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My shower thermostat cartridge is old and it leaks, so my shower head continually drips.

I am planning to rebuild my whole bathroom in the next couple of months, but until then, how can I stop the annoying drips 24 hours a day?

The shower has a single control, to turn from off, through cold, to hot. And the head is in a fixed position, facing downwards.

I have tried:

  • placing a towel in the base of the shower
  • running another tap elsewhere in the house to reduce pressure
  • slamming the control from cold to hot and vice versa
  • reducing the hot water temperature and pressure at the boiler

None changed the flow of water.

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  • Try adjusting the water temperature. This is how we manage to keep our shower heads from dripping. Generally, cold and hot will drip; while a moderate temperature will stop the drip.
    – L.B.
    Dec 11, 2014 at 16:39
  • Oh... Well, in that case...
    – L.B.
    Dec 12, 2014 at 1:19

2 Answers 2

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My wife came up with a brilliant solution that worked instantly:

Using a piece of waterproof tape, she stuck a length of cotton to the shower head that reaches down to floor level.

Instead of drips, the water droplets run silently down the thread.

enter image description here

Apparently she got the idea from a James Bond film...

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    By the way: The same concept is used for roofs and apparantly called chain drain.
    – Wrzlprmft
    Dec 26, 2014 at 16:56
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Install a shower shut-off valve behind the head, and shut it off when you're not using it. The one I linked to is brass, but if you're not picky you can probably find a plastic one for half the price at your local hardware store. This'll take you all of 5 minutes to install - you should be able to just unscrew your shower head and screw this on.

As a bonus, this'll let you reduce your water usage by turning off the shower while lathering, letting you restore the flow without inadvertently adjusting the water temperature. If you shave in the shower, you can save even more water. If you don't actually like showering, you can just leave it off and pretend to lather - this saves the most water.

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  • That's a solution I had not heard of - will check it out at the hardware place this weekend.
    – Rory Alsop
    Dec 9, 2014 at 23:05
  • William - I know it's way later, but I never got back to you on this. Turns out that in the UK it is almost impossible to source these. You can get various sizes (I ordered a couple from the US) but nothing of the size needed. And eventually rebuilt the bathroom so the problem no-longer exists, but thank you for the suggestion.
    – Rory Alsop
    Sep 7, 2017 at 11:49

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