Are screw threads on shower hoses a standard size ?

peterwalkley · 28 Feb 2014 at 09:14

A question for the plumbers out there.

I have a problem with our shower leaking from the join between the hose and the shower head. Its about 10 years old, so probably easier to replace the hose and the head rather than faffing trying to seal it.

Unfortunately there is nothing I can find on either the head or the hose to say what make it is - so googling for the replacement isn't going to fly - and from some browsing of B&Q and screwfix I can't see anything looking exactly identical.

Does anyone know if the screw threads for these things are 'standard' ? i.e. If I buy something looking ok, will I be able to screw the other end of the hose into the mixer handset on the wall ?

Its a simple manual mixer - no fancy temperature settings or anything.

Nightglow · 28 Feb 2014 at 09:34

Yes.

There should be a rubber washer seated in the shower hose connector, these fail, it's should be the same size for all hoses.

http://www.screwfix.com/p/flexible-rubber-shower-washers-pack-of-20/60606?_requestid=46790

pitchfork · 28 Feb 2014 at 10:36

Just replace the washer?

Hell, you could probably wrap a bit of ptfe around the threads and seal it that way, cost, about 20p.

Nightglow · 28 Feb 2014 at 10:55

Pack of 5 washers,

http://www.toolstation.com/shop/Plumbing/Washers & Fixings/Shower Hose Washer/d20/sd2703/p38969

peterwalkley · 28 Feb 2014 at 11:14

Cheers Gents

I found some washers lurking in the garage and its certainly better after a quick 5 minute fiddle. The missus will hopefully stop whinging now.

Thank-you for the loan of the man card. Typical programmer - I was over-engineering the solution.

Millwall.FC · 28 Feb 2014 at 23:04

pitchfork said:
Just replace the washer?

Hell, you could probably wrap a bit of ptfe around the threads and seal it that way, cost, about 20p.

Wouldn't work they leak from the joint not the thread.

peterwalkley · 1 Mar 2014 at 10:50

Completely sorted. New washer + PTFE and zero leakage now. Thank-you again.

PTFE was 48p from B&Q

Cambofrog · 1 Mar 2014 at 11:13

As an aside,
Polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), has one of the lowest coefficients of friction against any solid.

Oh yes:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polytetrafluoroethylene

It's ****ing awsome.

Tefal · 24 Aug 2015 at 07:00

epic bump, but the shower head on our combined bath taps has been useless for ages (hose is all split) i like having a shower head are they just a standard size?

think its about 25 years old mind so have standards changed?

DXP55 · 24 Aug 2015 at 12:54

peterwalkley said:
Cheers Gents

I found some washers lurking in the garage and its certainly better after a quick 5 minute fiddle. The missus will hopefully stop whinging now.

Thank-you for the loan of the man card. Typical programmer - I was over-engineering the solution.

Reminds me of this solution

Understanding how important that was, the CEO of the toothpaste factory got the top people in the company together and they decided to start a new project, in which they would hire an external engineering company to solve their empty boxes problem, as their engineering department was already too stretched to take on any extra effort.

The project followed the usual process: budget and project sponsor allocated, RFP, third-parties selected, and six months (and $8 million) later they had a fantastic solution — on time, on budget, high quality and everyone in the project had a great time. They solved the problem by using some high-tech precision scales that would sound a bell and flash lights whenever a toothpaste box weighing less than it should. The line would stop, and someone had to walk over and yank the defective box out of it, pressing another button when done.

A while later, the CEO decides to have a look at the ROI of the project: amazing results! No empty boxes ever shipped out of the factory after the scales were put in place. Very few customer complaints, and they were gaining market share. “That’s some money well spent!” – he says, before looking closely at the other statistics in the report.

It turns out, the number of defects picked up by the scales was 0 after three weeks of production use. It should’ve been picking up at least a dozen a day, so maybe there was something wrong with the report. He filed a bug against it, and after some investigation, the engineers come back saying the report was actually correct. The scales really weren’t picking up any defects, because all boxes that got to that point in the conveyor belt were good.

Puzzled, the CEO travels down to the factory, and walks up to the part of the line where the precision scales were installed. A few feet before it, there was a $20 desk fan, blowing the empty boxes out of the belt and into a bin.

“Oh, that — one of the guys put it there ’cause he was tired of walking over every time the bell rang”, says one of the workers.

Martynt74 · 24 Aug 2015 at 13:47

Tefal said:
epic bump, but the shower head on our combined bath taps has been useless for ages (hose is all split) i like having a shower head are they just a standard size?

think its about 25 years old mind so have standards changed?

I'm pretty sure they're a standard size, although that's on ours that are only around 5 years old.

The cost can vary wildly and usually dictates how flexible it is from what I've found.

peterwalkley · 13 Nov 2015 at 09:09

Epic re-bump. Today is friday 13th .... so I'm having a shower and its leaking from the joint again. "I'll just tighten it" thinks I, only for the <sweary> to snap apart in my hand spraying water everywhere.

Guess I'm off to screwfix or B&Q at lunchtime.

Ironically this thread was the first non-advert when I googled my original question ....

EDIT: The answer to the original question is YES.