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This can happen 30 minutes later or even many hours later after a shower is taken. The new shower fixture installed didn't solve the problem. Can anything be done to correct this and prevent this surge of water?

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  • I wonder if a vacuum breaker will assist with this issue? Nov 20, 2020 at 20:09

4 Answers 4

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By surge of water, I'm guessing you mean a quick trickle that would fill a cup and not a hard spray that would let you wash your hair. Like Steven says, the shower head will still have water in it after you shut off the water.

My guess for why you see the surge is that the water is held in the shower head by water tension at each of the nozzles. Eventually that breaks from vibration, water contracting as it cools, or drying out. This allows air to be sucked into the shower head while water drains out the rest of the nozzles.

There's nothing much to fix. But if it bothers you, give it a shake or run your finger over the nozzles to break the surface tension. Another suggestion is to make sure your shower head is mounted at an angle, rather than spraying downwards.

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There is usually still some water left in the shower head due to how they are designed. Mine has a number of pivots in it, and if I point it directly down, a fair amount of water will pour out after it has been off for some time.

My guess is that changes in atmospheric pressure cause the water to come out of the shower head after-the-fact. If you watch your toilets sometimes you can see the water level rise and fall slightly too.

I'm not sure why it's an issue that needs to be "resolved", but if you get a detachable shower head, then you can just hang the shower head from the flexible pipe and all of the water will come out.

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Some bath fixtures have a diverter (the gadget that directs water to either the faucet or the shower head) that is designed so that if you put it into the "shower" position, it will stay there until you either manually set it to "faucet" or you turn off the water. They typically look like a knob on the top of the faucet.

Once you turn off the water, gravity pulls the diverter back into the "faucet" position, and any water remaining in the pipe up to and in the shower head simply falls back down and out the faucet.

Over time, the diverter can get gummed up with soap scum or hard water deposits, making it hard to move freely on its own. If this happens, the water stays in the pipes until one of the events @BMitch describes occurs.

You should be able to get it to move more freely by opening and closing the diverter several times. If that's not enough, I've also had some luck with spraying Scrubbing Bubbles foaming cleaner where the stem of the diverter enters the faucet, letting it sit for a few minutes, then opening and closing the diverter.

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  • +1 The "out of the shower head" part had me thinking otherwise, but this happens all the time. Someone may not realize what was happening and assume water came out the shower head instead of the faucet if they weren't watching.
    – BMitch
    Oct 21, 2012 at 23:03
  • You still have water coming out of the shower head in this scenario. I'm just explaining how it can get stuck up there.
    – Niall C.
    Oct 21, 2012 at 23:22
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Mine also drips after use. I discovered that the head has a fair amount of water still in it. Hard to shake out but spills out easier if I unscrew head from the hose enough to let air in ... or even easier if I remove from hose and let water out from the handle end. Obviously the jet holes are too small to let water escape easily unless water is pushing from behind under pressure or if air is allowed in (by unscrewing head from hide as described above) to prevent a vacuum forming.

The perverse thing is that positioning the head high up actually doesn't help. I guess the warmer air up there warms the head gradually and the result is expanding air/water in the head forces it to drip out. I think if you don't want to unscrew the head to empty it each time, try placing an absorbent soft cloth on the shower base and lay the shower head onto it... capillary action could draw the water out and the cloth will hold it and avoid water dribbling around the shower base (annoys me tbh). After an hour or so or next time you pass by you could hang it back up if shaking shows the head has cleared.

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  • If your shower head is at the end of a hose, just let it hang to drain. Otherwise, I can't fathom unscrewing the shower head from the plumbing after every shower, then cleaning off the old Teflon tape, applying new tape and tightening it back down so it doesn't leak. That seems... just a bit over the top. Close the bathroom door so you don't hear the drips if it bothers you that much.
    – FreeMan
    Jan 17, 2022 at 14:52
  • Takes me 5 seconds to unscrew the head and empty the half cupful of water and screw it back on actually. No ptfe tape. Letting it hang down doesn't empty it for hours for some reason. Resting it face down on an absorbent pad seems to work a lot quicker than that but not as quick as unscrewing the head (But I suspect doing this too often will wear the thread ofc). I also like to leave the door open for air circulation...
    – Razzle
    Jan 19, 2022 at 13:49

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