Top 3 Ways to Clean Your Shower Head Using Kitchen Ingredients (No Joke!)

There are several standard home appliances which don’t get cleaned as often as they should, that’s if they ever get cleaned at all, and I think it’s safe to assume that your shower head is one of those.

Think about just how important the shower head actually is. You use it to clean yourself every single day, and if it’s not clean itself then it’s hardly going to be able to do a good job of cleaning you right?

I get the feeling we don’t really think about that too much. We sort of just assume that because there is constantly water passing through it that it stays clean and we don’t need to tend to it, but that’s not the case.

The reality is that the holes in the showerhead will start to get clogged with minerals that are present in the water. An awful lot of bacteria can build up and get stuck in the head and then this is being pushed out while you’re showering. 

Some of it can even be quite dangerous. Keeping it clean isn’t actually a massive task though, and you can do it fairly easily with ingredients found in your kitchen. Here are the three best ways to clean your showerhead using stuff from your kitchen:

1.   Vinegar

This is perhaps one of the simplest methods and that’s in large part because you can clean a showerhead with vinegar without even having to remove it from the shower. Vinegar is commonly used as a cleaning product because of its high level of acidity.

It’s great for breaking down mineral compositions and it works well against limescale which is something that is a big problem for showerheads. I would suggest distilled white vinegar for this particular job.

All you need to do here is loop a rubber band around the pipe just above the shower head so that it’s tight against the metal. Then fill a plastic bag full of vinegar and then slip the top edge inside the band so that the head is submerged in the vinegar.

Leave it for an hour, and then remove the bag and let the shower run for a few minutes just to flush out the vinegar. This would be most effective if you did it on a regular basis, maybe twice a month. 

If the bacteria is allowed to build up for too much longer than that vinegar by itself might not be so effective.

2.   Baking Soda

A strong mixture of baking soda and water is another option and I would say that if it has been a while since you have done any kind of cleaning on your showerhead, this might be a better option because it will do a more thorough job.

You can use this method without detaching your showerhead if you want although it might make it a little bit easier if you do actually take it off. The goal is to make a thick paste, using a half cup of baking soda and a bowl of warm water.

Using a spoon, mix it until it’s a thick paste. You want it to be a similar consistency to toothpaste, if it’s too runny it’s not going to hold on the showerhead like you need it to. Once it’s ready, cover the showerhead with the paste.

You only need to leave it for about 20-25 minutes, because if you’ve mixed it effectively enough then it will get to work pretty quickly. Wipe the paste off with a cloth after the time is up and then reattach it to the shower if you’ve disconnected it.

Just like with the vinegar, let it run for a few minutes so that any excess paste can be washed out. 

3.   Coca-Cola

Let me reiterate the claim from the title of the article, this is not a joke. Coca-Cola is unquestionably the most popular soft drink in the world, and this is in spite of the fact that it’s essentially poison.

That’s somewhat of an exaggeration but not a massive one. Coke is terrible for you. It’s like drinking a glass of sugar which can cause weight gain, can lead to diabetes and it’s also awful for your teeth.

But much like vinegar, the acidity actually makes it perfect for cleaning. People use it in a variety of different ways, such as to remove rust, clean oil stains in the driveway and it can also be good to clean out some stains from clothes.

For your showerhead, you essentially just need to use the same method as you would for the vinegar. Attach a rubber band, fill a plastic bag with coke and then slip it in through the band. Leave it for an hour and then flush out the coke by turning the shower on.

It might seem unconventional, but it definitely works!

So just moving along from the kitchen ingredients for a moment, one other thing that you should probably do is invest in a showerhead filter. It’s worth considering that the water itself is the source of the bacteria in the showerhead.

A filter is never going to solve the problem completely, you will still need to clean it manually every once in a while too, but it can minimize the amount of harmful bacteria in the water by quite a bit, so it’s a worthwhile investment. 

Once again, I would suggest that you try to use either the vinegar or coke method to clean the showerhead at least once a month, and then opt for the baking soda paste maybe every 4-5 months.

Neglecting this will not only be bad for your health, but can also eventually result in serious damage to the showerhead, so it’s worth taking the time to keep it clean.

About The Author: Nadine Reid is a handy homeowner that tries to introduce frugality into the modern ways of living, with moderate to semi-moderate success. When not doing handiwork in and around the house, she can be usually found removing hair from her sofa — courtesy of Milo the meowing tabby cat and Brutus the assertive pug.

Photo by Abigail Lynn on Unsplash