Slow Shower Drain

[Ryan Wright]

Hey Scott,

I'll bet your coach is like mine, and has the shower drain plug that
lifts up & down with the lever below the faucet, yes?

When I bought my coach the shower drain was a bit hokey. Not only a
little slow, but the drain plug wouldn't stay up on it's own anymore.
Here's what I'm betting you will find: The drain lift lever goes down
a vertical pipe, where it intersects with a horizontal pipe that runs
to your shower drain. Inside this horizontal pipe is a big spring and
a couple of rods that move back and forth. Mine was simply FULL of
hair and other nasty debris. I had to yank the thing out.

Unfortunately, it was not an easy job. I had to completely disassemble
the metal piping from underneath. The entire system was impossible to
clean and after yanking it out, impossible to replace with a new
system, so I wound up buying a new drain piece. I bought a beautiful
new nickel plated shower drain that lifts up and down by grabbing it,
rather than from the inside with a lever.... and then I found that the
piping underneath is completely non-standard. The threads aren't right
and modern shower fixtures, while they physically fit just fine, don't
screw into the threads. So I had to replace all of the plumbing under
the shower. It was not a fun job in the least... I wound up hacking a
bunch of foam insulation away, rigging up a new PVC drain pipe system,
testing everything, then replacing all of the foam installation with
that spray-foam stuff.

In the end it turned out very nice, and now I have a shower drain free
of all that mechanical garbage inside the pipe, but the process was
annoying and very time consuming. Personally, I'd be real tempted to
dry drain cleaner, even if it's "not good" for things. The piping
immediately under your shower is probably all metal, like mine. I'd
fill the holding tank with a good deal of water to dilute the stuff
once you flush it down, hit it hard and then dump the tanks & rinse
them out well right away. If you do have the lever lift system you
won't be able to put a snake down that drain...

-Ryan
'86 PT-40 8V92

On Sun, Nov 30, 2008 at 1:13 PM, Scott Forman <scottforman75@...> wrote:
> Is it safe to use a regular drain cleaner like Drain-O in my shower
> drain?
>
> Scott Forman
> 86 PT38
> Memphis
>
>