I have a problem with improving the rate at which our newly installedbath drains. The old one was just as bad, the difficulty is the poordesign of the original installation which I am rather stuck with.The bath is in a flat and is positioned about two or three meters fromthe main service duct where the sewage downpipe is. The waste pipefrom the bath runs essentially horizontally from the trap under thebath across to the downpipe. Not surprisingly, especially towards theend, it drains very slowly. It's impossible to get at the connectionof the waste into the downpipe as it's inside a brick built serviceduct, all you can get at is a 40mm 'socket' where it pokes through ahole in the brickwork.Can anyone suggest any clever ways to improve this? It'll be quitedifficult to do anything much about the drop in the pipe althoughthere is currently access from below (the kitchen) as the leaks fromthe old bath and drain have caused a bit of the kitchen ceiling tocollapse. However even if we took the pipe down through the ceiling Ican't see how it could then be routed to the service duct withoutmajor building work. I suppose it could join the waste pipe from thekitchen sink but how would you prevent water 'welling up' into thesink?Is pumped waste possible? Are one-way valves for waste pipeavailable?The washbasin waste pipe is even worse, it has a near horizontal runof four meters or so and the same difficulties of improving the dropapply. It could run into the bath waste and gain some drop that waybut, again, how do you stop it coming up into the bath?

wrote| The bath is in a flat and is positioned about two or three meters| from the main service duct where the sewage downpipe is. The| waste pipe from the bath runs essentially horizontally from the| trap under the bath across to the downpipe. Not surprisingly,| especially towards the end, it drains very slowly. It's impossible| to get at the connection of the waste into the downpipe as it's| inside a brick built service duct, all you can get at is a 40mm| 'socket' where it pokes through a hole in the brickwork.| Can anyone suggest any clever ways to improve this?It's not clear if the bath outlet runs within the floor void or if it *has*to, but if you could elevate the bath by a couple of inches (say by using acouple of floor joist -like bits of wood on their sides as planks under thebath feet) that might give you enough more fall on the pipe.Even if the pipe has to stay within the floor void, elevating the bath a bitshould give an increase in flow because of the increased 'head',...

Very slow draining of bath, how to cure?

Dec 09, 2003 26 Replies

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N. Thornton 22 years ago

Probably, but it also might be the two together. Slow draining water is going to deposit grease much more. Might be worth a try anyway.

Any DIY supplier will sell you a pump. Wickes do them for somewhere round £30 IIRC. I wouldnt expect it to come with 40mm fittings though.

Regards, NT

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usenet 22 years ago

Well I've hunted using Google etc. and have found nothing that really seems to be aimed at waste pumping except the Saniflo ones.

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N. Thornton 22 years ago

Central heating pump. Designed to pump with a moderate amount of crap in the water, which will work fine, as long as you dont feed lots of little screws down the plughole. Youre pumping grey water, the saniflo is for brown not grey.

Regards, NT

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Andrew Mawson 22 years ago

And running dry between baths how long will it last? Or how do you sense to turn it on?

Andrew Mawson

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Tony 22 years ago

How about an automatic bilge pump intended for a boat. They come on when water hits the sensor and continue until free of water. They're low powered and quiet and often deal with less than pristine water.

Try a few of the online chandlers.

Tony

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N. Thornton 22 years ago

Just read the thread and see what was suggested. It would last much longer than in a CH system since it is running much less. Youre right to half make the point that its run time shouldnt be too OTT.

Regards, NT

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Niall 22 years ago

Saniflo is a range of equipment, there is one for baths, showers etc. ISTR it's called Sanichasse, but ICBW. Try a plumbers merchants rather than a DIY shed who tend to only have the kharzi ones.

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