Hacker News Reader

Comment by joeyhage | Hacker News Reader

It’s very easy, and free, to remove the flow restrictors that shower heads have these days. For example, Waterpik shower heads can be purchased for closer to $30-40 in the US and removing the flow restrictor takes less than 5 minutes.

View on HN

If properly designed, removing the flow restrictor will make your shower experience worse. As the article says, it's the pressure that makes a shower effective and pleasurable, not the flow rate. A good restrictor will increase the pressure.

For example, when you want to clean something with a garden hose you restrict the flow with your finger on the end to increase the pressure.

As someone looking to replace their old, unrestricted showerhead... do you have a link to instructions of removing the flow restrictor from modern heads?

Without any intention to sound cute: look inside it, remove o-ring. It really is that simple.

That simple? Alright I can do that. Thanks!

It’s not an O-Ring… you want the O-Ring in there. Some shower heads have a sort of mesh looking object the covers the O-ring or sits just below it.

If it’s a wire mesh you should leave that there as it is a strainer, to prevent debris from the pipe to get into the shower head.

Sometimes the restrictor looks like flat plastic cap with holes added.

Most of the time it’s an o-ring and the process looks like this: [0]

[0] https://www.tiktok.com/@hopopro/video/7261933672025132331

Not to be pedantic but I don’t know that it’s an “O ring” if it’s a flat cap with holes.

Youtube...and type what you just typed.

Understood, and thank you.

Unfortunately, shower heads are constructed differently. Removing the flow restrictor depends on the design. Sometimes, it's so easy you can pull them out with a pair of pliers; other times, I've had to drill them out with a drill bit.

They look like little metal or plastic screens, usually. In the US, all shower fixtures must come with them installed by regulation.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com