Best Way to Clean a Showerhead
When you turn the water on in your shower, you expect a nice, steady stream. But what happens when instead you have patchy water and an uneven stream? We all know how that can take away from a perfectly wonderful shower experience. Hard water is a problem for our Sacramento homeowners, and without proper care, it can do some damage to your showerhead. Because of this, we’re sharing the best way to clean a showerhead.
How Does Hard Water Affect the Showerhead?
Hard water leaves a lot of traces behind. Unfortunately, those traces have a negative impact on almost every faucet in your home. On your showerhead, hard water remains are more prevalent because of how much water passes through it on a daily basis.
Mineral deposits, such as calcium, magnesium, and lime, leave noticeable white chunks on your showerhead. They also clog the holes where water shoots out, leaving an uneven flow.
How Often Should I Clean a Showerhead?
There’s no set or specific timeframe in which you should clean a showerhead. It can depend on a variety of factors. For example, how many people live in your home, how often do they all shower?
Some households only need to clean their showerhead once every six weeks, for others, it’s every month. It all depends on your individual habits.
Another factor to consider is the amount of minerals in your water. There are easy ways to test at home. Online stores like Amazon and local stores like Ace or Home Depot all sell testing kits, some for even under $10. If you interested in improving the water in your home, one of our expert plumbers can test your water quality and provide you with different options to help improve the water you and your family shower with, as well as drink.
The Best Way Clean a Showerhead
Cleaning your showerhead is surprisingly easy. The best cleaning agents to use can be found in your pantry. The only things you need are white vinegar, a plastic food storage or sandwich bag, rubber band, washcloth, and an old toothbrush.
- Before you do anything, pour at least a cup of vinegar into a food storage bag. If your showerhead is a bit bigger, you’ll need a larger bag. The bag should comfortably fit over your showerhead.
- Wrap the vinegar filled bag around your showerhead. Add more vinegar to the plastic bag if your showerhead isn’t fully submerged.Secure the bag with a rubber band or zip tie. Make sure the bag can hang there for a while without getting loose.
- After the bag is secure, just let the whole thing soak for an hour or so. Because the vinegar needs to stay at room temperature, it can take a little longer than expected to fully clean the showerhead.The only exception to this rule is if you have a brass, gold or nickel coated showerhead. Don’t leave the bag on for over 30 minutes. Anything longer than a half an hour can damage the finish.
- Now that you’ve waited the proper amount of time, the next step is to remove the bag and give the showerhead a very gentle scrub. Take the bag off and use an old toothbrush—or something equally soft—to gently scrub anything off the showerhead.
- Finally, wipe everything down and test the shower. Turn on the water and see how it flows. If it’s looking good, you’re ready for a nice, luxurious shower.
Want an easy way to do some routine maintenance? Simply fill a spray bottle with equal parts water and white vinegar. Put the spray bottle in your bathroom and give the showerhead a nice spritz every so often.
The “Do Not Use” List
It may be easy to look at a bottle of bleach and say, “that’ll do.” However, there are a few things that you should never use on your showerhead.
Despite what many may think, bleach actually fosters bacteria growth. At Bell Brothers, we do not recommend using this on your showerhead.
We also advice against using any premade or premixed chemical cleaner. While the packaging may be promising, the chemicals are so harsh they can easily damage your showerhead.
The last thing we advise against is a hard brush. Anything that’s more course than the used toothbrush has the potential to scrape and leave permanent streaks all over your nice showerhead.
For any major plumbing fixes, give the experts at Bell Brothers a call! We serve communities in Sacramento, Stockton, Vacaville, and the East Bay. Simply dial the number at the top of the screen or click here to book online.