How can I increase volume for large rain shower head

Plumbing Forums

Help Support Plumbing Forums:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Frodo that's assuming using 100% hot water not mixed with cold

you could be correct. i think at 2 gpm you will deplete the hot water in 20 minutes or less.
with a mixed ration of 50/50

these figures i pulled out of the air. they are assumptions

see if you can find a formula, would be nice to have/know
 
I'm not overly concerned about the amount of water usage at this point. The house is almost 10 years old so a new hot water heater is probably on the horizon. I'm trying to do things one at a time so I don't get overwhelmed.

So am I right in assuming these numbers work for this shower head?
 
I'm remodeling my shower and have a 12in rain shower head I want to use. I installed a smaller version 6in in the other shower and the volume isn't too bad. It doesn't spray with much force but a decent amount of water does come out. I'm concerned the larger 12in isn't going to work. I have a standard Moen thermostatic valve with 1/2in pex coming in. The builders also stubbed out additional hot and cold lines and capped them.

My question is how can I have an increase volume shower head? Do I need to add the additional pex lines or can I increase the size from 1/2in to 3/4in from the valve to the shower head?

Thanks!

From another angle, the high pressure shower head can help solve the problem of low water pressure. When I first moved into my current house, the same problems kept bugging me. Then the shower head helped me solve this problem. I opened the shower and there was no water leakage, but it was stressful. I laughed. This is the moment I have been waiting for.
 
Here's a thought...maybe just changing your mixing valve will help. That's a WHOLE LOT easier than changing your plumbing lines from 1/2" PEX to 3/4".

I've used Delta mixing valves in recent years; I used to use Symmons but they were becoming hard to find and very costly.

https://www.deltafaucet.com/files/l...custom-shower/Delta Flow Chart 2018-06-27.pdf

Delta makes a "high flow" shower model, part number R10000-UNBXHF, and I've used that. It provided so much pressure through 1/2" copper that I needed to install a small reducer at the shower head so I wasn't wasting SO MUCH water.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00HSWPYIG/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_U_yAs6Db3W1K99X

This is not a political statement, just a fact: government agencies along with manufacturers are instituting all kinds of regulations designed for conservation of water. Years ago, it was low-flow toilets, and I remember people used to go to Canada to buy a new toilet that would actually flush. Washing machines today--read the reviews of some of them--don't allow you to control the amount of water in the tub; the machine calculates that, and some complaints on Whirlpool and Kenmore models indicate that some clothes never got wet! So, people have to use the "deep fill" mode. Same thing with faucets--and yes even mixing valves. Flow rates are reduced over yesteryear. You should NOT need 3/4" PEX; you can get plenty of flow through 1/2" PEX but it doesn't have the exact capacity of 1/2" copper--but with the right head, and the right mixing valve you should be OK. Where's the water saving if you have to flush a toilet twice, or have to deep-fill your washing machine each time you use it?

My current home is on well and septic. I always thought that it was the well pump and tank that were the culprits behind low flow everything in this house. While that's part of the story, if I go to the tub in this house and turn on the water full blast it's coming out at copious volume and pressure, considerably more than would be needed for a shower or sink. Thus, I reported in another thread that I went to the 'Depot and bought the highest-flow (2.2 GPM) aerators and changed them in ALL my faucets; note that they had a LOT of aerators but only two in a 2.2 gpm model. This made a world of difference. I drilled out the reducers in the shower heads. My biggest concern now is the brand new Moen Hensley faucet I bought for the powder/laundry room upgrade. The supply lines, integral, are 3/8" OD, and the ID is no more than 1/8". Honest. 1.2 GPM. Good enough for brushing teeth and washing hands, and that's about it.

So, take a good look at your shower's mixing valve and ensure that it is a High-Flow model; if not, I'd change that before I change all the plumbing.
 
Not sure if you noticed but this tread is almost a year old.
But maybe the person will see it and let us know what they ended up doing and how it worked out.

BTW...The rain shower heads are no different than other shower heads. They are design to limit the flow to the limits required by the code. So first thing you do is remove/revise whatever was designed into the head to meet code. Then you make sure you have a mixing valve that allows a higher flow rate.

And changing out short distance of 1/2" pipe to 3/4" pipe, with the flows we are talking about, don't amount to enough savings in pressure to make much of a difference in providing additional flow rate.

I hope there are no professional plumbers in this thread. I don't think they would like violating the code requirements.;)
 
@Diehard, I did NOT notice the date of this thread--it was popping up in my daily summary! Why would such an old thread do that?

A number of professional plumbers (yes ones with licences and certifications) are the ones who have guided me in some of this. They do NOT want call backs. They do NOT want people calling them about showers that dribble not enough water, or toilets that don't flush, or flow so low that aerators don't aerate. They are the ones who can and often do come up with these work arounds so that people like us can make products work better. While they cannot make a modern washing machine behave like a good solid working one of 20 years ago, they CAN figure out how to get the flow necessary for a good shower!
 
I believe the person before you caused you to get the pop up notice.

My Maytag washing machine is going on 30 years now. We did have one repair done to it many years ago. It seems to be getting weaker these days but so am I. :D Not sure if I should replace it or not. It may outlast me.:eek:
 
I had a Kenmore washer and dryer for 26 years.
Bought in 1987.
I had to replace the motor in both of them at only one week old, due to a basement flood, from almost a week without a/c power after a big storm.
I think Whirlpool might have made them, not sure.

After that, they ran great, despite well water and being in a damp basement.
And usually running pretty overloaded, haha.

I moved out in 2004, and sold them on Craigslist for $75.00.
My ad said to bring a helper, I would not assist.
The buyer was scrawny and arrived alone.
So I helped move both units up the basement stairs.
He lost his grip on the dryer and it tumbled back down all the stairs.
I hooked it up again for a test, no problems at all!
 
LOL

I hope you added a little to the price.

On the other hand, the other person probably wanted you to reduce the price due to the tumble down the stairs.

On the third hand you probably already had the money for them so it was a done deal.
 
Back
Top