Grit like substance coming from shower

Jem8472

Hi there
I wonder if anybody could help us.

Ever since we moved into our flat just over 2 years ago, we have had awful trouble with our shower heads. We have had 3 new shower heads since we moved in. We had a brand new shower fitted when we moved in, which was great for a while, but we started to notice a build up of a grit like subtance, which is a greeny/brown colour. It is hard like grit and its clogs up the the holes where the water comes out of.

At first, we thought it was just limescale , but is'nt limescale normally a white, flaky substance???

Im starting to get concerned that it is somthing built up in our shower, as it does now come out of the taps at all.

If anybody could shed any light on what this substance could be, i would be extremly grateful

Many thanx

Horace

It sounds like limescale to me - maybe you need a water softener? limescale can become green if it has been exposed to the air for a long period because it goes mouldy.

skinback69

true sounds like lime scale dont buy new heads just soak the heads in an acid like vinigar or lemon juice also if you have a header tank in the loft have a look in their it should be sealed but things still can get in ive seen dead birds floating on the top of them this could cause legionaires disease
but it just sounds like lime scale to me

Jem8472

Oh rite ok. Is there anything else we could do to help keep it maintained? Would love a water softner, but they are so expensive. We tried scale away, but that has no real effect

skinback69

if you live in a hard water area you will just have to live with it if unless you buy a water softner but as i citric acid vinegar will clean up the damage staining caused not only in shower head but in kettels and things like that

squeakyclean226

Jem8472 wrote: »

Oh rite ok. Is there anything else we could do to help keep it maintained? Would love a water softner, but they are so expensive. We tried scale away, but that has no real effect

I found a great trick, simply half fill a sandwich bage with white vinegar and tie up around teh tap or shower head and leav overnight, it worked an absolute treat! and it was so cheap! :money:

Plumbers_Shop_Lee

You may want to consider fitting an inline electrolytic scale inhibitor something along the lines of a salamander sesi

hth

bobsmum

We had a similar problem with shower heads clogging up. Bought a shower head from Wickes (for about £10) which has little rubbery nozzles - the idea is you rub over the nozzles with your fingers regularly (daily/weekly/whenever you remember!!) which breaks up the limescale and prevents clogging.

Since buying it about 3 years ago I have never had to descale the head - :Tand we are in an exceptionally hard water area. HTH

Ebe_Scrooge

I used to have exactly the same problem. I cured it permanently by moving to a soft water area :rolleyes:

But seriously, I found that the descaler didn't work very well on the shower head for some reason - maybe the holes were too small for it to penetrate effectively ? Anyhow, by all mean try the vinegar trick, it's cheap and safe. But I ended up getting a very fine pin / needle and poking the crud out of the holes by hand. Took about 10 minutes or so, I used to do it about every couple of months. Was quite satisfying seeing the amount of limescale that I'd poked out into the sink !

imho

if its a electric shower take the spray off then turn shower to coldest setting and put the hose in shower tray and let it run until the scale stops coming out .I do that with my Triton electric shower and do it about once a week to keep it clean.Your still get scale in the spray but just keep using vinegar on it .