Bristan JOYT395 W 9.5 kW Joy 3 Thermostatic Electric Shower – White [Energy Class A]

I previously had this shower model but it went wrong after years of use. Was more than happy to by the same again and get an electrician to fit it. Would recommend to anyone

Bought to replace another bristan that failed. All pipes etc and size the same so simple replacement. I seem to only get about three years out of these showers.

I love this shower its easy to use, I would recommend it to any one

I love this shower its easy to use, I would recommend it to any one

I’ll be posting this short review on each of Bristan’s showers with the temperature display feature because it applies to all of them, and will give people a better buying experience. Many reviews say the shower is great, etc. but that the digital display stops working after a while. The reason seems to be clear; they aren’t switching the shower off at the pull switch. If you leave the shower live, as it were, the display stays visible, albeit two horizontal lines. However, as with all liquid crystal displays, be it calculator, watch, etc. if you leave the same digits or characters displayed for two long they affect the display itself, meaning that when they are supposed to change, those two horizontal lines stick.

So, simply put, when you’ve finished using the shower, switch it off at the pull switch, (which most are in bathrooms) that cuts the power to the shower and the display will vanish. Doing so should give the lcds a longer life, and stop what seems to be a common complaint among people who buy these showers. To be honest, Bristan could easily fit an auto-off function for the display if it isn’t used for a certain length of time, which would do the same thing, but for now, just pull the switch and save the display, (and a bit of electricity)

I’ll be posting this short review on each of Bristan’s showers with the temperature display feature because it applies to all of them, and will give people a better buying experience. Many reviews say the shower is great, etc. but that the digital display stops working after a while. The reason seems to be clear; they aren’t switching the shower off at the pull switch. If you leave the shower live, as it were, the display stays visible, albeit two horizontal lines. However, as with all liquid crystal displays, be it calculator, watch, etc. if you leave the same digits or characters displayed for two long they affect the display itself, meaning that when they are supposed to change, those two horizontal lines stick.

So, simply put, when you’ve finished using the shower, switch it off at the pull switch, (which most are in bathrooms) that cuts the power to the shower and the display will vanish. Doing so should give the lcds a longer life, and stop what seems to be a common complaint among people who buy these showers. To be honest, Bristan could easily fit an auto-off function for the display if it isn’t used for a certain length of time, which would do the same thing, but for now, just pull the switch and save the display, (and a bit of electricity)

Got this as a replacement as it’s the updated version of my previous shower. All plumbing and wiring in same position so made for easier installation. Had old one for 6 years and pleased with model.

Brilliant, the flow could be higher but still a good showe

The shower is good apart from the shower head provided.The water flow is adequate at best. We replaced the shower head with the one off our previous shower. A Bristan B104. Which gave a definite improvement,suggesting that the shower head provided is restricting water flow. Fitting was easy as we just had to make the power and water connections. The only minus thus far is when fitting the fixing holes did not match up with our previous shower. Nor did the riser rail,and as it was shorter than the previous one left a hole exposed. Not very tidy. We have not had the shower long so cannot comment on it’s longevity.If it lasts as long as our previous Bristan I will be well pleased.

This is my second shower, in a en-suite. The water flow isn’t as powerful as the main shower i use however it is still good enough and the water temperature is good. Although it does seem as though the eco setting reduces the heat of the water, i don’t think that’ll bother some people though.

Bought to replace a Triton shower that had constantly played up in the loft conversion. Easy replacement and has worked a trea

No better product of it kind and description, I would say “A Very Good Choice and bargain” for these items. I am very happy for the purchase and recommend it others.

Brilliant bit of kit this.

Small, good looking on the wall, great water temperature control.

Would buy one again.

Very easy to install, easy controls. Very pleased with this product & would recommend. Fast delivery also

Very easy to install, easy controls. Very pleased with this product & would recommend. Fast delivery also

I was genuinely surprised by this shower as my experience of electric showers is that they are all rubbish, the one it replaced, an 11 year old Bristan which had gone a yellowy colour and was making some concerning noises, certainly was, but this one is great.

This isn’t my main shower so I’ve only used it a handful of times, but it provides a decent flow of water on the high power setting and is nice and hot when set to approx. 2/3 heat. It managed to provide pretty much the same experience when the other half was simultaneously using the mixer shower (which he invariably has the flow turned up high on), and where the old Bristan would have flashed the “Low Pressure” warning, this one continued unaffected.

I’ve tried flushing a toilet with it running and there was a slight dip in temperature but not to cold, and it regained the correct temperature pretty quickly. The only test it struggled with was turning the bath cold tap on quite high, in this case the temperature in the shower rose and stayed higher (which was quite hot as I already had it on quite high) for around 10 seconds before it over-compensated and went cooler, again though, not to cold, and it did return to desired temp relatively quickly after that. There was only a slight change in temp when I turned the tap off again.

I considered only 4 stars for the temp fluctuations as it is advertised as “thermosafe”, and I’m not sure if my opinion would be different if I was using it every day, but for occasional use and at the price I paid it seems like a bit of a bargain to me so I stuck with 5.

I got this shower to replace an old, faulty unit in my Mum’s place and it, according to the plumber/electrician who installed it for her, was a “good choice”, as it was extremely easy to fit, was a good power output choice for an area where the water pressure is OK but nothing special and looks rather smart too. The shower head, with its multiple selections allows for a gentle, dispersed spray or a more concentrated stream. It’s especially easy to use, with two dials and an on/off switch. There is an LCD display which is almost invisible until you switch the shower on, then it displays the temperature of the water (on its own scale, not celsius/fahrenheit), so if you have a favourite temperature, it is easy to find again, despite having an analogue-type dial. The thermostat also makes sure the shower maintains a constant temperature even when the water system is being used elsewhere in the property, which is good – no more boiling hot or ice cold moments because somebody is filling the kettle! She was very pleased with it, but I stayed with my Mum last week and was able to “road test” the shower myself and can confirm that it’s a very easy to use, attractive-looking shower that does everything you’d expect a shower at this price point to do. It also has an anti-limescale feature which should help the shower live to a ripe old age. Full marks.

I wasn’t really aware of Bristan as a shower manufacturer before, but I have been very impressed by them and would recommend them. We have two of these showers, which we have had fitted by a qualified electrician into our rented flat (with our Landlord’s permission!) replacing two old and dated shower units, which were passed their best. The electrician said that they are very straightforward to fit and there weren’t any surprises for him and he said that they were decent quality – this one more so than the basic model (Smile).

We have the joy version (this one) and the smile version, which is the basic model, but the Joy model is definitely the smarter both in looks and function. The current price difference is about 50 and for that you get an anti-limescale function (which will take some time to assess how effective it is), a warm up mode, which means that you can set the temperature you want and it indicates when it is up to temperature – so no jumping into the shower when it is still cold, my favourite function, which means that the temperature is protected from anyone turning on a tap in another room of the house and more features which make this a fancier model. The basic Smile model is perfectly functional, but the value of the additional features (particularly the safe showering feature) make it well worth investing in thIS superior model.

If you are buying a basic model just for an occasional use, then by all means the smile model does the job – but if you are buying a shower unit as your main shower, then spend a little more – it’s worth it to have the thermostatic control – particularly in a family home, so that you don’t have sudden changes in temperature when someone turns on a tap in another part of the house! The 50 price difference might seem a lot at first, but it you think about how often you shower, it’s not something you want to skimp on for your daily use.

So far… Looks like a great shower, much nicer than my current Triton Seville. At 8.5kw it wont need new wiring as I already have the 6mm cable in place, my problem is getting a suitably qualified professional to install it. Apparetnly it needs to be someone who is qualified in both elec and plumbing? Initially I was advised that it could be done by a competent person but I’ve been let down by several who either havent turned up or dont want to do it. Once Ive got it actually installed I will review properly.

As a professional plumber, I fit a lot of electric showers, mostly these days as replacements for existing ones. Bristan are not a make I’ve encountered very often with electric showers (they do some great mixer showers that I see frequently), so it has been interesting to see how this new one compares to the Triton and Mira units that make up nearly all my jobs.

I’m not going to bother too much with the styling and features as my opinion is probably different from yours. All I will say is the unit and its associated fittings seem perfectly well made and I have no doubt they will last as well as the other makes I’ve mentioned. You get a two year parts and one year labour guarantee and I believe you can extend the labour free of charge to two years too, so you can buy one with confidence.

I’ve always found Bristan very helpful to deal with so they are certainly a firm I trust.

Right, a few fitting notes.

If you’re fitting one of these from scratch, it’s no more difficult than with any other make, with plenty of cable and pipe entry points. If you’re a DIY-er, you can’t do the electrics yourself, so don’t bother trying. You’ll need a Part P qualified electrician to sort them out for you.

From a plumbing point of view, the plastic push fit male/female elbow supplied will make life easier than having to tighten a compression fitting.
Note that if it’s fed from a pipe out of the tiled wall, you’ll need a sufficiently large hole to allow the elbow to go into as it sticks out proud of the back of the unit.

Otherwise, it’s all straightforward stuff.

As a replacement unit, (and the following paragraphs are the reasons I’ve docked it a star), the same push fit elbow is potentially going to be a pain. You’ll almost certainly be replacing a shower fitted with a compression elbow, so you’ll probably need to replace the plastic one supplied with a bit of copper pipe into the old compression joint. This may make fitting the pipe into the casing harder due to the increased space the compression fitting will now need.

Replacing most Miras with it, you should be okay as the Mira’s water inlet’s on the left, as are the electrics, and there’s room to fit everything in. If the old one has its water and cable on the right (common on Tritons), you’re likely to have a right game as there’s little space for a compression fitting and unless the old cable is either unusually long or you can pull some of it through, the new shower has a fixed cable connector on the left part way up, and you’ll have to work out how to get the cable over there. This is the main potential fault I can see with the Bristan unit.

It’s also worth noting that the riser rail uses a single screw through it to secure it to the wall, the other fitting being free to move up and down to cover pre-existing rail screw holes. This is a great idea unless one of the old screw holes is damaged (if it’s plasterboard behind the tiles, it may well be) and just having one screw holding the rail in place could lead to a wobbly final fit.

To sum up, I think this looks to be a good alternative to the usual Miras and Tritons for a new fit, but I am a little concerned that there could be some fun and games if it’s used to replace an existing shower.

If my brief review has been of help to you, I’d appreciate a click of the ‘Yes’ button, below. Thanks very much.