Pull out shower head for bathroom shower

[Jacquiemalta]

Hi,
I am not a plumber! I'm pretty good at DIY and I learn quickly but my dad always told me not to mess with electricity, gas or plumbing and dad's always right of course.

I live in Malta but am English and need advise from proper plumbers who know what they're doing instead of the cowboys here (I'm sure there are good plumbers here but have yet to find one. It's the norm to say things can't be done here purely because they've not done them before and because I'm a woman and won't know any different. Sad but true!).

So my question is about a really obvious product that I don't think exists. I want a pull out shower head like you can get for kitchen sinks but as a shower head. I want the flexibility of a fixed shower head and a hand held shower without a visible flexihose. Seems incredibly obvious to me but I have searched google using every description I can think of and it doesn't appear that this is an available product.

Bearing that in mind, and also bearing in mind that it is an excellent idea that I can't afford to manufacture!, can I just adapt the theory behind a sink shower head to use in a built in shower? I can't see why not but then again, maybe I'm missing something really obvious as to why it can't be done.

Referral to a suitable product or any advice/comments very welcome.

Thanks in advance for any assistance.

 

[Best]

Hello and welcome! Was thinking of trying Malta as a holiday actually!
I really can't answer your question, but only thing I would say is shower hoses are very likely to leak someday and it would be advantageous to have it all behind a removeable panel.
What's wrong with a fixed head and shower head on a hose connected to a rail arrangement?

 

[Jacquiemalta]

Hi, thanks for your reply. Malta's like marmite, people love or hate it! I just want it to look very streamlined and don't see why you need 2 devices if you could have one. I've got to build the wall out where the shower head would go anyway so that I can incorporate a seat and hide the plumbing of the toilet further along the same internal wall so there's no reason that wall couldn't be removeable. Making sure a removeable panel is watertight though but a problem I assume.

 

[Radioman]

Many years ago I fitted a bathroom for an architect that had exactly what you want but attached to a bath. The hose was connected to the mixer under the bath then the flexible hose came up through the top edge of the bath, connected to the shower head which was clipped into a holder. The hose had a weight attached to it that pulled it back through the hole when not in use fitting snugly into the bushing around the hole. No unsightly hose hanging down into the bath. Don't see why you couldn't do the same. The only problem is replacing the hose when it fails so access to the mixer must be built in. Probably the easiest way would be to use aquapanel or similar products.

 

[Best]

Yes, you get those shower heads on the 4 hole bath mixers. But I think the hose supplied with them is heavy duty. I still feel they let water easily through the hole where it is coming from the bath. Trouble is the hose could eventually start leaking where you can't see it

 

[Radioman]

Yes, you get those shower heads on the 4 hole bath mixers. But I think the hose supplied with them is heavy duty. I still feel they let water easily through the hole where it is coming from the bath. Trouble is the hose could eventually start leaking where you can't see it

I agree. It did leak through the hole. There was a crude type of box underneath to catch the water connected to the waste. Typical architect Rubbish IMHO

 

[Jacquiemalta]

Thanks for the replies. And there's me thinking I'd invented something new which would change the world! From what I'm gathering then, it's more trouble than it's worth and I'd be better off having a separate hand held head with hose, especially considering the general shoddy workmanship over here. Is that about the sum of it?

 

[oz-plumber]

You can buy shower heads which also have a hand held shower incorporated in them.
The hose is visible / exposed, which may not be to your liking.

Your probably not the first person to come up with the design you wanted.
It was probably stalled at the design phase, when someone wondered who will be liable for the insurance claims, due to the product being a bought complete unit.
Plumbers insurance doesn't cover products installed - so that's where it probably stopped

 

[Jacquiemalta]

Yeah, not loving the visible hose. I'm still thinking about this. Insurance etc isn't really too relevant here as customer service is non existent! If something goes wrong, it's always a battle to get someone to admit responsibility and regardless of EU laws, it is what it is. You just get it fixed.

For example, if you buy a kettle here and it stops working the following day, you take it back to where you bought it, they send it back to the supplier (who only collects items once a week), they fix it and bring it back the following week when they deliver/collect so you could go up to almost a fortnight with no kettle, even if you only owned it for one day. It's just how it is here, you don't get an immediate replacement regardless of how much you bang on about "fit for purpose"!

The link below is what I'm thinking. I just want the end to be a shower head and it retracts back in to the wall and the head sits on a holder as normal. Why would this leak more than the unit being used on a sink? - or do they leak a lot too?

 

[Riley]

I just happened to be in my bathroom merchants so I thought I would ask on your behalf they have said that no such item exists you could obviously make a version of it but youve got no guarantees with the hoses and fittings once they're in the wall as they aren't designed for use in that manner. No doubt something could be cobbled together but I personally as a professional wouldn't put my name to it just in case something went wrong. It sounds like an insurance claim waiting to happen in my honest opinion. The difference with what you are proposing and the sink type ones is that should anything happen to the hose you can easily access it in order to repair it once you've got it in a wall you haven't got a hope in hell

 

[Jacquiemalta]

Riley - thanks a lot for taking the time to ask. Yes, I'm thinking it's pretty much guaranteed to leak at some point and you can't really put it behind a removeable panel as keeping it watertight would be a nightmare. It doesn't help that I'm in a top floor flat so if anything leaks, it goes in to the flat below. I knew there must be a good reason such an obvious item didn't exist.

Thanks everyone for your replies. Ugly shower hose it is then!