[url=https://flic.kr/p/2hDiPXw]P1210232[/url] by michaelwex10, on Flickr

Todays mystery object came out of my shower waste pipe impaled on the end of a Rothenburger waste clearing thingy.

Over the last four years the waste has become slower until last weekend I ended up paddling in ankle deep water. Mr Muscle appeared to clear the problem but only for a few days so today I got the spiral brush clearer thing and low this a appeared.
Any ideas what this is and why its stuck in my shower waste pipe?

cuttlefish bone

enormous gross toenail

Part of the shower waste – hows the ceiling downstairs?

Thrunge separator.

Is it rubbery? Looks like part of a low profile waste aka’fanny valve’.

Could be a Wanger Flange

It looks suspiciously like a tape measure

Its the guts from an inline trap.

Yup. It’s the insides of an in-line waste trap.
To stop smells coming back up the plug hole from the drains in the absence of a traditional water filled u-bend

Could be a Wanger Flange

Pffft. It’s clearly a Flanger Wang.

The end of a venetian blind

Yup. It’s the insides of an in-line waste trap.
To stop smells coming back up the plug hole from the drains in the absence of a traditional water filled u-bend

Would that prevent our bathroom sink from glughing, theres a long horizontal ish run from the ensuite to the original bathroom and it glugs for a while after used which usually gets acompanied by a pipe full of stale air coming back though the u bend.

My original* plan was to get some fittings and make a u bend the full height of the washstand such that it doesnt stand a chance of drawing that much vacuum.

*never to be implemented because im lazy

inside of a waterless trap, look forward to some lovely smells coming from your shower now.

See 3:17

If there is a vacuum being created at the sink that’s siphoning the trap dry then you need an anti-vac trap at the sink.

The shower trap needs replacing too, as it’s innards have gone and the bathroom may well begin to stink as a result.

Oh er perhaps I shouldn’t have roded the pipe but in my defense the whole pipe run is boxed in so I cant see whats there.
On the plus side the shower now drains like it used to.
The pipe run goes out through the wall and into the stack via a convoluted short run designed to use the maximum number of elbows and short pipe runs.
Cant really see sewer smells choosing this run over rising straight up the stack but sods law will prevail.

Is there any access under the shower tray ?
Trap will be right under the drain hole. Easy enough to change if you can get a hand in there.

If there is a vacuum being created at the sink that’s siphoning the trap dry then you need an anti-vac trap at the sink.

I suspect it’s not a vacuum, but that the horisontal run potentially has an uphill bit in the middle so once it stops draining (and they syphon effect or it’s momentum pulling a vacuum at the other end) gravity is pulling it back to the sink end and displacing a load of air. But I guess any sort of flap should prevent that, cheers!

thisisnotaspoon, I think another name for it is an air admittance valve thing. You seem to see them sometimes on the waste near the urinals for some reason! Lets air in, doesn’t let air/smells out. I suspect the fall on your pipe is poor so the water fills the pipe, and then drains, sucking the water out of the U bend under the sink. Air admittance valve would allow air in without sucking the U bend dry.