Shower Head for Outdoor Shower

[DrRod]

We built an open-top outdoor shower a couple of years ago --sort of like the Green Acres prototype. It has been a blessing but the holes in the keep clogging. I've thread punching them out with needles et al but they stay clogged. I think the solution is a plastic head. When I review them on Amazon I see "high pressure" and a few "high flow" [2.5 gph] but I'm not sure what this means. We have plenty of water pressure and have our own well [that benefits from more usage] so water conservation is not a factor. I just want a head [preferably hand held] that will blast the dirt off me. Any advice is appreciated.

 

[PILOON]

Sounds to me like U need to do some filtering.
I also had a similar problem as I use lake water and it contains fine suspended particles.
After trying different filter cartridges that all clogged rapidly I happened upon the idea of using a pool filter.
It simply uses a fine nylon mesh to capture the fine particles and as a rule only needs cleaning every 2-3 months which I do so with a simple bottle brush.
Only recently I gambled and tossed my spare older filter in the dish washer and it came out just like new.
Only problem is adapting the pool filter housing down to normal household pipe size but that's doable.

Having returned to this thread I've noted that another poster used the proper term.
The filter I used is called 'a spin down filter'.

 

[Username Taken]

How about an RV Filter??

 

[DrRod]

You could be right but I assumed the clogging was from corrosion.

 

[Doofy]

You could be right but I assumed the clogging was from corrosion.

or...minerals.

 

[ning]

or...minerals.

If it's clogging quickly it's probably filterable; filter it and you may still have long-term precipitate from minerals, but that's going to be on the order of years most likely.

Consider at a minimum putting a 40 or 100 mesh spin-down filter early in the pipeline (just after the pressure tank - yeah you'd love to filter before the pressure tank but if the filter clogs your well pump won't shut off and you'll torch the pump) and it'll improve all of the water in your system, not just the shower.

 

[ponytug]

You might consider a spin down filter like this for sediment, though I wonder if the issue isn't hard water. I toss ours in a baggie with water and citric acid for a few hours. (Use a rubber band to hold it on, and don't for get to remove it before turning on the water.)

All the best, Peter

 

[CalG]

We built an open-top outdoor shower a couple of years ago --sort of like the Green Acres prototype. It has been a blessing but the holes in the keep clogging. I've thread punching them out with needles et al but they stay clogged. I think the solution is a plastic head. When I review them on Amazon I see "high pressure" and a few "high flow" [2.5 gph] but I'm not sure what this means. We have plenty of water pressure and have our own well [that benefits from more usage] so water conservation is not a factor. I just want a head [preferably hand held] that will blast the dirt off me. Any advice is appreciated.

Soak the head in vinegar. If it flows freely. Minerals had built up.

 

[Cougsfan]

Seems like some of the new shower heads with little rubber nubbins for the individual holes work really well for mineral build up and probably for small contaminates too. When they plug with mineral deposits you just rub them a bit with your finger to unplug them.

 

[plowhog]

You might consider a spin down filter like this for sediment

This is really good advice. I just installed this exact filter in-line with my water line going to my yard sprinklers. I got tired of the yard sprinklers getting clogged from sediment from the well.

This filter works great, it's easy to see when debris has been trapped, and easy to clean.

 

[plowhog]

Seems like some of the new shower heads with little rubber nubbins for the individual holes work really well

More good advice. We installed these when we built our home two years ago. If you detect any clogging, you just rub your hand across the shower head and it quickly goes back to normal.

 

[TheMan419]

We have Amazon.com: Tier1 Replacement for P5-20 5 Micron 20 x 2.5 Spun Wound Polypropylene Sediment Water Filter 6-Pack: Kitchen & Dining followed by a water softener. The water in the house is great when both are working. You can tell when you forgot to refill the salt in the softener or when the filter needs changed out.

Filter change is easy. Takes all of 5 minutes and that is if you forget to bring a trash bag down with you and have to go back upstairs to get one. The filter is a wet dirty slimy mess when you take it out.

All of this is plumbed after the blue expansion tank.

 

[MossRoad]

We built an open-top outdoor shower a couple of years ago --sort of like the Green Acres prototype. It has been a blessing but the holes in the keep clogging. I've thread punching them out with needles et al but they stay clogged. I think the solution is a plastic head. When I review them on Amazon I see "high pressure" and a few "high flow" [2.5 gph] but I'm not sure what this means. We have plenty of water pressure and have our own well [that benefits from more usage] so water conservation is not a factor. I just want a head [preferably hand held] that will blast the dirt off me. Any advice is appreciated.

As others have mentioned, it's probably 1 of 2 things, or both:
Sediment
Minerals in the water

Have you determined what is actually plugging it up yet?

 

[RalphVa]

Here are pictures of the outside shower valve together and with the "fan" end unscrewed. Very easy to maintain. Have a 2 1/2 gallon "Tiny Titan" hot water heater on the cold water from the outdoor spigot; so, needed a low flow, but it still has a "blast" to it. Water fans out from that cone that unscrews.

Think I bought it years ago at either Lowes or Home Depot.

 

[cqaigy2]

That looks like a good setup. So is the screen clogging too?

 

[skipmarcy]

When I did our indoor shower floor tile several years ago I bought a simple PVC showerhead from Lowes to use as a shower on our back porch for the duration of the job. Extremely simple, cheap and you can easily drill the water inlet orfice out to any size you want for good flow. I made up a double female garden hose to hook to our laundry sink in our attached garage to run out to the porch. The shower head worked so well I got rid of the expensive shower head with all those little nipples and put the PVC one in our main shower. Every couple of months we soak it in some bleach water to get rid of the red build-up from the clear water iron from our well. Our house has a 5 micron sediment filter so solids aren't a problem for us.