[Closed] slow draining bath

have you give it a good aggressive plunge?

That was the first thing i tried. It just seems to fill the trap and go no further. Even if there is a blockage i cant see why the water wouldnt fill down to that

Is it just the bath?

Only reason I ask was that I had a blockage in the back garden and eventually all the waste pipes backfilled so they were either draining very slowly or not at all.

yup, get outside and check the drains if you can and see if you can find how far the backing up extends to.

If you've got two plungers use one to seal over the overflow and then really go to town on the plug hole , just be careful you don't blow any joints apart if you've just had them all undone.

Yeah. Just the bath. The sink in the bathroom drains ok but it backs up into the bath, again with only a small amount of water, before it would reach any blockage

Sounds like the outfall pipe could be blocked. Leaves, hair & soap make pretty unpleasant and impenetrable blockage

I reckon blockage further down the pipe, air lock means water drains slowly. Could disconnect the pipe somewhere convenient within that 5 metres you've checked, bet it will drain into a bowl fine.

Its either the fu-fu valve, out of counterbalance with the flux capacitor,causing an override situation in the phelengum chamber.

Get a good quantity of drain unblocker.

.

Possible plank/non plumber suggestion... Is the fall / gradient on the pipe ok?

Tried various drain unblockers. Problem seems it doesnt get to the blockage as nothing is getting past the trap.

Its hard to say. I would prefer them going down a bit more but they have been like that for at least 3.5 years (date when bathroom was refitted after leak from upstairs), and draining the bath hasnt been an issue before

Had a look out back and dont see any obvious drains on my side of the building. What about taking off the small plate on the external waste pipe, i assu e this is an inspection hatch

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When you say you've cleared the pipes have you dissembled the trap itself, that's the first thing to do, maybe even fit a new one if you think there's an issue with it.

Yep. Trap was the first thing i took apart. Really can see no issue with it.

Do you have a vertical stack/pipe on the outside of your house where all the waste pipes go into?

Disconnect the bathroom waste from this stack and see if any water comes out, if not try and put the bath water on.

I wouldnt expect the bathroom waste pipe to be that long tbh.

have you give it a good aggressive plunge?

Heh.

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Get a length of tube over the plug hole, about 1m, & fill that. Increased head might clear the blockage.
Plunging can reek all sorts of havoc if joints come apart unseen.
Can you get the shower nozzle close enough ?
Ours drains slowly sometimes, but holding the shower nozzle so it's blasting into the drainer on jet mode, seems to fix it.

Tried putting the shower hose down but all it did was fill the bath

I had a similar problem and I was told by a plumber friend to borrow/hire an industrial waterproof vacuum cleaner. Reasoning is that the blockage probably went down the pipes, so try to remove it by bringing it back up the pipes. I then went round every sink and drain in the house with the vacuum deviceuntil the blockage had disappeared. IIRC it was a nasty build up of soap and hair.

b and Q sell bottles of drain unblocking fluid. Its a yellow bottle and costs about a tenner.Can't remember the make and it's not on their website. It's the only thing that has worked on our slow draining shower. I use that left for 24 hours then a couple of kettles full of boiling water and it works. I'd even tried the karcher to clear ours. Don't get it on your hands as mine started tingling so it cant be healthy. Think the bottle states money back guarantee if it doesn't work so nothing to lose really.

Caustic soda (sodium hydroxide)

Most of the drain unblockers are just that with a fancy label and a 1000% price hike
If you can tip it into the pipework after the trap, it needs water to get it going though.

Have you got a wife with long hair who washes her hair in the bath? Is she in her forties or fifties with thinning hair?

That hair is collecting somewhere. The six-monthly removal of a huge plug of hair and grease from the shower trap is one maintenance job that makes me feel sick.

b and Q sell bottles of drain unblocking fluid. Its a yellow bottle and costs about a tenner.Can't remember the make and it's not on their website. It's the only thing that has worked on our slow draining shower. I use that left for 24 hours then a couple of kettles full of boiling water and it works. I'd even tried the karcher to clear ours. Don't get it on your hands as mine started tingling so it cant be healthy. Think the bottle states money back guarantee if it doesn't work so nothing to lose really.

It's called "One Shot" and the tingling on your skin is Sulphuric Acid.

Ill give one shot a go. After that will be out in the garden with drain rods and then if still no joy it will time to get raped by a plumber

This happens to us fairly regularly and is always down to a build up of hair. If you're able to remove the grate part of the plug do so, then give it a few plunges before 'ripping' the plunger off. This should move the blockage back up towards the plug hole, rinse and repeat and eventually you'll be able to grab the hairball with fingers (which is where removing the grate helps).

Edit: Same as globalti

plug the bath overflow when plunging. plunge with the pipe and bath full of hot water.

if drain cleaner isnt getting past the trap then put more in so it does... we ahve some caustic soda stuff thats bloody evil but actually works.

the joys of a house full of long haired girls

I tried the plunger first.
Then I took the trap out and cleaned it.
This didnt work so tried some drain cleaner. No joy.
Took all accessible pipes apart and cleaned all gunk out.
Finally put a snake down the waste waster pipe ~5m away from the wath