How to Fix a Leaky Shower Drain – identify the shower drain manufacturer and find a replacement part for the cracked shower drain body. This repair is continued from How to Fix a Leaky Shower Drain – Part 2.
Replacement Shower Drain Body
I bought a Sioux Chief brand 2″ PVC shower drain. You have to buy the whole drain module just to get new gaskets and strainer body.
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. 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. 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!
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!
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.
The old and new matching shower strainer bodies:
Compatible Course Thread Shower Drains
The unbranded drain I bought at the hardware store didn’t have identifying marks. I’ve since learned through gracious reader feedback there are two course thread shower drains on the market that are drop-in replacements:
- ProFlo PFP600
- Plastic Oddities PFG-600 which I purchased and installed in this project.
This repair is concluded in How to Fix a Leaky Shower Drain – Part 4.
Take care,
Bob Jackson
