Spa Shower: Luxury in the Bathroom

When David Maher, a financial adviser in Cleveland, bought a raw condo space in a downtown building earlier this year, he decided to install a spa shower to make his new home a special place.

Maher paid attention the details in his master bathroom and upgraded to a Moen-brand luxury shower unit called the ioDIGITAL. The spa-style shower unit comes complete with remote controls, a digital touch pad to pre-program water temperature, and an array of shower heads ranging from a rain shower to four body sprays and a hand-held wand. "I never had these things before and going into a new place I wanted something luxury and high end," Maher, 43, says.

Like a growing number of homeowners, he has replaced a ho-hum shower with a more spa-like one that includes shower heads that can mimic raindrops or a waterfall or pelt the body like a massage. Although such spa shower units represent less than 5 percent of the overall market, they have grown in popularity over the past decade. Why? And should you upgrade to a spa shower?