Vida Alegría H5+ Handheld Shower Head; with Steel Hose, Holder, 5 Sprays; 2.5 gpm (Chrome)

I've used this shower head for two months now. I was looking for a high quality product for not too much money and this seems to be hitting the mark. So far, it has met or exceeded all my expectations.Construction:The parts seem to be good quality. The wand holder--whatever the thing is called that screws onto the shower arm coming out of the wall--is precision machined, probably made of chromed brass (but I am not an expert on identifying metals). The hose is very flexible; it appears to be a rubber hose inside wrapped with a ribbed stainless steel wrap that is extremely flexible. The steel wrap is very flexible and pleasing to manipulate, kind of like a slinky. There are no gaps in it so I don't know for certain that there is a rubber hose inside, but not sure what else it could be.The wand itself is plastic that looks like chrome. Although chromed metal would be better, it would probably be much more expensive and I think the plastic is reasonable value for what I paid. The dark outer nipples on the wand are tough but flexible and should be easy to clean if they get jammed with debris. (The wand holder included a mesh screen that would probably catch stuff first, though.)It comes with a water saving restrictor piece that can be installed in three ways. 1) You can leave it out completely. 2) You can install it fully. 3) you can install it but remove an o-ring to achieve a partial restriction to flow. (It has instructions about this.) I have good plumbing but this shower is mainly used by me and I'm comfortable manually adjusting pressure so I installed it in this third configuration. I'm finding that this is actually too much flow (I have pretty good pressure in my house) and I do not turn the shower on all the way. I will probably end up installing the o-ring for the convenience of not having to carefully adjust pressure. (Maybe that o-ring will let me turn the shower on all the way without thinking about it.)The point of this is: if you a have a low pressure situation, I think this shower head will give as good a chance as any of providing a good spray despite your low pressure. I think its construction is is such that it'll give you the best you're likely to get out of your low pressure.Performance:I only use the "drenching spray" setting--the grey nipples. I'm the kind of person who doesn't really care about multiple settings. It comes out in a slightly expanding cone that does not spread out too much or remain too narrow, if you know what I mean.I tried the other modes and they all seemed to work as advertised. In all modes water seems to shoot out precisely. There are no errant streams or fine mist shooting out to the side, like you get on older shower heads that have become clogged with something. The amount of force required to change the rotary switch seems just right--not too much or too little. I don't recall any unpleasentness when switching modes, like water shooting in a weird direction, but did not test that much.Customer service:For a shower head? What? Why am I writing about this? Well, about two weeks after purchasing the shower, I got a letter in the mail from the the S. K. Lang company explaining that an unknown number of recent orders were accidentally shipped with an o-ring that was too small, so they were proactively sending everyone the proper one. This did not appear to even be an o-ring inside anything. Not an o-ring that affected plumbing or a seal or something. This was the o-ring around the outside of the base of the wand that helps the wand remain snugly in the holder, I guess. I did not seem to have a problem with that, so I didn't bother installing it.In any case, this episode strongly suggests this company cares a lot about its product (or at least its rating on Amazon, which is pretty much the same thing). I never would have expected a company to do something proactive like this for a 50 dollar shower head. This was so unexpected that it moved me to write this review, only the second I've written on Amazon after shopping here 15+ years. Great job, S. K. Lang Products.

The toughest thing to find on Amazon, or anywhere for that matter, is a handheld shower, I've realized. I'm normally ridiculously fast about gauging products and purchasing, especially if it's not a high-cost item. And on Amazon, the majority of handheld showers are cheap, so cost wasn't the issue. But as someone who likes hard and even water pressure, I find that I can't trust Amazon reviews these days with slews of "got this product for an unbiased review" reviews, especially when the product is going to affect how I feel in the morning after my shower--irritated or clean and happy. I know I can return any of these items, but the problem is that once I return it, I'm without a new showerhead for X number of days because the last one was a flop.Enter the Vida Alegria H5.Does it make my water pressure stronger?Well, not really--or not noticeably. I feel like my water pressure was quite good to begin with but very unevenly sprayed when it hits the body. But because the Vida Alegria takes that same water and sprays it harder and evenly through each hole on the shower head, it FEELS stronger. This is not a product that I'd say "INCREASES" your water pressure, but whatever you have as pressure right now, it's sure to enhance.Unlike other shower heads, this one didn't have a flow restrictor though the ad says it does. If it did, the boyfriend missed it because he said there was no such thing. It's really a simple set that is easy to install and doesn't kink, though really, the shower hose could be longer. I notice that when I am sitting on a small stool in my shower to bathe my dog, the hose could really be a foot longer, but that is easily fixed if I wanted to spend the extra money.The head of the shower is quite wide--much wider than the images on the ad would suggest. This makes for more of a "rain shower" effect and while it's less concentrated for that same reason, it feels very good when it hits your back or you're wetting your hair with it. It's also great in removing shampoo, conditioner, etc.Because we had installed the Culligan WSH-C125 Wall-Mount 10,000 Gallon Capacity Filtered Showerhead, Chrome Finish in our last shower, and WaterChef® SF-7C Premium Shower Filter System (Polished Chrome) in our guest bathroom. (We installed the latter in our current guest bathroom too, because we removed that one from our old guest bathroom and brought it with us.) I was really adamant on not having a shower head that required any changing of filters. BOTH of those models require filter changing--and what a PITA.I'm of the mindset that a shower head should really just not be something I have to think about again, or put on my calendar to order a new filter. While the Vida Alegria doesn't adjust the water in any way, and if chlorine removal or adding heaven powder or something to your shower is your objective, then this one doesn't fit the bill. For me, what I spend on the shower head is really the last time I want to think about the shower head. Sure, removing lime and other buildup from the head itself -- OK, no problem. I'll do that every once in awhile but a good shower should require not much else.And for that purpose, Vida Alegria fits the bill. I'm so happy with this purchase and really appreciate that there's a well-built, easy-install handheld shower option for the average homeowner without spending $500 on a shower head.And for the record, I bought this at the listed price, used my Amazon Prime and received it within the two promised days.