Shower Power Pro – Bluetooth speaker

source – https://ampere.shop/

Takes singing in the shower to the next level!

Shower Power Pro is the world’s first app-enabled hydro powered Bluetooth shower speaker. Making music and light available every time you shower or bathe.

Specs

Battery 2200 mAh Lithium Ion

Frequency range: 100hz-20khz

Speaker: 45mm

Speaker power: 3W

LED lights

Bluetooth 5.0

Weight 567 g

Size 183 x 95 x 91mm

Included in the box?

The Power Shower Pro, Remote control puck, various connecting attachments and a little bizarrely, an on brand teal coloured shower pouf!

Manufactured by

Ampere – A US company which sell several innovate products, from chargers and speakers to sunglasses and tech bags. They have eradicated single-use plastic from their packaging since 2020 and donate 5% of profits to Solar Aid. All products come with a 30-day money back guarantee and 1-year warranty as standard.

Targeted at   

Anyone who wants to add the bathroom to their house’s audio map or who enjoys a good sing along in the shower!

Design

The unit I reviewed was the chrome finish (which nicely matches most chrome shower designs) but it is also available in black. The Shower Pro comes in very smart professional packaging, with a nicely designed box with no single use plastic. It’s fully branded, with lots of product information present on the box and detailed on the paperwork. The unit itself is impressively made of recycled ocean plastic, which only adds to its environmentally friendly appeal. It is heavier than you expect, weighing in at 567 g. It’s very well made, appears premium and robust even if plastic, giving initial confidence in how it may perform. The remote control puck that accompanies it is also plastic but well made with the same clicky responsive buttons the main unit houses.

Performance

The Shower Pro is simple in its functionality, and it sits in-between where your water hose connects to either your rain shower head or handheld shower head. Once water is running through it, it uses the energy that it generates to charge its internal battery. To connect it up takes no special plumbing skills and it does not require the mains water to be disconnected. The included QR code cards in the box direct you to YouTube tutorial videos which explain the various connection methods. These are clear and effective but be aware that many showers have slight variations to the ones used in these videos, which can cause some confusion. My rain shower head had an additional tilting mechanism, which meant I had to use a very small amount of initiative to disconnect and reconnect the shower in the same order, but with the Shower pro installed in-between. This is very quick though and will only take 5 minutes or less. Once connected it does look a bit cumbersome and fails to subtly blend into the shower unit, though it does look much better if you have a rain shower head and it therefore sits high up and less prominent. That said when used with a rain shower head, it will mean the shower head is lowered to allow for the shower pro to sit above it, which may not be ideal for those taller in stature. Everyone’s set up will be different, so will require some assessment post install to see if it impacts your use of the shower in any way. In most cases it should be totally fine.

It has a maximum range of around 10 meters from your device before connection starts to drop. Before you can connect via Bluetooth, you will need to install the ampere app as otherwise the device is not pairable, which at least it does advise you of. This of course will only need to be done once for you/other household members, but it does mean if anyone else wishes to listen to the Shower Pro as well, they will also need to install the app. This is a shame as if you have any family or friends staying as guests in your home for a night or two, they would probably enjoy using this, but may not have the patience to download an app, then pair, then select some music etc…if just having a quick shower.

But once installed, the app does bring many other features to life. It allows you to configure the lighting mode which illuminates the Shower Pro. You can choose between the following options with various colours for each: Relax, Party or Static, which though, bright and colourful, are a bit gimmicky, but fans of RGB gadgets will be happy. However, there is one more mode called Temp, which is very useful and has some safety benefits. This changes colours between multiple blue and red variations, dependent on the water temperature, which is also shown in the app, so you can track this exactly. This could be good if children or the elderly are using the shower, to avoid overly hot temperatures. It also allows you to determine and replicate the exact temperature you find most comfortable pre shower and avoid the constant adjusting of the hot and cold dials once the shower has begun.

The app also has a very informative feature, which records the amount of water that flows through the device and therefore can give you various statistical breakdowns of your water usage when showering. Which is a very positive addition, allowing you to monitor usage more closely and possibly reduce costs via notifications/tracking graphs. Although it contradicts the fact that allowing audio in the shower does encourage longer showers! Who for example, is going to finish their shower when only halfway through “Come On Eileen” by Dexy’s Midnight Runners? Not me! Actually, I am not alone, as for purely for additional insight, according to Mira showers in 2020, using Spotify playlist data, the top 10 songs sung in the shower were:

• 1. Hey, Soul Sister – Train
• 2. September – Earth, Wind & Fire
• 3. Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go – Wham!
• 4. Treat You Better – Shawn Mendes
• 5. Come On Eileen – Dexy’s Midnight Runners
• 6. Hey There Delilah – Plain White T’s 
• 7. A Thousand Miles – Vanessa Carlton
• 8. She Will Be Loved – Maroon 5
• 9. Stayin’ Alive – Bee Gees 
• 10. Don’t Go Breaking My Heart – Elton John & Kiki Dee 

Maybe your favourite is above 😊 Moving swiftly on…

source – https://ampere.shop/

It’s great to see Ampere have included the optional remote puck, which works via infrared, using a replaceable CR2030 battery. With a range of 5 meters, and a waterproof rating of IP67. So it needs line of sight to the main unit but works well and was responsive in testing, with solid clicky buttons. It mirrors the same 5 buttons as the main unit, which are: Power on/off, Bluetooth pairing, volume up, volume down and a play/pause/skip button. The remote allows much easier control of your music playback, for example if laying down in the bath and therefore nowhere near the shower unit, or you just don’t want to risk dropping your phone in the water. Though I do think Ampere have missed a trick, and could have gone one step further…Yes you can use this with many different devices, not just your phone, including voice assistant smart speakers, but built in voice control would have taken its functionality and ease of use to the next level. They could even have included a small internal memory to store your favourite playlist or SD card compatibility, but these are in no way deal breakers and are purely nice to haves.

As water flow is the main source to charge the battery, you should never have to worry about running out of charge, 16 hours of playback at a reasonable volume is promised on a full charge, which can also be obtained via a 2-hour USB-C charge. You can of course also disconnect this and use outside of the bathroom as a stand-alone speaker if you so wish, but then the sound quality level will not be on par with other speakers you may have. But with its solid audio and RGB lights, it will have its place outside the bathroom for some. In fact, when writing this review, I had it on my desk playing a podcast and forgot I was not listening to my normal more expensive smart speaker.

Sound quality – The unit has 360-degree audio from a 3W 45mm speaker and while as you would expect it’s not earth shattering, it does get plenty loud, can be heard through the streaming water, and gets the job done. I tested against my phone playing audio through its own speakers, sat on the side in the bathroom. Yes, I could hear my phone well enough, but it did not match the dynamic of having the sound right above my head and coming from within the water, which is a cool effect. Of course, the experience is not one of sat in your lounge listening to your favourite album via headphones. You won’t be appreciating every lyric and sound, but what happens when showering, is the sound/beat of the music blends into the sound of the flowing water around you (Those with stronger water pressure rejoice) to create an overall very enjoyable acoustic experience.

If using for a podcast, it is better suited to taking a bath and not a shower, but you can still hear the voices and conversations well enough to follow when showering.

Conclusion

Gadgets like these tread a fine line between being a gimmick or true innovation. The first Shower FM radios which didn’t use hydroelectricity and were far inferior, both in design and performance, in my opinion could be classed in the former. The Ampere Shower Power Pro though, steps out of those shadows and with its multiple layers of entertainment and informative functionality, stands apart. It has in my view rightly won multiple awards for its innovation, including the CES Innovation 2021 Award Honoree.

It sheds light on water usage, temperature safety and is fun to use. The fact it never needs to leave the enclosure of the shower, makes it relevant and a permanent fixture which will be used, not put in a bottom drawer, and forgotten about. Its audio quality is not going to worry Sonos anytime soon and I would love to see easier non app usage for guests, with built in voice control in future versions, but this does not take away from its appeal right now. Priced at an RRP of £129 seems about right, given the convenience of its charging source and your potential ability to use it to save on energy costs, though around the £100 mark would have been better. There is also a cheaper non-Pro model available, which loses the led lights, app and usage track functionality and is available at a cheaper £79 RRP. 

In a world where we have an increasing number of screens and speakers in our homes, there is an argument that the bathroom is one of the last rooms generally unaffected by this, and that should remain so, but that view will probably split peoples’ opinion down the middle and will be a matter of choice. On the flip side it raises the question, why we don’t foster more gadgets like this in our homes that use hydroelectricity? Let’s hope we see an increased market for such gadgets in the coming years.

So, if you do want to use audio in your bathroom on a regular basis, then I highly recommend this product, especially with the forementioned extra benefits thrown in. I will guarantee it will raise your awareness of the energy and water you use, and make you sing more when in the shower, but just remember it won’t have any bearing on the standard of vocals you add to it!

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