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Installing a new water saving showerhead. (Tip: You don’t need to hire a plumber!)

Posted By: ryan 846 views 3 Comments

Replacing the showerheads in your home is an easy and effective way to conserve water. How much water will you save? Well, if you replaced your old shower head with a model that had a flow rate of 1.5 gallons per minute, you could cut your water use in half.

Here’s an example: Let’s say your old shower head flows at 3 gallons per minute (which is very common) If you spent an average of 15 minutes per day showering, the water savings would total up to 22.5 gallons every day for each person living in your house. 157.5 gallons per week, 630 gallons per month, and 7560 gallons of saved water every year! Pretty amazing, right?

Here are the steps to replace your showerhead:

Time to install: 15 minutes
Difficulty: Easy

Step 1: Unscrew the showerhead or handshower from the stem. (I was able to loosen it with just my hands, but you may need to use a wrench to break it free.)

install-showerhead-step1

Step 2: If you plan on re-using your old shower stem, you simply screw on a new showerhead and you’re done! Remember to add new white plumbing tape on the threads in order to prevent any leaks. In my case, I wanted to replace my old shower stem with one that had a different finish that matched my new showerhead and one that had a more dramatic bend so that I could position the showerhead higher.

To remove the shower stem easily, add some masking tape or duct tape on to the stem to give you grip when twisting the stem with a wrench. Without tape, your wrench will just slide on the chrome or brass finishes if you do not use tape.

install-showerhead-step2

Once the stem is removed, this is the hole that will be left in your wall. I know, it looks a little scary.

install-showerhead-step3

Step 3: Install the new shower stem into the same hole. DON’T over-tighten this stem! If over-tightened, it could break off at the threads behind the wall… Then you WOULD have to call your plumber!