Bad smelling shower drain - help!

[MamandeRose]

Our new house has a long, narrow drain ate the back of the shower which is designed to trap standing water, so is nearly impossible to clean. When cleaned out completely, the stink is worse than before. Any tips? (Inlaws arriving Friday for a week....!)

Maybe it needs a plumbers snake to get something solid out?

Perhaps a dose of septic tank activator, to get some 'good' bacteria in there eating up the gunge in the standing water?

Or at the other end of the spectrum, Regular, daily, bleach?

The design sounds really odd, have you had a plumber look at it?

Thank you, will have to Google all of those things, no idea what they are! A builder who knows about plumbing looked at it, and just said clean it every week, but I think I'll have to take more drastic action. Thanks again!

I use soda crystals to keep all the household drains sweet smelling and free flowing. (About £1 a kilo from big supermarkets and easily found.) They eat up the fattiness which largely causes the problems (hair conditioner, shower creme, body fat (!) etc etc) and only need to be used about once a week in a tight pipe situation.

Clean the shower, rinse some hot water into the pipe and then pour the crystals into the plughole as desired - probably about half a cup to a cup or so in your situation. The little mountain of crystals (they're quite fine crystals) should stand a little proud until the water in the plughole gets them and then they'll suddenly melt into the hole. (You can help them on their way with a little judicious dribble of hot water around the edges to ensure that the shower itself is clear.) Then leave for a good bit before flushing away finally.

Your PILs should love it by the way - it's a very traditional treatment for drains. I'd almost be tempted to leave it lying around the kitchen cupboard!

PS -the crystals come in a plastic packet which can be cut at the corner with scissors and then held closed by a freezer clip or similar. That's the best way I've found to do it.

PS - sorry, I meant the kitchen cupboard that is under the sink of course. There will be some safety precautions listed on the back of the pack but like nearly all cleaning materials, it's not one to be left lying around where DCs or animals can get to it and needs to be handled with reasonable care.