Help - shower head replace

[Lee]

I agree! Get a longer spanner!

Originally Posted by rpsastronomy

Are you sure the pipe is twisting? get a spanner on there and just unscrew it, it should come it just needs a bit of grunt don,t be shy.
I do maintenance at a good size hotel motel and sometimes you think its bloody tight but with grunt they will come undone...just do it!!

[Ian Robinson]

Originally Posted by erick

Are you guys sure there isn't a solution that doesn't involve partial or total destruction? I want it disconnected without damaging anything. All I want to do is insert a two way valve and put a flexible hose and shower head on as well as the existing showerhead. Yes I didn't say that earlier, but I didn't want to complicate the story.

(And when I finish renting and move on, to reverse the process! So I need the existing showerhead without a scratch on it.)

It cannot be corroded on - this property doesn't even show on Google Earth - it is about two years old - max.

Here's what it looks like - quite standard.

It's a rented house - you definitely don't want to get too agressive with it then , this includes heating it - if you bugger up the seals or the nice (probably fake?) chrome finish , or break or crack a tile , or bust a pipe , you've blown your bond and the landlord will be pissed.

I'd put up with the existing shower head if original wont EASILY come off.

[erick (Eric)]

Originally Posted by Ian Robinson

It's a rented house - you definitely don't want to get too agressive with it then , this includes heating it - if you bugger up the seals or the nice (probably fake?) chrome finish , or break or crack a tile , or bust a pipe , you've blown your bond and the landlord will be pissed.

I'd put up with the existing shower head if original wont EASILY come off.

That's my current thinking. I'm already using a few layers of cloth between the big shifter and the nut to avoid damage. I'll check out a few things this weekend - may try the WD40 and differential heating, but boiling water is the best I can do.

I was expecting and easy job and it should have been if it had only teflon tape on it and enough of it!

Thanks everyone. I'll know where to go if I have a demolition job coming up!

[Ian Robinson]

Originally Posted by erick

That's my current thinking. I'm already using a few layers of cloth between the big shifter and the nut to avoid damage. I'll check out a few things this weekend - may try the WD40 and differential heating, but boiling water is the best I can do.

I was expecting and easy job and it should have been if it had only teflon tape on it and enough of it!

Thanks everyone. I'll know where to go if I have a demolition job coming up!

I'd be willing to bet that landlord has taken the teflon tape off and applied Loctite to the threads to seal it and make sure the shower head stays put. Or ordered the plumber to solder it on for keeps.

If so - the only way you'll get it off will be "dramatic".

[GTB_an_Owl (Geoff)]

get the landlord to replace it ?

geoff

[TrevorW]

Forget what I said previously just do it !!! no don't you'll regret it (trust me I've been there)

[alex79]

a mighty heave should get it off as you cannot bend the pipe behind the tiles as the shower head should be the top of that pipe.

if concernedrun hot water ( as hot as it gets) thro the head turn it off nad make the nut move a lil
then cold tio cool copper then undo it

its properly the pumpers tape was used and abused when they put the head on as for it bending i cannot see how it could be bending, moving around yes but not bending a photo will help tho

Alex

[Ian Robinson]

Originally Posted by GTB_an_Owl

get the landlord to replace it ?

geoff

If I were the landlord , and it was brand new (less than 2 years old) and working properly , I would refuse to replace it.

[snowyskiesau]

Originally Posted by GTB_an_Owl

get the landlord to replace it ?

geoff

You could try telling the landlord you want to install a water efficient shower head. If they're paying for water then it's an advantage to them.

[Not sure if tenants pay water bills these days. I rent and I don't pay for water]

[erick (Eric)]

Lucky man! In our lease, landlord pays water service costs, I pay water usage costs. He's already made a point of telling us that though it looks like an old-fashioned drench showerhead, it has a "constrictor" in it to give lower water usage. So I cannot use that argument.

Leave it all with me. If I can budge it with some simple tricks I will. But no mighty heaves or huge spanners - the mixer pipe will bend and probably crack behind the tiles. I have every sense that there is one crappy nail through one of the mounting holes half-banged in and bent over!

Aside: I miss being in my own home where I could bang holes in walls, hooks in walls without a worry in the world! And ensure out-of-sight jobs were done properly. But such is life at the moment.

[snowyskiesau]

I moved in to the place I'm currently renting about 19 years ago and back then, the 'user pays' system was not that common so no charge for water.
While I rent here in Sydney, I have a rental property in rural NSW for which the tenant also does not pay for water. Seemed the fair thing to do.

As a tenant, I do all the maintenance for the landlord *
As a landlord though, I don't want my tenant to do this - bit of a double standard I know

* Except electrical or plumbing 'cos the landlord is a plumber and his son is an electrican

[erick (Eric)]

I've given up - end of story. Let it soak with some WD40 outside and inside. Hit the outside with boiling water. Still won't budge - just bends the mixer pipe behind the tiles. No new flexible hose shower head for us.

But yesterday I went back to my old place (kids living there) and easily pulled the head off the shower unit there to do effectively the same job - no problem and it had been in place for about 9 years! But I know the mixer head is well mounted to the battens and nothing but teflon tape was used - I was owner-building and was a pain of an inspector of the tradies' work!