This repair is continued from Part 2.
Replacement Drain Body
I bought a Sioux Chief brand 2″ PVC shower drain from Home Depot. You have to buy the whole drain module just to get new gaskets and strainer body, but it only costs about $7.
When I got home and tried to screw in the new drain body, it didn’t fit! The threads on the Sioux Chief were much finer and square shaped compared to the much courser and Vee shaped threads on my shower drain. Next I went to Lowes and checked the Oatley brand of shower drains. The Oatley drain threads were different (same type as Sioux Chief) and didn’t fit my drain.
I was getting desperate because replacing the entire drain would be very difficult due to the suspended drywall ceiling in the finished basement and I couldn’t get access to plumbing in that area. So I kept searching for a new drain with matching threads.
Pulling up Google Maps on my iPhone, I searched for Hardware Stores near my current location, hoping for an alternative to the “Big Box” stores that didn’t have a matching drain. I located an old style hardware store in an different section of town that I rarely frequent. The sign just said “Hardware Store”. Going inside the store, my reaction was “Wow!” They have all kinds of items that you can’t find in the big box retailers! Lot’s of unique brands and stuff I hadn’t seen since I was a kid!
Old Fashion Hardware Store
I had almost given up while rummaging around in the plumbing section, when I dug out an offset drain from underneath a pile of stuff. I had the old strainer body with me and the threads matched perfectly! I was very pleased, the repair would be simple now!
Replacement Shower Drains
Update:
Reader ‘Gretschdrum’ identified the original drain as a PFG600 made by Plastic Oddities. See details in the Comments section at the end of Part 4 of this series.
Thanks Gretschrum!
Here are the parts of a shower drain and the difference in the course and fine threads. I used the strainer body on the left with course threads and the new gaskets.
Shower Drains - Course and Fine Threads
The old and new matching shower strainer bodies:
Old and New Shower Strainer Bodies with Course Threads
This repair is concluded in Part 4.
Take care,
Bob Jackson
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This was excellent. Very good graphics, explanations, and notes in the photos. Very clear. I am off to do the repair.
I’ve got the same problem with matching the more course, “V” threads. The Sioux City product at HS and Lowes don’t match, as you said. My orginal shower drain is made by Jones Mfg. The question is, will this PFG600 made by Plastic Oddities match the Jones threads?
The Plastic Oddities shower drain body will probably match. In my experience there appears to be the just the two coarse and fine thread styles.
The Jones Mfg. is likely the Jones Stephens Corp. model marketed under the PlumbBest product line. However, this isn’t much help because the thread details aren’t apparent in the online catalog.
I’ll report back of the details of the resolution. Thanks for the information, it was a great help.