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The 3 Best Showerheads of 2024 | Reviews by Wirecutter

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By Tim Heffernan and Joshua Lyon shower head and hand shower

After new tests, we’ve added the Delta 52535 as our pick. The Kohler K-22169 is now a runner-up, and we stand by the Moen 26008 as an upgrade pick.

Replacing a dribbly old showerhead with a new, high-performing model is one of the simplest, most satisfying upgrades you can make to your home and your quality of life.

After taking hundreds of showers while testing more than 30 showerheads, we’d be happiest using the humbly priced Delta 5-Setting Showerhead 52535 every day.

Surprisingly satisfying, pleasurable, and practical, we preferred this showerhead over competitors’ luxury models for its basic operation and convenient features.

We’ve consistently chosen this Kohler model in rounds of retests. It lacks a pause button but offers more finishes than our pick plus a couple of standout sprays.

With six distinct settings, this efficient design combines a fixed showerhead and a handheld showerhead with a clever magnetic connection, and it installs as easily as any other model.

Surprisingly satisfying, pleasurable, and practical, we preferred this showerhead over competitors’ luxury models for its basic operation and convenient features.

The Delta 5-Setting Showerhead 52535 was an authentic surprise: an inexpensive showerhead—frankly, one we had no great expectations of—that grabbed our attention the moment we began our testing. Its everyday spray setting, a full-coverage rain shower, soaks you like a summer downpour. Its focused hair-rinsing spray is both useful for its intended purpose and pleasurable in its own right. And we were surprised at how useful we found its pause function. It lets you slow the water to a trickle while you shave or shampoo in peace, then return to a full spray—at the temperature you left it at—when you’re done. The Delta 52535’s massage function isn’t the most powerful we’ve tested, but it’s one of the better we’ve found among 1.75 gallons-per-minute models. An array of finishes (polished chrome, brushed stainless, champagne bronze, and matte black) and clean, versatile form help it fit into almost any decor. The fact that it’s one of the lowest-priced showerheads we’ve ever tested seals its place as a consensus top pick.

We’ve consistently chosen this Kohler model in rounds of retests. It lacks a pause button but offers more finishes than our pick plus a couple of standout sprays.

The 1.75 gpm Kohler Forté Multifunction Showerhead K-22169 is the lower-flow version of our former top pick and is excellent in its own right. Its lack of a pause function and slightly less drenching rain-shower spray put it slightly below the Delta 52535 on everyday utility and enjoyment. But unlike the Delta 52535, it offers an enveloping mist spray, which can’t be beat when you need to warm up fast after catching a chill. And with an attractive, unshowy design and seven finishes (ranging from chrome to gold to several nickels and bronzes), it’s adaptable to many tastes.

With six distinct settings, this efficient design combines a fixed showerhead and a handheld showerhead with a clever magnetic connection, and it installs as easily as any other model.

The powerful Moen Attract Magnetix Chrome Rainshower Combo 26008 pairs a handheld head and a rain-shower head, along with six spray patterns, to produce an exceptional variety of great showering options. The handheld unit’s magnetic dock snaps securely into its own dedicated socket—far easier than maneuvering a handheld shower into a narrow holster, as is found on many competitors. The Moen 26008 is almost as easy to install as any fixed showerhead, with no wall drilling. It includes a pause button, which allows you to halt its 1.75 gpm spray without losing your temperature setting.

This guide is the work of numerous current and former Wirecutter staffers, beginning in 2016. Senior staff writer Tim Heffernan has spoken at length over the years with product managers from many manufacturers (the folks who oversee every aspect of a showerhead, from design and engineering to materials, manufacture, and quality control), including at the Kitchen & Bath Industry Show. Sabrina Imbler did the same at the gargantuan Consumer Electronics Show. Along with Tim, updates writer Cey’na Smith tested all of our 2023 contenders. The guide’s longtime editor, Harry Sawyers, has written about how a home’s shower works and interviewed dozens of people in the bath-fixture business on trips to KBIS and to the International Builders’ Show. Supervising editor Joshua Lyon met virtually with industry reps at IBS and KBIS in February 2021 and wrote that year’s update to the guide. And all of us (plus our roommates, partners, and kids) showered. A lot.

A good showerhead—one with a gushing spray of evenly heated water—will significantly improve your daily routine. And any good showerhead is likely to be an upgrade over the one you inherited when you moved into your place, especially if it’s more than a decade old. Improvements to materials and engineering mean modern showerheads deliver a steady spray regardless of water pressure and make them much less prone to mineral buildup in the spray nozzles. As this guide’s original author, Sabrina, put it, “Before writing this guide, I didn’t realize I’d been living with an uneven and sparse spray and a ring of cold mist encircling a too-hot center. I hate that showerhead now.” If your showerhead is old or has become clogged with limescale, our picks will probably make you hate your old showerhead, too.

You can upgrade your showerhead if you’re a renter; just save the old one and put it back in when you move out. (Homeowners, you already know you can upgrade.) Here’s a video on how to do it. It’s a job we believe you can do even if you’ve never picked up a wrench.

After testing 15 wrenches over the past three years, we’ve determined that the Channellock 8WCB WideAzz 8-Inch Adjustable Wrench , with its comfortable handle and wide jaws, is still the best for all-around home use.

Beyond the basic categories of fixed and handheld (the former being the one mounted up on the wall, and the latter the kind with a hose that you can pick and spray where you want), showerheads present an abundance of aesthetic choices. They come in multiple forms, finishes and styles, and every manufacturer touts proprietary spray technologies that promise aquatic ecstasies.

But every showerhead must, above all, deliver a satisfying, consistent spray. We set out to find both fixed and handheld options that met this minimum, and we narrowed our list using the following criteria.

With this guide focused on 1.75 gpm models, we stopped prioritizing specifically low-flow or water-saving showerheads. Most of these deliver about 1.5 gpm, not significantly below the flow of our picks. Many make compromises in functionality and simple pleasure of use that aren’t worth the minor savings in water consumption.

We showered. A lot. We used each showerhead we tested at least three times, and we used our finalists more than 10 times in stricter, back-to-back tests. Our spouses, partners, and/or roommates gave us their feedback, too.

Aside from taking notes on the feel of the spray, we noted how easy each head was to install, if there was any leakage, how it felt to adjust the settings, and how clunky or sleek the head looked in our bathrooms.

Our judgments of performance were necessarily subjective. But our concerns boiled down to this: Does the showerhead feel good and work well? If so, how does it compare with the rest, on these and the other criteria listed above?

Surprisingly satisfying, pleasurable, and practical, we preferred this showerhead over competitors’ luxury models for its basic operation and convenient features.

Normally we’d start by describing the fine details that set the Delta 5-Setting Showerhead 52535 apart from the dozens of models we’ve tested over the years (13 in 2023 alone)—but it wasn’t fine details that made the Delta 52535 our consensus winner. Instead, it excelled in every area, and its standout quality was obvious from the start. Cey’na’s real-time testing notes provide a perfect summary of what all of our testers independently observed: “Easiest to install thus far. Great water flow. All five settings were very useful. Thoroughly enjoyed the Shampoo Rinsing spray and Pause setting (great add for washing hair or shaving). I never realized how useful that feature would be for me. Very reasonable price. Sleek design that didn’t clash with my bathroom or any other bathroom I can imagine. Easy to clean. Has Delta Faucet’s Limited Lifetime Warranty. Possible new pick?”

No question about it. Here’s a bit more on what makes the Delta 52535 our favorite:

It has a truly drenching rain-shower spray. The Full Body spray (Delta’s term for the everyday rain-shower setting that most companies offer) is the best we tested: heavy but not harsh, and broad but dense, giving you a thorough soaking without feeling prickly or sparse like some competitors did. Though it uses a thrifty 1.75 gpm, it’s at least as satisfying as the equivalent spray on the 2.5 gpm Kohler Forté Multifunction Showerhead K-22169, which was our previous top pick.

The rinsing spray works well for long or thick hair. The Shampoo Rinsing spray is essentially a narrower version of the Full Body spray. The tighter pattern is adept at rinsing shampoo or conditioner and is especially helpful if you have luxurious locks. It’s also slightly massage-like—weighty, but not percussive—and feels wonderful on the scalp, neck, and shoulders.

A pause function is a practical water-saver. The pause setting on the Delta 52535 reduces the water to a trickle when you don’t need a full spray. This is handy while you’re shaving, lathering up, or letting your conditioner work its magic for a few minutes. When you switch back to one of the four full spray settings (the two above, plus a pummeling massage and a rain-shower massage combo that’s less than the sum of its parts), the water temperature is just where you left it.

The finishes and aesthetic work anywhere. In addition to polished chrome, the Delta 52535 comes in a brushed nickel-like stainless, champagne bronze, and matte black. To give you a comparison of two popular options, we shot the top image of this guide in the matte black finish; the top image of this section shows it in chrome. Its clean, discreet form is immune to trends, and will fit—or simply disappear—into almost any decor, barring some strictly period-specific ones.

It’s an outstanding value. Given its performance and functionality, the Delta 52535 would have become our pick unless its cost was exorbitant or it had obvious quality or reliability issues. But it was the lowest-priced of the 13 showerheads we tested in 2023, and it is clearly built to last: The hardware is sturdy, and the fit and finish are excellent. That makes it a remarkably good value as well as an exceptional showerhead.

Like all fixed models, the Delta 52535 lacks the versatility of a handheld showerhead. If you have small children or pets that require frequent cleaning, a combination model like the Moen Attract Magnetix Rainshower Combo 26008 will make that easier.

We’ve consistently chosen this Kohler model in rounds of retests. It lacks a pause button but offers more finishes than our pick plus a couple of standout sprays.

The 1.75 gpm Kohler Forté Multifunction Showerhead K-22169 is a terrific showerhead and has a few features that you may prefer over the Delta 52535. (The 2.5 gpm version of the Forté model was our top pick for many years; the 1.75 gpm 22170-G Purist is functionally identical to the Forté showerhead but has a stricter modernist look.)

The Kohler K-22169’s everyday rain-shower setting is very good, if not quite as stellar as that of the Delta 5-Setting Showerhead 52535, and the same goes for its massage function. The Kohler K-22169 boasts a mist spray setting that the Delta 52535 lacks; it sends out a thick cloud of fine droplets that envelop your body and deliver a blanket of warmth that no other type of spray can equal. It’s wonderful when you’ve come in from a cold day outdoors or caught a chill.

The Kohler K-22169 also comes in a notably wide range of finishes to suit a breadth of tastes, including polished chrome, brushed bronze, oil-rubbed bronze, French gold, polished nickel, brushed nickel, and vibrant brushed nickel. If you’re upgrading an already finished bathroom, you should be able to match (or at least complement) your existing fixtures’ color scheme. Like the Delta 52535, the Kohler K-22169 has a simple, clean form that will suit most bathrooms’ decor.

One issue we’ve observed in testing is that the mist setting gives out a mild staticky hiss that, some readers have noted, can exacerbate tinnitus symptoms. Also, compared with the Delta showerhead, the Kohler K-22169’s lack of a pause function and shampoo-rinsing spray make it slightly less useful overall.

With six distinct settings, this efficient design combines a fixed showerhead and a handheld showerhead with a clever magnetic connection, and it installs as easily as any other model.

The Moen Attract Magnetix Rainshower Combo 26008 is a luxury SUV of a showerhead: It’s huge, well appointed, and powerful. The 1.75 gpm model’s six spray settings meet almost every possible preference, and its hand shower connects and disconnects more easily than those of its competitors. You can use it with just the main showerhead on, just the handheld one, or both at the same time, adding to its versatility. But, as with all handhelds, the dangling hose takes up space and blocks shower caddies that hang from the shower arm.

The Moen 26008 offers a thorough showering experience, with pulsating massage sprays; drenching rain-shower sprays and gentler, wavy ones; enveloping mists; and a pause/trickle button that lets you stop water flow while you do other things, like shaving. This saves water, and it retains your chosen temperature setting (which doesn’t happen if you turn the shower off with the faucet handle).

The Moen 26008’s detachable handheld head can rinse every corner of your tub or shower stall, a real help when you’re cleaning the tiles or washing kids or a dog. Its flexible, 5-foot stainless steel hose prevents the kinks you can get with cheaper plastic hoses. And the magnetic docking system was the best of any we tested, with a separate omnidirectional socket and strong magnets that snagged the handheld when it came within inches of the connection point. Other docks (like on the Kohler Converge and the Delta In2ition showerheads) required a lot more fiddling to make the magnetic connection work.

Despite its complex appearance, the Moen 26008 installs as easily as a traditional showerhead. You simply connect the fixed showerhead and then attach the handheld via the hose. This isn’t unique to the Moen 26008, but many hand showers require the installation of a wall-mounted slider bar or holster—lots of work for no appreciable gain in performance.

In 2023, we bought and tested a Jolie’s The Filtered Showerhead as well as two other accessories designed to add filtration to a standard showerhead: the Sprite Shower Slim-Line 2 Universal Shower Filter and the Kohler Aquifer Filtration System. The Jolie model is a self-contained filter-plus-showerhead unit; the others are filters that screw in place between the shower arm (the pipe that sticks out from the wall) and an existing showerhead. They primarily remove chlorine, which is present in small amounts in most municipal water supplies; it’s used to kill bacteria, viruses, and other microorganisms, and may damage human hair, too.

Our actual tests didn’t reveal much about their filtration abilities, because the sensitive analytic test strips we used couldn’t detect any free chlorine at all in Tim’s water. (The test strips cover a range from 0.5 to 10 parts per million of free chlorine; we confirmed that they were working by adding a tiny amount of bleach to a 1-liter water sample, which the strips immediately registered.)

Even though we couldn’t detect a change, we have no reason to doubt that the filters could effectively reduce excess chlorine that may be in your water. Doing so is trivial for the filter media that they employ. The Kohler Aquifer system uses KDF 55, Jolie’s The Filtered Showerhead uses a combination of KDF 55 and calcium sulfite, and the Sprite Shower filter uses Chlorgon, which is similar to the Jolie media. These materials can also reduce scale-causing minerals and some heavy metals that may be in tap water, including lead.

Do filtered showerheads lead to the kinds of improvements to your hair and skin that are often claimed? Maybe. They also can’t hurt. If you’d like to give one a try, we recommend the Kohler system. It’s not terribly expensive, and neither are the replacement filters (part number K-22322), which should be swapped out every six months. It will usually work with your current showerhead, and in our testing, we noticed little if any loss of flow after installing it. If you decide you’re not a fan, you can just uninstall it.

We don’t recommend the Sprite Shower filter, which is bulky, difficult to install on and remove from the shower arm because of its wraparound design, and confounding to open when replacing the filter.

And we don’t recommend the Jolie system, as it has a single, unremarkable rain-shower setting, costs about $150 to $165 upfront, and strikes us largely as a subscription ploy: You get a price break only if you sign up for automatic three-month filter replacements, which then cost about $33 a pop.

If you’re undertaking a complete bathroom remodel, you might be thinking about visiting a showroom that specializes in bath fixtures. We visited five of them and spoke with product managers at Kohler and Delta to get a fix on what showrooms offer. Here’s what we learned:

Shop around. The experience at the showrooms we visited varied widely, with the staff ranging from truly knowledgeable and helpful, to well-meaning but hamstrung by limited inventory, to indifferent bordering on standoffish. Start by looking for showrooms that carry multiple styles from multiple brands (some of which you probably won’t have heard of). Then ask the staff a few questions that will elicit their acumen and openness. What are some of your most popular showerheads? What do your customers like about them? What’s popular with plumbers and contractors, and conversely, do they dislike any designs or features? We learned pros generally avoid smart showerheads and those that use buttons to switch between sprays because of reliability issues, for example.

If you don’t see the exact style or finish you want, ask. In a good showroom, compared with a big box retailer, “the breadth of offerings is always, always, always going to be more broad,” said Delta shower category manager Clinton Cardinal, “because it’s accommodating the consumer who’s looking for that specialized look that they want to be able to show their friends.” Bring reference images of what you have in mind; they usually have other options not on display that may be able to match what you envision.

To stay on budget, consider a mixed approach. As Cardinal put it, “Sometimes people will go into a showroom and they’ll get a bit of sticker shock. The showroom is always going to put the prettiest beauty queen on the wall.” That showpiece—the showerhead, or faucet, say—may be where you want to invest. You can then work with the showroom to scale back elsewhere.

Showroom models aren’t automatically better. Even if the showroom leans toward the higher-end options, a given showerhead generally isn’t functionally superior to one from the same manufacturer that you find in a chain store or online. “They make it in the same factories; the same engineering went into it,” said Tom Sindelar, Kohler’s marketing manager for performance showering. Kohler showrooms only feature showerheads with its Katalyst technology (video), for example—and you can find many Katalyst-equipped showerheads at big-box retail, too.

But showroom showerheads tend to feature more metal. Metal parts are not intrinsically superior to the plastic used in most showerheads found at retail stores (and in all our picks). “It’s kind of counter to everything we learned when we were younger, but metal is not always better,” said Cardinal. “Especially in a wet environment, it’s usually better to go with a nonmetallic material.” So why are showroom showerheads often made of plated brass? For the aura of tradition and quality, basically. “In retail, it’s usually, ‘ I want something that looks nice, I want it to fit into my budget, I want a couple of different finish options,’” Cardinal said. “On the showroom side, ‘ I don’t care if I drop that hand shower and it cracks my tile, I want to see metal!’”

The Delta 6-Setting Hand Shower 75470 is a handheld-only showerhead with six spray settings, including a ProClean spray that emanates from the top of the head and is intended to make rinsing easier when you’re cleaning your shower stall. We like the idea and will keep an eye on future iterations, but like more than a few reviewers, we encountered a spray button that jammed when we went to use the ProClean spray. A standard handheld can do a rinsing job nearly as well (albeit with a bit more back-splashing).

The Delta Universal Showering 3-Setting Raincan Shower Head 52680 is a good showerhead, but it’s not as satisfying in use or as versatile as our top pick, the Delta 5-Setting Showerhead 52535, since it lacks the shampoo-rinsing and pause functions.

The Moen Verso Adjustable 9″ Diameter Spray Head Rainshower 220R3 detaches easily from the shower arm for cleaning, via a combination twist-off-and-magnet holster. But it also features easy-to-clean silicone nozzles to begin with, so this feature doesn’t justify its cost, and its infinitely adjustable spray isn’t as satisfying as the multiple settings on our top pick.

The Moen Four-Function Eco-Performance Showerhead 3638EP has a much smaller head and, as a consequence, narrower and less enjoyable sprays than the Delta 52535.

The Kohler Bellerose 2-in-1 Multifunction Shower Combo Kit K-R21117 is a former pick, but after further use, we think its exceptionally wide combination of handheld and fixed spray and aim patterns (15 in total) is overkill—more than most households will need, and more importantly, more than they’ll use. The Moen Attract Magnetix Rainshower Combo 26008, our upgrade pick, is plenty versatile, and its magnetic handheld holster is by far the best we’ve seen.

The adjustable-flow Kohler Statement VES Single-Function Showerhead K-20999 is an admirable effort at water-use efficiency, but its 1.5 gpm default flow is barely below the 1.75 gpm of our picks, and our top pick has a similar pause function that slows the output to a trickle when you want. The halo-shaped head doesn’t deliver the full-body coverage that sets our top pick Delta 52535 apart.

The Kohler Statement Three-Function Showerhead K-26290 has a wide, oblong head that, by design, delivers a somewhat wider spray than round models, but we’re wary of push-button spray selection and don’t love the look of the solid charcoal-gray silicone spray face.

The Hansgrohe Pulsify Select S 24132001 is, according to a showroom representative we spoke with, extremely popular, and it does deliver a pleasantly soft rain-shower spray. But that’s its only spray pattern, and its design—a featureless cylinder nearly the size of a 28-ounce can of tomatoes—is love-or-hate. (We like these cans better.)

The Hansgrohe Club 04919000 is one of Hansgrohe’s most popular models, but its small face delivers narrow spray patterns, and the clunky knob you use to switch between them feels like it’s perpetually on the verge of snapping off.

In 2020, Delta debuted an internal-components design called UltraSoak in some of its new showerheads. We were impressed with the thickness of the spray on the H2Okinetic 4-Setting Shower Head with UltraSoak 52460, but the empty center space inside the spray created the shower equivalent of biting into the hollow end of an ice cream cone.

A long-ago upgrade pick, the combination Delta Universal Showering H20kinetic In2ition 5-Setting Two-in-One Shower 58480, performed poorly in 2019, 2020, and 2021 tests against newer competitors. Its spray patterns were disappointing—the fixed head provided an unpleasantly sparse halo, and the other settings felt weak.

The Delta Universal Showering In2ition H20kinetic 5-Setting Two-in-One Shower 58620-25-PK comes with a detachable handheld that’s shaped like a wand instead of the usual circular attachment. The benefit of this long and skinny design is a gentle, continuous waterfall setting that’s ideal for rinsing a baby’s head. (It felt pretty good on ours, too.) Unfortunately, this model shares many of the same flaws as the Delta 58480.

We dismissed a third Delta In2ition model, the 75583CSN, right out of the case due to its cheap-looking gray attachment hardware.

We had high hopes for the Delta HydroRain 4-Setting Two-in-One Shower Head 75699 because the fixed-mount portion of this dual handheld model tilts, meaning you have more control over where the overhead spray hits. A weak flow doomed it from the start, and the face of the handheld is molded at such a sharp downward angle that it’s difficult to find a comfortable way to rinse off.

Our former low-flow pick, the 1.5 gpm High Sierra fixed showerhead, now also comes with a handheld option, but we found it to be heavy and cumbersome, and neither of them were pleasant to use, emitting a hissing spray that bothers some people—especially those with tinnitus. Neither greatly exceeds the 1.75 gpm we now use as our standard water usage.

The Nebia by Moen showerhead performed as advertised, but we grew disenchanted with it during long-term tests against other models. It remains a good option for a person who only loves misty, steamy showers, but we eventually felt confined by the limitations of this being the only shower option.

Nebia by Moen also makes a less-expensive spa shower, the N214R0, that doesn’t have a handheld showerhead. We turned the hand shower off on the model we tested to see how it felt and much prefer the dual option.

We appreciated the heft and quality metal lever of the 1.75 gpm Speakman Signature Icon Anystream S-2252, but none of the streams provided wide enough coverage to feel satisfying.

We liked the Moen 26100EP, an affordable handheld showerhead with six spray settings. If you want a handheld option but don’t want to shell out $100 for the Moen 26008, the 26100EP could work for you.

The single-mount Moen HydroEnergetix 8-spray showerhead is another affordable option. But of its eight settings, only one (the concentrated massage) hit the spot, and none provided wide-enough body coverage.

We tested the Moen S6320EP and found its sprays underpowered. The head is 8 inches wide, which provides significant coverage but makes it harder for each individual spout to deliver a great deal of water. It’s also so wide it won’t fit in showers with shower arms that are less than 3 inches long.

The Kohler K-15996-CP Flipside is a popular but strange model that changes settings by rotating a nozzle-filled disk nestled inside a circular holster. The sprays that emit from the narrow edges of the disk are sparse and flat mistings, which we found unpleasant. When you rotate the disk to switch settings, it sprays your face in the process.

We tested the 1.5 gpm Niagara N2915, which is similar to the High Sierra model. With two spray settings, the Niagara showerhead is technically more versatile, but its rain shower is far less powerful and lush. Its second setting, with six swiveled jets of water that come out from the head in pairs, creates uncomfortably cold gaps at the center.

We tested the Hydroluxe 24 Function 3-Way 2 in 1 Shower Head, one of the most popular and least expensive showerheads on Amazon. The model broke as we were trying to assemble it (a surprisingly difficult task), which probably speaks to the quality and longevity of the head.

This article was edited by Harry Sawyers.

Tim Heffernan is a senior staff writer focusing on air and water quality and home energy efficiency. A former writer for The Atlantic, Popular Mechanics, and other national magazines, he joined Wirecutter in 2015. He owns three bikes and zero derailleurs.

Joshua Lyon is the supervising editor of emergency-preparation and home-improvement topics at Wirecutter. He has written and edited for numerous outlets, including Country Living, Modern Farmer, The New York Times, V and VMAN, Marie Claire, Jane, and Food Network Magazine. He’s also a Lambda Literary Award–nominated author and ghostwriter. Learn more at jklyon.com.

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