Flex P-Trap Maintenance
The purpose of the p-trap is to prevent sewer gases from escaping outside in occupied space of building. The p-trap retains a small amount of water and will seal sewer draining from the occupied space. Heavy garbage particles sink in the water to the lowest possible point of the p-trap; hair and light particles of garbage will stop on the dry surface. If the water is evaporated from p-trap, the seal is broken and the sewer gases will escape in the room. When new water will fill up the p-trap, heavy particles and the hair will stick on to surface and in time, the p-trap will get clogged. Because of this, is recommended to keep the p-trap with fresh water.
Flex P-trap will eliminate some of these problems. For self-cleaning of hair, the corrugated tube has minimum contact with hair on top of the ribs. If the Flex P-trap is dry, new water will fill up first capillary pipes and hair will lift up from top of the ribs. The worst area is on dry surface where hair will stop, but capillary pipes will keep the wall wet and hair will escape in outlet drain. For self-cleaning of heavy particles, Flex P-trap has a corrugated tube, which will expand on hot water and will contract at cold water some as accordion and sediments will move to outlet drain. If the outlet drains have too much surface on horizontal position, soup, grease, hairs will build up there and will clog the system, but will not build up on corrugated surface. For this reason is recommended to pour alternate hot and cold water down the drain weekly to keep the drain flowing.
If the sink is clogged, first use a plunger; if the plunger doesn't work, then disconnect the Flex P-trap using the two slip joint nuts and clean outlet drain or use plumbing snakes. If you want, you can clean the inside of the Flex P-trap, otherwise you can install it back and let the cold and hot water run to clean it. Do not use plumbing snakes to unclog the Flex P-trap. Flex P-trap is self-cleaning, but is not magic to unclog other plumbing fixture used in the plumbing line. If you use boiled water (from cooking) in the sink, let the cold water run and pour the hot water slowly in the drain, because the boiled water could deform the polypropylene nuts used in the sink drain. The flexible tube is made from polyethylene and can resist hot (broil) and pressure water. When you keep hot (broil) water in the trap, the outside surface of the tube will smell in the first months after installation, but it will go away over time; because of this, we recommend that you keep cold water in the trap for as long as possible. Before I installed the Flex P-trap, I had to unclog the hair from my bathroom sink every month. After I started using the Flex P-trap, the sink got clogged just two times in five years, in the outlet draining not in the p-trap. Long hair can hang on the trailpiece rod, and will cause water to run slow; if this happens, lift up the water stop and remove the hairs.
Never use chemical and drain cleaners. Chemical and enzymatic drain cleaners a potentially dangerous to us. They can react with human tissue in similar manner as organic material in drain blockage and can damage the draining lane too. With proper maintenance, Flex P-trap can work properly over twelve years, but you might have to change rubber gasket at some point when you unclog the system.
