Not enough water from shower head - most of it coming from the faucet

Posted by on March 10, 2006, 10:04 pm

When I turn the water on in my shower it works just fine coming out of
the faucet, however when I turn the diverter to bring it through the
shower head, most of the water still drains from the faucet and there
is not enough water from the shower head.

Any suggestions about fixing this problem? I am thinking this is a
shower diverter issue but wondering what is the easiest way to fix it.

Thanks

Posted by on March 10, 2006, 10:17 pm

Could be a couple things. First if the house and pipes are old you may
have galvanized steel pipes, which corrode etc. These after a few
decades can have just a tiny stream of water able to pass thru.
SOlution is to rip them out and go pvc (or copper $$).

Also could be the shower head. Take it off and se ehow much water
comes out. Should be about the same as the faucet.

Also could be a bad valve.

If the house is old I bet on #1.

Posted by Joey on March 10, 2006, 10:45 pm

azavery@gmail.com wrote:

> When I turn the water on in my shower it works just fine coming out of
> the faucet, however when I turn the diverter to bring it through the
> shower head, most of the water still drains from the faucet and there
> is not enough water from the shower head.
>
> Any suggestions about fixing this problem? I am thinking this is a
> shower diverter issue but wondering what is the easiest way to fix it.
>
>
> Thanks
>

On the right track, but first if you're losing water out the faucet you
need to replace that first. Next take the shower head off and two
things there could be slowing the water down. First, the back side
screen area could have debris that is clogging it up. Next, calcium
buildup on the shower head could be causing a restriction. Best
solution there is just to put a new shower head on but you could clean
the old one by soaking it in something like CLR cleaner. Once you
replace the faucet/diverter turn on the water, pull the valve up and see
how much water comes out the shower with the head off. I'd bet there
will probably be plenty. If low water pressure is a problem in your
area buy one of the shower heads made for low pressure. I use on that
Lowes sells that is fairly small and looks cheap, but it does a good
job. It has a wire type lever on it so you can cut the water down or
completely off at the shower head. Good luck.

J

Posted by on March 11, 2006, 12:15 am

I replaced a pull-up faucet diverter with a new one after measuring 8% of
the water coming out of the faucet in shower mode. The new one leaked 6%,
so I replaced it with a brass quarter-turn valve. No leakage now.

Nick

Posted by jimmiefender@bellsouth.net on March 11, 2006, 12:13 pm

>>When I turn the water on in my shower it works just fine coming out of
>>the faucet, however when I turn the diverter to bring it through the
>>shower head, most of the water still drains from the faucet and there
>>is not enough water from the shower head.

> I replaced a pull-up faucet diverter with a new one after measuring 8% of
> the water coming out of the faucet in shower mode. The new one leaked 6%,
> so I replaced it with a brass quarter-turn valve. No leakage now.
> Nick

You.ve still got problems, Sounds like clogged plumbing to me. New fuacet
could have been bad too or you may not have enough water pressure to make
the pull up valve work.

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