Linear shower drain gets funky after 2 weeks?

2 years ago

I'm unsure if this is a one-off or if it's standard, but we have a linear drain in our shower. It consists of the metal trough, a metal grate on top, and in the actual drain hole that connects to the PVC pipe, there's a little basket that is there to collect anything that makes it past the metal grid. I'm finding that after about 2 weeks, everything starts to smell musty, and the little basket clogs. This involves pulling the tightly fitted grate out (the tool that came with it was worthless, but I picked up a trampoline spring hook on amazon that works amazing for this task), wiping the gunk out of the basket with some toilet paper, and scrubbing and rinsing the channel and the underside of the grate before reassembling it.

If this is standard with linear drains, then it is what it is, and I'll get used to it, but with previous "standard" drains I've never had this much maintenance, simply clear hair that collects on top of the grate and you're good. It certainly doesn't help that I have long hair, but as far as I can tell, the stuff that is collecting in the little basket doesn't have a lot of my long hair in it, most collects on top of the drain grid and gets picked up when the floor/walls get squeegeed after showers. Is there something that we can do to reduce the amount of maintenance? I've considered getting rid of that basket as I suspect it's the biggest culprit in the smell (and is not present in a normal drain) , but I'm worried that it may cause clogs in our pipes in the long term and we are on septic, so I prefer not to use drain cleaners if we can avoid it.

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Comments (6)

kudzu9
2 years ago
I have two showers with linear drains of similar design to yours. I believe your problem is the baskets. I've never used them and never had a problem. Most everything just goes down the drain without the baskets in place to interfere. I probably pull up the grate 1-2 times a year to wipe a little gunk from the inside of the tray, but that's about it. I think if you remove the baskets your problem will go away.
PRO
HALLETT & Co.
2 years ago
I do have my basket in place and we clean ours every two months maybe. I suspect you are doing something to create extra solids in the shower- maybe using bar soap or shaving? I’d be interested to see how many other people have skipped the basket, I use it because I assumed I was supposed to!
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DC Reno
2 years ago
We have the same issue with our linear drain too (and also still have the basket there, though it has crossed my mind to take it out, but I’d be worried about clogging the pipes?)
Helen
2 years ago
While you might have to "unclog" it more frequently, you should actually be grateful that the clogs are occuring at the top rather than making their way down the pipes where they might still cause a clog which would be more difficult to dislodge or extricate.

I don't have a linear drain but a standard drain with a hair catcher below which I think is equivalent to what you are calling a basket.

One day it just stopped flowing and fortuitiously my GC was coming around that day to follow up on some stuff. He did the dirty work of taking out the gook that had accumulated and sent me a photo - luckily he didn't bring it to where I was sitting but a photo more than sufficed. He was the one who told me that the clog could have gone further downstream.

FWIW, the clog didn't really have what seemed be a lot of long hairs although I also have long hair. It just seemed to be a gooey mess of some kind.

When I remodeled I deliberately opted for a drain cover that had no screws so that it could easily be lifted for cleaning.
chispa
2 years ago
last modified: 2 years ago
I could have written the same response as Kudzu9!

The baskets caused our linear drains to back up with anything that wasn't plain water. Soapy/foamy water formed a film over the basket and quickly clogged them, so they were removed about 2 weeks after we moved in. That was nearly 2 years ago and no issues since then.

The standard drains in my previous house had no baskets, so I didn't see a reason why the linear ones couldn't function without it, and that has been my experience with the 3 linear drains in the new house.
Laurel C
Original Author
2 years ago
Thanks @chispa and @kudzu9 I was thinking that our other drains have never had baskets and didn't clog, but wanted a crazy check.

We use castile soap as body wash in the shower as I'm trying to use biodegradable products anywhere things are going into the septic and I simply haven't done much research on body washes that are earth friendly. Otherwise, yeah, shaving happens in the shower (but frankly during winter, that can sometimes get pushed out more than 2 weeks and doesn't seem to have an effect on the basket situation. The only other thing that may be affecting it is that we have a couple of dogs, and with the zero entry shower, I'm sure a bit more loose fur ends up in the shower than a shower with a lip or a tub might get.