Should they?
I would expect them to be somewhat self-cleaning when in regular use.Also: Bonus point because Iiteral shower thought.
*looking intensely into the gunk buildup*
I now had to check…
Shower head is appr. half a year old.
Gunk-free so far! :-)Look at this soft water havin motherfucker with his clean ass shower head
I just rub the nipples when I’m standing in the shower. I know, phrasing.
I gotta flick the nipples to get the crust off. (Phrasing)
@starlinguk @SippyCup I’ve found an occasional spray with vinegar or a CLR helps to minimize any buildup.
There’s an excellent recipe for limescale remover in one of Nancy Birtwhistle’s books.
I have no words how jealous I am. My shower head looks nothing like that after the first day. I almost have to do a deep clean the entire shower cabin to keep the limescale off.
Those are rookie numbers, mine are definitely yellowing and cracking :(
this is mine after 2.5 years
Soak that shit in a ziplock full of vinegar, hold it in place with an elastic band and profit with a shiny clean shower head.
The one before was 5+ years old when its hose broke.
Did not look great but still ok in the end.
Might just be limescale?
ok, I’ll bite, do you often have a photo of your shower head handy?
No, but took me only 20s or so to walk to the bath and take one.
Also 30 additional steps and a reset of the get-up-counter on my fitness watch, so was a welcome reason to leave the couch ;-)
so…you don’t bathe.
so…you don’t bathe.
That is correct.
I shower.
The “gunk” is just mineral deposits, right?
correct
I’d bet you could soak it in some CLR to get rid of the deposits.
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It’s on the list.
you need to rub the nipples every day.
Picking the mineral deposits out of ones that have become clogged is so satisfying.
I think the doctor can give you a medicated cream for that and you should probably drink more water.
What tool do you use? The holes are tiny
I just pick at them with my finger while in the shower.
A needle
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This is one of the most shower-related shower thoughts of all time. Kudos!
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A lot of people clean their bathrooms regularly. CLR or generic knock-offs are great for mineral buildup on faucets, drains, handles, etc.
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My local water company regularly takes the main treatment system offline for maintenance and switches to the backup system. I don’t know all the details but every time they do it the water is heavily chlorinated for a week or so, and this happens roughly every 6 months. So until I can afford to get a full-home filtration system installed, I bought a shower filter that goes between the water pipe and shower head. It needs changed every 6 months so I might as well clean everything while I’m at it.
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Ziplock bag, white vinegar > toothbrush
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If it’s mostly mineral buildup just soaking it in white vinegar for an hour will dissolve it all and make it look and function as if it were new.
Tip: Anywhere you want to use vinegar for its chemical properties, but you want to avoid the smell, use citric acid instead.
Additional tip: if you want to make vinegar or citric acid far less effective, first make a paste of it by mixing with baking soda. This is suggested on many life hack websites.
If you need to wash something with hot water but don’t like the steam, mix it with cold water before applying.
I just use hydrochloric acid.
Hydrochloric acid has a smell. That’s definitely the only downside.
CLR is citric acid based. Not sure if that or lemon juice is cheaper though.
All I know is that citric acid is dirt cheap in powder form, especially if you don’t need food grade.
Add water, and mix to taste: When it’s the most sour thing you’ve ever tasted, it’s about right.
Source: We use barrels of the stuff in the offshore industry to descale steel hardware that has been on the seabed. Just don’t tell the HSE department that you’re judging acid strength based on flavor, they’ll only see the acid-part and freak out.
That’s how my tradesmen when I was an apprentice would mix coolant.
I’m not sure even 15 years later if he was just having me on or not. But you can certainly tell strong coolant by taste haha
I bought a big bag of citric acid, I descale my bean to cup coffee machine, kettle and clean my shower head with it. Good stuff.
Another option is oxalic acid, which is the solvent in Bar Keepers Friend.
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Thanks I’m heading to the store and wouldve forgot vinegar. Still might actually, I’ll see after I get home
Update, I did forget the vinegar. But then they lost power when I was at the till, the whole hypermarket went dark. It took closer to an hour to get functionality back and during that time I remembered to also get vinegar.
I just sometimes scrub it to get the calcium out
I think you have to clean it more. When water sits in the head, all those wet surfaces start growing mold and bacteria and stuff. When you Turn it on, some of the build up gets flushed out. So 1x a day means 24 hours of build up between flushings and minimal accumulation. 1x a week means 7 days worth of accumulation each time
I had to replace mine every couple of years because they break (i.e. start leaking).
Nippled
