How to Replace a Shower Head (and Stop the Drip)

01The 10-minute swap, step by step

You do not need to shut off the house water for this; the shower arm holds no pressure once the valve is off. Grip the old head and turn it counterclockwise (looking up at it from below) to unscrew. If it is seized with mineral scale, wrap the connection in a cloth to protect the finish and use slip-joint pliers or a wrench, bracing the arm with your other hand so you do not twist it loose inside the wall.

With the head off, look at the threads on the shower arm. They will be wrapped in old, gray, crumbling plumber tape. Peel all of it off and wipe the threads clean. Any old tape left behind is the number-one cause of a connection that drips after a new head goes on.

Wrap two to three turns of fresh PTFE plumber tape clockwise around the arm threads, in the same direction the new head will thread on, so tightening does not unwind it. Thread the new head on by hand until snug, then give it one quarter turn with a wrench over a cloth. Hand-tight plus a quarter turn is the spec: cranking harder cracks plastic threads and does not improve the seal.

02Stopping a leak at the connection

If water weeps from where the head meets the arm after you run it, the fix is the tape, not muscle. Back the head off, strip every trace of old and new tape, dry the threads, and re-wrap with a clean two to three turns. Over-tightening is the second cause of a connection leak because it cracks the plastic washer or the threaded collar, so resist the urge to keep cranking.

A leak that drips from the head itself when the shower is off is a different problem: that water is coming through the wall valve, not the head connection. A worn valve cartridge lets a trickle past even when the handle is closed, and no amount of new tape at the head fixes it. Our guide to a shower head leaking walks through telling a connection leak apart from a behind-the-wall valve leak before you buy parts.

03Descaling a clogged or weak shower head

Before you replace a head for weak flow, try cleaning it; hard water plugs the spray nozzles with lime scale, and most clogged heads come back to life in an hour. Fill a sandwich bag with white vinegar, slip it over the head so the face is submerged, and rubber-band it to the arm overnight. In the morning, scrub the rubber nozzles with a soft brush or your thumb and run hot water to flush the loosened scale.

If the head unscrews easily, soaking it off the arm in a bowl works even better and lets you clear the filter screen at the inlet, another common flow killer. A head that stays weak after a thorough descale, or one with cracked, yellowed nozzles, has earned its replacement; a solid new head runs $15 – $60 at retail.

04When the job is bigger than the head

Replacing the head is one of the easiest plumbing tasks in the house, but it can surface a problem that is not the head at all. If the new head still drips when shut off, if the handle leaks, or if water pressure stays low across the whole bathroom, the wall valve is the suspect. Replacing a worn cartridge or the full valve is a project with real cost behind it, and the shower valve replacement cost page lays out the part and access work.

And if the issue is actually a dripping faucet on the tub spout or sink rather than the shower head, the mechanism and parts are different; our walkthrough on how to fix a leaky faucet covers compression, cartridge, ball, and ceramic disc repairs by type.