Plumbers? Re-piping my shower drain

[FirstAscent]

Hey everyone,

I’m not a plumber but what I want to do is fairly straight forward, my question is if there would be any issues with this new routing or if you have any ideas on a better way I’m all ears!

I need to add a slight extension to my furnace, it will have a control box on top of it which would then be hitting the existing shower drain piping, so I’m going to cut and re-pipe with a slightly different route.

It’s a 2” pipe which you can see (through the factory wiring mess!) in the photo. The green marking is the current routing of the pipe, the purple marking is the general path of what I would like to do.
I can’t imagine a couple extra bends in this fashion would cause any draining issues. I would have to re-locate the white filter thing closer to the main drain as well but I’m ok with that.

Let me know your thoughts, or if that makes sense what I’m explaining

Thanks!
-Jaime

[avf100]

I'm not a plumber either....but that should be ok.

[IBEW Sparky]

@FirstAscent

It's not going to be that easy. They isn't any drop in pipe length after the shower flange. The 90°elbow is glued right to the flange itself. If you can find a 2" flange with internal threads then you could get a 2" street 90° elbow with male threads on one end and thread that into the new flange... but I'm not sure how the flanges are done in the shower pans.

You mentioned that you're putting in a new furnace with a control box on top of it... I would see if it's possible to detach the control box from the furnace and relocated it to the side. Also the control box would be inaccessible on top of the furnace close up against the framing above it. Or if the control box is square possibly you could rotate it 90 deg.

[FT4NOW]

In theory it shouldn't be a problem, but you already have a 90 elbow there, I'm not sure what you could use in its place. The elbow currently installed is more of a bend which is appropriate to ensure proper flow. In the event the plumbing cant be changed, is there any chance of mounting the control box you mentioned in a different orientation?

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[geotex1]

Doable, but don't do that tight of a step jog or the drainage will be poor. Get an ordinary 90 degree tub drain elbow and make a longer step with a couple of 45 elbows instead of 90 elbows you have sketched. If you are installing a thermostatic damper on the furnace, you can always just put a foot of rigid duct off the furnace and push the damper assembly out. I would caution you as well on use of one, if your plan, because they tend to cause the furnaces to shutdown due to overheating. That is why RVs are dampened at the registers (too primitive of a furnace design). Good luck with your project!

[FirstAscent]

Thanks everyone for the input so far! I was out climbing all day so just saw all the responses

First I'll answer the furnace questions to add some clarification. Unfortunately the control box is not able to be relocated to a different position. It's not a new furnace, it's an extension piece that will go on to the end of the existing furnace, it has a coil so that I can use the furnace as electric heat with similar BTU output but not use propane. Here is a quick photo showing the extension piece and control box on top of the output ducting (attached)

The control box is physically attached to the coil and I can't relocate it to the side (that was the first things I tried to see if it were an option)

It makes sense that the less bends the better, and of course tighter bends are not desired as well. I'm thinking for the existing 90, I could replace that with a new similar 90 (same radius), but I would cut the vertical pipe up higher and attach a new 90 so that it goes horizontal up closer to the ceiling/beams.
Or, I like the idea of using 2, 45's. I could put the first 45 on to see if that angles the pipe far enough away from where the control box would be, then the 2nd 45 would then re-attach somewhere on the existing horizontal piping.

I'll maybe buy a couple fittings to get a better idea on what would fit best since currently I'm only visually planning out different scenarios.

Thanks again for the input so far, good ideas for me to look into further.

[IBEW Sparky]

@FirstAscent

I'm not sure where you're seeing any room to cut the vertical pipe up any higher. The 90° bend that's on there now is glued directly to the shower floor drain fitting. There isn't any vertical pipe that you can sacrifice. Most likely even removing the existing 90 will result in destroying the fittng through the shower floor so you would need to order one of those as well. Exactly how much room do you need to make this work... and keep in mind that you are now going to have a metal enclosure which will get very hot tight up against plastic piping.

[4x4dually]

Here is a quick photo showing the extension piece and control box on top of the output ducting (attached)

Why the strawberry_cupcakes doesn't every new RV come with an electric heat option???? That's brilliant. Now I want one. Thanks a lot for adding that to my list of modifications. LOL

[llr2800]

Hey everyone,

I would have to re-locate the white filter thing closer to the main drain as well but I’m ok with that.

I am curious what this "white filter thing" is. The only thing I see is the water heater which in theory would be easy to move, except for the hole in the outside wall.

Are heat strips available for your AC? might not be the same level of heat but a lot simpler.

[FirstAscent]

@FirstAscent

I'm not sure where you're seeing any room to cut the vertical pipe up any higher. The 90° bend that's on there now is glued directly to the shower floor drain fitting. There isn't any vertical pipe that you can sacrifice. Most likely even removing the existing 90 will result in destroying the fittng through the shower floor so you would need to order one of those as well. Exactly how much room do you need to make this work... and keep in mind that you are now going to have a metal enclosure which will get very hot tight up against plastic piping.

Hmmm, good point. I was thinking I had plenty of vertical pipe available I could cut off above the existing 90° fitting. I will have to look to double check and make sure. I guess the floor above is pretty close, so makes sense If that's so, that ruins my initial ideas.
As for clearance, I need about 3" I think. I will have to hold up the furnace extension piece to get some more accurate measurements.

Why the strawberry_cupcakes doesn't every new RV come with an electric heat option???? That's brilliant. Now I want one. Thanks a lot for adding that to my list of modifications. LOL

haha, well electric heat currently, I have my "fireplace" which does an OK job but not in Winter. It's more of supplemental heat but definitely not the main heat. It also of course doesn't utilize the RV ducting or heating the storage areas etc.
I have 3 A/C's, the main unit has a heat pump which does utilize the ducting. But it only does so well, it won't heat up the RV if it's 20°F outside.
So this 'addition' will give me similar capabilities as the propane furnace, heating all areas, but I won't have to worry about using propane and paying for it. There is a simple switch to switch to electric or gas though, so if there were ever any issues, I can still utilize the propane functionality with the push of a button.

To be honest, I've had this for almost a year haha, I just wasn't motivated to install it in summer. Now I need it haha so time to install (Summer would've been much more ideal haha)

I am curious what this "white filter thing" is. The only thing I see is the water heater which in theory would be easy to move, except for the hole in the outside wall.

Are heat strips available for your AC? might not be the same level of heat but a lot simpler.

The white filter thing is inline with the drain pipe on the horizontal portion. It's hard to see in that photo but here is a better shot (attached)

I'm confused on your heat strip statement, the only heat strips I know of are for things such as heat tape used to heat pipes to prevent them from heating. Are you referring to something else though that can actually heat a space?
In any case, the goal here is to provide enough heat output that the propane furnace can provide, but at no cost of refilling anything