pipe. The screw-on ring that attaches the Hydroluxe Full-Chrome 24 Function Ultra-Luxury 3-way 2 in 1 Showerhead/Handheld-Shower Combo to the wall's pipe is tight and secure enough that we did not even need to use any pipe tape; in fact, we've switched up which shower in our apartment has the new showerhead and neither shower has shown any leaks where the pipes connect to the showerhead. The same cannot be said of the old, cheap, plastic shower heads out landlords originally had installed in our showers, so this is a clear benefit of the Hydroluxe Full-Chrome 24 Function Ultra-Luxury 3-way 2 in 1 Showerhead/Handheld-Shower Combo!
Using the Hydroluxe Full-Chrome 24 Function Ultra-Luxury 3-way 2 in 1 Showerhead/Handheld-Shower Combo is fairly simple after it has been installed. On the left side of the base of the Hydroluxe Full-Chrome 24 Function Ultra-Luxury 3-way 2 in 1 Showerhead/Handheld-Shower Combo is a dial. Turning the dial controls whether the water goes exclusively to the main showerhead, the handheld showerhead or both. On the right side of that same base is the cradle for the handheld showerhead, which allows one to have two showerheads shooting water from the wall, as opposed to forcing one to actually hold the handheld showerhead. One of the few strikes against the Hydroluxe Full-Chrome 24 Function Ultra-Luxury 3-way 2 in 1 Showerhead/Handheld-Shower Combo comes in its basic functioning; the dial has the three options, but for those who are conscientious about water conservation, there is no option to shut off flow entirely. Instead, one must turn off the water source completely, which then forces one to take a blast of cold water when turning it back on.
The Hydroluxe Full-Chrome 24 Function Ultra-Luxury 3-way 2 in 1 Showerhead/Handheld-Shower Combo has multiple flow settings on each head. The showerheads are adjusted through a dial lever on each of the two heads and it changes the water flow from a powerful blast coming through the center-most holes in the showerhead to the misting function that comes from water flowing out all of the holes in the showerhead. The result is a wide variety of pressures and water coverage options and the fact that each head has adjustable dials allows each person in a shower to adjust their showerhead to their own preferences. This is pretty wonderful function and it works exceptionally well. In fact, one of the true pleasant surprises of the Hydroluxe Full-Chrome 24 Function Ultra-Luxury 3-way 2 in 1 Showerhead/Handheld-Shower Combo is that the water flow/pressure remains extraordinary across all permutations of the settings. We noticed no perceptible change in water pressure between our prior small-head showerhead and installing the Hydroluxe Full-Chrome 24 Function Ultra-Luxury 3-way 2 in 1 Showerhead/Handheld-Shower Combo. While there is a minor, predictable, fall-off in water pressure from opening both showerheads up fully, there is minimal water pressure falloff before that! In other words, it is very easy for two people to use the shower with the Hydroluxe Full-Chrome 24 Function Ultra-Luxury 3-way 2 in 1 Showerhead/Handheld-Shower Combo at the same time and both people get clean and feel clean!
The only other real detraction to the Hydroluxe Full-Chrome 24 Function Ultra-Luxury 3-way 2 in 1 Showerhead/Handheld-Shower Combo is in the flexible hose, or more accurately, the way the hose connects to the base. Part of the reason the water pressure is so good is that the hose that attaches the base to the handheld showerhead of the Hydroluxe Full-Chrome 24 Function Ultra-Luxury 3-way 2 in 1 Showerhead/Handheld-Shower Combo is a straight shot, which conserves the water pressure by maintaining the water's direction from the pipe through the shower head. Unfortunately, it also means that to use the handheld showerhead, one must basically bisect the shower space with the hose; the person using the handheld showerhead has to lift the hose above the other person in the shower or the hose will brush against the other person, who is getting cleaned from the primary nozzle. This is a design issue that would have been prevented by a wider base which would offset the hose, but it is understandable that Hydroluxe might not have done that because the water pressure would have suffered.
That said, the Hydroluxe Full-Chrome 24 Function Ultra-Luxury 3-way 2 in 1 Showerhead/Handheld-Shower Combo does what it promises. It is easy to install, easy to use, easy to clean and it allows two people to shower together comfortably; it is hard to ask more from a showerhead than the Hydroluxe Full-Chrome 24 Function Ultra-Luxury 3-way 2 in 1 Showerhead/Handheld-Shower Combo delivers!
8.5/10
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© 2016 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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