C
Colour Republic
Hi guys been a long time but got something I can't quite figure out...
basically its its a slow running bath waste but can't figure out why as it doesn't do it all the time.
This is a long and boring post but trying to give as much info so you know what's already been tried. Sorry!!!
Quick background is that this is actually out in Spain. The old dear has just bought the property and when I arrived for a few weeks away I noticed the bath waste was taking a long time to drain away. the old dear had said it had been doing it since she bought the place and she had tried plunging it without success.
So first thing I did was put some sulphuric acid down the plug hole. It only took 100mm-150mm before it was backed up out of the plug hole. Barely enough to fill the trap, so assumed the blockage was quite close, waited 5 mins till it had drained away and added some more. Repeated until around 1L had been squirted down. I half expected to hear some bubbling or smoke coming out the trap but nothing. Left it over night, then tested the following morning. No change still slow running.
Next I tried plunging. Filled the bath with a couple of inches of water, pulled the plug and started plunging. took a while but finally it stopped offering resistance and the water started flowing away quickly. I left the tap running for another 10 minutes or so and it carried on flowing away without issue. Great finally sorted it... Or so I thought!
Next day I turn the tap on without the plug in and notice almost immediately the water backed up and draining slowly once again.... Strange maybe I just moved the blockage further down the pipe? So once again fill the bath with a couple of inches of water and plunge away until no resistance and it's all flowing nicely... water drains away and bath is empty... Turn tap on and once again the trap starts to back up. Water that was draining away fast just seconds before is now once again draining slowly.WTF?
Right now I'm ****ed off! So this time I fill the bath with 6-7 inches of water instead of the usual 2-3. Pull the plug and expect to start plunging... No need to, the water is fast running away. I can see because I can see the vortex swirl by the plug hole.
i'm stumped! I can only assume that there is some sort of siphoning going on. Either when I plunge with just a few inches of water, or is created naturally when there is 6-7 inches plus of water in the bath.
Just to recap, if there is just a few inches of water it will drain way slowly. If there is quite a bit of water it will drain fast all the way until it's empty, it's not even if it slows down again towards the end. It seems that once it is fast running it will stay that way until the bath has been emptied and the water has settled in the trap. As soon as that has happened then it goes back to slow running.
BTW the bath is tiled in so can't access the pipe work (without a hammer at least). I can make some educated guesses as to where the pipe work runs and it should be noted that I believe that an en-suite on the other side of the wall shares a main waste run, however that doesn't have any slow running issues. So again I assume the issue is quite close to the bath. I'm just trying to picture in my head what sort of blockage could cause this and how a siphoning action could be created on such a short run of pipe.
HELP!
basically its its a slow running bath waste but can't figure out why as it doesn't do it all the time.
This is a long and boring post but trying to give as much info so you know what's already been tried. Sorry!!!
Quick background is that this is actually out in Spain. The old dear has just bought the property and when I arrived for a few weeks away I noticed the bath waste was taking a long time to drain away. the old dear had said it had been doing it since she bought the place and she had tried plunging it without success.
So first thing I did was put some sulphuric acid down the plug hole. It only took 100mm-150mm before it was backed up out of the plug hole. Barely enough to fill the trap, so assumed the blockage was quite close, waited 5 mins till it had drained away and added some more. Repeated until around 1L had been squirted down. I half expected to hear some bubbling or smoke coming out the trap but nothing. Left it over night, then tested the following morning. No change still slow running.
Next I tried plunging. Filled the bath with a couple of inches of water, pulled the plug and started plunging. took a while but finally it stopped offering resistance and the water started flowing away quickly. I left the tap running for another 10 minutes or so and it carried on flowing away without issue. Great finally sorted it... Or so I thought!
Next day I turn the tap on without the plug in and notice almost immediately the water backed up and draining slowly once again.... Strange maybe I just moved the blockage further down the pipe? So once again fill the bath with a couple of inches of water and plunge away until no resistance and it's all flowing nicely... water drains away and bath is empty... Turn tap on and once again the trap starts to back up. Water that was draining away fast just seconds before is now once again draining slowly.WTF?
Right now I'm ****ed off! So this time I fill the bath with 6-7 inches of water instead of the usual 2-3. Pull the plug and expect to start plunging... No need to, the water is fast running away. I can see because I can see the vortex swirl by the plug hole.
i'm stumped! I can only assume that there is some sort of siphoning going on. Either when I plunge with just a few inches of water, or is created naturally when there is 6-7 inches plus of water in the bath.
Just to recap, if there is just a few inches of water it will drain way slowly. If there is quite a bit of water it will drain fast all the way until it's empty, it's not even if it slows down again towards the end. It seems that once it is fast running it will stay that way until the bath has been emptied and the water has settled in the trap. As soon as that has happened then it goes back to slow running.
BTW the bath is tiled in so can't access the pipe work (without a hammer at least). I can make some educated guesses as to where the pipe work runs and it should be noted that I believe that an en-suite on the other side of the wall shares a main waste run, however that doesn't have any slow running issues. So again I assume the issue is quite close to the bath. I'm just trying to picture in my head what sort of blockage could cause this and how a siphoning action could be created on such a short run of pipe.
HELP!
