Rainhead. The term "rainhead" has sort of been corrupted over the years. You really need to feel the output yourself and figure out what type you prefer. In my own shower I wanted a traditional rain head. Simple water droplets, so to speak. Mine is a 12" head, and I do consider that to be the smallest size for a decent rain shower, and without a doubt, that is my personal opinion. You want the head away from the wall, so if you have a large rainhead, consider a bracketed or support arm of some sort, the added support can come from the wall or from the ceiling. Something along the lines of this: For your hand shower, have a hose long enough so you can spray down the corners of your shower. Body sprays. The same. Good showrooms have spray displays where you can feel the spray of water. Once upon a time I was intrigued by body sprays, Then I tried them and thought them to be the silliest thing ever. Some folk put in two heads, stacked vertically, one one wall. It's a little more common to want four body heads. Usually on two opposing walls, stacked vertically. You don't want them spraying towards the door. Usually chest and waist height, so figure that out when plumbing. You will have to figure out flow and hot water supply issues, from your water heater to the shower drain. Shower supply valves allow a certain amount of "pass through". You need to make sure each valve can actually supply the water needed to feed the heads that you want it to supply, or you could end up with insufficient flow. With body sprays, I recommend a "loop" supply to feed them, so the last head has pretty much the same flow as the first head. For your shower drain, it needs to be sized to the number of heads you have in the shower. Doesn't matter if only a few of them can or will be on at one time. It's a simple counting of the shower heads. A 2" drain can accomodate a shower with up to three heads. With four or more heads, plan on two 2" drains or a single 3" drain. If your plumber says you don't need to upsize to a 3" drain with four or more heads, he's not complying with code. If you want a "car wash" shower with five or six heads going at once? Your half inch pipe may not be adequate. Sure, with adequate feed pressure behind it it might be able to feed all those heads. But high water velocities through the tubing can actually erode copper from the tubing, potentially resulting in leaks. It's not just a matter of the 1/2" tubing being able to supply the needed water volume. You can crank up the water pressure and get volume. But cranking up the pressure to get the volume increases the water's velocity through the tubing, and again, too high of a "feet per minute" flow through the tubing can actually erode the tubing away. So do be wary if your "contractor" tries to soft talk away all of your concerns. Half-inch supply tubing can work. But it should work because your shower was designed to work with 1/2" tubing, not because, as your contractor told you, "everybody else is doing it". You can help yourself by drawing out a diagram of your shower. Doesn't have to be fancy. Each body spray and each shower head will have a GPM rating. Same with each valve. Make sure the valves and/or diverters that feed those heads can pass through the needed volume of water. Very basic numbers here, but 1/2" can comfortably flow about 5gpm. For hot and cold, that's 10gpm combined. For a comfortable temp out of the shower valve, that gets derated to about 7.5gpm of shower-temperature water. If your body sprays are 1.8GPM, four sprays is 7.2gpm for the body spray set only. You can figure different GPM combinations. Then figure that GPM out of your water heater to see how long your heater can maintain shower temperature. Oh lord. I need coffee...good luck! Edit: I never proof read this after posting it. Egads. Edited to clean up the weird formatting too. This post was edited by mongoct on Tue, Oct 21, 14 at 17:47

bebotivo, Which is more important to you, style or function? We demolished and rebuilt our large shower in 2002, and the plumbing fixtures we put in were Hansgrohe (that was before Hansgrohe was bought out and became a Masco company.) We had a rainshower-style shower head. We have low-ish (not REALLY low, but fairly low) water pressure, and after seven years we decided last year that we wanted more vigorous showering. In searching for a replacement showerhead, we conducted very extensive and intensive research into our options, including purchasing, installing, and (up to the last) returning several showerheads from several different makers. The bottom line: you owe it to yourself to include the Moen Velocity 6320 in your plans. Accept no substitutes. You will see a lot of positive user reviews of the Moen Velocity on amazon.com and elsewhere; the positive reviews are true, based on our own experience. Returning to the style or function issue, the Moen Velocity is a rainshower-type head, but it is pretty heavy. Your articulating connecting arm had better be able to keep the head perky. We had to use a chrome-plated arm from Danze that does not match the brushed nickel/stainless steel plumbing fixtures that we have elsewhere in our bath. The performance of the Moen Velocity is very much worth the loss of style points from the mismatched finish in the arm. And (a bonus) Moen customer service really is customer SERVICE in these days that "service" seems to be more of a word than a concept. Encourage them.

My master bathroom remodel is nearing completion. Based on the salesperson's recommendations, II chose to put in a Hansgrohe Raindance S120 wall-mounted shower head on a Hansgrohe Axor arm, a Hansgrohe Select E120 hand spray (with 3 spray modes) on a hook, and a ceiling-mounted rain shower head. I have all the parts in hand, but have vacillated in choosing the ceiling-mounted rain head and extension pipe. I was planning to get the 13" round Hansgrohe C300 (with RainAir spray mode), but designer suggested the rectangular Hansgrohe Raindance E 360 (14"x7.5") (with RainAir spray mode) would fit the space better (shower is rectangular, about 3'x6'). I'm also looking at the Hansgrohe PuraVida 400 Air Shower head, which is 15.5" square and has a RainAir XXL spray mode. This model comes in white or chrome. Any experience with Rain Air XXL spray mode versus Rain Air spray mode? My ceilings are 8' high. What length ceiling pipe? 6"? 12"?

I find when they function for hair rinsing they are better than the standard small head because I am not only getting clean I am also engulfed in warmth and the experience is quite comforting. I dislike my large one for cleaning and do not wish to waste water just to get the relaxing benefit which is why I despise that one. I would happily change it to another better pressured head but it is my bald husband's favorite. Many bath show rooms have multiple tubs and shower experiences to try. Just bring a bathing suit and towel. Or read the reviews for the ones you are considering at least because some are truly blissful in form and function while others do not function aswell.