How to add a diverter to the tap?

How to add a diverter to the tap

Adding a diverter to the tap is a fairly simple operation and within everyone’s reach.

No special equipment is needed as, despite being a plumbing job, it does not require the addition of Teflon or anything else to ensure that there are no leaks.

The sealing washers – supplied with the diverter and with any other piece that is normally added to it – and a correct tightening of the pieces guarantees that there are no water leaks.

But why should we want to install a diverter on the faucet, be it that of the sink, bidet or shower?

The reasons are the most varied, but in almost all cases it is because we want to add an additional shower to the tap.

The motivation that prompted me to install a diverter and a shower on the bidet tap was to meet the needs of an elderly person with reduced mobility who had difficulty in using the bidet.

The necessary material
To install a diverter you obviously need a diverter.

What I bought, for just over 12 Euros, is this:

Stainless steel diverter for tap:

Having this piece we can say that the work is practically concluded, in the sense that it is enough to remove the old jet breaker of the tap and install the diverter with its sealing washer in its place.

To remove and attach old and new parts, you will need wrenches of the right size, but with parrot pliers and / or regular pliers, you can do it all.

The diverter for the tap is nothing more than a valve which, opened or closed by means of a lever, is able to convey the water towards one outlet rather than another.

As you can see, a jet breaker is already installed on the diverter, very similar to the one I removed from the bidet faucet. The lock is made of steel and looks good quality.

As written above, once the diverter has been installed it is already working, just connect a shower and you’re done.

In my case, however, even considering the fact that the person was elderly, I preferred to add an additional control option, that is, I preferred that the shower had a button to open and close the water jet.

Also in this case nothing particularly complicated, just connect the hose of the shower to the free outlet of the diverter (always adding the appropriate gasket) and the shower will be perfectly functional.

However, I didn’t want the hand shower to have a bulky more or less rigid tube and so I opted for a hand shower that had an accordion tube that is very long on one side but curled up, takes up very little space.

The product I bought is this:

As you can see from the photo above, Hello Bidet is equipped with a proprietary connection that allows the quick attachment and release of the hand shower.

To join this attachment to the diverter body, it was necessary to purchase an additional adapter.

In this case, if you do not know exactly which one to choose, perhaps it is better to go to a plumbing center to check the suitable size and thread.

In short, in the end you can see the components necessary to install everything in the photo below, with already the position they will occupy, once joined.

The advice is to join these pieces together and, only afterwards, join the group to the tap.

The result can be seen below.

As you can see, the whole block protrudes a few centimeters more than the original aerator. For Residential Plumbing Consult here

This is not a big problem if we install the diverter to the sink or shower, but in the case of the bidet it can cause problems when sitting down.

I certainly would not have opted for this solution if it had simply remained that way. In reality, a rise for the bidet was also purchased which allows the elderly person to sit down more easily and the diverter block, in this way, remains below the seat surface without creating any discomfort.

With a hand shower installed on the bidet, intimate hygiene is facilitated but this is not the only use that can be made of a diverter for the tap.

The same hand shower can be used for:

• wash your pet
• wash your hair without using the shower
• wet the plants on the windowsill
• It is a solution that can be beneficial even when you are on vacation.