Shower heads for small spaces

If you have a shower, you probably want a handheld shower head. Back in the day we called this a telephone shower head, but soon no one will understand how the thing resembled a “phone.”

The handheld shower makes it easier to wash children, pets, and inanimate objects. And some adults prefer it, too — we don’t have to go into details! It also lets you spray down the shower walls when cleaning the bathroom. Swapping out a shower head is an inexpensive and easy update.

So I immediately switched out the fixed shower head in our master bath for a handheld, and here I ran into unexpected problems. Our shower is small, about 30 inches square. That’s cozy, phone-booth cozy, and we’re not talking about the Tardis. And shower heads, well, they seem to be getting bigger and bigger.

One popular trend is the “rainfall” model, which brings a wide circumference of water from almost directly overhead. Now I get that it’s lovely sometimes to get caught in the rain, with or without a piña colada. But standing in the rain every morning? That’s not a shower; it’s a bad commute on a chronically late city bus.

Standing under the new handheld shower head in our 30-inch shower stall, there was no escape from the rain. And the handle was so large that it didn’t have enough clearance from the back wall to adjust to a reasonable angle. Back to the hardware store.

I ended up with two shower heads — actually a fixed head with a handheld attachment. You can turn a diverter to switch from one to the other. It seems like overkill but it has worked pretty well. The shower is never going to feel roomy but at least we can have options. https://www.amazon.com/Peerless-76311D-Shower-Combo-Chrome/dp/B00A4WTSEI/

Installing the shower head was easy. The most difficult part was removing the old one, particularly getting the old plumber’s tape off of the threads. I haven’t found an easy way to do this — usually I end up cutting some off with a small blade and rubbing with a rag. Modern shower heads don’t seem to require plumber’s tape as much; this model didn’t, and I haven’t had any problems with leaks. All in all, this is a quick fix that makes a phone booth shower stall a little more pleasant.

For another solution, see this post from the Pretty Handy Girl blog. The author used a magnetic shower head that looks like a fixed model but can be pulled off when needed. Seems like another good option. https://www.prettyhandygirl.com/perfect-showerhead-small-shower/

Whatever you choose, you don’t have to get caught in the rain.