How to Install Water-Saving Shower Heads

Water-saving shower heads have a fine spray that uses 2.2 to 2.5 gallons per minute (gpm), rather than the 3.5 to 5.5 gpm flow of older shower head models. Follow these steps to check and replace inefficient shower heads.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Low-flow shower head
• 12-inch adjustable wrench
• Teflon® thread sealing tape
• Plastic bucket

1. Check your existing shower heads to see how much water they use. Hold a plastic bucket under the shower head and fill it to the 1-gallon mark while checking the second hand on your watch. Divide 60 by the number of seconds it took to flow one gallon from the shower head to get the gpm output.

2. Buy water-saving shower heads for any units that flowed a gallon in under 20 seconds. Look for the gpm rating on the shower head packaging and make sure it’s 2.5 gpm or less. You can buy pulsating or fine spray shower heads in low-flow design.

3. Hold the shower water pipe firmly and use an adjustable wrench on the flat sides of your old shower head to loosen it by turning it counter-clockwise. Unscrew the old shower head all the way by hand and set it aside.

4. Remove old white thread sealing tape from shower pipe threads. Wrap threads of shower pipe clockwise with new pipe thread tape starting at the open pipe end and overlapping about half a width of tape.

5. Thread new shower head onto end of shower pipe and turn clockwise until hand tight. Turn on shower head to check for leaks. If water drips from top of shower head, carefully tighten the new shower head with an adjustable wrench, turning about ¼ to ½ turn clockwise.

Tips & Warnings

• If new shower head leaks persistently at the shower pipe joint, use new pipe sealing thread and overlap closer and closer as you wrap upwards to make a thickening seal.
• Avoid scratching your new shower head by placing a rag between adjustable wrench and shower head.