Whose Yorky kidding , the washers are for holding the condom in place !
555
...which reminds me: I have built two houses in Surin, as well as rented a room for a few months when deciding if Isaan was right for me (and vice-versa!) then a bungalow for a year and a half. All of the properties were constructed by "local experts" with supervision that quickly realised that western standards meant nothing here. Quite apart from various teething troubles with the each of the properties, one problem recurred at them all. Whenever it rained very heavily the pong of drains would spread from the bathrooms, irrespective of whatever Thai product was poured or however often it was done. My wife's "Thai custom" solution was always to attack the drain with the toilet spray/bum gun. it would work for a few minutes - sometimes until it stopped raining!
I knew that each of the drains consisted of a stainless steel plate in the floor, a collar within it and into which a hair-strainer fitted. A tilt-action valve operated as a seal against odours from the drain Below all those, the stainless pipe connected with the blue plastic pipework.
Several workmen had goes at fixing the pong - none successfully.
Two weeks ago, I finally set to, and gave each of these drains (6 in total) a thorough cleaning. NONE of them had the valve that you see in the lower left image above. Designed to flip open under the weight of water flowing down the hole, the hinge mechanism had broken on each of them, meaning that air (and drain gasses) were free to up as well as down the drains.
The solution was simple enough: a split condom!! Not actually, but close enough!
Two silicone tubes sit, one inside the other, the outer tube resembling a condom with a split in the lower end (OK use your imagination!) The outer tube is suspended in the existing drain cover while the inner tube is a push-fit that seals them both in place. The hair-strainer is placed on top of them, with the perforated, round cover flush with the drain cover. That took longer to type than it took to replace the parts which were purchased online through Lazada for 131 THB each. They arrived from China in under a week.
https://www.lazada.co.th/-i135328078-s152960337.html?urlFlag=true&mp=1?
Since then the bathrooms have all been completely fresh and niff free, even during the heaviest of recent rain.
If any of you have any problems with smelly drains, these can help!
