Nebia Shower Review: The Water-Efficient Steam Shower

I first heard of Nebia Shower Systems a little over a year ago when my roommate at the time returned from a visit to San Francisco. He had stayed with this couple who were both techies and had recently installed this futuristic water-efficient shower called the Nebia. He was enthralled by the sexiness of this new shower head – not only due to the water efficient nature of the device, but the intuitive design, the feeling of being fully immersed in what he described as a “vortex” of water spray, and how this made for faster showers.

We then proceeded to drool over the product features and design page on nebia.com, allowing ourselves to be seemingly turned on by the tantalizing product copy. Phrases like “…the Nebia Shower System releases millions of tiny droplets at a high velocity that envelop your body, blending a steam room experience with a traditional shower” made me figuratively wet (pun intended). We trolled YouTube searching for Nebia shower reviews, most of which were positive and made us even more attracted.

An entire section of the site is dedicated to helping people calculate their yearly savings in water costs, with a built-in web app calculator. For example, for a household in San Francisco in which 2 showers per day are taken at 10 minutes each, approximately $354.00 would be saved in water cost, equivalent to 204,400 glasses of drinking water.

Although we found ourselves sincerely enamored with this sexy, eco-friendly product, the sticker price of $649 deterred myself as a recent college graduate away from purchase (they now offer 0% APR at $109/month). Plus, even if I wanted to buy, the company was in backorder at the time, meaning I would have had to wait months for a recent prototype to arrive. So, I soon forgot about the beautiful, earth-saving showerhead, and moved on with my life.

Fast-forward one year. Having recently relocated to San Francisco and reconnected with a high-school friend who is all too familiar with the bay area startup game, she coincidentally decided to offer me a mysterious water-efficient, droplet-forming showerhead that wouldn’t work with her shower setup.

Turns out…

She had a Nebia!

Lucky, lucky me.

How Much Does the Nebia Cost?

For a single shower head set you can expect to pay slightly over $600. For two, the cost is twice this amount, and for a set of three the cost is triple (no surprise here). Although this does seem like a steep price to pay for a shower system, the estimated savings (around $300 a year if you shower twice a day at 10 minutes per shower) show that the Nebia would pay for itself in just two years, while simultaneously saving water. It also feels pretty awesome. Click here to view on Amazon. 

What Does the Nebia Include?

When you order the shower, several things will arrive in the box:

1. The primary overhead showerhead
2. The adjustable backing that will attach to your shower’s piping system and lie against the shower wall
3. The smaller handheld showerhead
4. The magnetic shower rest for the showerhead that you will attach to the wall of your shower
5. All the tools and pipe sizes you will need to adjust for a variety of shower pipes
6. Some pretty awesome pamphlets that show the evolution of the shower, how the idea for the Nebia started, and other cool brand information

Installing the Nebia

This beautiful eco-friendly showerhead comes arrives packaged in a neat box with everything you will need for installation, including several different fit adaptors for various shower types. It also comes with instructions on how to install the Nebia shower, and the tools necessary to screw in the adaptor.

When I first installed the Nebia at my old apartment, I found that uninstalling the existing showerhead was the hardest part of the process. I lived in a brand-new apartment complex, so all the standard showerheads were super tightly screwed-in. I ended up having to lodge a screwdriver into the shower pipe once the head was off, and use this as added leverage to unscrew the pipe from the wall. Once this was off, the rest of the installation was relatively simple.

At my old apartment, I feel that I did not receive the full benefit of everything the Nebia shower can offer due to the moderate to low water pressure my previous apartment shower had. I also think the way that the piping behind the walls of my old shower were set up contributed to it functioning worse – they were slightly crooked, so when the shower was in place it was slightly tilted.

Fortunately, I moved soon after to a new apartment complex and had no difficulty at all installing the shower. If removing the pipe connected to your standard shower head isn’t difficult, and the piping behind the walls of your shower are not bent, it should work perfectly for you.

I will point out that this showerhead is probably most ideal for ones with glass doors instead of shower curtains. The reason my friend gifted me this shower head was because her shower requires a curtain instead of glass, and she said that this caused the curtain to billow into the shower and would come in contact with her while showering.

The water stream from the shower head also creates something in between a steam room and high-pressure shower vortex, so having a shower mostly enclosed by glass or other solid material would help retain the heat and moisture generated from the shower.

The Nebia Shower Experience 

Using this shower will save you a lot of water and energy, but it only works its best with a high-pressure water system. I think the main reason the shower wasn’t as effective in our last apartment was due to the moderately low water pressure. We immediately noticed a difference when trying it with our new apartment shower. Instead of creating a small cloud of mist that would take a while to get you wet, the pressure on our new system creates this rather intense vortex of mist that feels more effective than a regular shower. Check out how well our new setup works:

One thing I have noticed is that due to the way in which the Nebia showerhead splits the water into smaller particles compared to a regular shower, these particles cool off quicker when they come in contact with the room-temperature air. Therefore, I usually need to use a higher heat setting when showering to experience the same amount of heat I would with my normal showerhead. The process of water being split into these smaller particles is called atomization, and the good news is that this does a better job of filling up the air around you with water particles, coating your skin more thoroughly and efficiently compared to condensed streams you experience with normal showers.

The Detachable Nebia Shower Wand

The showerhead design also incorporates a shower wand that is designed to be placed chest-level on the same wall your showerhead emerges from. This is basically a hand-held shower head that is supposed to target your chest and lower body, while the showerhead over you encompasses your entire body, but primarily targets your head. The shower wand can be turned on or off, and I usually either make sure it is off or is facing away from me when I start up the shower. If you don’t do this, you can expect cold residual water to come out of the wand at first, which can be initially surprising and uncomfortable. For this reason, I recommend positioning your Nebia shower wand chest-level and close to the entrance of your shower so you can set it on or off before beginning your shower.

The Adjustable Shower Head

In Nebia’s packaging they include pictures of the many iterations and prototypes their shower head went through before they could decide on one that was ready for market. I think the light grey plastic design is sleek, sexy, and minimalist, while still light and easy to pick up. More importantly, the little water modules within the head emit sprays of water that feels like a more intense version of a steam bath. There are many positioned around the circumference of the head, and these provide you with more than enough water coverage if your water pressure is strong enough. The overhead showerhead easily moves up and down as necessary to adjust for your height.

Is a Nebia Shower System Right for You?

Although I love my Nebia and I am sure that this form of shower technology will lead future design efforts, I think it only functions at its best when you have the right shower setup. Here are the following items you should consider before buying a Nebia shower:

1. Does your shower have a curtain barrier or does it use a solid door to close? I have heard several accounts similar to the friend who lent me her Nebia, specifically the complaint that it creates a “billowing” effect that sucks the shower curtain into the shower with you. Additionally, the less openings your shower has, the better it will be able to capture the steam and water particles created by the atomization of the shower.
2. Does your current shower provide decent water pressure? The pressure does not have to be extremely strong, but should at least be moderate. Can your water pressure be adjusted or increased? This will help the Nebia produce the “steam bath” effect that I enjoy so much. You can still use a low water pressure system with this shower head, however this might hinder how much steam is produced by the showerhead.
3. Is the piping behind the wall of your shower straight? If you were to remove the showerhead and the pipe that extends from the wall and look into the opening, does the pipe look offset or angled compared to the opening of the wall? If your piping is angled, this could produce slight leaks and prevent the back of the Nebia to rest firmly against your shower wall. You should probably fix this before installing your Nebia to make sure your system works the best it can.

Is the Nebia Showerhead Worth the Cost? 

To be honest, I have not owned the Nebia long enough at my new apartment to even receive my first water bill. According to Nebia.com, if you take an average of 2 showers per day at 10 minutes per shower, your savings would be about $354 per year. This would essentially pay for itself after only 2 years of use.

However, the allure of saving water was not the only thing I found attractive about this showerhead. I liked the idea of tiny water droplets enveloping and cleansing every inch of my body, creating a “steam room experience” as promised on their website.

Did they deliver on this promise? Yes, absolutely. I look forward to showering every time I finish a gym session. However, I do not think I would enjoy this experience as much with a shower that has lower water pressure. I highly recommend making sure your water pressure is up-to-par or easy to adjust before investing in your Nebia.

Where Can I Buy the Nebia?

The Nebia Shower is offered on Amazon Prime, so you could have it in as little as 2 days! Click here to find it on Amazon.

Stay clean and shower on!