Electric showers - can we do any "better" than our old Mira Vie 9.5kw

[rogerzilla]

Have a look at the regs. 6mm cable can be ok for up to 9.5kW (which is still fairly weedy) if short and surface-mounted - it's all about heat. As fossyant says, duration is also a factor and most are rated for 15 minutes' use per hour, or similar.

Electric showers are fairly horrid things, though, never being quite powerful enough, expensive to run, and short-lived in hard water areas because the small heater tank can't be descaled. If you have a pressurised hot water system from a combi or an unvented cylinder, try to use that instead. Even gravity showers can be good if plumbed correctly, with all formed bends in the pipework.

 

[presta]

Depending on size of shower and distance you need minimum 6mm cable or 10mm if bigger and further from the mains.

As per the table above.

I change mine every 4yrs or so as its hard water here

The water here in East Anglia is reputedly some of the hardest in the UK, but my first shower lasted over 20 years not out, and the second one 25 years. From the way in which it went pop and blew the vent, I'm assuming it was scale build up that saw it off eventually though.