Showerdrop times your shower, saves water and cash

The company that greened your tea drinking with the Eco Kettle has turned its attention to wasted water. Product Creation's new ECO Showerdrop is a gadget that times your shower and beeps when you've lathered and scrubbed for the optimum length of time. Is it the height of eco facism or a cool water-saving gadget? Let's see.

Its makers point to a recent survey that found the average showeree uses 64 litres of water, around double the level recommended by water conservation non-profit Waterwise. The clever thing about the Showerdrop -- unlike the Shower Coach we covered last year -- is that you can calibrate it to test exactly how many litres of water your shower uses.

The type of shower you have makes a big difference. An average bath uses 80 litres of water, while an average electric shower uses 6 litres per minute. So you'd have to have a shower longer than 13 minutes to use more water under an electric shower than in a bath. A power shower, however, uses 15 litres per minute, meaning any power shower owners need to take showers shorter than 5 minutes to use less water than they'd consume in a bath.

All that wasted water could, of course, be costing you cash if you're on a water meter. The water doesn't get there by magic either: it's pumped by electricity, swelling your carbon footprint in the process.

Personally, I can think of better times of year to launch a shower timer -- a hot shower's one of my small pleasures in autumn and winter -- but the Showerdrop does look a decent way to change your habits.

It's on sale at Nigel's Eco Store, Ecotopia and elsewhere for £10-12. Product Creation's site has more details.

If you want to take water-saving in the bathroom to another level, another good move is to get an aerating shower head, like the Oxygenics one we reviewed here.