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From irons to kettles and showerheads, all items regularly coming in contact with hard water will eventually cause limescale. As the limescale collects, you can expect your showerheads to get blocked.
It greatly affects water flow and takes the shine from your shower. Lucky for you, descaling your shower head does not have to be an arduous task. Before spending excessively on chemical-laden cleaning sprays, go ahead and try our tested guide on how to descale a showerhead.
But that’s not all. There are several quick hacks for descaling your shower head. Even so, keep in mind that all showerheads are the same. Some are not removable.
In other words, you might find that descaling a fixed showerhead is more difficult compared to an adjustable one. Nonetheless, like any problem involving limescale, your first instinct should always be to use vinegar.
To descale your shower head, you’ll need:
- A soft cloth
- An old toothbrush
- White distilled vinegar
- A bucket or a large container to fit your shower head
Approach 1: Vinegar
It’s easy to see why a quick Google search on how to descale your household items will almost always lead to white vinegar. Surprisingly, even sensitive things like baby bottle sterilizers are in safe hands. But when using vinegar to descale your shower head, the first thing you should get right is vinegar type.
Malt vinegar, for starters, is not particularly potent. Plus, you’ll want to avoid brown vinegar, for it may stain your showerhead. Therefore, white distilled vinegar makes an excellent choice.
Now, let’s see how to descale handheld and removable shower heads using white vinegar:
Handheld showerheads:
To descale your handheld shower head with vinegar, you should:
- Detach the showerhead from the hose. While at that, watch out not to misplace the rubber washer. It helps to prevent water leakage between the hose and the head.
- Place the showerhead in a plastic container, preferably a bucket, and fill it with white vinegar.
- Let the showerhead soak in the vinegar for about an hour or at least half an hour. If you have a brass showerhead, be careful not to soak it in white vinegar for more than 30 minutes to avoid corrosion.
- Remove the showerhead from the bucket of vinegar and rinse thoroughly with water.
- Use an old toothbrush to remove any limescale residues.
- Repeat rinsing with water before using a soft cloth to polish the head.
- Reattach your showerhead to the hose and open the shower to eliminate any remaining limescale.
Non-removable/fixed showerheads:
- Find a plastic bag that can fit over your showerhead, and add vinegar until it is half full.
- Put it over your showerhead until the head is completely immersed in the vinegar.
- Use an elastic band or string to tie the plastic bag in place securely.
- Let the showerhead soak in the vinegar for about an hour or at least half an hour. If you have a brass showerhead, be careful not to soak it in white vinegar for more than 30 minutes to avoid corrosion.
- Open the shower and run for about a minute to flush out any limescale debris left inside the showerhead.
- Repeat the steps above whenever necessary to completely remove all the limescale.
Approach 2: Dedicated limescale cleaners
There’s plenty of brands making sprays dedicated to removing limescale. Are you looking at a heavy build-up that is impervious to white vinegar? In that case, your local supermarket should stock a selection of specialist limescale cleaners that will do the job.
You only need to watch out when spraying overhead not to get the chemical in your eyes accidentally. It’s best to have clear goggles to prevent chemicals from spilling into your eyes.
Approach 3: Prevention
If you’ve been visiting your doctor regularly, they’ve probably told you that prevention is better than cure. Well, this advice doesn’t stop at your physician’s office. You should probably check out some specially designed showerheads to stop the build-up of limescale. It is an ideal solution if you are eco-conscious and do not:
- Fancy attacking your showerhead with harsh chemicals, or don’t
- Like the smell of vinegar
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