Thinking about reliability, I asked the Ferguson salesperson if I could get Lift and Turn drain. She had to talk to manager but came back and said yes. On the quotation, I am charged $20 for a L&T drain. I asked who the manufacturer is. Pro Flo, a Ferguson store brand (mainly noted for cheapness in online reviews). Thinking of the high priced Kohler drains, at first I misread the number and thought it was $200.
Online reviews I've seen suggest L&T is the most reliable, but many plumbers seem to prefer the Gerber made lever operated drains not only for solidity and presumed reliability but catching hair and therefore keeping the drain line clear. The lever operated drains have a grid screen over the bathtub bottom drain, with a cross bar underneath that the screen screws into. This combination of things traps hair very well…what misses the screen gets trapped by the cross bar. I have a lot of personal experience with this, as all the tubs I've ever lived with have been lever operated. I also have a lot of experience with those levers getting stiff and not working well (typically because of hair buildup, but easily fixed by removing top cover, pulling barrel out, and removing hair).
But I have always had a personal fetish against lever operated drains for bathtub use. When a lever closes the drain, the you can't see the valve, and bathtub water freely flows into and out of a small piece of piping between the grid screen you can see and the hidden barrel valve you can't see. In that little piece of pipe, there will likely be hair, shit, dead skin cells, and possibly bugs. So as you are comfortably taking a bath, water movements may bring some of that stuff out of the drain pipe and into your bathtub. The only thing that ever cleans this little pipe is the water running through it, and that does keep it somewhat clear, but stuff builds up inside the pipe anyway, and also stuff builds up around where the barrel valve is. Hair builds up around the barrel valve, and that tends to trap shit.
The worst time of all is when you are filling the bathtub. The bathtub fill is usually fairly close to the drain so that when you are filling the tub it's forcing water down into that little piece of pipe, and drawing up all the little pieces of shit.
I think it may be because of my fetish that I've removed the screen grids in both of my bathtubs. Or perhaps I just did that one time I was cleaning the hair out in between the screen and the cross bar, and left it off figuring that would make it easier to clean the crossbar--where it seemed most of my hair was actually building up. What I've done for the past 15 years is use a plastic strainer on top of the drain. Since I don't always use it perfectly, and I also typically remove the strainer after cleaning my hair when there may still be some hair in the tub, hair does eventually, every couple years or so, need cleaning out of the crossbar. But I've never had a shower drain require a plumber for cleaning.
If I really need to take a bath, I could use a bathtub stopper. I think I've done that in the past, but more recently, since I've barely needed to take any baths since my hemorrhoid banding in 2003, and the barrel valve has long since been cleaned out when it last jammed, I have just used the lever and forgotten about my old fetish. Though I recall sometimes I stuffed washcloth in the drain hole just to be sure crap wasn't bubbling out.
I'm now thinking about getting something like the Gerber bathtub drain, but removing the barrel valve mechanism and perhaps even the screen so that I'd have the same setup I have right now. Then, just to be cool, get a nice bathtub stopper (not generic) and have a special post in the tile it hangs from. I'd remove the trip lever too and just have a blank plate overflow.
All I really want is that cross piece under the bottom drain to trap hair.
The problem with all other types of drains, L&T, Pop Up, and Toe Tap, are they they don't have a easy-to-clean second chance place to trap hair, and they make it inconvenient to use a bathtub strainer as a first chance place to trap hair.
Online reviews I've seen suggest L&T is the most reliable, but many plumbers seem to prefer the Gerber made lever operated drains not only for solidity and presumed reliability but catching hair and therefore keeping the drain line clear. The lever operated drains have a grid screen over the bathtub bottom drain, with a cross bar underneath that the screen screws into. This combination of things traps hair very well…what misses the screen gets trapped by the cross bar. I have a lot of personal experience with this, as all the tubs I've ever lived with have been lever operated. I also have a lot of experience with those levers getting stiff and not working well (typically because of hair buildup, but easily fixed by removing top cover, pulling barrel out, and removing hair).
But I have always had a personal fetish against lever operated drains for bathtub use. When a lever closes the drain, the you can't see the valve, and bathtub water freely flows into and out of a small piece of piping between the grid screen you can see and the hidden barrel valve you can't see. In that little piece of pipe, there will likely be hair, shit, dead skin cells, and possibly bugs. So as you are comfortably taking a bath, water movements may bring some of that stuff out of the drain pipe and into your bathtub. The only thing that ever cleans this little pipe is the water running through it, and that does keep it somewhat clear, but stuff builds up inside the pipe anyway, and also stuff builds up around where the barrel valve is. Hair builds up around the barrel valve, and that tends to trap shit.
The worst time of all is when you are filling the bathtub. The bathtub fill is usually fairly close to the drain so that when you are filling the tub it's forcing water down into that little piece of pipe, and drawing up all the little pieces of shit.
I think it may be because of my fetish that I've removed the screen grids in both of my bathtubs. Or perhaps I just did that one time I was cleaning the hair out in between the screen and the cross bar, and left it off figuring that would make it easier to clean the crossbar--where it seemed most of my hair was actually building up. What I've done for the past 15 years is use a plastic strainer on top of the drain. Since I don't always use it perfectly, and I also typically remove the strainer after cleaning my hair when there may still be some hair in the tub, hair does eventually, every couple years or so, need cleaning out of the crossbar. But I've never had a shower drain require a plumber for cleaning.
If I really need to take a bath, I could use a bathtub stopper. I think I've done that in the past, but more recently, since I've barely needed to take any baths since my hemorrhoid banding in 2003, and the barrel valve has long since been cleaned out when it last jammed, I have just used the lever and forgotten about my old fetish. Though I recall sometimes I stuffed washcloth in the drain hole just to be sure crap wasn't bubbling out.
I'm now thinking about getting something like the Gerber bathtub drain, but removing the barrel valve mechanism and perhaps even the screen so that I'd have the same setup I have right now. Then, just to be cool, get a nice bathtub stopper (not generic) and have a special post in the tile it hangs from. I'd remove the trip lever too and just have a blank plate overflow.
All I really want is that cross piece under the bottom drain to trap hair.
The problem with all other types of drains, L&T, Pop Up, and Toe Tap, are they they don't have a easy-to-clean second chance place to trap hair, and they make it inconvenient to use a bathtub strainer as a first chance place to trap hair.
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