Replacing a douche valve head thingy

u587162 · 5 Aug 2020

I’ve got a shower head / douche valve which I thought that the pressure was so high it was hurting my private bits when activating the trigger.

I’ve now realised that whilst the pressure is strong, it is not the issue. It’s the crappy bit where the water comes out as a fine spray.

I’ve replace the whole head connected to the hose and valve with some other £10 version from amazon and it’s perfect with water coming out in a aerated soft stream.

Rather than throwing away the old good quality shower head, is it possible to change just the bit with the holes? If so what the name given to this?

Alec_t · 5 Aug 2020

u587162 said:
is it possible to change just the bit with the holes?

If it's made of brass/copper rather than plated steel you could drill out the holes slightly bigger. For a given flow rate that would reduce the fierceness of the jets.

Madrab · 5 Aug 2020

It would just be called the spray head but if the douche is connected to the mains then the whole thing should be disconnected and thrown in the bin ASAP!!

u587162 · 5 Aug 2020

Madrab said:
It would just be called the spray head but if the douche is connected to the mains then the whole thing should be disconnected and thrown in the bin ASAP!!

What do you mean if its connected to the mains. Everything in the house is coming off the mains one way or another.....
It's a thermostatic shower valve so the hot is coming off the boiler and the cold coming off one of the cold T junction pipes. The valve also has its own flow control regulator. I have what is in the following link.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Hansvit-DC...01HR3276C/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_product_top?ie=UTF8

The spray head is what I've already changed with another from Amazon which now works great but what I mean to ask, is rather than throw away the old brass shower head, the small round cap thing which I have unscrewed in the picture with the pin holes to allow the water to spray out, what is that called? I want to see if I can replace that part.

Thanks.

muggles · 5 Aug 2020

u587162 said:
What do you mean if its connected to the mains. Everything in the house is coming off the mains one way or another.....
It's a thermostatic shower valve so the hot is coming off the boiler and the cold coming off one of the cold T junction pipes. The valve also has its own flow control regulator. I have what is in the following link.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Hansvit-DC...01HR3276C/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_product_top?ie=UTF8

You can't legally fit these in the UK, unless they're supplied from a tank in the loft, as they contravene the terms of the Water Regulations on backflow protection for Fluid Category 5. In laymans' terms, there's a risk your botty batter will be sucked back into the drinking water if the system is drained down, causing a serious health issue, so they're banned.

More info here https://www.wras.co.uk/news/wras_news/categories/installer_news/dont_be_a_douche_about_hand_showers/

u587162 · 5 Aug 2020

Interesting. I recall this a few years ago on this forum. I would understand about toilet showers or washing facilities built into the toilet where it shoots water up you back side, but for the valve I showed you on the amazon page, I dont see how hugely different it is from having a mains connected regular show. There is always risk that water could backflow there too. Ok granted, hardly likely to be botty batter as you put it, but you never know with some people how dirty they are or where they like to stick their shower heads. Same principle could apply there too.

But going back to my point, any idea what the cap thing is called with the pin holes if I were to search on ebay?

bernardgreen · 5 Aug 2020

u587162 said:
Everything in the house is coming off the mains one way or another....

and one of those ways involves an air break where a float valve allows water to fall through air into a cistern ( tank ). This air break ensures water in the cistern cannot be sucked back into the mains supply.

Gasguru · 5 Aug 2020

About the only legal way I know..it fits over the bath or shower..

https://www.arrowvalves.co.uk/shop/backflow/fluid-category-5/ab2-shower-break-tank

We have water regs for good reason based on 100s of years of experience and improving hygiene standards.

u587162 · 5 Aug 2020

Okay so why is it that we can have regular showers connected to the mains where there is a slight risk of backflow and contamination from touching with the body?

Madrab · 5 Aug 2020

u587162 said:
Okay so why is it that we can have regular showers connected to the mains where there is a slight risk of backflow and contamination from touching with the body?

There are a load of steps that the water needs to go through to get to the dirty water running off someone when running a shower, shower should also have devices to stop the shower head/hose from reaching the pooled waste water, that and it usually meets an airbreak somewhere along the line/at the shower head.
The waste water isn't anywhere near contaminated as washing actual fecal matter away, with the head of the douche inches away and sometimes underneath what it's cleaning ... oh and then there's the time it slips out of the hand and is dropped directly into the toilet before it's been flushed.

Personally I wouldn't ever want to risk that getting in my mains drinking water thanks.

muggles · 5 Aug 2020

u587162 said:
Okay so why is it that we can have regular showers connected to the mains where there is a slight risk of backflow and contamination from touching with the body?

Because some people use a douche instead of toilet paper, so you're spraying your sh1t off your chocolate starfish and likely to get bits of it on the head, whereas you're unlikely to rise from the throne and go into the shower to do the same thing. Also, there's the issue Madrab has mentioned of the possibility of dropping the head of a douche into your toilet. Showers fitted close to toilets are required to either have a short hose or restrictor rings fitted to the hose so that it can't reach the toilet pan, to prevent the heads from being able to be dropped into the pan

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Replacing a douche valve head thingy

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