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I have a leaking Water Pik Shower Massage shower head (see attached photo). This thing is OLD - maybe more than 25 years since it was installed.
I have a new one to replace it, but for the life of me I can't see how to get this old one off. Turning it does not unscrew it. It seems as if the metal hood that is on the pipe above the shower head is covering whatever nut is holding the shower head on.
I sure would appreciate it if anyone has had experience removing one of these and can give me a tip as to how to begin uninstalling it.
It looks like it might be a single piece back into the wall. In that case, you would need to unscrew the actual pipe that the head is on.
Don't worry! Not as big of a deal as you might think. Pop up the flange you should have on the wall-end of the pipe. Behind that should be a small opening in the wall board that allows the shower head pipe to connect to the water line. Unscrew it at that point and screw in a new shower head (with pipe).Make sure to wrap the end in teflon tape for a good seal.
Thanks BackyardZoo. The flange easily moves down, so I will take a careful look in there. The hole in the wallboard is pretty small though - that flange is only 2.5 inches in diameter.
Was it common for showerheads to come with the short pipe already attached back in the late 70's? If that's how it is installed I guess I have to go find one of those short pipes.
I thought that might be the case, so I have been reluctant to use any muscle on the showerhead for fear I would get into an emergency situation.
I don't know about the typical showerhead styles, but it is still a common way to 'stub out' a shower. They stick a cheap piece of capped copper pipe where the showerhead pipe attaches until the sheetrock, etc is up so that the real pipe doesn't get messed up (not to mention the straight piece of copper is easier to slide the sheetrock onto vs the curved showerhead). The exposed pipe is typically prettier, but not as tough as the rest of the pipe, so they leave it easy to replace :-)
Nice thing about a showerhead, though - the water shut off is right at your faucet so any 'emergencies' can only get but so bad ;-)
Well, I bought a new chrome threaded pipe and will give a go at removing the whole assembly tomorrow.
What I still don't get though, is this is not the original shower head - my brother installed it in the 70s, in place of the one that was installed when the house was built. Hard to believe they would have removed and replaced the whole pipe and head assembly just to get a Shower Massage installed. But I'm darned if I can find a way to get the Shower Massage head off the pipe.
Just wanted to follow up in case others have the same shower head. I was able to remove the old pipe with very little muscle. Inspecting the head/pipe assembly, it sure does appear as if it is not able to be disassembled - I see no threads at the junction of the pipe and the Shower Massage by Water Pik shower head, and even if there were, there is nothing to grasp on the shower head to hold it steady while turning the pipe. I think it was sold as a one-piece assembly.
I put Teflon tape on the new pipe, screwed it in, and the last couple of turns were tough, but I didn't want to have any leak behind the wall at the water line connection. I tested it by pushing a paper towel in up against the joint and letting the shower run for a while - the paper was dry when I took it out, so I think I'm good to go - if I can just get used to this 2.5 gpm flow rate. I might take the new head back off and look to see if there are any easily removable flow limiting thingys in there.
Yeah, the low-flow ones may be great for the water companies, but I can't stand them either. I've 'fixed' more than one by removing the flow inhibitor (or adjusting it with a small drill bit ;-) )
