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U-bend bottle trap nightmare!

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David in Normandy

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May 22, 2009, 2:42:39 PM5/22/09
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I'm new to plumbing and hit a snag today. I don't know if I'm lacking a
technique or the bottle trap U-bend I bought is crap:

The trap is supposed to fit onto 40mm waste pipe via a wedge shaped
plastic slip washer and a big plastic ring nut. For a start I had great
difficulty getting the nut over the waste pipe - the fit was incredibly
tight - it left score marks on the pipe as I forced it on! The washer
itself was worse. It took twenty minutes of wrestling to get it onto the
40mm pipe. (I put it on the correct way around). Next I was supposed to
slip the pipe into the trap and tighten the nut. The only problem was
that everything was so damn tight to move. The nut went cross threaded
trying to slide the washer up and it jumped threads rather than pull the
washer tight into the trap.

Was this just a badly designed trap? The tolerances seemed way too tight
to me. Or am I lacking a technique here?

In the end I sawed off the screw threads and used some PVC waste pipe
glue to attach it to the 40mm pipe. Not the best job I've ever done. Not
a lot of overlap on the join for my liking. I'll test it for
watertightness tomorrow, but wouldn't be surprised if it leaks; it
certainly won't be very sturdy.

On the positive side, with the rest of the plumbing - all the solder end
joints I've done have worked great. Must have done 80 joints and not a
single leak! Very pleased as this is my first plumbing. Pity about the
bottle trap.

--
David in Normandy.

Tim S

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May 22, 2009, 2:46:04 PM5/22/09
to
David in Normandy coughed up some electrons that declared:

> I'm new to plumbing and hit a snag today. I don't know if I'm lacking a
> technique or the bottle trap U-bend I bought is crap:
>
> The trap is supposed to fit onto 40mm waste pipe via a wedge shaped
> plastic slip washer and a big plastic ring nut. For a start I had great
> difficulty getting the nut over the waste pipe - the fit was incredibly
> tight - it left score marks on the pipe as I forced it on! The washer
> itself was worse. It took twenty minutes of wrestling to get it onto the
> 40mm pipe. (I put it on the correct way around). Next I was supposed to
> slip the pipe into the trap and tighten the nut. The only problem was
> that everything was so damn tight to move. The nut went cross threaded
> trying to slide the washer up and it jumped threads rather than pull the
> washer tight into the trap.
>
> Was this just a badly designed trap? The tolerances seemed way too tight
> to me. Or am I lacking a technique here?

I think so. All the fittings I've played with like that have been fine - no
where near having the nut bind on the pipe.



> In the end I sawed off the screw threads and used some PVC waste pipe
> glue to attach it to the 40mm pipe. Not the best job I've ever done. Not
> a lot of overlap on the join for my liking. I'll test it for
> watertightness tomorrow, but wouldn't be surprised if it leaks; it
> certainly won't be very sturdy.

You might get away with it. Solvent weld is basically making the two lumps
of plastic "as one" - better than gluing (where glue binds to surface with
a dissimilar material).



> On the positive side, with the rest of the plumbing - all the solder end
> joints I've done have worked great. Must have done 80 joints and not a
> single leak! Very pleased as this is my first plumbing. Pity about the
> bottle trap.
>

Can you come and do mine?

;->

meow...@care2.com

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May 22, 2009, 4:28:48 PM5/22/09
to

One of the parts must have been wrong, it shoud have been effortless
to assemble


NT

David in Normandy

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May 22, 2009, 4:43:59 PM5/22/09
to
meow...@care2.com wrote:

>
> One of the parts must have been wrong, it should have been effortless
> to assemble
>
>
> NT

In retrospect I think that when the packaging says the outlet is 40mm
that is exactly what they mean. In other words the trap isn't intended
for waste pipe of 40mm external diameter - it is probably intended for
pipe with an external diameter of 38 or 39 mm diameter - if such PVC
waste pipe actually exists!

Pushing a 40mm pipe into a 40mm hole doesn't work - well it does if you
push really, really hard and curse and swear a lot while trying!

I've got another identical bottle trap for the bathroom upstairs so will
take it back to the shop and exchange it. Trouble is the damn things are
in sealed packaging so you can't do a test fit in the shop with a bit of
pipe, you can only go on what the packaging says. I assumed 40mm outlet
meant it took 40mm waste pipe; but seemingly not.

--
David in Normandy.

JTM

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May 22, 2009, 5:56:39 PM5/22/09
to
In article <4a170e94$0$17108$ba4a...@news.orange.fr>,

David in Normandy <Davidin...@nospam.nospam> wrote:
> meow...@care2.com wrote:

> >
> > One of the parts must have been wrong, it should have been effortless
> > to assemble

Dave,
I've struggled with those components as well. But I've looked at a few
recent bits in the 'paid for' work that we've had done and repeated it in
the DIY bits.
> >
> >
> > NT

> In retrospect I think that when the packaging says the outlet is 40mm
> that is exactly what they mean. In other words the trap isn't intended
> for waste pipe of 40mm external diameter - it is probably intended for
> pipe with an external diameter of 38 or 39 mm diameter - if such PVC
> waste pipe actually exists!

> Pushing a 40mm pipe into a 40mm hole doesn't work - well it does if you
> push really, really hard and curse and swear a lot while trying!

> I've got another identical bottle trap for the bathroom upstairs so will
> take it back to the shop and exchange it. Trouble is the damn things are
> in sealed packaging so you can't do a test fit in the shop with a bit of
> pipe, you can only go on what the packaging says. I assumed 40mm outlet
> meant it took 40mm waste pipe; but seemingly not.

All the wastes were done using flexible 40 and 50 -ish mm (like big
washing machine waste hose, white, about 60cm - 2ft long) but using the
wedge shaped washer and the ring nut from the component. The bottom end
of the flexible waste is smooth plastic and fitted with solvent into the
fixed pipe.

(I bought mine from Leclerc but I've seen them in Mr Bricolage, Leroy
Merlin et al.)

In our local sheds you can tear the plastic wrap and try the bits for fit -
just wait until no one's looking ;-)

Don't know if this is of use
John

--
John Mulrooney
NOTE Email address IS correct but might not be checked for a while.

Health is not valued until sickness comes

Arthur 51

unread,
May 22, 2009, 6:01:20 PM5/22/09
to

"David in Normandy" <Davidin...@nospam.nospam> wrote in message
news:4a16f224$0$17771$ba4a...@news.orange.fr...

This all sounds like a mixture of things..
Did the trap come with the nut sealed in a bag?
It can happen that you pick a split bag out of eg B&Q racks or a warehouse
guy will
just bundle anything he finds from a 'returns' rack. Either way, perhaps a
32mm washer got thrown
in with a 40mm trap is strong possibility.
Perhaps also, the new trap has a different height between bath thread end
and outlet. This would result
in the waste pipe being out of line with the trap outlet. This would make
fastening the waste pipe nut very difficult
and I've had experience of this.
Also, even when trap and waste pipe are perfectly aligned it is easy to
cross thread. But jumping threads seems
unlikely so going back to the first point I made..perhaps the nut is a weird
non-match.
Did you try the nut to the trap before starting the fit?

Arthur


Dave Liquorice

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May 22, 2009, 6:44:01 PM5/22/09
to
On Fri, 22 May 2009 20:42:39 +0200, David in Normandy wrote:

> I'm new to plumbing and hit a snag today. I don't know if I'm lacking a
> technique or the bottle trap U-bend I bought is crap:

Is your waste pipe 40mm push fit/compression or 40mm solvent weld? They
are slighly different, at least in the UK.

Why didn't the fact that you where having a right battle raise the
"somethings not right" here flag?

You should not have a battle to get the pipe into the fitting. Indeed
correctly matched components and a bit of lubricant on the pipe and even
compression type joints can be assembled without taking apart. Slacken
everything off, gently push the pipe in, tighten up.

--
Cheers
Dave.

Jb

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May 22, 2009, 7:23:42 PM5/22/09
to

"Dave Liquorice" <allsortsn...@howhill.com> wrote in message
news:nyyfbegfubjuvyypb...@srv1.howhill.net...
As others have said it should be a cinch to loosely assemble, push onto pipe
and tighten. my problem with the damn things is not buying an anti siphon
model. The fancy chrome jobbie I bought from Screwfix siphons empty and lets
the drain smell in. Of course changing it involves dismantling some very
expensive units to do it but it looks as though there's no other way to do
it.

Jb
>
>


meow...@care2.com

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May 22, 2009, 8:29:42 PM5/22/09
to


You can convert a non anti-syphon to an anti syphon by adding a biro
barrel. If you open an anti-syphon trap you'll see what I mean.


NT

meow...@care2.com

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May 22, 2009, 8:31:38 PM5/22/09
to


Excuse me, I'd like to buy this but I just need to be sure it'll fit
this 40mm pipe. Can I check?
Well, we're not allowed to open them
OK, I'll just have to leave it then
Er, ok then, let me open it for you


NT

Jb

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May 22, 2009, 11:15:49 PM5/22/09
to
Snip

> You can convert a non anti-syphon to an anti syphon by adding a biro
> barrel. If you open an anti-syphon trap you'll see what I mean.
>
>
> NT

Really?? right thanks for that I'll have a look and see what I need to do.

Jb


The Medway Handyman

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May 23, 2009, 4:27:05 AM5/23/09
to
Tim S wrote:
> David in Normandy coughed up some electrons that declared:
>
>> I'm new to plumbing and hit a snag today. I don't know if I'm
>> lacking a technique or the bottle trap U-bend I bought is crap:
>>
>> The trap is supposed to fit onto 40mm waste pipe via a wedge shaped
>> plastic slip washer and a big plastic ring nut. For a start I had
>> great difficulty getting the nut over the waste pipe - the fit was
>> incredibly tight - it left score marks on the pipe as I forced it
>> on! The washer itself was worse. It took twenty minutes of wrestling
>> to get it onto the 40mm pipe. (I put it on the correct way around).
>> Next I was supposed to slip the pipe into the trap and tighten the
>> nut. The only problem was that everything was so damn tight to move.
>> The nut went cross threaded trying to slide the washer up and it
>> jumped threads rather than pull the washer tight into the trap.
>>
>> Was this just a badly designed trap? The tolerances seemed way too
>> tight to me. Or am I lacking a technique here?
>
> I think so. All the fittings I've played with like that have been
> fine - no where near having the nut bind on the pipe.

In fact most have a plastic 'anti extrusion ring' behind the rubber seal to
stop it being forced into the gap between pipe & nut.

>
>> In the end I sawed off the screw threads and used some PVC waste pipe
>> glue to attach it to the 40mm pipe. Not the best job I've ever done.
>> Not a lot of overlap on the join for my liking. I'll test it for
>> watertightness tomorrow, but wouldn't be surprised if it leaks; it
>> certainly won't be very sturdy.
>
> You might get away with it. Solvent weld is basically making the two
> lumps of plastic "as one" - better than gluing (where glue binds to
> surface with a dissimilar material).

Fine untill you want to get it apart :-)


--
Dave - The Medway Handyman
www.medwayhandyman.co.uk


David in Normandy

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May 23, 2009, 4:29:44 AM5/23/09
to

I think you may have hit the nail squarely on the head! I bought the
trap from Leclerc. I bet it is supposed to take that flexible hose not a
40mm fixed pipe! Where the packaging says 40mm outlet that must mean the
size of the outlet hole, not of the expected pipe diameter!

Anyway, after testing this morning, no leaks! I'm amazed!

--
David in Normandy.

Jules

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May 23, 2009, 12:13:14 PM5/23/09
to
On Fri, 22 May 2009 17:31:38 -0700, meow2222 wrote:
> Excuse me, I'd like to buy this but I just need to be sure it'll fit
> this 40mm pipe. Can I check?
> Well, we're not allowed to open them
> OK, I'll just have to leave it then
> Er, ok then, let me open it for you

:-) I was quite impressed yesterday when I bought a new silencer for the
mower - although it was packaged, they'd put a suitable hole in the back
of the packaging so that you could check that the silencer's hole size
and threading matched the pipework that you wanted to screw it on to. I
wish more manufacturers would think of stuff like that...

cheers

Jules


nimbu...@yahoo.co.uk

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May 26, 2009, 8:32:42 AM5/26/09
to
On 22 May, 19:42, David in Normandy <DavidinNorma...@nospam.nospam>
wrote:

welcome to waste plumbing french style

I took months to get fittings sold by toolstation who really ought to
know better to work without leaking.

Wrequin make a really nice Quick clac bath waste which toolstation
sell and toolstation also sell a shallow trap
Alas the trap uses an o ring to seal on a groove and the clic clac
uses a flat washer on a flange. This means the tighter you do it up
the more th o ring leaks. This concept was too difficult for
toolstation warehouse staff who investigated my complaints to
understand.

I then obtained a Wrequin shallow trap which has the same problem as
you describe. The UK waste pipe will simply not fit in. It transpires
that french measure 40 mm OD and we measure 40mm inside ( probably
because 1 3/4 * 2.54 comes to 44mm

The only solution to this sillyness was to use a solvent waste adapter
which Wrequin will supply seperatly and use that

What stupidity of toolstation to still be selling only a combination
of products likely to flood bathrooms even after they have been told
by relying on their half witted staff
HTH Phil


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