The 9 Best Shower Radios
Updated by · How we research
If you want a real radio in the shower, start with the AM/FM Sangean H201, first of nine radios and speakers compared by water rating, power and mounting. When users buy our independently chosen editorial choices, we may earn commissions to help fund the Wiki.
Waterproof ratings come from short dunks in fresh water, not daily steam and soap, so even a shower radio rated to sit under a meter of water for 30 minutes should dry out between showers. These sealed, battery-powered radios and speakers hang from a showerhead, hook or tile and bring news, weather or music into a wet room, with or without a phone.
From the manual
- The manual keeps the handle and strap for carrying it outside the bathroom; in the shower it hangs from a bracket fixed with double-sided tape. pp. 13-15
- Batteries only in the shower room: the AC adapter isn't included, and the manual forbids using one there. p. 4
- The flashlight doesn't switch itself off, so a forgotten torch drains the D cells. p. 13
- Weather alert mode locks the front buttons; an alert sounds a 15-second siren, then plays the broadcast for 12 minutes. p. 10
From the manual
- Unlike the H201's, this manual lets the strap hang the radio whenever needed, and the case has a built-in hook holder. pp. 2, 9
- The clock can only be set while the radio is switched off. p. 4
- Changing the AM tuning step erases the stored AM presets, so set the step before saving stations. p. 6
- Sangean's one-year warranty excludes damage from leaking batteries; the manual says to remove them if the radio will sit unused. p. 3; warranty policy
From the manual
- It turns itself off after 20 minutes without a Bluetooth link; the Soundcore app can change that to 5, 10 or 60 minutes. pp. 1, 3
- It plays from one device at a time; starting music on a second connected device cuts off the first. p. 2
- Stereo pairing needs a second unit of the same version: Soundcore says the newer version can't pair with older ones, so check the serial number. Soundcore product page
From the manual
- Only one phone links at a time; while it's connected, other devices can't find the radio. p. 11
- If the phone drops out for more than seven minutes, you reconnect by hand, and nothing else can pair meanwhile. p. 12
- Bluetooth reaches about 30 feet and less through walls, so keep the phone in the bathroom. p. 12
- As with the H201, the bracket goes up with double-sided tape, and the handle and strap are meant for use outside the bathroom. pp. 14-16
From the manual
- No wall charger in the box; any USB-C port works, but a 5-watt or stronger adapter refills it in about two and a half hours. charging FAQ
- Shut the weather door over the USB-C port before it goes near water, and never charge with a wet port or cable. waterproofing FAQ
- True stereo needs a second Wonderboom 4; paired with a Wonderboom 3, the two play in mono. Double Up FAQ
- There's no app; every feature works from the speaker itself. app FAQ
From the manual
- The manual says never to use it under running water or submerge it, and to close the rubber port cover first. p. 8
- Wipe the case dry after each bathroom use, and dry a wet USB port before charging. p. 8
- It shuts down after eight minutes without a Bluetooth connection. p. 5
- Charge it over micro USB from a 5-volt, 1-amp source, not a quick charger; a full charge takes about three hours. pp. 2-3
Editor's Notes
November 5, 2026, by Ezvid Wiki Editors:
We read Sangean's manuals and data sheets for the H201, H205 and H202 and the makers' documents for three of the speakers, and added notes from them under each pick. We corrected the H205's water rating, which Sangean lists as IP67, the Sangean radios' battery life, how the H201 and H202 mount, and the Wonderboom 4's box contents, which lack a wall charger, not a cable. Two older notes got short updates on radio tuners and IP codes.
October 18, 2026, by Ezvid Wiki Editors:
Because most people who search for a shower radio want a real radio, the Sangean H201 takes first place. The old list had drifted toward generic Bluetooth speakers. The Sbode M400, Hott HD Sound and HB Illumination are no longer available, and we couldn't find the Elegiant, the VicTsing SoundHot or the Sony ICF-S80 for sale. The Hromen's own listing calls it fully waterproof in one place and splash-resistant in another, so it's out too.
The Sangean H205 and Sangean H202 stay. The BassPal F013 Pro stays as a cheap FM option, and the AGPTEK S2 joins it. For music from a phone, we added the Soundcore Select 4 Go, the INSMY C12, the Bose SoundLink Flex (2nd Gen) and the Ultimate Ears Wonderboom 4.
We stopped at nine because the next candidates were near copies of speakers already here. One tip for every pick: let it dry out between showers. Waterproof ratings are earned in short dunks in fresh water, not in daily steam and soap.
Earlier notes
March 23, 2021, by Will Rhoda:
Most of our existing choices for this category still made sense, so we left our list relatively untouched, although we did decide on doing away with the Treblab HD55 and Shower-Mate Wireless, with neither appearing to be available at the time of this writing.
We added the Hott HD Sound to our list, as we were impressed by its two-year warranty, 10-hour battery life and accommodations for SD Cards. In spite of all these features, it remains a reasonably priced option, and sports quite an attractive design. Its integrated microphone means you can take that call while you let your conditioner marinate during the last half of your shower.
We also added the HB Illumination, even though it offers 40% less battery life than the HD Sound. We liked that this one was built with a durable housing and an IPX7 rating that means it can be safely submerged beneath a meter of water for up to half an hour without any difficulties. It’s also available in a few fun colorways, and even if you want to stick with the black style, you can still choose between 10 accent colors by adjusting its LED settings.
With traditional media limping its way through palliative care these days, we realize that there’s less and less room in people’s lives for radios, but believing that many users still have a special relationship with their local morning show, we went out of our way to make sure that all the options on this list are equipped with an FM radio (many can tune into AM stations, as well). [2026 update: the current list also includes Bluetooth speakers with no tuner; the three Sangean radios, the BassPal and the AGPTEK are the picks with a radio.] However, if radio isn’t really your thing, but you’d still like to add some more music into your morning routine, then you might be better off browsing through our list of outdoor Bluetooth speakers.
March 9, 2020, by Alexander Rennie:
For this update, we removed the Lerdy IPX5, but made sure to replace it with another model capable of hands-free phone calls, the VicTsing SoundHot. This powerful little device is small enough to cut down on bathroom clutter, but also durable enough to be clipped onto a backpack and taken out of the house.
We also replaced the Hydro-Beat Illumination with the BassPal Portable, a similar-looking radio but with an additional 2 hours of battery runtime and a lower price tag.
We also added another model from the Sangean company, the Sanjean H205. This radio might look a little basic, and it doesn’t have Bluetooth capabilities, but it’s packed with all the radio features you could want. An interesting aspect of this model is its backlit LCD screen, which - unlike a lot of fancier screenless options - allows you to keep an eye on the time while you shower.
Though all these radios are designed to handle the low-pressure water output from a standard shower, some are able to withstand much more. An International Protection (IP) code will indicate precisely how much water each product can withstand. Full descriptions of these codes are simple to find online, but essentially, the higher the IP code, the higher the water intensity the radio can handle. [2026 update: the scale isn't a simple ladder. An IPX7 immersion rating doesn't promise protection from water jets, which IPX5 and IPX6 cover.]
For example, the Treblab HD55 is rated IPX4, which means it is “protected against splashing water at any angle.” The Hydro-Beat Illumination, on the other hand, is rated IPX7, indicating that it is “protected against immersion in water up to one meter at normal pressure for 30 minutes.”
Once you know what you’ll be doing with your radio, these codes will come in very handy. Keep in mind though, some products may have variations in the type of code, (Japanese products may use JIS codes instead), so be sure to research exactly what each one means.
Special Honors
NOAA Weather Radio NOAA Weather Radio All Hazards is the National Weather Service broadcast that the weather band on a shower radio picks up. It runs around the clock on more than 1,000 transmitters across all 50 states, coastal waters and U.S. territories, with forecasts and warnings for storms and other emergencies. The site lists stations and coverage by county, so you can check for a nearby transmitter before buying a weather-alert radio. It is free to receive. weather.gov
Radio Or Bluetooth Speaker
Plain Bluetooth speakers drop the tuner entirely and stream from a phone, including radio apps and podcasts, and they often sound better for the money.
Start with what you want to hear. A real shower radio has its own tuner, so it plays AM talk, FM music or sports with no phone in the bathroom. The Sangean models also receive NOAA Weather Radio, the National Weather Service network of more than 1,000 transmitters covering all 50 states, coastal waters and U.S. territories. Check the county coverage list before paying extra for a weather band. Don't count on the alert tone as an alarm, though: running water can drown it out. The Sangean manuals also describe no county setting, so in alert mode these radios sound whenever their station sends a warning tone, for anywhere in its coverage area; treat them as a backup to a bedside weather radio, not a replacement.
Several cheap shower radios are really Bluetooth speakers with an FM tuner added. They skip AM and weather, but they cost a fraction as much. Plain Bluetooth speakers drop the tuner entirely and stream from a phone, including radio apps and podcasts, and they often sound better for the money. Rtings, which buys and lab-tests speakers, keeps a separate list of the best shower speakers.
Reception is the radio's weak spot. Tile, pipes and metal fixtures block signals, so extend the wire antenna and place the radio near a window or the door if stations fade. Sonoro, a German radio maker, adds two basics in its bathroom radio guide: a bathroom radio should be splash-proof and simple to operate.
What IPX4, IPX5, IPX7 And IP67 Mean
The IP code has two digits: the first is dust, the second water, and an X means that part wasn't tested. IPX4 means splashes from any direction. IPX5 adds jets of water from a 6.3-millimeter nozzle for at least three minutes, so it shrugs off stray spray but shouldn't be dropped in the tub. IPX7 means the unit survived 30 minutes under 1 meter of water. IP67 is the same water test plus a dust-tight seal. Sangean's data sheets use JIS7, the Japanese Industrial Standards grade for immersion, while its U.S. product pages list IPX7 for the H201 and H202 and IP67 for the H205.
These tests use fresh, room-temperature water for a short time. They say nothing about years of daily steam, soap or hot water; hot, high-pressure spray is a separate test, IPX9. AGPTEK, whose S2 is rated IPX5, says never to use it under running water and to wipe the case dry after every bathroom use. Whatever you buy, close every rubber flap, rinse off soap and let the unit air-dry outside the shower stall between uses.
If you want to use the speaker in a bath or by a pool, pick IPX7 or IP67, and a model that floats so it doesn't sink out of reach.
Power, Mounting And Safety
Batteries and water are a safer mix than a power cord. The Sangean radios run on two D cells, and their optional AC adapters should never be used in or near a tub or shower. If you plug a radio in anywhere in a bathroom, keep it well away from water and use an outlet with ground-fault protection, the kind with test and reset buttons that building codes require in bathrooms.
The rechargeable speakers use lithium-ion packs. Charge them outside the bathroom, only after the charging port is dry, and stop using any unit that swells or gets hot. In 2024 the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission recalled about 69,000 Soundcore speakers, models A3102 and A3302, for fire risk. The Select 4 Go on this list is a different model.
For mounting, a strap or handle hangs from a showerhead, a hook or a caddy. Suction cups hold only on smooth tile, glass or mirrors; they slip on grout lines and textured stone, so press them onto a clean, dry spot. The Sangean H201 and H202 also come with a wall bracket, which their manuals fix to the wall with double-sided tape; the same manuals keep the handle and strap for use outside the bathroom. Keep the volume moderate: a shower is already loud, and turning a speaker up to beat it adds up over time.
How we researched this
We compared about 20 shower radios and shower speakers and kept nine. We read Sangean's instruction manuals, data sheets and U.S. spec pages for the H201, H205 and H202, Anker Japan's manual for the Soundcore Select 4 Go, the AGPTEK S2 (BTS141) manual and Logitech's Wonderboom 4 FAQ, plus the spec pages of Bose, Soundcore and Ultimate Ears; we found no manual or maker page for the BassPal or the INSMY, so those two rest on their listings. Rtings' lab-tested shower-speaker picks were the main outside check. Searches of CPSC and Health Canada recall notices on November 5, 2026 turned up one Soundcore recall, from December 2024, covering models A3102 and A3302 rather than the Select 4 Go, and none for the other brands.
Sources (19)
- NOAA National Weather Service: NOAA Weather Radio
- NOAA: NWR county coverage
- U.S. CPSC: Anker Soundcore speaker recall (Dec. 2024)
- Wikipedia: IP Code
- Rtings: best shower speakers
- Sonoro: radio for the bathroom
- Sangean: H201 instruction manual (ZIP of PDFs)
- Sangean: H205 instruction manual (ZIP of PDFs)
- Sangean: H202 instruction manual (ZIP of PDFs)
- Sangean: H201 product page and specs
- Sangean: H205 product page and specs
- Sangean: H202 product page and specs
- Sangean: warranty policy
- Anker Japan: Soundcore Select 4 Go manual (Japanese PDF)
- Soundcore: Select 4 Go product page
- Bose: SoundLink Flex (2nd Gen) product page
- Logitech support: Wonderboom 4 FAQ
- AGPTEK S2 (BTS141) user manual, Manuals+ copy (PDF)
- U.S. CPSC: ground-fault outlets in bathrooms
Frequently asked questions
Can you hear a shower radio over running water?
Yes, at a moderate to high volume. Hang it at head height and out of the direct spray, which also helps the speaker last.
Does radio reception work in a bathroom?
Often, but tile and pipes weaken signals. For FM and weather, pull out the wire antenna; for AM, turn the radio, since that antenna is built in. Moving it toward a window or the door helps too.
Can I use a shower radio in the bath?
Only if it's rated IPX7 or IP67, which means it survives being submerged. An IPX5 or IPX4 model handles spray and splashes, not a dunk.
Which shower radios get weather alerts?
On this list, the three Sangean radios: the H201, H202 and H205. They receive the seven NOAA Weather Radio channels. The FM speakers don't.
Is it safe to plug a radio in near the shower?
Not in or beside the tub or shower. Use batteries there. A plug-in radio belongs well away from water, on a ground-fault-protected outlet.
How long do shower radio batteries last?
The rechargeable speakers claim 12 to 20 hours per charge. Sangean rates its three radios at about 120 hours on two alkaline D cells, listening four hours a day.
