Poor shower experience? How to repair your shower diverter

Turning on your shower is as an easy task until your shower diverter breaks.

Luckily, repairing a shower diverter is a simple job you can do with just a few things from your toolbox.

The shower diverter is the mechanism that reroutes the water from your bathtub faucet to your shower head. Many shower diverters are controlled by a pin knob that you pull to change the water flow from your bathtub faucet to the shower head.

If you try and engage the shower diverter, but water continues to leak out of the bathtub spout instead of the shower head, your shower diverter is not working properly. This will create a poor water pressure from the shower head and a bad shower experience.

There are several reasons your shower diverter isn’t functioning properly. It could be that the inner rubber stopper is no longer creating a good seal to fully block the flow of water and needs to be replaced.

You can repair a shower diverter in a few simple steps, however, if you’re not up to doing the task yourself, Omega Plumbing in Joliet can help with the repair.

1. Locate the water supply to your shower, turn it off, and close the drain to your tub so that no small screws are lost down the drain.

2. Disassemble the shower diverter by unscrewing the nut at the base of the diverter and remove the entire valve.

3. Bring your old diverter with you to the store to ensure you purchase the correct replacement. Install the new diverter using a wrench to tighten the diverter and adjust the stopper to be in the correct position.

4. Turn the water supply back on and engage the shower diverter. If the water flow is coming through the shower head, and no water leaks from the bathtub spout, you have completed the diverter replacement.

Omega Plumbing: 521 Oak Leaf Court Unit A, Joliet, IL 60436, 815-773-0808, www.omegaplumbing.com