Comparison guides
Electric shower or mixer shower: what your supply decides
Common mistakes to avoid
A mixer shower gives a more consistent temperature and flow, but only with a combi boiler or a pumped cylinder feeding it, on gravity-fed low pressure a mixer can be weak.
This choice is decided by the hot water system already in the house far more than by preference. An electric shower heats cold mains water on demand; a mixer blends hot and cold from the existing supply and depends entirely on that supply's pressure.
How to choose
An electric shower is largely independent of the boiler or cylinder, which makes it a practical fallback where hot water pressure is poor or unpredictable.
A mixer shower gives a more consistent temperature and flow, but only with a combi boiler or a pumped cylinder feeding it, on gravity-fed low pressure a mixer can be weak.
Running a new electrical circuit for an electric shower is a notifiable job in its own right, which can make a mixer the simpler retrofit where suitable pressure already exists.
Your questions answered
Can I just swap an electric shower for a mixer?
Only if the hot water supply can deliver adequate pressure and flow to the shower position; otherwise a pump needs adding.
Is an electric shower cheaper to run?
It heats only the water used, so it can suit low-usage rooms, but a mixer fed by an efficient system is not necessarily worse.
Local help with electric or mixer shower
We cover Gloucester, Cheltenham and the surrounding GL postcodes. Include your town or postcode and we can say straight away if it is in range.