Reasons to Clean Your Shower Head

Series Summary

Quite possibly one of the most frustrating things that can happen when taking a shower is loss of water pressure. It happens to almost every shower head: it clogs up and the water only trickles out. You either have to call a plumber to clean out the shower head or you can do it yourself. If you would like to learn how to clean out your own shower head, you can learn for free from one of our experts.

In this free how to video series, learn how to clean your shower head from home improvement expert Adolph Ramirez. He will give you expert tips for cleaning a shower head including what tools you will need and why it is important to clean your shower head. Adolph will demonstrate how to remove a shower head, how to inspect the water pipe in your shower, how to inspect the restrictor disk, how to clean a shower head, how to use a brush to clean your shower head, how to clean all the parts of a shower head, how to reassemble a shower head, how to use teflon tape to seal a shower head, and how to reattach a shower head to the water pipe.

Video Transcript

"Hi, I'm Adolph Ramirez from Tampa, Florida and on behalf of Expert Village, today I'll show you how to clean a shower head. If the shower head in question happens to be a recently built apartment or house, mineral build-up may not be the problem at all. It's possible that the shower head was installed without the parts being flushed out first. This can be a problem since new construction means that water pipes carrying water pipes to your shower may have been in contact with things like chips of wood, bits of plastic, shavings of copper pipe and blobs of solder. If the pipes weren't flushed out before the installation of the shower head, the debris associated with the construction can wind up in the shower head, effectively plugging it up right from the start. As you can see, this has a restricted water flow right now. If the shower head is in an older house, it probably worked well at first but then gradually lost its power. The low flow assembly may be clotted with debris even from the city water vains or from your well. If the shower once worked, and now it doesn't, mineral deposits or stuff from the water pipes may be clogging it. Many building codes require the installation of water restrictor or low-flow shower heads that minimize the output of water or make the most out of your high pressure force you can get from it. A low flow shower can save hundreds of gallons of water each year while providing all the average hosing and spraying that the average person wants from a shower. I'll shut this off now. "