Where does this pipe go?

Doolittle51

I removed a bath today in preparation to fit a new shower. Just wondering if anyone knows where the pipe highlighted by the crude red arrow might go?
It slopes down and is plumbed from the back of the old bath overflow. It goes in behind the plaster and away from the direction of the bath drain and toilet waste pipes.

Seems a bit unusual. If I can't find what it's for, should I just plumb it into the new shower waste pipe?

gifted

looks like 3/4" overflow pipe, might be coming from the overflow in the toilet...hard to tell from just a pic..

Doolittle51

It does come from the direction of the toilet, but the toilet doesn't have an external overflow. Perhaps it was originally intended for a toilet overflow, but a toilet with an internal overflow was fitted.

gifted

seeing as there's a huge chunk of the wall missing, can you not trace the pipe along the wall by cutting out little holes...it looks like plasterboard so a padsaw should do it?

Tulipout

I've seen overflows piped like this from the storage tank on a combo hot water cylinders. The type of storage tanks used in apartments.

gifted

wouldn't you think that they would have used a 4" strap on boss and connected into the 4" pipe?...

Doolittle51

gifted wrote: »

seeing as there's a huge chunk of the wall missing, can you not trace the pipe along the wall by cutting out little holes...it looks like plasterboard so a padsaw should do it?

After the partition wall, it goes into a plastered brick wall so I don't really want to hack the plaster off to trace it.

Tulipout wrote: »

I've seen overflows piped like this from the storage tank on a combo hot water cylinders. The type of storage tanks used in apartments.

It's a duplex apartment but there's an attic with a normal water tank and standard overflow pipe. Normal plumbing etc, no combo boiler or anything unusual.

LIFFY FISHING

Its a MacAlpine bath trap with overflow manifold, its the overflow from your cistern, they were fitted years ago when cisterns had external overflows as required by the then water regulations, if you dont intend replacing the bath, put an internal overflow syphon in your cistern

Doolittle51

LIFFY FISHING wrote: »

Its a MacAlpine bath trap with overflow manifold, its the overflow from your cistern, they were fitted years ago when cisterns had external overflows as required by the then water regulations, if you dont intend replacing the bath, put an internal overflow syphon in your cistern

Thanks for that. The toilet cistern doesn't have an external overflow Maybe they originally intended to use a cistern with external overflow. There's a similar sized pipe leading into the shower enclosure in another bathroom, so I guess that's the same idea.

I'll try to see how long the pipe is (push some wire inside). If it just goes as far as the toilet, then I reckon it's not needed. I'll also verify that the cistern overflow is definitely internal.

sullzz

gifted wrote: »

wouldn't you think that they would have used a 4" strap on boss and connected into the 4" pipe?...

No because then you would get smells , and also the fact that if you did do it that way you would never know if your tank is overflowing , overflow pipes are actually called warning pipes.
My money would be on it coming from the storage tank , this is usually the case in apartments where the hot press isn't located near an external wall but the bathroom is next to it , if you hold down the ball cock in the storage tank eventually water should come out the bath overflow letting you know that there is an overflow occurring

gifted

sullzz wrote: »

No because then you would get smells , and also the fact that if you did do it that way you would never know if your tank is overflowing , overflow pipes are actually called warning pipes.
My money would be on it coming from the storage tank , this is usually the case in apartments where the hot press isn't located near an external wall but the bathroom is next to it , if you hold down the ball cock in the storage tank eventually water should come out the bath overflow letting you know that there is an overflow occurring

Good point, forgot about that..:o

corkplumber

liffey fishing is correct.


but be careful. trace that pipe back before disconnecting, I have seen tank overflows connected this way in apartments. the overflow off the combi cylinder and tank connected into the trap.

Doolittle51

ok, mystery solved! It was just a disused overflow for a toilet cistern. I reckon they originally plumbed it in thinking the toilet would have an external overflow.

JohnnieK

gifted wrote: »

wouldn't you think that they would have used a 4" strap on boss and connected into the 4" pipe?...

They would have had to put a trap on it then! I'm more surprised that they used actual tap connectors for the bath taps instead of 312's:D