Hi, me and my friends live in a house together that we are renting for college. Our shower has recently stopped draining or going extremely slow. We called in a plumber to look at it and he said it wasn't clogged but, because it is so old it has a sort of gas cylinder thing that traps the gas instead of winding a lot like the newer systems, because of this apparently the gas is holding the water back and not allowing it to drain. If there is anyway to make a nice short fix without spending lots of money or hiring a plumber again because our landlord doesn't like to pay for things, even though its not our fault?

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We called in a plumber to look at it and he said it wasn't clogged but, because it is so old it has a sort of gas cylinder thing that traps the gas instead of winding a lot like the newer systems, because of this apparently the gas is holding the water back and not allowing it to drain.

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SAY WHAT?? Must be a younger plumber if he mistook a older drum trap for some sort of "gas chamber". Of course he got it completely wrong. You indeed have a blockage. The problem is that you can't get a snake past a drum trap. The trap will have to be opened and a snake run through the downstream side. Get a older plumber in that knows what he's doing. Good luck, Tom