‘The wonderful everyday’ water recycling: IKEA invests in Danish shower tech

Inter IKEA Group has made a minority equity investment in Flow Loop, a Danish start-up developing a water recycling shower solution to enable customers to be more water and energy efficient.

The affordable 'shower of the future'

Inter IKEA Group has made a minority equity investment in Flow Loop, a Danish start-up developing a water recycling shower solution to enable customers to be more water and energy efficient.

The iconic blue and yellow home furnishing superstore has been collaborating with Flow Loop since March 2020 to develop a water recycling shower solution that can be retrofitted in existing shower spaces.

"Our water innovation team has made great progress together with Flow Loop during the last two years’ collaboration on our journey to make this ‘shower of the future' affordable and accessible to as many customers as possible," said Robert Carleke, innovation ventures manager at IKEA of Sweden.

“Our water innovation team has made great progress together with Flow Loop during the last two years’ collaboration on our journey to make this ‘shower of the future' affordable.”

By recycling and cleaning the shower water in a closed loop, Flow Loop claims the solution can reduce water usage by up to 80 per cent and generate energy savings of up to 70 per cent, compared to a conventional shower.

Loop the loop

While the IKEA version of the Flow Loop shower is still in the developing and testing phase, Flow Loop is starting sales of its first product this summer.

The Loop Shower is being marketed as a solution that can turn your existing shower into a sustainable one in just one hour - with no construction needed.

Source: Flow Loop

The smart shower works by circulating shower water by drawing it through an inlet at the base of the unit.

“This partnership will accelerate the adoption of recirculating showers and help to drive significant water and energy savings.”

Water is then drawn up and passed through a prefilter before being passed through a microfilter, followed by an ultraviolet lamp before being discharged through the shower head. The process then repeats until showering is finished.

“This partnership will accelerate the adoption of recirculating showers and help to drive significant water and energy savings," said Troels Grene, CEO of Flow Loop.

The shower includes IoT integration and will register when water is recirculated, helping to keep track of water savings.

Flow Loop said the micro filters need to be changed once per month or at a minimum after 200 showers. It also requires a rinse process every two weeks or every 100 showers.

Warming up: the smart shower market

The smart shower space is certainly heating up - with more start-ups seeing showers as a key battleground for water savings.

Source: Rainstick

In Canada, Rainstick is a WIFI enabled smart shower that can track water and energy savings using an app.

The app also notifies you when you need to clean the shower and allows you to turn RainStick on remotely. You can even link it up to Siri and Alexa to turn the shower on and off.

At the recent iconic CES show in Las Vegas, Kohler unveiled its auto-filling bath, the PerfectFill. This consists of a drain kit and digital valve that work together to draw the bath to a preferred temperature and depth.

With the ability to be controlled by the Kohler Konnect app, there’s the option to programme up to 10 different bath times, so everyone in the house can have a bath that's just right.

The next generation of bath time comes at a price: $8,000. The PerfectFill starts at $2,700, but a Kohler spout and compatible Kohler bathtub are required, plus a Kohler engineer for installation.

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