Bath not draining

[bjd666]

Hi! I live in rented accommodation and have an issue with my bath not draining quickly enough.

I’ve taken off the trap and checked for blockages and there isn’t anything there. Also pushed a drain cleaner down the waste pipe and nothing obvious in the way.

I did notice that the although the waste pipe has a fall of about 9cm over 1.5m, the trap itself does seem low before coming back up to the pipe.

Is it possible that it’s just badly plumbed and needs to fall closer to the drain? Or am I missing something?

 

[undertrained]

Have you tried using a plunger?

 

[bjd666]

Yeah tried that first but it’s not made a difference. Also done baking soda and white vinegar which hasn’t burned anything in the way. Nor one shot.

Which is why I wonder if it’s the waste trap configuration

 

[securespark]

Has it always drained this slowly?

 

[bjd666]

Since I moved in yes

 

[undertrained]

Any more photos of wastepipe? See if there's anything obvious the other end. Looks ok from what you have shown so far.

 

[dilalio]

Are you in a flat? Are there other occupiers above or below you? Does anything else in your (or their) properties suffer with similar drainage problems?

Basically, you need to first identify what (if any) other services are connected to the waste run/branch you are having problems with, then go from there.

 

[just pumps]

I would say the horizontal rise needs lowering.

 

[bjd666]

I will try to get a photo of it later but essentially the waste pipe turns left 90° and then meets the main soil pipe which the sink and toilet also go into. Neither the sink or toilet get blocked.

 

[Hugh Jaleak]

How slow is 'slow'? There can be a fair bit of water in a bath, it can take a few minutes to drain completely. If its taking half hour then I'd be asking why.

Pipework could perhaps do with lowering slightly so it falls gently away from the trap continuously along it's length, but otherwise, that's a standard bath trap. Only other possibility I can think of is the waste pipe has been shoved too far into the boss connection on the stack and the outlet is restricted, but would expect that to cause problems with the WC as well.

 

[bjd666]

In terms of how slow - when you’re showering, there will be a good 5” of water that you are standing in as the bath can’t drain quicker than shower runs

 

[just pumps]

Some showers kick out +20L a minute.

 

[dilalio]

Baths are often setup with poor drainage as it can be got away with... Unlike shower trays

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

In terms of how slow - when you’re showering, there will be a good 5” of water that you are standing in as the bath can’t drain quicker than shower runs

Especially if that is an electric shower, that is very slow drainage. I can easily run my shower, plus both bath taps, without any build up of water.

I recently cleaned out my smelly kitchen drain, by disconnecting at its far end and fitting a bung, so it would hold any liquid put in the pipe, then added bleach and water to fill it to the sink plug. That left over night, got my pipes spotless, like new and sweet smelling.

 

[bjd666]

Just to give some additional context - it’s an electric only property with a megaflo hot water cylinder. Admittedly this will be pumping out a good flow of water so could it just be the flow is to great for the drain to handle?