Our Dur-O-matic Shower Water Heater

We had some questions from some friends about our electric shower water heater that we installed in our house in Rincon, Puerto Rico, so I thought I’d write a more in-depth post. Please feel free to add anything you may know about these types of heaters or other ways to heat water in the tropics.

To be honest, the first time I saw a Super Ducha I was afraid.  The thing you hear all the time in the states is never use electricity and baths / showers. When we were trying to buy the property in Lares, the cabana had a Super Ducha. This thing was anything but to safe: no GFI, no real grounding, it was wrapped with electrical tape and the outlet was really close to the shower head.   We hesitated to use it at first, but given the choice between a cold shower or a slightly warm one, we took the risk. Then we slowly became accustomed to it. We stayed and showered there for about two weeks.  By the time we left for Colorado, I was pretty comfortable with it.


The Super Ducha at the property in Lares, Puerto Rico

Flash forward to now and our property in Rincon, Puerto Rico. We decided on our last trip that taking a shower shouldn’t be like jumping in a swimming pool.  It was ok during the hot and humid summer, we could put up with it, but in January everything cools down by a good 10 degrees and it was pretty chilly to hop in a cold shower.

Here in Colorado every house that I can think of is plumbed for a gas powered hot water heater, but there is no natural gas “utility” that automatically comes with a house in Puerto Rico.  So there were only a few options to getting hot water for your shower and elsewhere.  Put in an instant-on water heater, put in a tank on the roof (solar heater) or just get an electric shower head.

We were only going to be there for a week and didn’t want to turn the hot water into much of a project.  So we opted for the electric shower head. We couldn’t find the Super Ducha brand, but we did find Dur-o-matic.  They actually sell them at Home Depot in Mayaguez which is where we ended up going.  Home Depot has an easy return policy which worked out well.  There are 3 variations of the Dur-o-Matic.   Green (15A), blue (22A) and red(25A).


Dur-O-Matic Green Box

The more water pressure you have, the higher you want to go.  We started with Green because I wasn’t sure what the circuit breaker was rated for in the cabana.  It went fine and the shower was warmer, but it was still pretty cold unless you turned the pressure way down, or ran the water in the bathroom sink while showering (Cassie’s trick).   Our circuit breaker is 20A.  We took the green one back and tried a blue one.  This one was warmer and the circuit breaker still didn’t pop.   We might have been able to use a red one, but we didn’t try. They run about $60 and are very simple to install. All you have to do is get some teflon tape, unscrew the shower head, attach the Dur-O-Matic using the tape, and plug it in. It heats the water before it reaches you. It never gets super hot, but it creates a nice warm shower.

Dur-O-Matic Electric Shower Water Heater Installed!

They also sell them at the Do it Best in Rincon.   Had I known about this store earlier, I might not have made the trip to Mayaguez.  In either case it warms the water up about 30 degrees.  It made it much nicer to be able to shower and for Cassie she was able to take more time to wash her long hair.  However, it is inherently more dangerous to have an electric anything in the shower, so next trip I’ll try to fit a GFI circuit in for  peace of mind. Everything in Puerto Rico is just a little bit different. We’ve learned a lot about what’s really necessary in life, what is just a “want” and all those little in-betweens like a warm shower.

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18 thoughts on “Our Dur-O-matic Shower Water Heater

  1. Eric

    Out of the 4 homes I lived at in Rincon only one needed a shower head water heater. The 3 other homes were setup with a full size electric water heater in the utility room. However, I remembered how it tripped me out the first time when I saw an outlet next to a shower head and wasn’t GFI. Nevertheless, the desire to have warm water let me put the thoughts of electrocution aside and give it a go. It was OK for what it was and I had to remind myself it was only temporary. Yet, for long term living and additional comfort I would look to installing a full size water heater of some type whether solar or electric. One thing you can check into is an electric tankless water heater. This is hot water on demand and does not use energy until it is in use. It is great if you are back and forth from the states and here.

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  2. Britton Post author

    Once we get more time to invest in the place we will upgrade the water heater situation. This is a temp fix for sure.

    There is an electric water heater in the wood house (not sure if it works or not) but the water lines don’t go to the cabana so I haven’t messed with it at all.

    The roof on the concrete cabana does have copper hookups for a water heater, so it shouldn’t be too difficult to set something up. I like the idea of an instant on electric or gas setup, that is essentially what the electric shower head is but on a smaller scale.

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  3. Linda

    We have an on demand water heater (actually 2 of them, one for the house and one for our studio apartment in the garage). they work great and although the water pressure for the hot water isn’t wonderful, at least you can get it hot on those chilly winter days (chilly for a cold shower that is)!! I’ve seen those electric shower head things, the one you bought looks safe, but the other one!! holy crap!

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  4. Fran and Steve

    I was totally shocked (no pun intended) that these things existed. With all my experience in PR, I had never seen nor heard of one. I thought everybody had either a regular tank-type water heater (electric or solar) or else the on-demand one. Those suicide showers must be for use in some very rural areas. I see a lot of solar heaters on roofs. They look pretty beat up and rusted out. The house we bought has an on-demand one. Not only are they very affordable, they do the job. We get hot water in 3 bathrooms, a kitchen (including a dishwasher), and a laundry room. Besides, they are super energy efficient since you don’t have to keep a tank hot. It’s hard to say, but I would guess our on-demand one (calentador de linea) is more efficient than our California gas-heated tank. With that said, you should probably just stick with your Duromatic, since a calentador de linea is more “stealable” in your absence. — Fran

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  5. adolfojp

    Those shock shower heads are pretty common in low rent college student targeted apartments. They were everywhere in Mayagüez the last time that I lived there. I had the *pleasure* of using a few of them. They work better than solar water heaters in cloudy days or on days where a few people need to shower at night and then in the morning before the sun has a chance to come up to warm the water again. I would buy one if I ever needed a quick fix, but make sure to inspect them every once in a while because they are prone to breaking, and when they break they can be very dangerous.

    I had two incidents with two different shower water heaters. The first one involved your typical faulty wiring with bad grounding. The shower head would zap you whenever you touched it and because it appeared to have been mounted by hobbits you would touch it you stood up straight, and I am only 5’10”. The landlord was less than helpful and now that I think about it I put up with getting shocked every day because I was young and (more) stupid. The second water heater malfunction almost scalded me. I am pretty convinced that it would have left some scars. Those heaters power up when water flows through them and shut down when the water stops flowing. One day the water shut down and the heater didn’t. The heater heated the air, and as the air expanded the heater started whistling like a teapot while blasting hot steam to the sides. I managed to jump out of the shower ripping the shower curtain in the process just before the shower head was shot in the direction that I had just abandoned, followed by a stream of steam. :-/

    You seem like really nice hard working people and the island could use a few more people like you. So the next time that you come here please invest in a ground-fault circuit interrupter before you make the news by accident.

    Reply
  6. MitchellT

    These are very common in Brazil and other Latin American countries, I’m sure. I’ve never heard of anyone getting hurt using one, but I’ve always looked them over carefully before using the showers there. The Dur-O-Matic looks pretty good, and most of the ones I’ve seen look like the top photo. They also make small ones for the kitchen sink in Brazil. I’ve never visited a single house or apartment in Brazil with a tank water heater, only the tankless kind or the houses have these electric shower heads.

    Thanks for sharing this article!

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  7. ORLANDO PEREIRA

    DONDE PUEDO COMPRAR ESTA DUCHA EN LOS ESTADO UNIDO…VIVO EN BUFFALO NY…MI NUM 716 308 0717

    Reply
  8. Cassie

    Orlando, en los EU nunca las he visto, pero quizas en una tienda especializada. Aquí en Puerto Rico se puede encontrarlas en cualquier ferreteria. Entonces si usted tiene un amigo or familiar quizas uno de ellos pueda enviarle una.

    Lil, I am not sure what you mean by unclog -do you mean inside the mechanism or the actual showerhead is clogged? Sometimes the hard water clogs in the holes and makes them squirt out water all weird. In that case, just put the showerhead in a cup of vinegar to remove the mineral deposits.

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  9. Nate S

    Great article. We wanted to get rid of our gas water heater and go electric. This way when we go solar it will help with the bill. We got one of these So far, so good.

    Reply
  10. Is

    I grew up in Puerto Rico and for as long as I could remember every house we lived in had one. They work great! Never any issues. I currently live in Colorado and am looking to buy a few for my house. Will be contacting someone in PR to get it, Can’t find online.

    Reply
  11. Frank Cruz

    Tried them all, and the only one I love is the dur o matic water heater ducha, last a long time, price $59, safe, easy to dis-assemble and parts are found all over Puerto Rico. HAVE FUN!!!!

    Reply
  12. Tikkerberg

    Hi, interesting PR experiences shared here. However I got here in the first place googling for “super ducha”… I really had to take a look where do these things come from (and probably to find all the sad news stories of lives lost for using it). I saw one for the very first time two months ago in Cuba, installed in a casa we were staying that time. The first moment I saw it, this plasticy “made in china” cased looking thing with simple unearthed AC wire and some PVC tape finish complete the installation, I really thought I would certainly not need a shower for the time being there! Being curious, however, I grew some confidence with it, first trying with a fingertip, but actually most of the time I was much more confident unplugging it for the shower.

    That said, it provided (supposedly) very cost efficient water heating solution and enjoyable showering, If I would need to use a similar device in my own residence, I would at least hire a professional to check it and install additional safety (earthing/GFI). Out of the two models described here, I think the Dur-O-Matic has a more convincing looking casing, it does not look like it would fall apart suddenly.

    Ps. I come from a North European, safety oriented country, with virtually every house equipped with central heating/on-demand water systems.

    Reply
  13. Daniel Betancourt

    Hello lm Daniel Betancourt, I need a phone number of a company that sell this Dur-O-Matic hot water shower head can you help me with a contact phone number or a dealer that sells them, it’s for a friend in Puerto Rico

    Reply
  14. Lincoln roberts

    Hello sir/ madam, can you help me to get a pressure switch that situated in the square metal box on the metal dramatic shower heater, thank you

    Reply

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