Month Week Topic

January Week #2 the bottle trap

Practical/Academic Exercise Procedure: the bottle trap

The bottle trap is essential in a basin because it collects fresh water that acts as a barrier to the
insects that might crawl up the waste pipe, traps unpleasant odours and potentially harmful gases
that come from the sewage beneath.
A bottle trap is a vessel which has a bigger diameter than the plumbing pipe that comes from the
basin. When water gushes down, this vessel fills with the new water.
When using the basin, water goes down the bottle trap waste, which remains filled with a certain
amount of water. The extra waste goes into the drainage pipe, and into the sewer, where a lot of
other waste and dirt is accumulating.
When the sewer gases waft up the system through the outlet pipes, they reach the bottle trap, but
here they find their way sealed with the water that has collected in the trap, thus no gases enter
and prevents foul smells.
How to clean your trap
If you should ever notice an unpleasant odour in the bathroom or kitchen, this may be because no
fresh water has run through the drain pipe in a long time. In this case: just turn on the basin tap
for a longer duration. This will displace the old trap water – and the smell will disappear. If it
doesn’t (and the water doesn’t drain away properly any more), it’s quite probable that hair has
got stuck in the pipe and clogged it up. If drain cleaners, cola, baking powder or other household
remedies are of no use, only one thing helps: unscrew the trap, take it apart and clean it. It’s easy
to do this on the wash basin, bidet and kitchen sink:

1. put on some rubber gloves and use your hand (or some pliers) to undo the spigot nut on the
drain valve of the basis.
2. Remove the elbow or all waste pipes from the wall fitting by jerking, pulling and turning.
3. Undo all nuts in the bath tub or wash basin and dismantle the trap into its individual parts.
4. Remove hair, soap residue and other culprits.
5. Clean the trap: inside with a (bottle) brush, outside with a soft cloth and mild detergent.
6. Screw the trap together again, not forgetting any seals.