We are installing a 9″ diameter rainhead shower. The supplylines to the mixer and the output lines are 3/4″, however the connection on the shower is 1/2″. My question is this – will it detract from teh eprformance of the showerhead to have this constraint?
There is a 26mm metric thread on the head – has anyone had any success getting a chrome pipe made with a 3/4″ male on one end, and the 26mm female on the other? Any sources for such one-off stuff?
David E
Replies
I'm installing a similar showerhead. Hate to disappoint, but there are a number of restricters and restrictions the head (3), as well as in the valve designed to reduce flow, save water, and overall make for a for less pleasurable showering experience. Since it is probably against the law, I won't remove or otherwise tamper with all the ones I found. Pressure balancing valves can't be modified. If you get the kind with two knobs they can be legally if you live outside the U.S. LOL.
Jon
Well - it is not against the law to remove them - the law may require them to be included in the head, in certain states. I can assure you that if I am paying many hundreds of dollars for a rainhead, I intend to have it function as designed. I have no doubt that there will be some here that will pillory me for such a stance ... that's their prerogative and it is mine to ignore them!
FWIW, the head we have had only the 1/2" "restrictor" and the valves had no flow restrictions
DME
After pulling out two ~.070" restrictors, I found still another .270" integral restriction. That one I'm going to have to CNC machine out. What brand of shower head did you go with? When I was looking it seemed impossible to to find anything that was easy to modify for increased flow except for the shower valves which seemed to be marketed as being for strictly as tub faucets. Even those had a similar restrictor that however, easily removed.
Jon
I bought the Jado showerhead - it has no restrictors, other than the reduction from 26mm to the 1/2" shower coupling - I thought about boring it out, but concluded that I would prefer to get a fitting made, if at all possible ...
Was that purchased in the U.S. with a U.S. warranty supplied by the mfr? Every shower head I looked at had gov. (mandated?)restrictors.
Jon
How much do you want to spend? Certainly any competent machine shop with a CNC lathe could whip one up in a jiffy out of stainless. Sounds like you might have bought a shower head not intended for sale in the U.S. (metric plumbing threads?) Just speculating.
Jon
Shouldn't have had to post twice, first didn't appear for ~5 minutes, so couldn't edit.
Edited 5/9/2003 8:04:48 PM ET by WorkshopJon