#HTE

A Review of the Nebia by Moen Atomizing Showerhead

I was excited to try the new Nebia by Moen showerhead, a water-saving design that “provides 2x more spray coverage while also saving 45% of the water used by standard showers.”

After a week of using it, I cannot wait to de-install it and go back to my regular showerhead.

Perhaps winter was the wrong time for them to launch this product. The central flaw of the Nebia’s patented “H2Micro atomization spray technology” is that the mist-like water that comes out of the head hot, turns cool after just a few inches of travel. The result is an unpleasant, uncomfortable and uneven shower experience.

When you first step into the spray, even after the water has reached the proper shower temperature, you instantly feel a blast of chill, since it’s a mist. That subsides quickly and you do feel some warmth, but it is impossible to distribute it evenly over your body. In an effort to warm my torso, I lowered the adjustable-height showerhead to just over my scalp. This results in the following sensation:

- Top of head: Bordering on scalding

- Face: Uncomfortably hot

- Neck & Shoulders: Warm

- Torso: Lukewarm

- Midsection & Legs: Cold

There’s an optional wand unit that came with my media tester unit. It sticks to a hemispherical magnetic base that attaches to the wall. I mounted this at approximately torso-height, and with both the showerhead and the wand turned on, you can at least heat your torso (though it does nothing for your midsection and legs).

One design flaw of the wand’s mount is the hemispherical design. The wand attaches to this by a magnet. Because the wand’s hose has plenty of memory to it, I found it impossible to place the wand in the position I wanted it; the stiff hose constantly shifted the wand to an undesirable angle on both the X- and Y-axes, forcing me to adjust the overhead showerhead and alter my position, placing me uncomfortably close to the wall.

Here’s the position the wand naturally moves to, because of the stiffness of the hose

My wife pointed out another flaw of the design that I had not considered: Females with long hair don’t necessarily want to wet and wash their hair every night. The overhead portion of Nebia’s showerhead points straight down and has no provision to angle it. Therefore the only way to wet your body, is to stand directly under the showerhead and wet your hair. My wife tried lowering the showerhead all the way to keep her head out of the spray, but ultimately found it unworkable.

In winter, I take showers to get warm as much as I do to clean myself off at the end of the day, and while the Nebia promises a water savings, I did find myself taking longer showers with it in an effort to get that warm feeling.

One unanticipated side effect is the amount of steam the Nebia gives off, outside of the shower. After finishing the shower and exiting the bathroom, I find the steam travels–to the point where all of the windows in an adjoining room in the house, including windows about 15 feet away from the bathroom, become fogged up. I do wonder if long-term, this constant periodic internal moisture build-up might lead to problems.

Lastly I’ll say, the Nebia by Moen is nice-looking and appears to be chrome. But when you touch it, you find that it’s just chrome-appearing plastic. I expect this on my $29.99 showerhead that I got from Walmart, but not from a $200 product.

I had high hopes for the Nebia, but I think that in order for an atomized water spray to keep your entire body warm, you’d need multiple nozzles in a vertical array from head to foot. As it stands, this design doesn’t work for me.