Workplace shower hose lightweight troubleshooting
March 12, 2025 12:01 PM Subscribe
The hose of a handheld showerhead I use is leaky on the non-showerhead end, but hand-tightening the hose connector to stop the leak stops the flow from the showerhead. complication: it’s at my workplace so I don’t want to do anything drastic.
I take a shower at work most days, in an under-maintained shower room that only a few people use (shh, secret). It has a handheld showerhead with a hose with an issue I’m trying to very casually fix.
The hose is quite leaky on the non-showerhead end closest to the wall, and the hose connector on that end isn’t very tight, which makes it seem like a “there’s your problem”. But when I hand-tighten/twist the end connector to tighten the connection of the wall pipe to the hose, the showerhead pressure drops, and the flow from the showerhead stops entirely if I turn the end connector to a point where the leak stops.
Because this is a very minimally used shower at my workplace and there’s not going to be funding to get it truly fixed, and I don’t want to get a response of “wait, there is a shower room here? let’s turn it into an office!” I’m exploring whether there’s any lightweight DIY tweaks I can do without making the leaking worse. I’m not going to do anything big. This isn’t a shower-ruining issue, just a mild ongoing annoyance of shower room floor flooding and deciding on the day’s balance of floor-water vs showering-water.
The setup is basically the one on the right side of this image, with the two-part connector on the wall end, but my wall end connector is more ridged/grippier.
I’m able to connect/disconnect the hose by hand without issue. I made a very brief attempt to use a wrench to tighten the second part of the connector that connects to the very end/wall side part but couldn’t move it separately from the wall end part. A while ago I replaced the ancient teflon tape that was on the wall side connector threads to no effect. Based on general internet advice I just checked and adjusted the rubber washer in the wall end connector on the hose and that stopped an ongoing horizontal spraying/squealing problem that was also going on, but that didn’t affect the leaking vs pressure thing.
I’m willing to buy and try a new hose if I can find the same one since it would be easy to put the old one back in case of error but I don’t want to go much further than that. It doesn’t seem to be a problem on the showerhead end, but I could be wrong, and I’m also fine if the answer is “it’s not yours, leave it alone, don’t make it worse, you are lucky it works at all!” but if there’s a simple fix I’m missing it would be so lovely to feel like I have control over literally anything right now, ha.
I take a shower at work most days, in an under-maintained shower room that only a few people use (shh, secret). It has a handheld showerhead with a hose with an issue I’m trying to very casually fix.
The hose is quite leaky on the non-showerhead end closest to the wall, and the hose connector on that end isn’t very tight, which makes it seem like a “there’s your problem”. But when I hand-tighten/twist the end connector to tighten the connection of the wall pipe to the hose, the showerhead pressure drops, and the flow from the showerhead stops entirely if I turn the end connector to a point where the leak stops.
Because this is a very minimally used shower at my workplace and there’s not going to be funding to get it truly fixed, and I don’t want to get a response of “wait, there is a shower room here? let’s turn it into an office!” I’m exploring whether there’s any lightweight DIY tweaks I can do without making the leaking worse. I’m not going to do anything big. This isn’t a shower-ruining issue, just a mild ongoing annoyance of shower room floor flooding and deciding on the day’s balance of floor-water vs showering-water.
The setup is basically the one on the right side of this image, with the two-part connector on the wall end, but my wall end connector is more ridged/grippier.
I’m able to connect/disconnect the hose by hand without issue. I made a very brief attempt to use a wrench to tighten the second part of the connector that connects to the very end/wall side part but couldn’t move it separately from the wall end part. A while ago I replaced the ancient teflon tape that was on the wall side connector threads to no effect. Based on general internet advice I just checked and adjusted the rubber washer in the wall end connector on the hose and that stopped an ongoing horizontal spraying/squealing problem that was also going on, but that didn’t affect the leaking vs pressure thing.
I’m willing to buy and try a new hose if I can find the same one since it would be easy to put the old one back in case of error but I don’t want to go much further than that. It doesn’t seem to be a problem on the showerhead end, but I could be wrong, and I’m also fine if the answer is “it’s not yours, leave it alone, don’t make it worse, you are lucky it works at all!” but if there’s a simple fix I’m missing it would be so lovely to feel like I have control over literally anything right now, ha.
I'd clean out the mesh screen, remove all the possible connections, put on plumber's tape, then put the connections back together.
posted by berkshiredogs at 12:54 PM on March 12
posted by berkshiredogs at 12:54 PM on March 12
In my experience, shower hoses don’t typically use the sort of connection for which teflon tape is appropriate. The tape can cause leaks if used where it doesn’t belong. Cleaning the screen and checking the condition of the rubber seal is a good idea, but I’d clean out the shreds of Teflon tape and reassemble without it.
posted by jon1270 at 2:05 PM on March 12 [1 favorite]
posted by jon1270 at 2:05 PM on March 12 [1 favorite]
A shower head with hose is like $20 at a big box store, and you can remove with a tiny wrench. The hoses are also generally interchangeable, so I'd probably change out the hose with a new one, and keep the existing head. If it doesn't work, return it.
posted by The_Vegetables at 2:37 PM on March 12 [2 favorites]
posted by The_Vegetables at 2:37 PM on March 12 [2 favorites]
As for the screen, you can probably just remove it—retaining it in case it gets worse instead of better.
posted by Gilgamesh's Chauffeur at 4:25 PM on March 12
posted by Gilgamesh's Chauffeur at 4:25 PM on March 12
You might also need to replace the rubber washer. That what seals the end. Home depot will do you one for a couple of dollars, I would expect.
posted by How much is that froggie in the window at 11:21 PM on March 12
posted by How much is that froggie in the window at 11:21 PM on March 12
You are not logged in, either login or create an account to post comments
Leaving the connection loose enough to be leaky lets water bypass the screen. Clean or replace the screen if that's what's happening.
posted by jamjam at 12:33 PM on March 12