Vacuum Breaker

[TP]

I want to install a new shower valve with multiple sprays. Someone mentioned I should install a vacuum breaker while redoing all the plumbing. How is one to install a vacuum beaker and is it needed?

Thanks

[Speedy Jim]

Unless the shower is to have a flexible hose wand which could possibly be left lying in the shower pan (waste water), there would be no reason for a vacuum breaker.

The breaker prevents waste water from being siphoned back into the water supply lines (such as during a momentary loss of pressure).

They are useful for protecting things like lawn sprinkler/irrigating systems and garden hoses where the poisons used could be sucked back into the water system.

Jim

[David Efflandt]

New shower head on a hose devices may have a built-in vacuum breaker. Or at least the last Delta Hand Shower Unit I bought a couple of years ago says "Your shower is equipped with a Vacuum Breaker, permanently installed in the end of the hose..."

If a separate vacuum breaker is installed, it should technically be mounted higher than any outlet piping, and higher than any hose connected to that could be lifted. That is why commercial utility sinks have the vacuum breaker up near the ceiling, which results in annoying lag when turning water on/off or adjusting temperature. But it minimizes siphoning soap or cleaning solutions back into the water supply even if a hose is stuck in a bucket up on a cart or ladder.

For anything that does not and cannot have a hose attached, an air gap is the best vacuum breaker (spigot and showerhead above rim of tub).