What We Build And What We Do Not

Our standard shower construction is an ABS plastic body with chrome plating. That is the published material across the shower head series, the over head shower series and the water saving range. Where a specific model uses a metal insert in the connection or the filter, our engineers confirm it against the drawing before sampling rather than describing the whole series as one material.

This article is here so a buyer can decide whether that construction is right for the programme, not to argue that it always is.

Weight And Perceived Quality

Brass feels heavier in the hand and a heavy handset reads as expensive. ABS with good plating looks identical in a photograph and on a shelf but weighs a fraction. For retail programmes sold from a picture that difference costs nothing. For a showroom where the customer picks the handset up, it can matter.

Cost And Freight

ABS is cheaper to mould than brass is to cast and machine, and it is dramatically cheaper to ship. On a container of handsets the freight difference alone can outweigh the unit price difference. Our published FOB range of USD 0.5 to 4.0 per piece for the shower head series reflects a moulded construction.

Corrosion And Water Chemistry

As a general engineering point rather than a claim about our own products: plastic bodies do not corrode, so in hard water and coastal markets the failure mode moves to the plating and to any metal insert. Brass resists mechanical damage better but is susceptible to dezincification in aggressive water unless the alloy is specified for it. Neither material is universally correct.

Where The Finish Really Decides The Outcome

Both constructions are chrome plated, and in both cases the plating is what the end user sees fail. Chrome on ABS requires a properly prepared surface and a controlled process. This is exactly why we keep electricity plating as an in-house operation instead of buying it in.

A Practical Split

  • Retail and DIY programmes at volume: ABS with chrome plating, which is our standard build.
  • Hotel and hospitality: ABS for handsets and heads, with the finish match across the whole set being the thing to control.
  • Showroom and premium retail where the product is handled: consider brass for the handset and keep ABS for the plate.
  • Aggressive water chemistry: raise it at enquiry stage so the plating and any insert can be specified for it.

What To Ask A Supplier

Ask where the plating is done. Ask whether the tooling is theirs. Ask what the metal parts inside the product are, model by model rather than series by series. A supplier who answers those three questions specifically is describing a real factory.