Slow draining shower waste

[Adsibob]

We moved into our newly plumbed house in May. Some 4 -6 months in, I noticed that the shower wasn’t draining very quickly. It wasn’t flooding the wet room, it just didn’t seem to clear efficiently, which was odd, because the shower is on an external wall and on the other side of that wall, 3.5m down is our new sewer pipe taking water away to the sewer.  
 

It has progressively got worse and today a 12 min shower partly flooded the bathroom.

 

Since I noticed the problem last year, I have been lifting up the tiled slot drain cover to inspect for anything that may be blocking it, and never found much, other than the occasional bit of SWMBO’s hair. However, today I noticed a black film of gunk all along the underside of the cover. Scraped it off into the bin. I suspect the same gunk has lined the pipes and narrowed them? Is that possible? The shower still drains fully, it’s just got progressively slower and has surprised me given we could have taken more than 500 showers there between us, and the plumbing was brand new!

 

My pipes are plastic, so I’m nervous about using strong chemicals to clean it. But is this method, courtesy of Google, safe to do with plastic pipes?

 

First, pour roughly a cup of baking soda down the drain (no exact measurement needed). After a few minutes, pour an equal amount of vinegar down. Leave the mixture sitting for at least an hour. Follow up with another round of boiling water, and see if the shower is draining faster.

[Temp]

Perhaps try a good old fashioned plunger first. Run the shower to get the pipe full then plunge away. Use the plunger to push down and suck back the water. Surprising how much gunk can be sucked back into the tray with a plunger. The tricky bit us getting a good seal between plunger and tray. Sometimes a ring of dishcloth can help.

 

 

[JohnMo]

I've tried many chemical and combinations in the past, plunger wins every time.

 

Hair, dead skin and soap, will block anything.

[Nickfromwales]

+1. Plunger.

[Crunchynut]

Did you just remove the grid over the outlet or did you then  pull the trap out? In my experience gunk gets caught up on the exit of the trap, which you can’t necessarily get at by just removing the grid, depending on its design. Most shower traps allow you to pull the trap dip tube out and hence get at the problem area.

[Conor]

Forcing down crushed ice also works a treat.

[Adsibob]

4 hours ago, Crunchynut said:

Did you just remove the grid over the outlet or did you then  pull the trap out? In my experience gunk gets caught up on the exit of the trap, which you can’t necessarily get at by just removing the grid, depending on its design. Most shower traps allow you to pull the trap dip tube out and hence get at the problem area.

i've tried removing the trap, but whilst it spins around it doesn't budge easily and I don't want to force it.

[Adsibob]

5 hours ago, Temp said:

Perhaps try a good old fashioned plunger first. Run the shower to get the pipe full then plunge away. Use the plunger to push down and suck back the water. Surprising how much gunk can be sucked back into the tray with a plunger. The tricky bit us getting a good seal between plunger and tray.

 

 

The plunger technique is going to be very difficult because the trap is recessed within a channel that is covered by the tiled piece.

 

5 hours ago, Temp said:

Sometimes a ring of dishcloth can help.

I will give it a go.

 

Need to buy a plunger first.

[Kelvin]

Hair is the most likely culprit as it forms a thick mass with soap and scum. I’ve had good success with the pipe cleaner stuff. It’s a bit of velcro attached to a bendy wire. Surprising how much hair gets trapped in the pipes. 

[Gone West]

We found some Dam Buster cleaner left behind when we moved into the house. Very strong but worked a treat.

 

https://directplumbingsupplies.com/product/dam-buster?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIyOvQ-M-F_gIVjaztCh0mGQS1EAQYAiABEgKl3fD_BwE

 

 

[Crunchynut]

8 hours ago, Adsibob said:

i've tried removing the trap, but whilst it spins around it doesn't budge easily and I don't want to force it.

It’s probably just a push/pull fit, with an ‘o’ ring seal - a strong pull may do the trick.  But I understand your nervousness.

[Dave Jones]

1 hour ago, Gone West said:

We found some Dam Buster cleaner left behind when we moved into the house. Very strong but worked a treat.

 

https://directplumbingsupplies.com/product/dam-buster?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIyOvQ-M-F_gIVjaztCh0mGQS1EAQYAiABEgKl3fD_BwE

 

 

 

second vote for this. it melts anything.

[saveasteading]

2 hours ago, Dave Jones said:

second vote for this. it melts anything.

Including cheap and nasty shower outlets. 

That becomes a very big job to replace.

So i won't use a bottled drain cleaner unless i know the fittings are proper quality.

That may mean undignified and repeated  struggles with a plumbers' snake but so be it.

[Dave Jones]

1 hour ago, saveasteading said:

Including cheap and nasty shower outlets. 

That becomes a very big job to replace.

So i won't use a bottled drain cleaner unless i know the fittings are proper quality.

That may mean undignified and repeated  struggles with a plumbers' snake but so be it.

 

doesnt effect plastic. only organic matter.

[saveasteading]

17 minutes ago, Dave Jones said:

1 hour ago, saveasteading said:

Including cheap and nasty shower outlets. 

That becomes a very big job to replace.

So i won't use a bottled drain cleaner unless i know the fittings are proper quality.

That may mean undignified and repeated  struggles with a plumbers' snake but so be it.

Expand  

 

doesnt effect plastic.

OK. The bottle of drain cleaner I bought wasn't supposed to melt plastic either. Maybe it was organic plastic.

 

I was very lucky that it just distorted rather than dissolved. 

I suspect it was an untested cheap product from a diy outlet, so I only buy branded fittings now.

[Adsibob]

3 hours ago, saveasteading said:

OK. The bottle of drain cleaner I bought wasn't supposed to melt plastic either. Maybe it was organic plastic.

 

I was very lucky that it just distorted rather than dissolved. 

I suspect it was an untested cheap product from a diy outlet, so I only buy branded fittings now.

I don't know which brand drainage fittings have been used, i just know they are plastic and that therefore there is a risk it's cheap plastic. All supply pipes were done by my plumber out of buteline. That is strong. But all drainage was done by my builder and who knows what he used. But my OP was to question whether a mixture of vinegar and baking soda would be milder than the type of chemicals sold online, and whether using such a homemade recipe would be safe, even for "cheap plastic". @Temp or @SteamyTea normally have the geek power to work these things out scientifically.

Edited March 31, 2023 by Adsibob

[SteamyTea]

Generally speaking, most domestic cleaning agents are an alkaline.

On 30/03/2023 at 19:22, Adsibob said:

First, pour roughly a cup of baking soda down the drain (no exact measurement needed). After a few minutes, pour an equal amount of vinegar down. Leave the mixture sitting for at least an hour. Follow up with another round of boiling water, and see if the shower is draining faster.

That is relying on the reaction between a mild alkaline and a mild acid to make lots of bubbles, that may, or may not, dislodge a blockage.  Nothing to do with a magical mixture that dissolves anything.  The hot water probably does more good.

 

As to why your pipes are distorting/softening, I really don't know.  We had a cleaning product that was 95% water, it stained some stainless steels (but not others).

[Gone West]

On the Dam Buster bottle I have, it says sulphuric acid (above 75%). It also recommends using a full face visor and rubber gloves. Very effective when I've used it.

[Andehh]

Wait for it all to be dry then empty a litre of strong bleach down it, and leave for 24 hours, sometimes that can help. 

Edited April 1, 2023 by Andehh

[markocosic]

Domestic shower drains can have hopelessly poor traps in my experience.

 

Work out how to pull the trap and unbung the hairsoap from it. No chemicals required. Pipework will be clear downstream of trap.

 

 

[Russdl]

@Adsibob That’s all new plumbing isn’t it?
 

Our new shower drains slowed down after a very short period of use, one of the drain runs were pretty convoluted to put it mildly, but they didn’t really have any other way to go. What fixed it for us was using the hand held shower thingy and blasting that down the drain on every shower cleaning session, so once a week or so. Not had an issue since. 

[Adsibob]

That’s an interesting idea. 
yes, this is all brand new plumbing, brand new everything in terms of water waste fittings and channels. What I find odd is that this shower is right up against the external wall that is immediately next to our pipe that connects to the sewer, so of all the wastes, it’s the one that shortest to travel. It must be the trap, as @markocosic says. I presume now that the slot drain has all been tiled into our shower wet room area, it’s far too late to change the trap? I guess I could attack it from underneath, though probably not worth it.

[Marvin]

I think it will be the waste pipe from the shower trap to the external soil stack has not enough fall on it.

 

Typically the ones I am asked to sort out have been put in with the pipe too level or going uphill, elbows rather than swept bends, and unsupported pipes that sag. If the trap is removable then plunging is a good start.

 

M

[Adsibob]

45 minutes ago, Marvin said:

If the trap is removable then plunging is a good start

As mentioned above, I can’t access the trap without cutting into the ceiling from underneath. Rather not do that.

[markocosic]

Share a link / photo. The traps on these slot drains are usually removable from the top. 

 

This sort?

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XL4XEZcmXWI

 

It's usually a right pain to slide that grey part out and even more of a pain to slide it back in again. (tends to want to "pop out" again unless you get everything spotless) Ours has a strategically placed bottle cap wedged between the grey part and the wall of the drain to hold it into the pipe.

 

If there's a second trap / alternative trap that's only accessible by cutting into the ceiling from underneath then that's a bit of an f-you move by the plumber. Cut in an access hatch as you'll be needing to de-wife / de-daughter that trap regularly. (short hair, pubes, soap etc sail though; it's long hair that twirls around itself then gets all kinds of non-rinsable conditioners and whatnot attached to it that really block these)