sunnuntai 3. tammikuuta 2016

Revenge of the Electronic Shower


If it has electronics, it can break. Like the my teenage son's shower unit...

Oras Ventura is a battery operated shower controller than has a display and drives the water controls via electronic motors. I have two of these in the house, and they generally have given very little grief in their soon 10 years of existence.

The units display temperature, and strength of shower can be controlled via up/down buttons, as well as choosing hand/top shower. Not a big deal as such, and other than looking great they don't add that much functionality. One potentially useful function is that there's an automatic 5-minute cut-off for the shower, if it is left accidentally on. Possibly useful for people like me who worry if they left shower/oven/iron on when they leave the house :-)

The downsides are that this brings more parts that could break, and the potential for battery changes. Also, the Venture seems like a first-generation product. The response to inputs is sluggish. And you can't load any shower apps :-) And there's no touch screen or WiFi. WTF?

But the four D20 batteries last a long time, in the order of five years even with daily use. However, now one of the units is acting up. Not turning on the display, making a constant noise, and not responding to inputs. It first displayed E10 (per unreliable teenager reports) and now displays nothing, even with good batteries.

Revenge of the Things?