How to Clean Your Shower Head

There are often many different ways to do any given job, and cleaning your shower head is no exception. While there are many products with harsh chemicals in them designated for cleaning shower heads, it's hard to beat products you probably already have in your kitchen.

I buy white vinegar in gallon jugs and use it for cleaning many products. I even use it in my carpet shampooer instead of heavy cleaning chemicals. But one of my favorite uses for vinegar is in combination with baking soda, another of my favorite cleaning products, to clean my shower heads.

My showers are all the hand-held kind on a hose. One thing I like about that type of shower head is the ease of cleaning it. You can mix a bucket of soapy bleach water and let the shower head rest in the bucket for a few minutes, then take it out and rinse it off. That usually works very well for me, since my shower heads/hoses are white plastic and the bleach whitens them well. One problem with using bleach, though, is that if your shower head has rubber seals in it, a strong bleach solution or leaving it in bleach for more than a few minutes may soften the seal. I don't recommend using bleach for cleaning shower heads in most situations.

There are times when lime and calcium have built up in the holes of a shower head and that calls for special attention. In that case, you can soak your shower head for a few hours in a strong vinegar/soda solution and then scrub the area where the water comes out of the shower head with an old toothbrush. If the holes are still clogged, try poking a toothpick in them, or even a large needle.

If that doesn't work, take the shower head and turn it upside down. Put enough soda in or on the shower head to cover the holes, then pour in straight vinegar. That should cause an exciting reaction that will boil that crud right out of the holes. Then rinse well with clear water and you're through. Some shower heads can be screwed apart, and in such cases you can take them apart so the vinegar/soda solution can reach down into otherwise hidden areas.

If you have a conventional shower head that is a bother to remove from the wall, you might try filling a zipper bag (larger than a sandwich bag) with about a cup of vinegar and ½ cup of soda, and then tie it over the shower head with it still attached to the wall. Or you can put a rubber band around it to hold it on. Let it soak for at least three hours or overnight. By then it should be very easy to remove any residue with a toothbrush and a cloth.

If all else fails and your shower head is still clogged after trying the other methods, the following method can be used on metal shower heads. Remove the shower head from the wall and boil gently for several hours in a strong vinegar/water solution. Be very careful not to let it boil dry. Also be sure the shower head is metal and not just a metal veneered plastic. This should remove the clogs from the holes in any metal shower head. If the shower head tends to leak when screwed back onto the pipe, wrap the threads with Teflon tape, screw it back in, and tighten well, but do not overtighten. That should stop the leak.

During a time when I needed a job and had none, I cleaned houses for some people. Some of the widowers I cleaned for had neglected their shower heads for long periods of time, and that proved to be a challenge for me.Cleaning shower heads is a job similar to many others in that frequent cleaning is easier than cleaning after long-time neglect. A clean shower head requires little work if done on a regular basis.