Are linear shower drains efficient at draining water?

March 25, 2023 7:24 PM

We're doing some renovations to our bathroom, and are toying with the idea of using a linear shower drain (like this) in our shower. Does anybody have experience with them? In particular, are they efficient enough at draining water that we could do a curbless shower?
posted by destrius to Home & Garden (12 answers total)

Our inlaws had one installed. It drains so badly that we have to help with a squeegee or else there are mold issues due to a permanent shower puddle. It sucks. I don’t know if that is an issue of incompetent installation, or just how it is? In any case, I wouldn’t chose this type of drain.
posted by The Toad at 7:47 PM on March 25, 2023 [2 favorites]

We have one, freshly installed about a year ago. I love it! Because there is a trough before the water actually goes down the drain, you'd have to go over the drain/pipe's capacity plus fill the 1-inch trough completely, before you overwhelm the drain enough to result in some sort of backup or pooling. We've never had that issue, definitely don't need a squeegee, and zero issues with standing water.

That being said, our shower has a curb, so it only has to be sloped in one direction. Our shower area is too small to go curb-less (it is the same footprint as a standard tub, which was what was originally there).
posted by tinydancer at 8:03 PM on March 25, 2023

I have one in a shower with a curb. It works great but I do have to clean it thoroughly every 3-4 weeks or the drain backs up and it grows stinky biofilm. That means removing the metal grate and scrubbing it a bit, removing the inner drain filter and removing a bunch of hair and soap scum, then scrubbing the gutter.

It’s more maintenance than other showers I’ve had, but it looks good and drains faster than other showers I’ve used. I do think you need a good installation job because the floor of the shower needs to be graded pretty precisely for the water to flow into it without leaving puddles.
posted by A Blue Moon at 8:14 PM on March 25, 2023

I have one; I think it is one from the Dawn brand. It has a trough underneath that drains into a basket that catches the hairy clogs. The basket is easy to clean, but as a long haired person I've found that it does need cleaning regularly. I have a curbed shower, but the water doesn't get to the curb - it just ends up with a suspiciously slow draining soapy puddle over the drain that tells you it's time for an inspection.

I have a very similar construction of square drain in another shower that is about the same in terms of cleaning, so I don't think the linear drain is performing any differently.

All shower floors should slope to the drain so that doesn't change the equation much. I'd put a linear drain at the wall side rather than by the door.
posted by How much is that froggie in the window at 12:30 AM on March 26, 2023 [1 favorite]

I've had a linear drain for about 5 years now and have never had issues with it clogging or even draining slowly, although the grate does seem to do a good job of keeping hair out. Our shower area is quite large and has a curb but the water has never gone there unless I'm washing my bike or cat.
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 8:19 AM on March 26, 2023

We have linear drain, no curb, clean hair out of it 2x per year the last three years we have had it. Also steam clean it when I clean the tile grout about 3x per year.

Works well. Would do it again.
posted by creiszhanson at 9:05 AM on March 26, 2023

The drain itself should just be a box with a hole that should drain with no problem. The source of problems is likely the pitch of the floor around the drain or the installation getting the drain at the right height relative to the tile. Get an installer who has worked with these and you should have no problems.
posted by Crankatator at 3:34 PM on March 26, 2023 [2 favorites]

I hope so, because I'm in the middle of installing one. The issue that The Toad mentioned is absolutely a bad installation, which is odd because the floor only has to slope down in one direction toward the grate, so it's not hard to get fall in it accurately.
posted by dg at 4:29 PM on March 26, 2023

We have a linear drain in our curbless shower and it’s great. We have to clean hair out of it more often than we did in the old standard drain. But my guess is that’s because the old drain just swallowed the hair.

Make sure you put the drain along one side of the shower instead of in the middle, that makes it easier to make a good slope towards it.
posted by harriet vane at 8:48 PM on March 26, 2023

Nthing that we have one , have had it for three years, and it's great.
posted by some little punk in a rocket at 1:52 AM on March 27, 2023

We’ve had one for 8 years now and it works great. Our shower has a curb but I think it would work fine without too.
posted by lydhre at 9:02 AM on March 27, 2023

Response by poster: Thanks for all the answers! We're really keen on installing a linear drain now, but sadly due to site limitations it turns out it's not possible :( Maybe next time!
posted by destrius at 8:02 AM on March 29, 2023