If you’ve never travelled in Central America, you’re missing out on some shocking design oversights. One of my favorites is the self-heating showerhead. The clever person who thought up this very popular contraption was clearly thinking about how crappy it is jumping into a cold shower first thing in the morning. Since most homes here don’t have any method of heating up water except for placing a big black water tank on the roof, and having the sun heat it up, it seems like a pretty bright idea having a heating element built into the showerhead and powering it with electricity. The problem here is that there aren’t any really “qualified” electricians to explain that having bare electrical wires leading into a shower stall probably isn’t the brightest idea.
I have experienced it first hand, and I’ve talked to other travellers who have had the same experience. When you are taking a shower where the showerhead is (exceptionally) poorly installed, you can feel the sting of electrical current hitting you in the stream of water coming from the showerhead. For me, it felt like being jabbed with a needle repeatedly on the shoulder, or back, or wherever that particular charged stream of water was landing. Let’s just say that it wasn’t comfortable – but the real question is, was it more comfortable than a cold shower…
[edit] I was chatting with a friend about the electrical shower heads a few months after making this post. He told me that one time in Honduras the shower head actually lit on fire while he was in the shower. Haha, I guess I got off easy.