Nothing is ever simple
While the lad was home for the holidays, we had a slight mishap in the bathroom. He was trying to hang a couple of heavy wet sweatshirts from the shower head when it cracked. It wasn’t a bad enough crack to warrant going right out to replace it, but the crack grew worse from the water pressure over the past couple of weeks. So, yesterday was the day to replace it.
I found one at Lowe’s. Just a basic chrome plated brass water saving shower head with an on/off switch. It delivers about 1.2 gallons of water per minute at my water pressure and it delivers a fine, but forceful spray. Quite nice, really.
I brought the shower head and the Teflon tape home and proceeded to remove the cracked one. Welll. It was stuck for the ages. I got out my small assortment of wrenches and tried to get that sucker off. It wouldn’t budge. I contorted myself in many different pretzel positions to gain enough leverage to wrench it off without breaking the rest of the plumbing. No go. It.Was.Stuck.
After using up my bad word vocabulary and trying a little more, I decided it might be a good idea to consult the internet. How to remove a stuck shower head. First hit led me to a page that gave me two possible options. If there was evidence of rust, I should apply WD-40. I have WD-40. Unfortunately, no rust. If there was evidence of lime deposit, I should use CLR. I definitely had lime deposits, but no CLR, I didn’t even know what CLR was.
Funny. I talked with a friend this afternoon. She is the most unhandy person alive. But she knew what CLR was and knew exactly where I could get it.
So, I set out to get a bottle of CLR. And an adjustable wrench with a smaller grip. And a pair of pliers, just in case. Somehow, several of my wrenches and my lone pair of pliers disappeared. Right about the time the lad left for college. Coincidence?
I brought my little stash home and spritzed the CLR on the old shower head. The above mentioned directions said to let it sit for 15 minutes or so. I went to do a couple of other things while it worked its magic. Fifteen or so minutes later, I twisted myself into a pretzel shape again and applied my brand new wrench. I gave it a good twist and almost ended up flat on shower floor. That CLR stuff works like a charm. The shower head came off so easily I probably wouldn’t even have needed a wrench. I was expecting some resistance and there wasn’t any. Nice.
Then I cleaned off the threads on the pipe and wrapped it in Teflon tape and screwed on the new shower head. It wouldn’t go on. The gasket/washer was too large. You would think that a manufacturer would include the right sized washer, wouldn’t you? I had to dig deep into the trash to find the old one. Waayyyy down in the bottom of the trash bag. Ick. I washed it off and looked it over...seemed in good shape. I stuck that in and replaced the Teflon tape that I’d torn to shreds. And tried again. It worked. Perfectly. Finally.
It only took two days to replace a simple shower head, but I did it. Nothing leaks, either. Yay me. Now I can save even more water. And maybe extend my navy shower to three and a half minutes. Oooh, luxury.
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And, by the way, we are having a snow storm (6-8 inches) tomorrow. See my radiantly happy face? 
CLR or CLR Bathroom and Kitchen Cleaner (I bought that...it seemed more all-purpose). I got mine at K-Mart. I think some grocery stores carry it, too.
Posted by Kate on 02/22/08 at 02:12 AM
Thank you. I’ll look for it and report back if I find it and it works. 
Is anything every easy? Look, I am sitting upright!!! Woo Hoo! I am sure I only have a few more minutes but I’ll take it anyway. E told me you called and that you had the flu. He has had my cell since last week. I am wondering if I will ever get it back lol. Well time is up. Ahhhh but it was nice to sit upright again!!!!!
Posted by justme on 02/22/08 at 07:20 AM
Good luck, Linkmeister! If your frustration level is anything like mine was (and if this stuff works for you), you’ll be doing happy dances all over the house.
J! You’ve surfaced. Good for you. Now take it easy and heal as quickly as you can. I need your hellllpppp!
Posted by Kate on 02/22/08 at 12:14 PM
Yay for you, I AM impressed!! I shall write down CLR somewhere so when I need it I will be able to find it!
I see your face, now see mine. Snowing since 7AM or so and getting heavier and heavier--I would guess there is at least 6 or 7” so far and it is wet snow--just got back in, had to take my mother to hairdressers and then I went to work. Roads are AWFUL. AND, adding to my misery my house is freaking cold. You see.......somewhere after 10 or so last night my furnace went off.....gremlins, I guess. And of course no one else in the house ever notices ANYTHING. I came down around 6AM and thought it was unusually cold - it was, it was only 54! I went back to bed thinking that the furnace was still on shutback and heat would come up shortly! Wrong!! Heat was on permanent shutback I guess cause when I came back down at 7:30 it was 53! So the cat and I went down cellar to check. Luckily I just happened to know where the reset button was (we had a new furnace about two years ago and the plumber had shown me) and miracle of miracles, it worked. Furnace came on and so did the heat. BUT, it is taking forever for the house to warm up which makes me think it was off since 10 or so last night. Brrrrrrrrr!
Posted by cyn on 02/22/08 at 05:25 PM
About 5 inches here, so far. And it’s coming straight down for about the first time this season. No sideways snow. It’s kind of pretty coming down softly and lazily. Not that I’m all enamored with the prospect of shoveling it, though. And yeah, 53 degrees is pretty chilly. So glad your furnace wasn’t broken! And that you were home. Imagine going away for a weekend and coming home to goodness knows what.
Posted by Kate on 02/22/08 at 06:01 PM
Well, it is bright outside. And clean and pretty and that is all I shall say about it. We ended up with at least 8-10” I guess. Hard to tell, am looking at the railing on the deck, but it ended up so wet and heavy that it compressed a lot. ENOUGH!! I am so over cold weather, snow, winter it is not funny. Most of our friends have gone to warmer places for a few months, but us?? Not us, we are still here!! Damn fools that we are! Older son texted me last night to say he was walking in his first snow of the season--he works in NYC during the week, has a corporate apartment there and then goes back to DC on the weekends to his other apartment. He was being a wiseass of course, his “walk” was from his apartment to the train to go back....I guess I never realized that close as it is, NYC does not get the snow we get. Such a shame 
Posted by cyn on 02/23/08 at 11:46 AM
We have about the same amount of snow here. And it is pretty. But it’s SNOW. And someone has to shovel it. I suppose that someone would be me. Harrumph. I don’t know if I’m going to last until spring. Sometimes I think spring is a myth perpetrated on us to make us suffer even more. Do we ever really have a spring around here?
Posted by Kate on 02/23/08 at 01:55 PM
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Hey, no fair! What is CLR and where do you get it? I’ve got a stuck shower head too!