LESLIE: Mary in North Carolina is not having a strong enough shower and that will just not do. How can we help you?
MARY: Hi, thanks for taking my call. Like you said, our problem is that the shower in the master bathroom doesn’t have enough pressure.
TOM: Mary, has it always been that way or does it seem to have gotten worse?
MARY: No, it’s always been that way.
TOM: Here’s what I want you to try to do. I want you to take off the shower head that you have right now and then turn the water on full blast. See what kind of water flies out of that pipe. That way you pull the shower head off. If you’ve got good flow then your problem is not the plumbing; the problem is the shower head.
That being said, now it’s time to look for a new shower head. I think you ought to take a look at the shower heads that are offered by the major manufacturers. Like Moen has some really good shower heads where you get a really good, comfortable shower without sacrificing a lot of extra water. In fact, they’ve got one called Enliven that we put up in our house. That was about like – I think it was like 25 bucks in Target and it did really, really well. It’s got like a spiral shower sort of pattern to it.
MARY: OK.
TOM: And you know, did a good job; didn’t use a lot of water and actually got us super-clean and comfortable. And it wakes you up in the morning.
LESLIE: And you know what? This whole WaterSense rating that’s – it’s major concern is water usage, what they’ve done is there’s sort of a new aeration technology that adds more air to the water as it’s coming out. So even though it’s using less water it feels highly pressurized so you don’t realize that there’s less water coming out. Hence you’re saving the environment but you’re still getting a good wash.
MARY: Well, that sounds great. So you don’t think it would be a more major problem like a leak or anything like that?
TOM: Not at all. Not at all and I think you’re going to prove that to yourself, Mary, when you take the shower head off and turn on the shower and watch how much water comes out of that pipe. I think you’ll be amazed.
MARY: OK. Well, thank you so much.
TOM: Alright, Mary. Good luck. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.
Leave a Reply