How To Troubleshoot a Leaky Showerhead | Ask This Old House

Поделиться
HTML-код
  • Опубликовано: 26 янв 2025

Комментарии • 89

  • @Michael1M6
    @Michael1M6 Год назад +80

    Legend has it that tub is still trying to full up with that reduction of water 😂

  • @jasonsgroovemachine
    @jasonsgroovemachine Год назад +30

    One thing I always appreciate about Richard is that he doesn't just say "It's this, I'll fix it." It's that he gets into how it works, where the problem is, why it's a problem, and how to fix it.
    We may disagree on phrasing sometimes but that's alright.

    • @modulemodule
      @modulemodule Год назад +4

      If my dad was on this show it would be called Hold The Flashlight

    • @richardb.5691
      @richardb.5691 Год назад +2

      OK. This is kind of a strange "fix". The new way of diverting water seems pretty dumb to me. Any reason for that change?

    • @R_A_3000
      @R_A_3000 Год назад

      ​@@modulemodule Lol yeah that's my dad too.

  • @driqbal316
    @driqbal316 Год назад +7

    I love the way you guys set up demo's to teach people what is going on. Thanks!

  • @joshcowart2446
    @joshcowart2446 Год назад +20

    Well actually!! Turning the gate valves doesn’t actually decrease the pressure. It will decrease the volume. It’s really just semantics because decreasing the volume does affect the pressure as fixtures are opened. I had a customer who didn’t have enough “pressure” to run more than once me fixture at a time. I put a pressure gauge on it and it show 65 psi which is more than enough. Turns out the issue was volume. The original builder had torn down one house and built two small houses on the property. They put two sub meters. The line coming off the city meter was 3/4. This is way too small to supply that amount of fixtures. I just replaced the1’ of 3/4” pipe from the city meter to where it split to the two sub meters with 1 1/4” pipe and it solved everything in both houses. That little bit of pipe changed it so they could run multiple faucets without issue.

    • @crashland5711
      @crashland5711 Год назад +1

      Right, what he did will make filling the tub an all-day affair.

    • @joshcowart2446
      @joshcowart2446 Год назад

      @@crashland5711 yeah, I think that fix could work if you came find the right balance. Based on the video though it’s turned way too far down

    • @kalijasin
      @kalijasin Год назад

      Now he got low volume. 🙈

  • @anthonylee6322
    @anthonylee6322 Год назад +1

    He is a wealth of knowledge

  • @JohnDoe-jc3cl
    @JohnDoe-jc3cl Год назад +3

    Quick fix at my house: just take showers
    A friend of mine said, “ you gotta know what you need to put your time and effort into . What needs to be fixed and what don’t “.

  • @oldtwinsna8347
    @oldtwinsna8347 Год назад +3

    Great fix, take it down to 0.25 gpm flow rate.

  • @jeffjeffjeff
    @jeffjeffjeff Год назад +45

    Am I crazy or did they turn the pressure WAAAAY down? Filling that tub is going to take forever, and showers are going to be really disappointing.

    • @nick4leader
      @nick4leader Год назад +15

      I'm nowhere near the expert Richard is but I would have with the water running slowly adjust it just until the water stopped running out of the shower

    • @reallunacy
      @reallunacy Год назад +9

      I'd suspect they dialed it in afterward.

    • @JimDean002
      @JimDean002 Год назад +2

      That was my thought too. They did this to be able to use the tub and it's now going to take an hour to fill it. And they have an 8-month-old.

    • @kalijasin
      @kalijasin Год назад

      Turning gate valve down decreases volume.

    • @JimDean002
      @JimDean002 Год назад

      @@kalijasin True. and since the volume is now reduced enough to go through the spout without back pressure forcing the water up through the shower head, the water stops coming out up above.

  • @jptrainor
    @jptrainor Год назад +3

    The demo was neat. It would have been interesting to have an input valve that could be have been dialed down to stop the simulated shower head dribble.

  • @jptrainor
    @jptrainor Год назад +9

    I've seen this somewhere else recently. It was caused by using pex rather copper to plumb the shower. The pex fittings have a diameter reduction, and that caused the water to backup and dribble out the shower head when the faucet was running.

    • @acb43211
      @acb43211 Год назад +2

      Dude probably didn't want to tear out all his tile work

    • @keysthefreshman2696
      @keysthefreshman2696 Год назад +5

      Yep that can happen. You can still plumb the whole shower with pex, as long as you make the pipe from the valve body to the tub spout copper. You can bring the hot and cold to the valve body with pex, and up to the showerhead with pex, but down to the tub spout needs to be copper. I believe the Delta universal valve body instructions even mention that as well

    • @jej3451
      @jej3451 Год назад

      Which is bizarre, when you look at the tiny diameter of the openings in the valve -- much smaller than the pipe diameter. I don't get how the pipe can be the bottleneck, when the valve openings are so much smaller.

    • @kalijasin
      @kalijasin Год назад

      Pex not as great as people make it out to be.

  • @eraldway
    @eraldway Год назад +1

    I had the same issue. Problem wasn’t the water pressure. Problem was that the valve on my bathtub was placed high as if it were a shower shortening the distance from the valve to the shower head. The same issue seems to be the case here. In a bath tub the distance from the valve to the bath spout shouldn’t excess 11 or 12 inches. This leaves a longer pipe from the valve to the shower heard. Water will still climb up this pipe but there wouldn’t enough pressure to go all way out of the shower head. Reducing the water pressure didn’t work for me as water was still coming out.

  • @poeticthoughts06
    @poeticthoughts06 Год назад +1

    Richard is the man!!

  • @autoimmunitycurse
    @autoimmunitycurse 4 месяца назад

    Isnt it the height of tube from valve to head? 46 or 48 inches minimum?

  • @Cravz69
    @Cravz69 Год назад +2

    Using a helper, they could probably open the valve in the basement a little more until just before it starts coming out the showerhead.

  • @33cvu11
    @33cvu11 Год назад +7

    Instead of reducing the volume of water to the shower/tub, he could have install a shutoff valve on the shower arm before the shower head.

    • @josephb6450
      @josephb6450 Год назад

      And that would require punching a hole in the wall, which is cost prohibitive

    • @kalijasin
      @kalijasin Год назад

      That’s a good idea

    • @readyplayer2
      @readyplayer2 Год назад

      It's like you didn't watch the whole video. This was a quick, simple, cheap fix and they touch on that at the end.

    • @Engineer9736
      @Engineer9736 Год назад

      Don’t know if the homeowners will find that looking nice. And it impedes the user friendliness if you have 6 different valves to control while showering

  • @zizibe218
    @zizibe218 6 месяцев назад

    Please help! We replaced the shower cartridge multiple times Moen 1222 and yet our shower head still leaks water at random times. Is it the valve?

  • @rwayle
    @rwayle Год назад +5

    Okay you fixed the problem but seems like there's almost no water coming out of the tap now...

  • @bernardhernandez2396
    @bernardhernandez2396 Год назад

    What if you have a well water supply living in a rual area ?

  • @johnbenson4672
    @johnbenson4672 Год назад

    I just installed a new shower & tub faucet and have the same issue. I was worried that I had a defective kit.

  • @dltorres17
    @dltorres17 Год назад

    Question: so I just had a bathroom remodeled. It had no shower head plumbing and I believe mostly galvanized pipe. Anyways, the guy I hired used all pex. Before paying him, I turned the tube on and my shower head would leak. Further research, it's because he used pex from the diverter to the tub spout. Anyways, I needed him to fix but obviously he wasn't going to cut the new tile. So he had access to the back of the shower portion. He ended up changing the tub spout that he has pex to copper, to 1/2 galvanized pipe and the pex from the diverter to the shower head 1/2 galvanized pipe. He fixed the issue which was great. But, obviously I wish it wasn't galvanized. Anyways is this a big issue for me or should I be okay for many years before it starts to break down?

  • @HAMRADIOJOE4178
    @HAMRADIOJOE4178 Год назад

    NICE WORK

  • @skim193
    @skim193 Год назад

    man... the wisdom

  • @armandomadrigal9793
    @armandomadrigal9793 Год назад

    My shower was doing the same thing, I installed a ball valve before the shower head

  • @todd2456
    @todd2456 Год назад

    Richard bolted before the pour lad could check the shower pressure. He will be back down in the basement by tonight to increase the pressure.

  • @blrando75
    @blrando75 10 месяцев назад

    What if it's occasionally only dripping out the head of faucet and not the shower head? 🤔 Like literally drip drip drip. Drip.....drip drip..then repeated ugh frustrating

  • @woodsmatful
    @woodsmatful Год назад +1

    Like how the caulk was removed first.

  • @joseluiscastaneda1398
    @joseluiscastaneda1398 Год назад

    THANK YOU VERY MUCH FRIENDS
    I WOULD LIKE TO KNOW MORE ABOUT EVERYTHING YOU DO IN THE CONSTRUCTION....... HERE WHERE I AM IT IS A CONSTANTLY RACE AGAINST TIME ....
    I AM CLOSE TO PASO TEXAS
    IF SOMEONE KNOWS HOW TO SPEAK IN ANOTHER LANGUAGE TELL ME WHAT IT IS

  • @eduardoig17
    @eduardoig17 Год назад +1

    That is not a solution for me. Now you have very low water pressure. What if someone wants to take a shower? Ill that even work now that there is lower then normal water pressure?

    • @oldtwinsna8347
      @oldtwinsna8347 Год назад +1

      Richard should put his head down in shame on this one. Absolutely ridiculous and unacceptable results. Not much different than if he were to just shut the entire water off and say, "hey, now you have no problem with the leak at all! I'm amazing!"

  • @virgil3241
    @virgil3241 Год назад

    Does the piece with the tub spout removed have no caulking, because there was no caulking on the tub spout itself to keep water from getting behind the wall. While this is a fix in the video, bath time will take forever with that super low pressure, and the shower as well we be basically low flow.. Shame the only real fix is to tear the tile off and do a proper valve, especially after a fresh renovation

  • @ShadowzGSD
    @ShadowzGSD Год назад +3

    nothing to do with pressure, pressure is the same even when turning the valves down, it is the flow rate that was the problem.

    • @jptrainor
      @jptrainor Год назад

      There's a pressure drop across the valve he closed. If there was a guage we'd see the drop. There's also a reduction in flow rate. They go hand in hand. The only difference between him closing the valve and putting in a pressure reducer is that the reducer is a valve that is regulated. Either way, it's still just a valve that gets closed.

  • @frankorzyszpon656
    @frankorzyszpon656 3 месяца назад

    My shower head drips a few minutes after use and stops several minutes later. Is there a fix for that?

  • @saulgoodman2018
    @saulgoodman2018 Год назад

    Won't not they be less pressure in the showerhead?

  • @tretre1692
    @tretre1692 Год назад +1

    I bet the home owner is extremely smart and is an engineer! Jealous of the “study!”

  • @alittlemoore1
    @alittlemoore1 Год назад +1

    If the valve was installed upside down, would it have caused the same effect with the water pressure having to overcome gravity?

    • @balkaraulakh5131
      @balkaraulakh5131 Год назад +3

      Nope

    • @kenmore01
      @kenmore01 Год назад +1

      That could be. Looking at how the water comes out of the larger hole down to the tub and if that's restricted, it goes through the smaller hole to the shower, if it was upside down, the tub water would have to flow through that restriction so it likely would back up to the shower.

    • @balkaraulakh5131
      @balkaraulakh5131 Год назад +1

      The ones I've come across had the same fitting top and bottom. Probably others that dont

    • @kenmore01
      @kenmore01 Год назад

      @@balkaraulakh5131 that is most likely a water saving thing. The o rings they put in shower heads to restrict water flow is too easy to defeat, so they probably started putting them in the valves.

  • @kenmore01
    @kenmore01 Год назад +6

    Not a fan of how this was solved.

  • @Bentz99
    @Bentz99 Год назад

    Now the shower won’t have pressure

  • @ja8898
    @ja8898 Год назад +4

    The professional goes to fix a machine, looks it over for a few minutes, then tightens one bolt. It works perfect. He sends a bill for $1,000. The client is furious! $1,000!? How do you figure, you just tightened one bolt!
    The professional says: 1 Bolt: $0.50. The years of experience to know which bolt: $999.50.
    That's Richard.

    • @monsterp.g.1741
      @monsterp.g.1741 Год назад

      I tried that with a customer from Indian he just wanted to give me 0.50 cents.😂

  • @oiboy626
    @oiboy626 Год назад

    By turning down isolation valves, you reduced the flow. Yes, solve the “high pressure” problem but you reduced the amount of water as well.
    We do a lot of irrigation out here in California and I see this a lot. People just turn down their valves to “reduce” their pressure but also limit the amount of flow in the system and wonder why their system is inefficient.

  • @richardwilliams5387
    @richardwilliams5387 Год назад

    There's nothing stopping the homeowner from saying "Wow. Thanks for fixing it but what about X?". They have limited screen time per segment per episode, There's every possibility the final result isn't in the edit they're just showing the fix in broad strokes.

  • @BrooksLorenson
    @BrooksLorenson 3 месяца назад

    Then the plumber leaves and you go to run a bath at night for your kid and you have a new problem. Bath time takes 2 hours for the tub to fill up enough and you get to call the plumber again 🙃

  • @larrymoore6640
    @larrymoore6640 Год назад

    I like a good strong shower, I think I would be disappointed.

  • @mrsoccergod5001
    @mrsoccergod5001 Год назад +1

    Hes gonna have no water pressure when it's time to shower

  • @ohasis8331
    @ohasis8331 Год назад

    That homeowner's water pressure has dropped right off. It would make for a lousy shower and take the bath forever to fill.

  • @kalijasin
    @kalijasin Год назад

    Now he got low volume 🙈

  • @Travis66421
    @Travis66421 Год назад

    Sounds like a shortcut to me. Not a "fix"

  • @justinballard7242
    @justinballard7242 Год назад

    He needs a pressure regulator

  • @johnlebzelter4208
    @johnlebzelter4208 Год назад +2

    Here come all the “pros” comments 😂

  • @powerg3824
    @powerg3824 Год назад +2

    What a bad fix, this is teaching people the wrong way to fix this issue

  • @BamBamBigelow.
    @BamBamBigelow. Год назад

    CRL soaking? Keep it cheap, guys😳

  • @sal5162
    @sal5162 Год назад

    Sacrafised water perssure for a "fix" no way!

  • @mikev.1034
    @mikev.1034 Год назад

    👍🤘🤙

  • @Guardducks
    @Guardducks Год назад

    I thought it was leaky shower, remodel bathroom. Well, that's what my wife says anyways.

  • @TheSlipperyNoodle
    @TheSlipperyNoodle Год назад

    Bet he has pex going down to the tub spout.

  • @pqrs_987
    @pqrs_987 Год назад

    complaining about the shower water pressure being too high.... first-world problems.... 🙄😒

  • @pmiller91
    @pmiller91 Год назад

    This is a bad explanation and bad solution.

  • @inthedarkwoods2022
    @inthedarkwoods2022 Год назад

    It was a cheap fix

  • @richardwilliams5387
    @richardwilliams5387 Год назад

    Love armchair "experts" critiquing someone doing things professionally for literal decades.

  • @Phys1gn
    @Phys1gn Год назад

    First comment 😊

    • @johnlebzelter4208
      @johnlebzelter4208 Год назад +2

      @Steven Davanna Awww do you want a wittle trophy? Will that make you feel better?

    • @Phys1gn
      @Phys1gn Год назад +1

      @@johnlebzelter4208 if you’re offering mate 😊 how kind of you

    • @johnlebzelter4208
      @johnlebzelter4208 Год назад +1

      @@Phys1gn Cleary your un-educated and don’t know what “sarcasm” is. Keep embarrassing yourself! No one cares who is first. You are just embarrassing yourself and making it easy to prey upon.

  • @Burps___
    @Burps___ Год назад

    Follow-up with homeowner: "Richard's solution worked, no more leaky shower head. I turned the valve back up to high so I can take a shower in something more than a sea mist, but at least I know I'm not losing my mind." 🧠🧼