Avoiding shower clogs

I am doing another light one today, and then it feels like I will be starting another series that will go a bit deeper.

This is also one that will probably not apply to everyone, but I live with my mother and two sisters in a family where thick hair seems to be a genetic trait. On a slightly less than annual basis (maybe every 10 or 11 months), we would get clogs in the shower.

Here are some things I have learned about that. It is not only hair. Soap and skin flakes (the things you wash off of you) can also become a part of that clog. I have thought about switching to liquid soap, but we still have the hair and skin.

Commercial clog products don't seem to help. Most plumbers have recommended against them anyway because of the chemical nastiness. That could be some self-interest, because if there were more effective ways of solving the issue yourself, they might get less business, but sometimes they have made other recommendations.

The big one that we tried was periodically pouring hot water down the drain. If we had remembered to be more regular about it, that might have worked, but the clogs would still eventually come. When you notice that the drain is slowing down and start to think about it, it is too late to start with the water.

(A slow drain is an excellent time to call the plumber, rather than waiting until it stops draining completely on a Sunday morning when everyone needs to shower for church, because that's when it happens!)

I also bought a snake at one point, impressed with the concept. However, when you are snaking it down by hand, it may not bend in the direction you want it to go. Plumbers have a mechanized tool (I believe it is called a drop head) that they can force in the direction of the clog. This is necessary, but it also adds $25 to the call, depending on whom you use.

Ultimately, what has saved us is this little guy:

The standard drain that came with the enclosure let too much through. The other one we tried - a rubber model - did stop some hair but it also stopped water so we kept kicking it aside. This fine mesh, which cost me $3.99 at the local Fred Meyer, has saves us many $160 plumber calls.

It has not been only one mesh, so lets talk about maintenance. Hair does collect, which you need to clean out every so often. That is not a problem. However, soap and skin do gradually build up in the mesh where it doesn't drain as well and gets kind of gross to look at. This one has also at one point apparently been kicked up and stepped on, though we still used it for a while after that. Regardless, every now and then you will need to replace them. I haven't tracked it, but one might last for about six months. (Still, $8 versus $160 is still very much in my favor.)

Some hair does still get underneath, where it will often hang around for a while. Sometimes it is good to lift up the strainer and check. It is dark down there, so I have taken to using a flashlight. Then I can probably sweep out anything I need to with a Q-tip.

On deciding that was a good idea, I was trying to think about a regular interval where I would remember easily. I ended up using weekly garbage collection, because that was easy to remember. It is also more frequent than is necessary, but the goal is not so much to catch the big hairballs building up, but to prevent big hairballs from building up. It works, and if I end up forgetting on some weeks it tends not to matter.

So this may not apply to you, but it saves us time and hassle. If it does help you, you are most welcome.