
Standard Fittings
The good news:
Conveniently,
there has long been a standard size for shower fittings in the
United States. All of our shower heads and shower arms meet this
standard. Also, this means all our shower heads and shower arms
are compatible with any other standard heads or arms, and you
can easily replace just a shower head if you like and keep your
existing shower arm. Similarly, you can keep your current shower
head if you like and upgrade just the shower arm. It is highly
unusual to find shower heads and arms already installed that are
not the standard size.
The standard
size and threading is called 1/2" NPT (for
'National Pipe Thread - Tapered). It is also referred to as MNPT,
MPT or NPT(M) for male threads, and FNPT, FPT or NPT(F) for female
threads.
The bad news:
Standard
1/2" fittings won't be 1/2" in any dimension if you
measure them, and this can cause confusion. Many customers
will be sure they don't have standard fittings since they measured
their existing shower head or shower arm and they measured around
5/8" or 3/4". But most 1/2" male fittings will
actually measure about 0.8" in outside diameter, and 1/2"
female fittings will be around 1" outside diameter. (Why
is this the case? For the same reason that in lumber a 2x4 isn't
actually 2" x 4". Someone decided a long time ago that
is how it would be, and that was that.)
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