Broken removable showerhead...

[Ultralight]

Dig this. A few weeks back my showerhead broke. It is the removable kind with a hose so you can luxuriously spray yourself, or super speed shower if you are in a hurry.

The water pressure on mine suddenly reduced to about 20%.

This sucked!

The one I bought just before the pandemic went out the same way. So in early 2021 I bought a new one. It worked great! Until 3 weeks ago.

I don't want to order one online, I'd prefer to buy one at Lowe's so I can easily return it if it doesn't work.

But with infecteds certainly roaming around Lowe's I wasn't about to go there to buy one, let alone return it.

So I commenced to doing the most mechanical thing I have ever done. I took the showerhead apart piece by piece. I examined each component and tested them one by one.

Turns out the internal component that I think makes the showerhead "water effiicent" was siezed up. This prevented flow.

So I took one of the few tools I own, a small Philips screwdriver and I simply bored out that hole manually.

I put it all back together and tested it.

Works great! Water pressure is better than before!

And I didn't need to spend money or interact with infecteds.

[happystuff]

Nice job, UL. Always feels good to be able to solve a problem without just rushing out to buy something new.

[ToomuchStuff]

Probably need to soak it in vinegar on occasion. Was it lime build up?

[Ultralight]

Probably need to soak it in vinegar on occasion. Was it lime build up?

Are you trolling me? Lime?

[herbgeek]

Calcium carbonate buildup aka lime. It's a thing when you have water with high mineral content.

[Tybee]

Calcium carbonate buildup aka lime. It's a thing when you have water with high mineral content.

Right, it forms crystals, gunky stuff that blocks the hole. I bet you have very hard water there.
Great job not buying something but fixing it yourself!

[Ultralight]

Right, it forms crystals, gunky stuff that blocks the hole. I bet you have very hard water there.
Great job not buying something but fixing it yourself!

Good to know!

[Alan]

Good to know!

In the future you can correct the problem without removing the shower head, just put some white vinegar in a baggie and then secure the baggie to the shower head with a rubber band, making sure the head is submerged in the liquid. Leave it there overnight and it will dissolve all the calcium buildup.

[bae]

The new shower head I got had similarly lame flow, and upon taking it apart I found 2 different flow restricting mechanisms, which were quickly sorted out :-)

There's probably a market for vintage non-low-flow showerheads out there. I bet you can still buy them in Canada.