High Flow Shower Hose

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SteveHGraham
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High Flow Shower Hose

Post by SteveHGraham »

Now that my dad is in assisted living, I am repurposing the house, including the master bath. I have incredible water pressure, but to my dismay, I have learned that the master bath has an environmental extremist shower with low flow. I figured this out when I tried the shower out. The shower in my bedroom is much better. The master bath is pathetic.

I looked around on the web for an old-fashioned handheld shower, but it looks like they are hard to find. A guy on Ebay sells modified shower heads, and I may buy one.

Today I was drilling things out, trying to get better flow, and I found that my current hose has a tight bore on one end. Clearly, Al Gore has been at his dirty work in more ways than I realized. Drilling out the brass fitting on the end seems iffy.

I don't suppose anyone here knows where a person can get a real shower hose.

I guess I could rig something up with reinforced tubing from Home Depot. It would not be pretty, but I am willing to sacrifice looks for victory over hippies (who can't understand why anyone would want to be clean).

God bless our government. They never do things right. They could be satisfied with local restrictions, but no, the feds had to get involved and put the screws to the entire country. There is no way on earth one person living on dozens of acres could adversely affect the environment by showering, but I am under the same restrictions as people living in hamster cages in Manhattan.
Every hard-fried egg began life sunny-side up.
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warmstrong1955
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Re: High Flow Shower Hose

Post by warmstrong1955 »

I bought a Waterpik handheld that came with the hose & adapter-hooky-do to hang it on. All plastic, and environmentally friendly of course.
We have low water pressure, and it took 5 minutes to get hot water out of it, since the water heater is on the opposite end of the house. After that, you had to stand in the shower 10 minutes to get wet.
I removed the screen at one end of the hose (it unscrews) and used a steel rod to shove out the flow restrictor at the other end. Then I put the gasket back in the screen end, and tossed the screen.
Like night and day.....or wet and not wet.

The one I put in the shower in the master bath is a 10" diameter thing, with a semi-rigid adjustable, but short, hose. I thought it would flow plenty of water, since it was the size of a skillet. Wrong.
Different brand, but it was set up the same way. Out with the screen & flow restrictor, and it became a real shower head too.

Bill
Today's solutions are tomorrow's problems.
John Hasler
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Re: High Flow Shower Hose

Post by John Hasler »

The flow restrictor is required by law, but I've yet to see a shower head from which it isn't easily removed.
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SteveHGraham
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Re: High Flow Shower Hose

Post by SteveHGraham »

Then I have bad news for you. They are now making showers which are hard or impossible to fix.
Every hard-fried egg began life sunny-side up.
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warmstrong1955
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Re: High Flow Shower Hose

Post by warmstrong1955 »

The Waterpikians still make the one identical to what I bought.
It's on Amazon, and even a comment about how a guy did the same thing I did.

https://www.amazon.com/Waterpik-Shower- ... pons&psc=1

You have lots of tools. Be creative.
:)

Scroll down and read the 'answered questions'.
Today's solutions are tomorrow's problems.
John Hasler
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Re: High Flow Shower Hose

Post by John Hasler »

SteveHGraham wrote: Thu Feb 28, 2019 7:11 pm Then I have bad news for you. They are now making showers which are hard or impossible to fix.
Hard, maybe. Impossible? No. I could *make* a shower head.

Sounds like the manufacturer of your telephone shower just cheaped out on the tubing.
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SteveHGraham
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Re: High Flow Shower Hose

Post by SteveHGraham »

Making a shower head is not the same as fixing it, and yes, some are impossible to fix, unless your definition of "fix" is ridiculous and actually means remanufacturing. You can "fix" a Volkswagen Beetle so it flies if you're determined. Just remove the body and weld it to a rocket.

Manufacturers used to insert water restrictors which were easy to remove. Then they started molding showers so there was nothing that could be removed, so they had to be drilled. They also use fittings inside the hoses that kill flow, and some also use narrow hoses. One of my showers had restrictions in the handle and also in the pipe the hose attached to. For all I know, the water valve has a restriction. Every year, getting a decent shower requires more effort.

Debating the current state of showers is a waste of time and not helpful. You can go on the web yourself and see that what I say is true. Water flow limits get lower and lower, and manufacturers keep making it harder to get around them.

I now have two modified showers that work reasonably well, so I can take my time looking for better answers.

Anyone who has an old high-flow shower should take note. Do not throw it out if there is any way of keeping it going.
Every hard-fried egg began life sunny-side up.
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ctwo
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Re: High Flow Shower Hose

Post by ctwo »

WoW! I didn't know they made a shower sized Waterpik! You guys take clean seriously...

My shower head is like 5" diameter and has about 50 rubber nipples that shoot water. That is fine but the valve is a single handle that you twist more for hotter, so it just goes on full blast. Sometimes I like to stand under a slow hot flow, but this way I will run out the tank first.
Standards are so important that everyone must have their own...
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John Hasler
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Re: High Flow Shower Hose

Post by John Hasler »

I guess I can see how as they redesigned the products they decided that it would be cheaper to to reduce the flow to the required maximum by just sizing everything down rather than design it for what used to be normal flow and then add a restrictor.
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