Sealing showerhead nozzles
 

This is a bit of a precursor to a review of multiple showerheads that will be an upcoming thread of a shootout of 4 different showerheads, 3 of them being rated for 1.5gpm or less and one which was a 2.5gpm head that came with the house. ..and yes, I did spend money on multiple showerheads to find out which one I thought was the best.

Basically the story is one of the showerheads that I bought is a dual-flow showerhead rated for 1gpm on low and 1.5gpm on high. I'm fairly satisfied with its flow and pressure but would like a slight bit more pressure from the showerhead on the 1gpm setting. I feel that it has just a few too many nozzles for the amount of pressure I would like. The 1.5gpm setting is perfect for rinsing out my hair and I can manage to do the same decently well with the 1gpm setting but I'd like it to have a little more pressure so rinsing my hair has similar performance on the 1gpm setting.

I think I'm going to seal every third nozzle on the showerhead. I'm thinking to use a 2 part epoxy but I'm wondering if this would hold up over time. Any thoughts on what might be the best way to do this?

And I am always trying to get as much flow as possible. I love taking a shower under Niagara Falls.

Epoxy is wonderful stuff. Are your shower heads plastic? If so, all the better.

Just make sure the surfaces are clean, dry, and if possible rough them up a bit.

HINT: The 'faster' the epoxy is, the lower the ultimate strength.

-AC

It all depends on the showerhead. If it it's solid plastic or metal, ab epoxy will do fine. However, if the nozzles are rubber, like many newer designs are, something flexible will be necessary. I recommend a butyl or polyurethane rubber for this case. Window weld is butyl and marine bedding is poly. Both of these will live forever with water and are flexible.

The showerhead is a chrome colored plastic. It's not one of the rubber 'rub out the hard water scale' type showerheads. The orifices are fixed rather than the adjustable type that could get messed up the moment someone adjusts it which is why I think this could work out. I like it because I've managed to take 2 gallon shower with this and it flows a gallon every minute and 13 seconds or so. So basically I get 2 minutes and 26 seconds or so to 2 gallons. Since I've got a long run of 1/2" copper, it takes a gallon of water before it gets hot so I catch the first gallon into a gallon sized jug through the spout for the bath tub and pull the shower head knob. I use that first gallon to flush the toilet. I've managed to get my daily water usage down to about 8 gallons per day for the past week with showers, toilet flushing, and hand washing. More water on days that I use the dishwasher, wash the counter, clean things, or wash clothes of course but I wash clothes with cold water and the dishwasher uses 5.8 gallons of hot water. I'm not counting garden watering as that's all cold but my water softener allows me to exclude that usage as it counts the gallons that runs through it and the outdoor faucet bypasses the water softner.

I don't mind using the water but at this point I've gotten the hot water usage down to where I've been using just the heat from the pilot light of the water heater for all of my usage since the beginning of the month, which amounts to 4 therms a month when I did this 2 years ago but the house was hotter(above 80) then so the tank had less standby losses and the copper pipes lost less heat along the way too. Now I'm doing the same while the basement is under 70 degrees and the rest of the house usually in the low 70's. I've got as much of the hot pipe insulated as I could but some is behind drywall and isn't accessible.

In the past I 've used Teledyne Waterpik Eco low flow heads, which is not to my liking due to (a) too fine of a water jets (almost to the point of being needle-like); (b) great loss of heat (need to crank it up hotter to compensate for the heat loss.

It wasn't until by chance, I came across Delta H2Okinetic (actually it was made by Alsons but Delta bought the whole company and their rights also)....low flow, can't remember exactly how much (some where around 5.8L/min to 6.2L/min or thereabouts). I had a blast with it: the water pattern is quite good as it "swirls" the water stream to provide more even, if not wider area coverage, and bigger water droplets mean no need to crank up the water temperature to compensate for that fine water jets that waterpick has.

Overall, I'm happy with my purchase. I cannot see myself going anything below 5.8L/min without some form of compromise: either extremely fine water jets that gives that piercing feeling while showering, and the need to crank up the hot water part to compensate for the heat loss, etc.

I have used Speakmans, AStd, etc. before and wasn't all that impressed. I have not had a chance to give Niagra Conversation shower heads a try yet.

Q.

"I have not had a chance to give Niagra Conversation shower heads a try yet."

My next thread will be helpful for you if you want to try a Niagara showerhead because I'll be reviewing two different Niagara Conservation models in the review thread along with the flow rates that I measured for all of the showerheads I've tested and I'll discuss why I chose the ones I picked.

I won a contest on the forum and got a free Niagra showerhead. Unlike some other low-flow models, it has forceful spray. Granted, it doesn't have a thousand jets, but what it does have shoot strong. I put it downstairs, where my shower-vacationing son spends way too much time with it. Now I know he's wasting less water than before.

I have a 1.5 gpm showerhead in the master bathroom and I just take "navy" style showers. {I did not serve in the navy, so this could be poorly spresented.} I turn on the water when I want to get wet before I lather up, turn it off while washing, turn it back on to rinse.

Our water bill is always the base charge, and our natural gas HWH bill is less than $20 monthly.