How To Remove a Water Restrictor from a Showerhead 

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Awesome video… Thanks for posting! I just found a much better way to do this from a friend of mine. Once you get the initial washer out and get past that screen, Just take a very small drill bit and drill a hole in the middle of the plastic thing. Screw a long wood screw into it. Then yank it out by the screw. Took literally 30 seconds

Thanks for the tutorial. Purchased a Kohler a few months ago and the water basically dribbled out, now with the removal of the restrictor, I am having the best shower I've ever had! Thank you🙌🏾🙌🏾🙌🏾🙌🏾

Thank you! I was trying to remove the water saver on my shower head and doing a bit of a hack job. Your video reassured me to persist, and sure enough: beautiful water pressure now!

On some styles of shower heads, they come apart below the water regulator too. If you have one like that you can just pop it out from the bottom side. Usually takes a single tap with a screwdriver and pops right out.

I just broke it with a screwdriver and a hammer, turned it upside down, shook and pieces of restrictor fell out. Took me a minute.

Here’s a tip, if you have a wine cork screw, especially a small one, you can pop it through the hole you made in the restrictor and pop that sucker out. Just tried it and it took me 2 seconds

The blue piece is NOT the devil, that's the aerator and should be left alone. What affects the water pressure is the black o-ring inside the aerator. Remove that with a paperclip or tiny flathead.

I JUST WANT TO SAY THANK VERY MUCH FOR THIS VIDEO BRO. DID EXACTLY WHAT U SAID AND NOW MY SHOWER IS CRACKIN LOL

Omg, thank you so much! even though we have a Mainstay 6-setting shower head, it looks just like yours, all the way to the inside of it. Luckily I got the whole thing out! Works amazing! 🥰

Thank you for posting! I have the exact same shower head and performed the same fix (plus a nice soaking on some vinegar). You rock!

Tip: Use one of the small flatheads people use for glasses or very small screws - also there are 4 little prongs on the blue piece , bend them flat and inward which gives room to flip the ring out easily

when he said “that’s the devil” I felt his pain 😂😂😂😂😂

Very helpful as I am about to install a new shower head. I cleaned my son's and ruined it by making the holes bigger !! so hopefully the new one will work but just need to get that small metal filter out first and then see if there is a blue or other extra water limiter inside it. here in the UK and in the US should be OUR choice if water is limited or not, not that state's...Pause... done it in seconds - thanks. There was the metal little grill with plastic round the sides (and also in the old one I was removing which had never run fast when last replaced and now I know why) and then in the new one only below that a white plastic thing I did not need to break as I could push through the round hole on other side of the round head thing with a screw driver and it fell right out. Now it is back to our 1990s style speed in there.By the way I have also had to put a shower curtain in (my shower door broke - different room of the house and is such a rare very small and built in with tiles above size I just cannot find a replacement and nor can my plumber. I would still prefer a door but will leave it at that for now.

Thanks! I wasn’t sure if the blue plug was a restrictor (there is a small gasket that blocks outlet holes, too) or part of the shower head. Your video confirmed it for me. After digging at the restrictor for about 2 min, I grabbed my drill and punched a 1/4 hole in the center. After that, it pried out very easily with the screwdriver. Thank you for sharing.

No drill, no needle nose pliers. Used a paper clip to pick out the screen gasket, then just a Phillips Head screwdriver to screw a wood screw a little way through the tiny holes near the edge of the blue restrictor. Yank up the screw and the entire restrictor into which it is embedded will pop out with it. Just takes a minute or so once you pick out the gasket screen to get access to he restrictor. Worked on all 3 replacement showerheads I got.

Glad to see you're still posting buddy. Hope you're doing well.

I'm 3 minutes into the video and you're awesome. Love your humor

Thanks for the video, went and took mine out. I would recommend some needle nose pliers, had that thing out in 2 seconds with no trouble

Thank you very much ! I had the Milwaukee ready to go and found your video. Thank You !!!!!!

Needle nose pliers might have been a better choice to remove the blue thing.

Thanks for this! I just moved into a new apartment and couldn't even get all the shampoo out of my hair the pressure was so low.

Thanks!!! this is an absolute necessity!!

1/4” drill bit and a nice dewalt drill. Hold it upside down so the plastic does not block the holes in your shower head. Takes about 30 seconds.

Awesome video, I have great pressure, an deal with minerals in well water , so I'm constantly dealing with this, Lol mind you I built this house less then 5 yrs ago , so frustrating! Thanks again bud!

Sweet! I may have wasted $30 by buying a high GPM modded one from eBay. I haven't gotten it yet, and got impatient. Glad I found your video. It's much better now and only took 2 mins. I guess I'll put the eBay one in the guest bathroom when it arrives.

Great video, our shower head must've jarred lose at one time and reset itself cause we had great pressure then all of a sudden it went low flow on us. I took the blue re-stricter out and no it 's working great again, Thnx👍👍👍

“Gotta wash my butt” is one of the best reasons to remove these things … and there are many, many reasons. Flow restrictors don’t really save water if you have to take a shower 5-10 times as long to feel clean.

Thanks. I found removing the rubber o ring was more than adequate for my needs. Hotel like pressure 😊

I took a small drill and drilled holes in the blue plastic thing. Then gently did the sides. I was able to remove the whole piece. I also removed the wire mesh in black piece.

So I removed the restrictor but now my shower is making a high pitched noise. Anyone else have this issue? And how do I fix it? Delta shower head with hose and removable wand. Thank you.

Had to do this with my kitchen faucet. I had to remove the entire aerator. The restrictor appears to be fused to it. When I get time I will try to drill some more small holes in it and see if that works. Btw, I was fine with the water pressure but my water lines weren't. Every time I turned on the faucet I was getting MASSIVE water hammer. It shook the entire faucet every time I turned on the water. With that restrictor out of there no hammering at all.

They change the pipe of our shower & the shower head but I change it with a host. I found white little stones like dirt on the filter of the shower head. It's not a calcium deposit cause they are shape like litte triangle. Whata are those?

I ended up taking a sharp screw and driving it into the middle of the blue part between the tabs, and then it pulled out a lot easier. My needle nose pliers could not get a good grip on the tabs and kept slipping out. The nice part about using a screw is that it doesn’t rip off tiny plastic parts, like a drill would, but if you take the screw out you can put the restricter back in with slightly higher pressure if you like (we have the in2ition, so the restricter makes the dual spray pointless).

Could you tell me where the flow restrictor is on a new but traditional style Delta kitchen faucet? Thanks! I've cleaned--and removed--the aerator.

Can confirm that removing the black o-ring does the job, no need to struggle with the blue plastic. Just tried it on two different shower heads and pressure/flow massively increased

We broke a section of it off and the entire thing fell right on out. OMG the water pressure is amazing. Caution! You will empty your water heater QUICK! Thanks for this science experiment

I personally live in a rental and our water pressure was always s*** and I couldn't get the whole blue thing out but what I did is I used tweezers and I busted the middle out of it just so that it had a big hole I could never get the whole blue thing out but I made sure there was no more plastic and voila works way way better 😘

Needle nose pliers pulled it right out much easier than a screwdriver. Thanks for the tip! No pun intended.

Great tips for removing the flow restrictor which I think is just the rubber o-ring, right? Do you reinstall the screen and small plastic part for a Kohler showerhead? Thanks!

I got scared when I ran into the blue piece but when I saw the same thing in your video, I decided I was gonna destroy mine too and sure enough, AWESOME water pressure that blows you to the other side of the room. Woo!

I had this exact type or model and I used a small bit or eye glass scre driver to poke a hole in the middle then I used and small allen wrench "L" Shaped tool and angled the turn handle part into holr and then applied leverage and the blue restricter started to come out and used needle nose plyers to pull it the rest of the way out.. I used a small allen wrinch and it did bend its shape from prying. So maybe not too small/thin of a allen wrench.... in this video the guy still leaves most of the blue ring in his shower head for best flow would be to remove it all like I did.

I just installed a new Peerless 3&1. Took out the flow restrictor and the flow is still weak. Any suggestions?

Wow! The lesson I learned here was not to use a screw driver to remove the gasket.

That worked like a charm. Thank you so much!

Perfect. Been living with low (at least for me) shower pressure from both of our Toto shower heads for too long. Turns out that Toto's shower head flow restrictors are the exact ones as the Delta head you used in your video. Had them both converted in about 30 mins and wow, what a difference. I think the reason you were having a difficult time was your flathead screw driver looked like an older one and the flatheads were rounded of on the ends which wasn't cutting through the plastic. Used the same size driver on a newer one. Cut through the plastic centers like butter. Thanks for the great tip.

To get that blue piece out all you do is drill a dry wall screw slightly into it and pull it out with a pair of pliers

All I did was take a nail decorator the one you make designs with that has a rounded ball at the end and poke it in a prior small hole angle and pull. Took 2 seconds!

I used a drill bit the same size as the hole and held the handle upside down while I drilled so the broken plastic particles would fall down into the waste basket and in 2 minutes I had it done and the water pressure was stronger !...So thank you Mr Butt Washer!!!!......

I took a flat head pocket screwdriver and used it as a punch from the opposite side. Took longer to remove and put the shower head back than it did to remove the part.

Needle nose pliers are the key! I took care of this in one attempt. FYI.

thanks, just removing the black rubber seal was good enough for me.

Okay, I have the same water restrictor that you do - with the water dribbling sadly from the shower head. However I decided to approach the issue more conservatively. So rather than removing or destroying blessed everything, what I did was start by removing the tiny black rubber O ring from the blue restrictor with a pair of tweezers - which opened a whole series of additional holes underneath. I decided to test the result before going further: I replaced the mesh screen with attached rubber ring - both for aeration and proper distribution of water throughout the shower head - and the result was excellent! As a bonus, there was no need to drag out a drill or even a screwdriver - and no fiddling with silly plumber’s tape.

Thank you!

Thanks bro, my butt will appreciate this later

Yep, did it!! ❤

Thank you bunches! I freed myself from “the devil” 🤣 mine was much easier than yours. I don’t understand why they would but a restrictor on a handheld. Pressure is the point if the handheld. Plus my home is new construction, so it was good that I took it apart because there was crud in there.

I purchased a handheld shower head that actually included a diagrsm for removing the flow restrictor because they knew it was unpopular

Mine was literally seated in the shower head it was a knock off delta lol. I tried and tried but eventually just slowly melted it away using a lighter torche (great metal band! \m/)using a screwdriver pushed the melted plastic up against the inner walls the threads were half an inch higher so they were not damaged, replaced the gasket and works amazingly 😉

I just helped a friend with a delta hydrorain and either its old and stuck or the restrictor is glued in. The tabs all just broke off, so I removed the oring and drilled a hole in the middle and it works great now

Thank you finally got it out on a kohler maxton!

Once I got to the restricter, I threaded some floss through it and that let me pull it out pretty easy.

If you grab a pair of needlenose players, and gently grasp the edge of the restricter (inside) and once you have grabbed it just yank on it swiftly and hard and the entire assembly should come out. It did for me first try. Just have a firm grip and pull in a straight line very hard. You should see my shower water strength now, I don't pay for water and my flow was already amazing now I have a deep massage thing going on - and if I turn my water on full its almost painful. Thanks for the video. This is a must do for every guy out there having sucky shitty showers that don't massage your back or lower spine!! Thanks again. My shower head is a Peerless Model #76314 (only $16) with 3 modes which maybe will actually work now that there is sustained and good water flow coming out. !!! :_)))

I poked a hole with a screw driver and then used a cork screw. Got it 2 turns in and pulled it right out

If I was as inept as this dude, I'd hire someone to do it!!

Thanks! Water pressure is like a fire hose, hits all the right places.

Interesting. If your house has decent enough water pressure, simply removing the small o-ring that covers the little holes in the plastic piece would be more than enough. No need to mess with the blue piece. I did this to my Delta shower head and it went from decent to torrential downpour. I put the o-ring back in. I'm on the hunt for an o-ring that exposes maybe just a bit more of the holes than the one that came with the shower head. And to anyone else doing this: I'd recommend putting that mesh screen back in. It's job to to catch any large-ish deposits that might come out of your pipes (i.e lime). It'll end of gunking up your shower head.

Hey man do you need to put that mesh filter back on? Does it also act as a restricter? I took mine out

Worked pretty good in mine however I actually wish I didn’t remove the full piece, I realized after I could have just taken a small drill bit and drilled a hole right through the middle, which would increase the pressure, but not the full force of having a giant open hole. Now my tub fills up faster than it can drain which is a bit of a problem lol

Genius my man

Recently they have started gluing the flow restrictors on which has made it more difficult to take out. My previous one, I just took a pair of needle nose pliers and it slipped out easily.

Helpful and hilarious. Thanks.

Had no idea thank you

It used to be simple. The companies gave improve their game on the restrictor. Need to stab at it.

If i have a shower head rated at 2.5gal per min and remove the restrictor what can I expect for water use?

that is one tight watch band

I just took off the little blue tabs in the middle and the little black ring that the tabs held in, and that fixed the water pressure without taking out the who blue piece.

HELPFUL HINT: Only remove the tiny black rubber ring! Not the whole plastic assembly. This instruction was given to me by the manufacturer of the showerhead. They said it coded the warranty but it would increase water pressure. Use a needle or a pin and the ring lifts out easily. Works like a charm and takes only a few seconds!

❤🎉🎉🎉🎉Thank you bruh you made my mom's morning😊

Thanks!

did the showerhead got louder compared to when the restrictor was on? Heard without it it makes and annoying noise.

"Ask the government first." 🤣🤣🤣

Oh ya, got the whole blue ring out. Love the pressure

Bro... invest in some needlenose pliers. And you don't need to remove the whole blue piece. Just removing the black o-ring on that blue pc, increases flow.

:) " that's the devil" love it!!Thank you for the video. No it is not for patient people but it worked love it

Mine popped right out... But I used a very small flat screwdriver. I put the little screwdriver in the center of that green thing and popped it out that way. Came right out. I think using a very small screwdriver is the best idea

I wonder why Kitchen & Bathroom Faucets don’t have this? The building I live in has low water pressure. 40 PSI! But the Pressure Washer they have for washing your car is VERY POWERFUL! Does that take a Bite out my Condo Water Pressure?

I saw someone on amazon say you can drill a screw into the device, then pull the screw with a pair of pliers.

So the goal is not to remove the entire water restrictor, only the center. I punched mine repeatedly with a small screwdriver and it was pushed down in one piece. I removed it with cuticle nippers. I have no idea what that tiny O ring would sit on without that round center piece.

I took out just the O ring with Pugh damaging the restricter and the pressure change was amazing!

Friends, before you go drilling, hacking or screw driving that sucker, try using a dental pick to just remove the small black ring seated directly on the restrictor. THAT’S the piece that’s really blocking the water flow. If that doesn’t work (it will!), you can always do the butcher job that ppl are talking about. Mine is a brand new Moen, w 7 settings. Taking that little ring out was a game changer and I didn’t maim or maul the unit.

Fantastic

i took off mine works great now

Why did I look around when that doorbell rang !?? LOL

Lol what are they gonna do come in your house and check your shower heads 😂

I live in California so you can imagine the water restrictions. But thanks a million.

Thanks, Man, it worked perfect. A lot of work but it came out. 👍

That you for caring about the cleanliness of the human butt. I appreciate that. However to really get things cleaned you definitely need a hand held shower massager. So you can power wash everything.. and more

Another difference is how far you live from the water company!! Depending if you live real far away, your water pressure is not going to be great at times unless you install a very expensive water booster!

Thanks for the video. This my friend is just too much government overreach. Take the damn restrictor out and send it to the government entity of your choice and tell them to stick it where the sun doesn't shine.