Shower hose fittings problem

[kejones62]

I have a Jayco travel trailer. I needed to replace the shower hose, so I bought one off of Amazon. I can screw the 'head' end of the hose onto the head, no problem. However when I go to screw the other end onto the faucet diverter, it goes on maybe a half turn and sticks. At this point the internal mating surfaces are not pressed together - the hose rattles loosely in the nut - so it is not a watertight seal. I've played with this for hours, although the fittings look the same, and the thread pitch is the same, the fittings won't go together. Has anyone had this issue before? Is there some adapter I need? I thought these things were all 'universal'.
BTW, this is the hose I bought. Cheap enough to just get a different one, but I don't know if that will help. Blissland Shower Hose

[Cristian123]

mr_andyj wrote:
There are two different hoses. I have the one on the outdoor shower (same as indoor shower) and I have a portable shower pump/hose that will not interchange. The look the same, but will not interchange. You simply have the wrong hose.

I wish I found this thread earlier. It so happened that we needed to replace a shower hose when we were in Canada. As I was clueless about the difference you mentioned, I bought the wrong hose. Finally, I just a plumber here https://plumberbarriepro.ca/ who did the work for me.

[mr_andyj]

There are two different hoses. I have the one on the outdoor shower (same as indoor shower) and I have a portable shower pump/hose that will not interchange. The look the same, but will not interchange. You simply have the wrong hose.

[Rick_Jay]

kejones62,

You said "....which is basically just an overpaid plumber". WOW... you must've been making the REALLY BIG BUCKS then!!! LOL

While I don't have loads of experience with RV and shower head fittings, I've never seen any other than the standard fittings. I just had to buy & install a new shower head/hose combo for my parents sticks & bricks home built back in 1964, and things fit right up. It was basically the same model I installed in my RV about 10 years ago. Come to think of it, I didn't even remember seeing any options for purchasing the shower head kits with DIFFERENT sized threads, so that leads me to think there is just a single standard.

Did you have this RV since it was new? Is it possible a previous owner did some "custom plumbing"? I wouldn't think it would be assembled with the wrong fitting at the factory, but who knows? They might have just tightened things up until they didn't leak and ship it off to the dealer if the correct fitting wasn't available. I'm sure it wouldn't be the first time.

I hope you find the resolution to your problem. Please post who you resolved the problem so others reading here can benefit from your experiences.

Good Luck,

~Rick

On Edit: I went to Amazon and under the two star reviews I found this from a verified purchaser: "The nut that attaches to the shower is poorly made. I have three showers, it would only screw on properly to one of them. And it still leaked. The nut is very short and was made of cheap materials. Brass Insert????

I would not recommend this product."

Which is pretty odd that it would fit one shower, but not two others.

I think this could be a case where you'll save time by just bringing things with you to your local hardware store and making sure everything fits before you buy. Or it can give you the opportunity to replace a part (diverter fitting?) so it fits the standard shower extension hoses available.

[mobeewan]

Some npt fittings are made to seal on the rim of the tapered threads, just like shower hoses using a flat rubber washer does.

One example is Flair-it fittings that use a swivel nut fitting for connecting to male npt threads. They use a seal called a santoprene seal. When the nut is tightened it compresses the seal against the end of the male npt threads and against the fitting.

There are about 6 or 7 of them in my TT. 4 of which I added when adapting my npt threaded captive air tank to the plumbing and a sink sprayer with shut off valve for rinsing skid marks in the toilet.

[Dutch_12078]

I suspect the threads on the D-spud adapter are buggered up in some way.

Valterra D-Spud adapter

[Community Alumni]

I am just guessing that the diverter has an odd or different type of thread that was part of the old hose nd shower head. I assume you can buy a new diverter.

Till then just poke some holes in a bucket and hang that from the ceiling and pour in water. :B


JimR

[kejones62]

I've been doing most of my own house plumbing for 30+ years, including a couple fixer-uppers. I spent part of my career as a chemical engineer, which is basically just an overpaid plumber. 🙂 I actually understand plumbing pretty well. I am not crossthreading here.

[wa8yxm]

agesilaus wrote:
Odd every shower fitting I've seen is 1/2 inch pipe thread, 1/2 NPT.

Likewise.. However you did a bang up job of describing "Cross Threaded" That is you did not thread it on straight. That is exactly what happens if youthread it on like the diagram below

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[kejones62]

No, I'm putting the long, tapered connector on the head, and the short nut on the diverter. Swapping the hose end-for-end doesn't help. Both ends of the hose have female NPT, which I can confirm because they easily thread onto another NPT fitting that I have. So the diverter is the odd thread.

The more I look into this, the more I'm thinking that the diverter is actually a "G" thread, aka BSPP (British Standard Pipe, Parallel). The fitting doesn't seem to taper, which could be why the hose won't thread onto it. Apparently BSPP is what is used in much of the rest of the world? Not sure why it would show up on my Jayco, though. I'm going to order an adapter from Amazon and try it.

One other thought - this connector was made to seal with a washer, not with thread tape. BSPP is designed to seal with a washer, but NPT is designed to seal along the threads, not with a washer. So now I'm wondering if we all have BSPP on our diverter, and for some reason I got a bad hose which has NPT instead of BSPP?

[mobeewan]

Sounds like you are connecting the knurled fitting which appears to have deeper longer threads to the diverter and the hex nut fitting to the shower wand. Try swapping them.

[kejones62]

The diverter is original, and I'm sure it's not metric - it's 1/2-14.
I don't have the old hose anymore.
I can try stacking washers, but it's going to take 3/8 or 1/2 inch of them.

[wildtoad]

Have you tried putting some Teflon tape on the diverted? Could the old hose have been put on skewed and corrupted the threads? All shower hoses have the same sized threads.

[wopachop]

The diverter must be a metric thread?
If you have the old hose, see if the Male shower head screws into the old hose on the diverter side.

[DrewE]

Can you maybe put in more washers or a thicker washer to take up the extra space?