Why Does My Hand Shower Have No Pressure?

If your hand shower has no pressure while the tub spout fills normally, the water supply itself is fine and the restriction is somewhere between the diverter and the sprayer face. On an Ella walk-in tub the hand shower is a standard handsprayer with five flow settings and a flow limit of 1.9 gallons per minute, so it will never match the fast-fill spout, but it should give a firm, even spray. The first thing to check is the sprayer head itself: unscrew it from the hose and look at the face and the small plastic restrictor for scale, since a mineral crust at the head is a very common reason a wand only trickles.

Likely Causes

• Scale on the sprayer face or in the restrictor at the hose end, which chokes the flow before it reaches you.
• A diverter that does not switch fully, so part of the water keeps going to the spout while the sprayer gets the rest.
• A kinked, crushed or internally collapsed hand shower hose.
• A hose installed backwards, or a washer sitting crooked in a hose nut.
• On the 2-piece faucet, a diverter button sticking because of an air lock or mineral build-up inside the valve.

What to Check, in Order

1. Cycle the diverter. Turn the water fully off with the handle, wait a moment, turn it back on and switch to the sprayer again. If water is coming out of both the spout and the sprayer at once, the diverter is not sealing, which is covered in water comes out of the wrong outlet and diverter replacement.
2. Unscrew the sprayer head from the hose. Remove the small plastic restrictor from the hose end, rinse it and the head clean of scale, and check the spray face. Reassemble with the restrictor back in place. If a stuck 2-piece diverter button pops back up when you pull the restrictor, that was an air lock and nothing else is wrong.
3. Run the bare hose into the tub for a few seconds with the head off. Strong flow from the hose means the head was the restriction; weak flow means the problem is upstream at the hose or diverter.
4. Inspect the hose along its full length for kinks or a crushed section, and confirm the conical end is at the sprayer and the hex nut end is at the deck. Hose fitting and replacement details are in hand shower hose and diverter problems.
5. If the spout side also seems weaker than it used to be, look at the faucet cartridges and inline filter instead; see faucet valve leaks and handle problems.

When to Open a Ticket

If the head is clean, the hose is clear and the sprayer still trickles, the diverter valve is the likely part, and it is a stock replacement matched to your faucet from a photo. Open a ticket at ellasbubbles.com/support with your model, serial number, a photo of the faucet set from above and a short video of the sprayer running, or reach your Ella dealer or the team at (800) 480-6850.

Related Guides

• Hand Sprayer Runs Hot but the Tub Spout Is Only Lukewarm: What to Check
• How do I remove mineral build-up inside a 2-piece faucet diverter?

Common Questions