A Bluetooth Shower Speaker Seems Like a Silly Idea, But This One is Actually Good

Ampere Shower Power

Superior singing in the shower

This Bluetooth-enabled device boasts surprisingly great sound quality and easy installation. Perhaps niftiest of all, it self-charges off your shower water (seriously). It’s not ideal, however, for tall folks.

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In researching and writing our home Bluetooth speaker guide, senior staff writer Brent Butterworth named the Shower Power a great option for anyone who wants a speaker just for the shower or bathroom. Fair warning: It adds nearly 4 inches of length to a shower arm, which could render the position of the showerhead too low for taller folks. (Ampere claims that the Shower Power “installs onto nearly any showerhead—rain, fixed, or handheld.”) However, once it’s (easily) affixed with an adjustable wrench, you don’t have to futz with it again; it hydropowers itself, through your shower, with no need for battery changes, and it holds that charge so that you can also use it for up to 16 hours without the shower running. It’s also designed to pair automatically with your streaming source of choice.

Brent (who has been covering audio gear for more than 30 years) describes its sound quality as “surprisingly good.” In fact, he ranks the Shower Power’s audio as superior to that of its upgrade variant, the Shower Power Pro, which comes with extra features like app-controlled lighting and water-usage and temperature trackers.

Speaking of water usage, one downside is that the speaker’s turbine reduces your shower’s water flow, so it may not be the best choice if you or your giftee struggles with shower pressure. Ampere claims that the drop in water flow is between 8% and 24%, but as Brent writes in his review, “we didn’t notice the difference even when using the Shower Power with a 1.5-gallon-per-minute shower head.” (The federally mandated maximum flow rate for showerheads is 2.5 gallons per minute.)

Although we think the Shower Power would make a great gift for anyone who loves to sing in the bathroom—or who would like to but is bashful about belting without a backing track—it also serves well as a catchall gift for hard-to-shop-for types. Pair it with a bath tray or bubble bath, or with our recommended in-shower wine glass holder, and you’ve got a present that your lucky recipient may sing about in more ways than one.

This article was edited by Catherine Kast and Christine Cyr Clisset.