The Problem
California is dealing with seemingly constant droughts. I noticed that the stopper on my bathtub that controls whether the water comes from the larger spigot at the bottom near the tub or the shower head tends to fall whenever the water gets shut off. I measured the water and discovered it was nearly a liter! I typically turn the water on and off frequently to conserve water when taking showers, so this was ridiculously inefficient and seemed to be undoing my efforts.
My Solution
I designed simple lever device to keep the stopper on my bathtub in “shower mode”. This handy device keeps the stopper up so water only comes out of the shower part.
Files are available on Thingiverse.
Design Process
The design was CAD modeled in SolidWorks & printed using a 3D printer.
This is the fourth iteration – the first ones were a two part slider that slides in to prevent the stopper from falling. However, they did not sit well on the faucet and tended to fall off.
The third iteration was similar to the current one, but the lever ended up at too wide of an angle so it tended to fall down from the downward force of the stopper.