Best Shower heads for MAC

The article says that the width of the spray in the rain head style was bigger than the handheld model that has a more focused spray so less spraying going into the air.

That makes complete sense to me. I'm getting rid of my handheld one that was installed for water efficiency.

I use shower clear. I took the opportunity and asked my kids to buy it for me last year as a Christmas gift. They did. But still I take short showers, just in case. The trick is it opens and when you open it all water which stays there sills out- it’s a good cup I must say. Then it stays open and dries. I spray it also with 70% rubbing alcohol after and before I take shower. Once in a while my husband unscrews it and soaks in vinegar or chloride. I believe it was over 300 dollars. Well this year I did not get anything for my birthday so probably I used my budget.

I remember reading from Dr. Falkinham that there are no studies regarding tankless water systems, but I would think that since water isn’t sitting there in a tank for days there’s probably a lesser bacterial load

We have a tankless water heater and I am hopeful it is not contributing to any NTM in my household water; I would love it if there were actual research on the question. While MAI, my current strain, seems to be infrequently found in household water sources (so the issue was lower on my “to do” list than others) I do have not an insignificant amount of BE so being cautious generally moving forward is warranted. These are the steps we are taking to evaluate and potentially address NTM in our household water:
1) We tested our household water at the three main locations I use it: kitchen sink, bathroom sink, master shower. Waiting on results ….
2) We removed the shower head altogether for now pending water test results. If there is no or low NTM in shower water I think we will likely leave it without shower head. At first my husband was really put off by the idea of not having a shower head. But once we used the shower sans shower head it was absolutely fine. Even kinda nice as the water is softer, smoother, like being under a waterfall. Of course a lot more water seems to come out and we are watching our water usage to see the impact. We live in a water scarce area and have been less frequent showerers for many years because of it (another reason I do not suspect my MAI is link to my shower), so we’re are very sensitive to our water usage, may not be a concern for others. I will point out that removing the shower head cut down steam by at least 90%. It is pretty incredible. We have bathroom fans and I do wear a water resistant surgical mask while showering (just for belt and suspenders as I do prefer a nice hot shower to a lukewarm one) but the lack of steam without a shower head is truly remarkable, particularly if it’s a short (albeit very hot!) shower.
3) If the test results show concerning levels of NTM at any location we will add the requisite filters for NTM, and I think we are leaning to add one to the kitchen sink regardless just so I don’t have to boil or put through my Lifestraw pitcher all my drinking/cleaning/cooking water, which I have done since diagnosis. As everyone knows the filters are expensive, and a maintenance hassle but even if the kitchen sink water comes back negative for NTM, I use that water so frequently I think my mindset needs to know it is “safe”, and of course negative for NTM today does not mean negative for NTM tomorrow as we all know.
4) We have also removed the aerators from the bathroom and kitchen sink which I hate because the flow is now so wonky but it seems like a reasonable adjustment to make all things considered.
5) If the household water comes back negative or low for NTM I suspect we will test the household water at to-be-determined intervals. Testing is not cheap, in fact it is pretty dang expensive (about $500 a sample) but we have a relatively newer home with all pvc piping and I am aware of the concerns that the growing prevalence of pvc piping may be contributing to increase in NTM infections. At some point, it may just come down to the math re cost of filters at multiple locations versus cost of periodic testing. However here at the beginning we did want to have a sense of where we stand with regard to NTM in our household water to help inform our longer term approach.

If anyone has any other tricks, tips, or suggestions re evaluating and addressing household water with regard to NTM risk, I would love to hear your thoughts. Thanks.