Alternatives to raising a mains-fed shower?

Question

I recently had a mains-fed chrome shower fitted. It all looked perfect until I tried to use it, and unfortunately the main head is too low (about an inch lower than the top of my head). It needs raising approx 6".

Moving the whole shower would involve pretty much ripping everything out and starting again. Is it a viable and practicable option to either cut the vertical pipe and weld in an extra bit of pipe, or adjust the bend of the corners so the main head is raised? Or are there any other options?

I've contacted the shower manufacturer, and they don't sell any kind of pipe extension. The shower in question is "Mira Apt ERD Rear-Fed Exposed Chrome Thermostatic Diverter Shower".

Answer 1

I doubt you could weld, solder or braze the pipe together. They're usually quite thin and it would take a fair bit of skill to do it and maintain the nice chromed finish.

I'd be very shocked to find that these threads are actually bespoke to the manufacturer (or even fixture) in question. Most things are made with standard threading because that's the easiest and least expensive thing for the manufacturer to do. Using bespoke threading means developing bespoke machinery to make the threads and that costs more in manufacturing. I'm sure this cost plenty to purchase, but if it had bespoke threading, it would have cost even more.

Honestly, I would look at purchasing a whole new shower system and scavenging a single, appropriately sized piece of pipe out of it. The key factor for the new shower head setup is that it has a finished pipe with the correct, bright chrome finish that has a piece of pipe with threaded fittings at both ends (I presume one male, one female) and is roughly the 6" you need.

The other option would be to find one with a straight piece of piping that is 6" longer than the vertical piece you've got and replace the whole thing from the mixing valve at the bottom up to the split right below the upper mounting bracket.

No matter how much the new shower head setup costs, it would be less than tearing out all this plumbing & tiling to move the whole thing up 6".

Answer 2

This is admittedly a bit hacky, but probably the lowest effort and DIYable solution:

Needed supplies:

• chromed pipe with same diameter as existing pipe
• copper pipe that fits snuggly within the pipe
• metal epoxy

Steps:

1. Cut the riser arm above the mounting bracket. Use a pipe cutter for nice, burrless result.
2. Sand the inside of both open ends and clean it well with acetone.
3. Cut, clean and epoxy a piece of copper pipe to the upper half.
4. Cut, clean and epoxy a piece of chromed pipe over the copper pipe.
5. Epoxy the lower half of the original riser arm to the end of the copper pipe, pushing it for a good fit.

It looks like you'll be able to have almost an inch of overlap at each glue join. If the copper pipe is a snug fit, this will be very strong.

Answer 3

Here is my Solution that's worked great for me for 2+ years. It's a bit hacky (or perhaps Retro?)

I was tired of swivel type connectors failing and the heavy shower head falling down and also wanted the option to use the handheld, overhead of both shower heads at the same time and to make the height specific to my needs.

The copper pipe fittings are connected using SharkBite Push-To-Connect T-fittings and Connectors, the copper brackets screw into the overhead studs so no risk of falling, the vertical copper pipe can be adjusted to whatever height works best for you. The extra length of pipe to the Right of the shower head was to connect to the next stud in the ceiling and to give it support from both sides.

The only special tools needed are a pipe cutter and a Sharkbite fitting tool

Parts List:

Direct Connect Fittings:

Shower Head Adapter

End Stop

Tee Fitting

3-Way Divertor

Brass Elbow

Water Supply Line

Tools:

De-burring Tool

Pipe Cutter

Disconnect Clip (usually included with Fittings)

Answer 4

The solution that I think achieves the best balance of cost while remaining attractive and not requiring custom pars is to replace the entire shower system, valve and all, with one that works better for you.

Fortunately the valve is not inside the wall so you can do this. Find one that mounts to pipe ears spaced exactly as yours are, and that has a taller or telescopic riser or that permits adaptable shower heads to be installed, and you can install one with a pivoting arm like this one:

That particular one won't fit your system, it has the wrong threads.

Extending yours -- I think you are unlikely to find a ready-made 6-inch pipe. And you will regardless be left with two screw holes in the wall because the entire upper piece from the mounting arm to the head is one piece:

• If you abandon the "rain-head" style, it might be easier to find a replacement system that will suit you, maybe by spraying at a slight outward angle instead of vertically.
• If a rain-head style is super important, you might consider taking the plunge and replacing all this with an in-wall valve and a head installed in the ceiling.
• Or, function-over-form, if you just want to raise this and don't care how it looks, cut one of the pipes and use hose clamps to attach whatever extender you can find, perhaps scavenged from another kit or from your old shower or just a piece of hose.

Answer 5

If you want to keep this installation, you could cut the metal tubing above the top wall support and affix the riser arm to the ceiling. There are compact cutters for tight spaces.

If the tubing is chrome plated brass, then you should be able to cut it with a tubing cutter normally used for copper. You could possibly cut the metal tubing above the upper support and leave enough straight tubing on both ends to connect vinyl or PEX tubing which would be held with clamps.

Alternative to above:

If you would be willing to do away with the rain shower head you could cut the horiontal riser a few inches from the wall, then figure a way to connect a regular shower arm (with bend) to be installed with the bend downward. In the US the distal end of these has parallel threads which a standard shower head screws onto. The proximal end (end closer to the valving) of these arms usually have tapered threads which are normally threaded into a fitting inside the wall. In this case this would be either (1) threaded into the correct fitting which would be somehow affixed to the cut off riser or (2) the threads on the shower arm would be cut off to make smooth tubing which would be joined to the cut off riser with a Sharkbite, a compression fitting or a crimp fitting like ProPress. You need to accurately measure the OD of the tubing and determine if it is close to a standard tubing size.

If the outside diameter of the metal tubing is close enough to a standard size so that the existing tubing would fit in Sharkbite or compression fittings, then you might use those and use copper tubing for the insert. You would have to determine if you would have enough length on each end to be useable for these fittings. I think you would.