PMI Members Offer Water-Saving Careers to Innovative Pros

We all know this moment well: you’ve turned on the shower, but there’s no way you’re getting in it just yet. The water must reach the perfect temperature. So you start your pre-shower routine, listening to your favorite playlist and grabbing your towel and shampoo while waiting for the water to heat up. Most showers spray 2 to 2.5 gallons per minute (gpm), and while you wait to get in, you’re wasting water that is probably already hot.

If you are someone who is interested in making a career out of saving water, look no further. Plumbing manufacturing contributes to water savings and water safety, and it starts here, looking for solutions for how to shorten everyone’s pre-shower routine. Because as you probably know, water isn’t the only thing being wasted – every time you take a shower, you also use energy to heat the water to your showerhead. Showering drives almost 17 percent of water use in homes, and an average American family uses some 40 gallons of water per day in the shower, according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) WaterSense program. Don’t you wish you could help come up with a solution for all of this?

Good news is, you can. Thanks to plumbing manufacturers, you can shower better by replacing your old showerhead with a WaterSense model and save water, energy and money. These showerheads are designed by engineers to reduce the flow rate of the water passing through the head each minute, while maintaining optimal pressure for efficient rinsing and shorter shower times. By replacing just one showerhead with a WaterSense model, the average family can save 2,900 gallons of water, the amount of electricity needed to power its home for 13 days, and more than $70 in energy and water costs every year, according to the EPA.  

Product manufacturers in the plumbing industry are well aware of the mass amounts of water that are used daily during showering rituals, so they have made it their mission to come up with products that help consumers save water without taking the enjoyment out of their shower experiences.

You can start your search for showerheads, toilets, bathroom faucets and other products at PMI’s Product Finder.

Below are a few examples of the kind of showerhead innovation occurring within PMI member companies:

Digital shower systems allow you to pre-set your preferred temperature within a degree from a smart phone or control unit in your wall, and the system takes care of the rest. When you step into the shower, the water is just right.

Two-in-one showers allow you to use a detachable hand shower separately or simultaneously with the showerhead. Innovative, built-in technology allows users to control the speed, movement and droplet size of the water to deliver the feeling of more water without using more water.

Modern showerheads are scientifically engineered not only to function with low pressure, but to flourish with it. Engineers within the plumbing manufacturing industry have ways to concentrate and optimize water pressure; they have created high-pressure, WaterSense showerheads for low-pressure installations with the use of tiny, turbine-powered engines that infuse energy and velocity into the spray, even at flow rates as low as 1.5 gpm.

Filtered showerheads often meet EPA criteria for WaterSense certification. Each of these showerheads contains a replaceable filter cartridge hidden inside the showerhead. The filter reduces chlorine, dirt and odors, making for longer-lasting clean showers. After about six months of use, the filter is replaced. A great deal of research was invested into developing catalytic showerhead filters that remove from shower water both free and combined chlorines, dirt, sediment, odors, hydrogen sulfide, iron oxides, and more.

While WaterSense water-saving technologies aren’t that expensive, they are still missing in many homes, with residents opting to waste water, energy and money instead. There’s a way to go before America reaches its water-saving potential, and plumbing manufacturers are doing whatever they can to help us reach this goal.