Having troubles with a very difficult shower drain? Read on to see how a top pet bottle hack literally saved us thousands of CHF in plumbing costs. What is more we fixed a clogged shower drain easily with minimum of costs with a used PET bottle worth maybe 10 cents.
A DIFFICULT CLOGGED SHOWER DRAIN
The above is a picture of our family bathroom shower. Both of our showers are walk-in modern showers but not without the regular drainage problems though.
I am going to try to explain how this shower is constructed. The main drain is below the stainless steel cap, all nicely hidden away. But, the actual drain is quite small which is fixed permanently with a removable filter. There are some plastic screws on which we place the stainless steel cap.
Since a few months, we had constant blockage problems with this system. To fix that, I first used organic drain cleaners to remove the blockage, but the result was short lived.
Then, I had to resort to some special drain cleaning powders and liquids and likewise the results was again short lived. In the end, we had to call the plumber to fix this. During this time, we were using our guest bath room shower for a few weeks. Not a bad idea to use all the showers in the house, it helps the drains to work effectively. Its not good to let the drain to dry up for too long, therefore, we used the guest shower from time to time.
HIGH PLUMBING COSTS IN SWITZERLAND
Living in Switzerland means a very high cost of living. This reflects on the labor cost plus the travel cost and tax for even small jobs. We called the plumber who did all the plumbing works for this house.
He didn’t do much more than we did, other than using some more stronger plumbing chemicals. This was again short lived and even then it was not 100% fixed. After a couple of weeks it was back to square one of clogged and slow drainage.
PLUMBING SUCTION TOOL
The above is the picture of a conventional plumbing suction too.
The way this works, is you close the drain and fix this on to it and create a vacuum. After that you fill in the sink or the tub with water and press the suction a couple of times and then open the drainage. The water will start gushing through easily.
The water which is draining out should be faster than what you fill in. A positive sign that this tool and method has worked.
But this system was not working in our shower. You can see from the above picture of our shower, that this suction tool was way too big, to fix on to the drain. So we were again breaking our heads on how to fix this problem.
HOW A PET BOTTLE HACK SAVED US PLUMBING COSTS
After breaking our head for days on end, we came up with the idea to use a PET bottle after reading about it in a forum. Mind you we tried out other ideas in the meantime but not very successfully.
To make this hack work, we needed to create a similar kind of suction which the traditional plumbing suction tool creates. For this we were lucky to find the right kind of bottle which just fit into the drain filter.
The advantage of using a pet bottle is that there is room for making it fit by pressing a little.
HOW WE USED THIS PET BOTTLE TO SAVE FURTHER EXPENSIVE PLUMBING COSTS
My husband, a Mr. Fix it and DIY man was working his brains and the finally the solution was so simple and cheap.
He was trying to look for videos with no result. Finally, he found a small chat forum in German, where they were discussing such plumbing issues. I don’t know if this kind of shower system is so peculiar only here in Europe, because our drainage has a double filter and was not easy to get to. Thank heavens, one member had tried out this PET bottle hack. As usual, the forum link was lost in my husband’s search history. So sorry, that I can’t link you clever chap. In case, you happen to look into my blog, our heartfelt thanks.
HOW TO USE THE PET BOTTLE HACK
Step 1
First fix the filter and close the top opening of the drain with the PET bottle.
Step 2
Next fill in the water as much as you can to create a blockage and vacuum. After that press the bottle a couple of times and release.
You will see that the water will start gushing out. Additionally you can fill in a pet bottle full of hot water and press it into the drain. That will rinse it thoroughly.
I must say, I love the sound of the water draining after such a long time of struggling with blocked drains.
Vow, such an easy and low cost way to fix this complicated shower drain. A very happy outcome indeed.
TOP PET BOTTLE HACK VIDEO
Check out my other DIY Hack – Vegetable Storage Rack
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