Best Shower heads for MAC

Great conversation all. Allow me to step in with some background information, links, community guidelines, and clarifications.

The study that is being discussed can be found here:
Ecological Analyses of Mycobacteria in Showerhead Biofilms and Their Relevance to Human Health https://mbio.asm.org/content/9/5/e01614-18
Authors: Matthew J. Gebert, Manuel Delgado-Baquerizo, Angela M. Oliverio, Tara M. Webster, Lauren M. Nichols, Jennifer R. Honda, Edward D. Chan, Jennifer Adjemian, Robert R. Dunn, Noah Fierer
Plain language summary: https://www.sciencealert.com/slime-living-in-your-showerhead-microbes-bleach-ntm-lung-disease

This study will be of great interest to many of you and is relevant to your discussions about prevalence and location of NTM/MAC as well as municipal vs. well water sources. The study "found that showerheads in households across the United States and Europe often harbor abundant mycobacterial communities that vary in composition depending on geographic location, water chemistry, and water source, with households receiving water treated with chlorine disinfectants having particularly high abundances of certain mycobacteria."

The study did NOT do a head-to-head (nice pun) comparison of shower heads. The Shower Clear shower head was used for a separate experiment for the study to "determine whether shipping samples unrefrigerated from across the United States to Boulder, CO, might have influenced the determination of mycobacterial relative abundances." Participants of 7 households were asked to replace the preexisting shower heads for 30 to 40 days." Shower Clear was chosen for this experiment because its design allows people to open the shower head easily to do the test swabs. This does not constitute an endorsement of the product by the researchers. Nor does it mean that various shower heads were tested. They were not.

@stevesunshine20, as the inventor of the Shower Clear , I welcome your participation in this discussion. However, please be careful about how study findings are represented. I also thank you for your respect of the Community Guidelines (https://connect.mayoclinic.org/page/about-connect/tab/community-guidelines/) and Terms of Use (https://connect.mayoclinic.org/terms-of-use/), which state:
You shall not upload, email, post or transmit to, or distribute or otherwise publish through the web site any material which: ... (viii) contains any information, software, or other material of a commercial nature; (ix) contains solicitations or advertisements of any kind; ...

These articles state that soaking shower heads with vinegar and water will help prevent infection.
NJH https://www.nationaljewish.org/health-insights/health-infographics/is-your-shower-head-making-you-sick-ntm-nontuberculous-mycobacteria
Healthline https://www.healthline.com/health-news/want-to-kill-dangerous-bacteria-in-your-home-attack-your-showerhead-and-open-your-blinds

I quote from the NJH article:
NTM Prevention
- Clean your showerhead by soaking in vinegar or water
- Replace showerheads periodically as needed
- Set water heater to 140° (use caution to avoid scalding)
- Remove the shower head completely
- Take baths instead of showers
- Avoid steam rooms, hot tubs, etc. where steam or droplets with bacteria particles could be inhaled
- Wear a mask and gloves while gardening

It stands to reason that you should soak your shower head regularly, although that is not specifically stated in the article. Do you clean your shower head regularly? If yes, how often? Do you put it in your calendar as a reminder?

Hi Colleen. I am here to help as I have recently discovered those on this forum have my product and appreciate its simplicity. As you have noticed, I make no representations or solicitations. Only enlightenment to something I invented when I was made aware that my own mother was suffering from what came from her Shower Head. An easy solution to confirming a clean shower head via a one handed operation anyone can do as opposed removing and hoping a flush with any substance will do the same. Again, what you can see as opposed to not. Thank you for all you input. By the way, my company is "Shower Clear" and not Clear Shower.

What about just spraying it with vinegar after use?

@stevesunshine20 - Does Shower Clear have "large" holes or small-medium holes? My understanding is that to minimize NTM, the holes in the showerhead should be as large as possible to reduce aerosolization.

Would spraying with hydrogen peroxide work?

The holes give a firm straight line like stream out of each. This is the complete opposite of a mist style and does not create a steam room effect. As to their size, they are the perfect balance for pressure and water consumption. I have been told some chose to remove the restrictor. I cannot control that but, that will make the water use increase and even stronger line pattern. I hope this helps.

Vinegar does work. I has been written the a combination of peroxide and vinegar with baking soda are a good combo but, please be aware the mixture could be dangerous yielding a reaction you don't want to breathe. I would google around before mixing.

I’m wondering about spraying a solution of vinegar and water (1:3)? Seems to make sense. And then let it air dry?
Thanks,

National Jewish Health specifically recommends soaking in vinegar. Other studies have said TB, a similar organism, is killed by soaking for 30 minutes in 6% vinegar, which is slightly stronger than household vinegar, which is 5%, or sometimes 3%. From these sources, I would conclude that spraying is not adequate, especially with diluted vinegar.

With all due respect, those recommendations are for Enclosed Shower Heads that do not get opened every day or, ever. Also, it was proven in ineffective in 1981 and documented by The Annals of Internal Medicine with a substance not only more aggressive but potentially deadly. Unfortunately, the virus repopulated in the Enclosed Shower Head. Given the University of Colorado Study and the fact that Immune-compromised patients can and do get infected unknowingly from a Shower Head and, potentially those that take the time to come here for help, support and potential answers, I feel it is important after the loss of my own mother to NTM related and other illness, to enlighten those that understand none of us have the corner on all the great ideas. There are those of us who will all look at the same problem and see another way to fix it. Have you ever cut open a standard popular Shower Head to see the complicated internal detail where mycobacterium which are 1 micron in size can hide? I have cut open hundreds. Here is the Study from 1981. Legionella pneumophila serogroup 6 was isolated from nine of 16 shower heads in a Chicago hospital ward where three patients had contracted Legionnaires' disease caused by serogroup 6 L. pneumophila. Each patient had showered there 2 to 10 days before the onset of disease symptoms. We also isolated the bacteria in two other hospitals, and found the same serogroups as had been causing Legionnaires' disease in those hospitals: serogroup 1 in Pittsburgh and serogroups 1 and 4 in Los Angeles. However, showers from hospital wards where no patients had contracted Legionnaires' disease also yielded L. pneumophila. Shower heads at the Chicago hospital were sterilized with ethylene oxide but rapidly became recontaminated, suggesting that the potable water at these hospitals may have contained the organism. The question of whether aerosols of shower water or other exposures to potable water containing L. pneumophila may cause nosocomial Legionnaires' disease has not been resolved but deserves further study.