Is the drain cover in my shower sufficient?

Question

I bought a new house about a month ago. In the apartment that I moved from, I had a cheap rubber drain cover that seemed to work very well at preventing hair from getting into the drain, similar to this guy:

But the shower in my new house has a more permissive drain cover:

I'm pretty sure that more hair is going down the drain now than it was with the old solution, but hair still went down the drain with the old cover. I had a couple questions relating to this situation:

• How worried should I be about hair going down the drain?
• Should I replace the new drain cover, or add a secondary cover?
• Will I just have to resign myself to unclogging the drain periodically irrespective of drain cover configuration?

Answer 1

Hair going down the drain is inevitable and no solution will completely prevent it.

Some drains can be replaced from above while others cannot. Unless you are having a chronic problem with clogging due to hair, I think you are making more work for yourself than necessary. If you try to remove it and can't, or don't install the new one correctly you'll go from letting a bit of hair down the drain to a full-scale leak.

It's also not going to stop draining completely out of the blue; it will gradually start draining slower, so it's very unlikely that this will become an emergency one night. I'd just wait and see. If you have a problem, then you'll obviously need to unclog it, otherwise, enjoy your shower and don't worry too much!

Answer 2

I am afraid the hair clogging the drain issue will always be an issue, you need to look for a hair filter which fits right under your existing drain cover plate.

The understanding is, when your water drainage seems to slow down, remove your existing cover and clean out the hair trap below.