How to Get Better Water Pressure from Your Shower Head

Okay, this definitely isn’t the sort of article I normally write, but it’s something I just figured out on my own and I wanted to share. At the time I couldn’t find anything related on Google, so I thought this could be my first real contribution to the sum total of Mankind’s Knowledge.

About six months ago our shower water pressure dropped by more than half. I had the water guys come by and confirm that it wasn’t a water pressure issue. I cleaned out the hose and attachments, but nothing helped. You had to run around in the shower just to get wet.

So I started looking for a new shower head for low water pressure. And as I was doing that, I wondered what the shower heads did to increase the water pressure. I started seeing mention of a water regulator. So I did more research. That water regulator is a thing they started putting in shower heads a few years back to make them more eco-friendly. They used less water, which is normally a good thing. And it’s a law, or something.

Unless the little bastards fail.

So here’s the trick. Before you spend a fortune on plumbers and shower heads, open that sucker up (your shower head, not your plumber. That would be illegal). You may find one or two little plastic things between the water and the head. It has a bunch of little holes in it. Mine was no longer working, and more than half the holes were blocked. So I used a pair of pliers and just pulled the whole thing out. Now there was an uninterrupted line for the water, and I was back to full water pressure. I’ve taken three showers today just because it was so awesome.

Now, if you want to continue to think about the environment after you’ve had your first great shower in weeks, you can order a new water regulator. Which I will probably do. After a few more showers.

Originally published at https://www.grimginger.com on October 28, 2020.