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Old tub drain.

Harvey Ramer
Harvey Ramer Member Posts: 2,239
edited November 2014 in Plumbing
I haven't seen this before but it's really cool!

Harvey

Comments

  • Jamie Hall
    Jamie Hall Member Posts: 23,170
    C'mon, Harvey -- two out of the three bathtubs in this ark have those! They work just fine.

    And I have three tubs in storage which have the same drains, if anyone wants the drains contact me.

    Of course I've replaced the old lead drum traps under them... and the old fittings (with nice modern reproductions which have better valves...)
    Br. Jamie, osb
    Building superintendent/caretaker, 7200 sq. ft. historic house museum with dependencies in New England
    kbaillon
  • Harvey Ramer
    Harvey Ramer Member Posts: 2,239
    Jamie. You have a couple seasons on me ;-) There's I lot I have yet to see! I like old stuff though. They really built things to last. Or, is it that we just see the things that lasted?

    Harvey
  • BobC
    BobC Member Posts: 5,476
    A lot of the older stuff was overbuilt because there wasn't someone trying to "optimize" the cost structure. The result is it can be fixed easily when it does break and usually without breaking the bank - like a steam system.

    Bob
    Smith G8-3 with EZ Gas @ 90,000 BTU, Single pipe steam
    Vaporstat with a 12oz cut-out and 4oz cut-in
    3PSI gauge
  • icesailor
    icesailor Member Posts: 7,265
    A "Bi-Transit Waste". About as illegal a fitting as you can get. Especially with the hand shower attached. Laying below the flood level rim of the fixture that now makes it a submerged inlet. Which is what the original fixture was.

    The water used to come in where the overflow was/is. When you pull that middle thingy out, there is a hole in it that lets the overflow water out. The hole is at the same water level as the filled tub water. One reason that they are illegal is that they are disgusting. That thing some say about a bath. "Steeping In Your Own Swill". That outside pipe is full to the drain hole. If that drain is 75 years old, you will be sharing a bath with every person that ever steeped in that tub. No one ever cleans those.

    If you don't have a cast iron stomach, don't pull the middle thingy out and look inside.
  • Harvey Ramer
    Harvey Ramer Member Posts: 2,239
    I did pull it out ice. Everything is clean and tidy.
  • Jamie Hall
    Jamie Hall Member Posts: 23,170
    and cleaning it is one of the normal maintenance activities around here...
    Br. Jamie, osb
    Building superintendent/caretaker, 7200 sq. ft. historic house museum with dependencies in New England
  • icesailor
    icesailor Member Posts: 7,265
    Any place I ever worked in my life that had one, had never ever been cleaned. Not freaking ever. The owners didn't even know that that middle part lifted out.
  • RobG
    RobG Member Posts: 1,850
    Don't you just love the goo and the awesome aroma. Shampoo, dander, soap and dirty water......Mmmmmm.
  • icesailor
    icesailor Member Posts: 7,265
    You mean dead skin. Not Dander. Dander is fine fur from furry animals.
  • SWEI
    SWEI Member Posts: 7,356
    Call it what you want, but once it ferments a bit it gets pretty rank.
  • KC_Jones
    KC_Jones Member Posts: 5,722
    It isn't just those drains that can get like that. My wife likes to put her hair down our bathroom sink drain. Doesn't matter what I say. It gets removed and cleaned every 6 months or so...that hair holds a lot of "stuff". To me it's not the stink or the look that is gross, it's thinking that everything that is in there came off our body or is a cleaning product we use on our body. Like when I worked at the restaurant and informed all my co-workers....remember everything in that stinky dumpster is the same stuff we serve to people. lol I have a strong stomach thankfully.
    2014 Weil Mclain EG-40
    EcoSteam ES-20 Advanced Boiler Control
    Boiler pictures updated 2/21/15
  • RobG
    RobG Member Posts: 1,850
    icesailor said:

    You mean dead skin. Not Dander. Dander is fine fur from furry animals.

    Actually dander is dead skin, hence the word "dandruff". Pet dander is just that, pet dander. Dander is the skin cells shed from the body of animals. So far as I know we are still animals?
    jonny88
  • delta T
    delta T Member Posts: 884
    Thats awsome! similar to a lav faucet that I have sitting on the front counter. We took this out of a sink from a customer who loves the older stuff. We did everything possible to get the old stems to work again, searched high and low for replacements, with no luck and after two weeks of devoted searching and tinkering she finally agreed that it was time for a new faucet. Had to replace the spout too, as the drain assembly was too corroded to fix. Found a pretty close repro match though! Here are some photos: We cut the stopper off so that we could put it on display, but it used to have the same thing, long extendsion down to stop the drain. I like that it still has the patent date of July 6th 1915. Makes me wonder what faucet that I have ever put in will still be around 100 years from now.....okay I don't wonder.
  • delta T
    delta T Member Posts: 884
  • icesailor
    icesailor Member Posts: 7,265
    RobG said:

    icesailor said:

    You mean dead skin. Not Dander. Dander is fine fur from furry animals.

    Actually dander is dead skin, hence the word "dandruff". Pet dander is just that, pet dander. Dander is the skin cells shed from the body of animals. So far as I know we are still animals?

    You're absolutely right. My bad.

  • Jamie Hall
    Jamie Hall Member Posts: 23,170
    delta T said:

    Thats awsome! similar to a lav faucet that I have sitting on the front counter. We took this out of a sink from a customer who loves the older stuff. We did everything possible to get the old stems to work again, searched high and low for replacements, with no luck and after two weeks of devoted searching and tinkering she finally agreed that it was time for a new faucet. Had to replace the spout too, as the drain assembly was too corroded to fix. Found a pretty close repro match though! Here are some photos: We cut the stopper off so that we could put it on display, but it used to have the same thing, long extendsion down to stop the drain. I like that it still has the patent date of July 6th 1915. Makes me wonder what faucet that I have ever put in will still be around 100 years from now.....okay I don't wonder.

    I am so glad to know that someone else has had trouble finding replacement parts for the old faucets. I'd love to, but they just don't seem to be there. There are some good repro replacements available, though -- but like you I do wonder if they will still be working a hundred years from now...

    Br. Jamie, osb
    Building superintendent/caretaker, 7200 sq. ft. historic house museum with dependencies in New England
  • All that pipe before the P-trap is called the fouling area; kept as short as possible for the very reason that it stinks and the water seal is downstream and it can't trap the smell to the sewer side.
    8.33 lbs./gal. x 60 min./hr. x 20°ΔT = 10,000 BTU's/hour

    Two btu per sq ft for degree difference for a slab
  • icesailor
    icesailor Member Posts: 7,265
    Understand that that sink is probably older than most grandmothers we have. Not mine.

    We Plumbers were taught the 7 ways of a trap seal loss. SAMOBEC
    Syphonage
    Aspiration
    Momentum
    Osculation
    Backflow
    Evaporation
    Capillary Action

    That sink, faucet and drain on tubs and lav's covers more than one of those with the right conditions. Possibly all 7.