So you're probably thinking, "What the heck is a suicide shower?" Fair enough. I had the same thought when I first heard of them. A suicide shower is a shower head with a built in electric water heater. They are common in Central and South America.
In this part of the world, many of the homes are constructed from cement and the plumbing runs inside the cement walls. When hot water came along, if you wanted hot water you could either cut into cement walls and add hot water pipes, or you could heat your water at the place you wanted hot water -- the shower. That is precisely what some people do, but most don't heat their water at all.
So imagine a plastic housing as a shower head with 110 volt electric wires running to heating coils inside, and then water running through that device and onto you. What could possibly go wrong?! Exactly! And as you might imagine, many of the shower heads, as they age, deliver mild shocks to those who use them, hence, the name "suicide shower". Actually, I'm not sure anyone has ever died from one, but many people have reported being shocked.
The casita we bought had one such device in our inside bath. What?! You said your "inside bath"?! That implies the you also have an outside bath! Yes, one of each. In Central America the climate is warm and most people spend as much time outside as they do inside. And when you've got to go, you've got to go. So many homes have an outdoor bath. Ours does, complete with shower, sink and toilet. Now back to our suicide shower...
When we did our final walk-through on the morning of our closing, we turned on the shower to check it and... KABOOM! Our shower head exploded. So after closing, we purchased a replacement suicide shower head for about $50 and when I went to install it, I needed another part to make it work and that part was not readily available in San Juan del Sur. In the mean time we needed a working shower, so we bought a non-suicide shower head and installed it.
Now before you picture the ice-cold North American cold water shower, let me explain the difference here in the third world. We have power outages somewhat regularly. This week we've had two, both for only a few seconds, but two weeks ago, we lost power for 4 hours. And when that happens municipalities cannot pump water, meaning not only no electricity but no water.
So most homes, although they have city water, also have a roof-mounted holding tank of 150-200 gallons that ensures gravity-fed water pressure when the power goes out. And those tanks are black and generally have an open view to the cloudless sky. The water is actually somewhere between cool and lukewarm.
After using our unheated shower for a few days we realized we like the semi-warm shower. Who knows... maybe we'll consider adding another suicide shower down the road, but for now we'd rather skip the drama of explosions and electrocution.