If you wish to renovate your bathroom then the first thing that you must replace is your old shower. Adding gleam to your shower head will offer your bathroom a dazzling look.
You don’t need to spend a lot of money on buying and installing a new shower system. You just need to change the showerhead.
Changing your shower head is a lot simpler than what it sounds to ears. You just need to spend a few bucks and around half-an-hour of effort to accomplish this task.
Why Replacing Your Old Shower head Is Important?
A new shower head not just gives your bathroom a quick shiny look, but also improves your bathing experience as well as health. Medical experts feel that we need to replace our showerhead at regular intervals.
However, most of us keep our bathroom clean without bothering to replace our years old showerhead. Unfortunately, old showerheads are germ carriers and could invade our bodies anytime.
Another reason why we must replace an old showerhead is that it keeps adding to your monthly water bill due to water leakage or improper functioning. It leads to extra and unwanted consumption of water, which makes our monthly electricity and water bills costly.
The only way to stay out of this problem is by installing a new showerhead on your existing shower set as per the steps given below.
Let’s Understand How To Do It
Cost and Expenses
A typical shower head costs something within the range of around $12 to $400. The price may slightly vary depending upon taxation and the place of purchase. There is a wide variety of big brands that are specialized in offering stylish and well-designed showerheads for bathrooms.
You can choose Kohler, American Standard, Delta, American Standard, Hansgrohe, Speakman S-2252, or any other brands depending upon your personal preference and choice.
Kinds of Shower Heads
Usually, showerheads are detachable. It means you can easily replace your old shower head with a new one when it gets too old or starts leaking water from its nozzles.
Shower heads are usually attached to the wall, and can move right, left, up, and down. Without adequate water pressure on the pipe, your showerheads may not function properly.
The US Federal rules have specified that you must have no less than 2.5 gallons per minute (GPM) water flow at 80 pounds per square inch (PSI) for shower head installation.
Essential Equipment for Shower head Change
- A Well-designed shower head
- A piece of cloth
- A piece of brush
- Ladder
- Tape
Changing Shower Head in DIY Step-by-Step Method
Don’t hurry. Once you purchase a new shower head (See the top picks in UK), you will get a detailed instruction manual in the box. Please read the same carefully. Usually, those instructions are written in plain English without too much technical jargon.
In some cases, you might need to assemble your shower head first with the spare parts including extension arm, rubber washer, and screws. Those will already come with the shower head box.
Step-1: If your hands don’t reach towards the showerhead then take the help of a small ladder. Safely remove the existing shower head from its place. While unlocking the existing showerhead make sure that the faucet is turned off. Never try to remove or install a showerhead with the faucet turned on. It will completely drench your floor leading to extra trouble and time wastage.
Step–2: At this stage, you have to exert a bit of pressure towards removing your old showerhead. If it’s more than two-three years old, then the same is likely to have jammed with iron. In such cases, you have to use a wrench or spanner to remove it. Slowly and steadily revolve your old showerhead in an anti-clockwise direction to get it off.
Step–3: Once you have successfully removed the old showerhead, you may notice a lot of dirt there. Take a wet towel and brush to clean it up. Once it becomes clear, let it dry. Check with your finger if the same has dried out or not. If it’s fully dry, then you can apply the thread tape.
Step–4: Take a considerable amount of tape to cover the threads. Wrap around the threads at least thrice for the best results. Repeat the process until all areas are covered up. The tape works as a connecting link between your new shower head and the end of the pipe.
Step–5: Now, you are almost there. Check out the user manual to get the idea of how you can connect your new shower head to the pipe. Some showerheads require a hand-screw while some require a wrench for safe and correct installation. Once you see that the new showerhead is safely fastened to the pipe and it doesn’t move further then you can conclude that your installation process is complete.
Step–6: Switch on the faucet. Please check carefully if the new showerhead is working properly or not. You can easily adjust its movement depending upon your personal preferences. Turn your faucet on and off repeatedly to see if it’s working well for both cold and hot faucets.
Step–7: If there is a leakage from the pipe, then don’t take it lightly. You need to fasten your shower head again to stop that leakage. Meanwhile, if the thread tape got damaged, then you need to remove your new shower head and reinstall it again following all the steps as mentioned above.
For your self-satisfaction, recheck the new shower head. It should be fully functional by now. The supply of water flow from the nozzles of the showerhead shouldn’t be too low. If it’s okay, then you can start using it freely.
Takeaways
You shouldn’t keep on changing the direction of your shower head every time you go for a bath. Keep it affixed in a particular direction.
Once in a while, you can change it – but don’t do it repeatedly. Else, it might unfasten the shower head and could create unnecessary problems for you. You can also read The FurnitureAndHome for more info about shower head.