brunnhilde's shower

I hope the choice of the title does not attract the wrong crowd to the post and be disappointed. I have noticed some dubious referencing sites that sent traffic to my other post brunnhilde's new struts. You just never know the wonders with google's search engine...

There is no skin except those of my hands in this post so if you are disappointed please read no further :-)

One chronic thing that bug me it the dual purpose shower head/sink faucet in the bath. When I first acquire Brunnhilde the shower hose cannot retract back into the sink faucet's mixer valve to use in the sink. The problem is cause by the shower hose binding in the very tight space behind the sink cabinet assembly.

the flexible hose cannot be retracted into the mixer valve assembly

To untangle the flexible hose i have to use a piece of stiff metal wire fashioned from a wire clothes hanger and pull the loop that binded up in the narrow passage behind the sink. The passage has a cross section of an isosceles triangle of less than 3" of the two equal sides.

i always thought that the size of the dual purpose shower head is too long for the sink

I suspect that someone might had replaced the hose, with one that has too big of a bending radius. I would never know what happen under the care of the previous owner.

I really like the shower arm and hose assembly of the external shower that comes with the vehicle. it is of a more sensible size and have a cleaner design. The other one is too bloated for the compact camper's small bath.

the external shower arm side by side with the bath shower arm - note the tighter arrangement of and less number of shower jets

By comparing the difference of the two hose I believe that if I replace the bath one with the exterior one the binding problem would be solved. The exterior hose has a much smaller bending radius (and is more flexible too).

exterior hose bending radius - about 1" (2" diameter) bending radius

existing hose bending radius - about 1.5" (3" diameter); no wonder it binds in the triangular passage

the exterior shower's smaller size would be more suitable for the small sink

The slight down side of the exterior shower arm is you have to activate the lever to allow the water to flow. Some may find this unacceptable.

There are owners of this camper complaining the weak spay of the inside shower. They liken it to dog pee. Here is the side by side comparison of the two shower arm.

bath shower arm - almost like dog pee

outside shower arm - more vigorous due to the well sized jets and less number of them

This demonstrates the importance of selecting a right shower arm of the camper with a European low pressure/flow pump. No doubt the bath shower arm is designed for use in European campers, but it is not well designed in my opinion. It is too large and has unnecessary features like the adjustable spray pattern. I think the exterior shower arm's more focus stream would be more suitable for using in the sink too.

I was quite impressed with the quality of the small exterior shower head. The marking say Rada and I have never heard of this company in the US before even though I pay a lot of attention of most sanitary equipment brands. It turned out it is now a part of Kohler group - which I infer as Kohler M&R of a oversea brand. On Rada's site they have very high quality sanitary products (much better than the Kohler own) including those for use in medical. The design looks very European.

So far I am unable to find their products for camper (RV) use.