Bot­tle Traps: A Trade Guide for Plumbers and Bath­room Installers

Over the last few years, bot­tle traps have quick­ly risen to be the most pop­u­lar choice of trap for home­own­ers up and down the UK when inte­grat­ing a plumb­ing sys­tem to a basin or sink. Due to not only their size and prac­ti­cal­i­ty, but also their aes­thet­ic mer­its in con­tem­po­rary bath­rooms these have slow­ly become an essen­tial com­po­nent of any plumb­ing fixture.

In this guide, we’ll give you all the info you’ll need to not only con­verse with home­own­ers to help them find the best basin or sink trap for their bath­room project, but also instal­la­tion tips and use­ful infor­ma­tion in order to com­plete the per­fect install each time.

First­ly, what is a Bot­tle Trap?

A bot­tle trap is a type of basin or sink trap that is used in plumb­ing instal­la­tions to pre­vent unwant­ed sew­er gas­es or odours from escap­ing into the bath­room through drain pipes and the drainage sys­tem through the use of a water seal. Thus allow­ing the plumb­ing sys­tem to work with­out fault. It is one of the most impor­tant steps when installing any basin or sink. Allow­ing waste water to be dis­posed of whilst keep­ing the envi­ron­ment odour free and the drain pipe con­cealed. Ulti­mate­ly keep­ing con­sumers clean and safe whilst using the bath­room facilities.

Do I need a Trap for every Basin or Sink installation?

In short, yes. A trap must be used when installing any basin or sink. Be it in a bath­room or kitchen. This ensures no germs enter the home or work­space through direct access to the sewers.

What is the best type of Trap for my plumb­ing installation?

Basin traps & sink traps come in var­i­ous dif­fer­ent shapes and sizes, with mul­ti­ple dif­fer­ent trap vari­ants on the mar­ket in order to ful­fil the needs of any space.

PVC P Traps

The often cheap­est and most basic form of trap is a stan­dard PVC P Trap. These are use­ful for com­mer­cial or low­er grade res­i­den­tial projects where aes­thet­ics aren’t the goal. They’re a sim­ple polypropy­lene con­struc­tion that fix­es sim­ply and effi­cient­ly to a wall, util­is­ing a basic water seal.

How­ev­er, these P Traps often aren’t adjustable, result­ing in rigid instal­la­tions and need­ing a P Trap that fits exact­ly right. Also as men­tioned, these are not aes­thet­i­cal­ly pleas­ing with most home­own­ers mov­ing away from these and opt­ing for brass con­struct­ed basin or sink traps.

Tubu­lar Brass P Traps

A step up from the PVC Trap. Tubu­lar P Traps are often con­struct­ed from brass and often fea­ture chrome plat­ing. These utilise a flange and nut lock­ing sys­tem in order to feed the tubu­lar P Trap into the wall to find the desired space to attach to the basin or sink drain point.

How­ev­er, due to the U Bend shape of the P Trap con­struc­tion, these basin or sink traps can often be awk­ward to line up with the drain point due to how the water is col­lect­ed and the water seals utilised to keep sew­er gas out.

Adjustable Bot­tle Traps

The most mod­ern form of basin or sink trap in the plumb­ing mar­ket today with ulti­mate aes­thet­ic appeal. Bot­tle Traps utilise a small tube sys­tem and bot­tom cylin­dri­cal shape, with water enter­ing the trap from the drain, turn­ing at the bot­tom of the trap and exit­ing. Util­is­ing a sim­i­lar sys­tem to a con­ven­tion­al P Trap or U Bend but with a lot less phys­i­cal space and a more styl­ish construction.

It’s through it’s aes­thet­ic and inno­v­a­tive sys­tem of pre­vent­ing odours from enter­ing the space, be it small­er spaces such as cloak­rooms or larg­er scale projects, that the Bot­tle Trap is wide­ly regard­ed as the most pop­u­lar and best choice of trap by con­sumers when inte­grat­ing a plumb­ing sys­tem in their home.

Which Rop­er Rhodes Trade Solu­tions Bot­tle Trap should I choose?

At Rop­er Rhodes Trade Solu­tions, we offer a large vari­ety of bot­tle traps in order to arm you with the cor­rect prod­uct you need to tack­le a fit in any space.

Start­ing with our Stan­dard Bot­tle Trap. This has a 45mm height range adjust­ment and is fin­ished in Chrome. This sim­ple and clean trap design moves away from the P Trap shape, instead util­is­ing a small­er frame. This allows it to look at home in both con­tem­po­rary and tra­di­tion­al spaces, as well as res­i­den­tial and com­mer­cial envi­ron­ments and func­tion effi­cient­ly with an effec­tive water seal.

As well as offer­ing our Stan­dard Bot­tle Trap, our most inno­v­a­tive and pop­u­lar trap is the Adjustable Bot­tle Trap. Again, mov­ing away from the tra­di­tion­al P Trap shape. This angu­lar design gives ulti­mate instal­la­tion con­ve­nience through the form of a 120mm Height Range adjust­ment. Allow­ing you to find the cor­rect con­nec­tion spot to the sink drain point no mat­ter the lim­i­ta­tions with the basin or wall space.

To also allow ulti­mate choice and free­dom to the end user con­sumer, this Bot­tle Trap comes in 4 dif­fer­ent fin­ish­es. Chrome, Black, Brass & Gun­metal. This gives you a trap that can fit any space and any style. An ulti­mate, all in 1 prod­uct for the trade.

Com­mon­ly asked installer queries regard­ing our Adjustable Bot­tle Trap

Q: What met­al is this prod­uct made of?

A: Our adjustable Bot­tle Trap is con­struct­ed from Elec­tro­plat­ed Brass

Q: What is the size of the thread connection?

A: The thread is a stan­dard 1,1÷4″ BSP fixing.

Q: Is the depth from wall adjustable?

A: Yes, this can be adjust­ed by cut­ting the out­let pipe pri­or to assem­bly to make the pipe suitable.

For more infor­ma­tion, please view our Tech­ni­cal Data Sheet locat­ed on the prod­uct page for our Adjustable Bot­tle Trap or con­tact our head office where our cus­tomer ser­vice team will be more than hap­py to answer any plumb­ing trap instal­la­tion based query. 

Main­te­nance for Bot­tle Traps

At Rop­er Rhodes Trade Solu­tions, our prod­uct range is always designed and built with fit & for­get reli­a­bil­i­ty in mind.

How­ev­er, we can­not pre­dict just how must usage, as well as wear and tear our prod­ucts will receive once installed in busy, mod­ern res­i­den­tial or com­mer­cial rooms.

To ensure the last­ing longevi­ty and opti­mum per­for­mance of our prod­ucts, we advise you inform the own­ers of the bath­room space you’re installing in about the following…

To main­tain our trap col­lec­tion, they must be reg­u­lar­ly and effi­cient­ly cleaned to con­tin­ue to func­tion at max­i­mum capac­i­ty. Sim­ply unscrew the trap, tak­ing care when you do so, and remove any debris and clean with a cloth.

Please con­tact our cus­tomer ser­vice depart­ment for more infor­ma­tion if needs be.