2017 Imagine 2800 BH slow drain in the shower

[mpking]

After the mini-saga of getting the (non-GD) dealer to replace the shower drain that was leaking on my camper at purchase, we finally had the opportunity to use the shower. (Who knew that having a TT also meant you can have hot water showers during a 3 day power outage?)

Anyways, now the drain, drains exceedingly slow. Like, hurry up in the shower because I'm afraid the built up water is going to go over the shower pan lip and onto the floor. Ok. maybe it's not that bad, we I had a solid 1 inch of water covering the bottom of the shower after I finished.

It does drain down, but very slowly.

Before we had the drain fixed, it drained very quickly. But that could be a function of the pipe was cracked, and was just leaking out.

So, I have a few questions.

1. Is the drain being this slow *normal*? (I think not, but wanted to ask before i went down the rabbit hole on this).
2. Assuming it's a hair clog. I've successfully removed the hair screen, but I can't get a plumbers snake past the 2nd cross bar. (It's about 1 inch below the hair screen) Does this come off, or do I need to find a smaller snake? (Picture attached is taken from internet to describe cross piece, not my actually drain.)

Any other advice? I really don't want to tear into all the plumbing. I could take it back to the dealer, and really exercise the extended warranty they sold me, but if it's something obvious, or relativity easy, I'd rather not bother setting up the appointment.

[Country Campers]

The reasons for a slow drain would either be a clog in the trap , the drain pipe inserted in the tank too deep like all the way to the bottom , an up slope in the drain line from the trap to the tank , improper venting of the tank. Unless the tank is full improper venting will not show up as the tank would have enough air space to accept the volume of water entering the tank. The other items would have to be explored by viewing the plumbing pipes.

Brian

[mpking]

Tracing what I can see.

There is a access panel that allows access under the shower pan.
The pipe runs from the ptrap to the wall, and makes a 90 degree turn toward the front of the camper. In the sink vanity, it has a vent, and joins the sink vanity and goes thru the floor.

The sink drains normally.

Based on that observation, I think I can eliminate the pipe too far into the tank, and the venting.

That leaves the slope, and the very pedestrian it's clogged.
I'm heading to Walmart, I'll see if I can find a snake that is very small.

Does anyone know if there is a liquid plumber product (drain cleaner) that is safe for RV tanks?

[Cate&Rob]

mpking

The P trap is usually removable. I would pull the P trap and if it and the pipe from the shower are clear, snake the drain pipe from there.
Since you mention finding the P trap, I assume you do not have a "duck bill" one-way valve in the drain pipe. If you had one of these . . . snaking the drain would likely destroy this valve.

Rob

[mpking]

Reporting back (With Success)

• I pulled the P trap. It was fairly clean.
• I snaked the line up to the vanity (about 8-10 feet of pipe). Nothing came out.
• I assembled the P trap back together, and tested it. About 45 seconds for the water to start pooling up. (No change)
• Grabbed my sink plunger (the little itty bitty small one's) and give it a single pop. Water started draining. Slowly at first. I gave it couple more pop's, and now the drain was keeping up with the shower head.

So, I know what fixed it (the pop from the plunger).

• I'm theorizing the following because I like to know how things are broken:
  • The drain was slowly draining. It would take about 1 minute to clear the 1/2 inch of water in the shower drain. So it WAS draining, but very slowly.
  • The sink was probably also affected, but since it had about 8-10 feet of pipe for the shower, plus the sink's own pipe to back up into, it never showed itself. (That's 1.5 gallons of water, I used a calculator) We never would use 1.5 gallons at one time in the sink.
  • The clog was probably beyond the vanity, and the plunger pushed it into the tank, clearing it up.

Also, in my original question, I asked if any drain products are safe for the RV.

The consensus I've found on the internet is:

There are none.

You can use the enzyme cleaners for gray water tanks, but it's not really designed to free a clog, and will run past the pipes and not stick to any built up gunk.

The best advice seems be basic chemistry, and is to put about 1 gallon of White distilled vinegar down the drain, and let it sit for 8 to 10 hours. Vinegar is a mild acid, and will work to dissolve the hair (base), loosing it up. Follow this up with about 1 gallon of almost boiling hot water, to wash the loosened hair down the drain to the tank. Note, this doesn't work super awesome on compete clogs, since your shower may not hold 2 gallons of liquid in it's pan when you try to clear it.

Some people talk about packing Baking Soda into the P trap, and then pouring the vinegar in, but a chemist responded that while very showy in making a lot of foam, it will actually neutralize the vinegar. The baking soda does nothing without mechanical action (Scrubbing). So Long story short, don't use vinegar and baking soda, cause they cancel each other out.