What kind of metal is my shower head?

strantor

strantor

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I paid over $150 for this (link below; why cant I insert a link anymore?) "Solid stainless" shower head because anything other than stainless or gold is corroded by my well water. I went through probably a dozen of the metal-coated-plastic ones before deciding to spend 10x more on something and be done with the biannual replacements. Well it corroded anyway and started leaking, so I decided to disassemble and clean it up. Took some heat to get it apart, and in the process it started to melt like butter, so since I'd already ruined it I decided to just go ahead and properly destroy it for science. It's definitely not stainless, but what is it? It is chrome plated "something" - with that "something" being brilliant silvery or gold, light weight, lower melting point than aluminum. Is it magnesium? Maybe zinc? Where the plating had bubbled off, the corrosion underneath was white and chalky. Im not sure if the white chalky stuff was from the consumed chrome or the base metal in question.


Note that the listing now says "solid metal" and the word "stainless" is no longer anywhere to be found. I should know by now to take a screenshot of everything I purchase, before I purchase it, so that I have some proof of the claims which led me to make the purchase. If I were to raise a complaint now, I would just look like some Karen whining to the manager about olives on my salad when I never said "hold the olives."
 

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Wow you have some corrosive water there. May be slightly acidic. Have you checked the Ph? How does it taste?
-Mark
 
markba633csi said:
Wow you have some corrosive water there. May be slightly acidic. Have you checked the Ph? How does it taste?
-Mark
Click to expand...
Yes It's very corrosive. You can't bring silver into the bathroom while taking a shower, or the steam will turn it black. I have a pool testing kit but for some reason in 6 years of living here it never occurred to me to check the ph of the water coming out of the faucet. I will check it but I wouldn't be surprised if ph is not the cause. I think it's minerals in the water. The water smells like sulfur, rotten eggs, beer farts, however it is that you think of that smell. It tastes like it smells. I have a TDS meter and the readings it gives are over 1,000, and according to the chart on the side of the meter it is not potable. We have drinking water delivered in the 5gal dispenser bottles.
 
Typically pot metal, sometimes brass, but pot metal often has that appearance with surface corrosion through the plating. The holder is stated as solid brass, but I do not see anything about the shower head being solid SS. I would have contacted the company as they have a 2 year warranty from defects.

Handheld Shower Heads

High Sierra Showerheads™ - Handheld Shower Heads designed to meet the aesthetic and performance needs of any bathroom in home and hospitality.
www.highsierrashowerheads.com www.highsierrashowerheads.com
This might be a less expensive alternative, although hard to believe anything stated these days.
 
I would address the water quality before trying to figure out what metal the shower head is made from. If it does that to metal what is it doing to your body?

Just send it back to where you got it and ask for your money back, obviously it wasn't what they claimed.


John
 
matthewsx said:
I would address the water quality before trying to figure out what metal the shower head is made from. If it does that to metal what is it doing to your body?

Just send it back to where you got it and ask for your money back, obviously it wasn't what they claimed.


John
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It actually seems to be good for the body, strangely enough. I have a skin condition that used to require actual medicine at times, and since moving here its usually totally absent, with flare-ups requiring only lotion and over the counter ointments. When I travel, it gets worse the longer I stay gone.

I will see about getting refund. I am not optimistic though. I bought it over a year ago and they've since changed the listing to remove any reference to the reason for my complaint. Maybe they would admit to false advertising and refund my money, but it would be easier not to, and I don't have any recourse.
 
Okay, back in the old days people would travel great distances to "take the waters" so if it's good for your skin don't change a thing.

Now for the shower head. Isn't the answer obvious? You just need to make your own, if stainless won't hold up then try Delrin or some other composite material....

Yes, probably false advertising to try and justify their outrageous pricing.


John
 
I wonder if the metal might be Zamak which die casts exceptionally well. It melts at about 750F so not that hot, and is easily plated. Here’s a small hand wheel that survived a house fire, barely. I have other parts from slightly different locations on the same machine that were completely liquified.

-frank

634A0820-D06B-483A-9C05-38C6E653A08D.jpeg
 
The shower head is made from Zamak#3 and chrome plated. Stainless steel shower heads are non existant, I've looked for years. I've had the same problem, and decided the easiest solution was to either make my own( which I haven't done yet) or just stock up on the cheap plastice versions and change them out when they go bad.
 
I'm betting you have a pH less than 7.
If you smell sulfur then there are traces of acidity, nearly certainly. I think there are some major sulfur mines in Texas.
-Mark
 
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