Why is there standing water in my shower drain?
Shower drains are purposefully designed to hold a visible pool of water inside the trap to block sewer gases and odors from entering the home. As long as the water drains normally without backups, gurgling, or bad smells, this standing water is completely normal and expected.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
- 1snaking the drain
- 2using a camera snake to inspect the pipe
- 3Call the landlord to unclog it
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“Hi! My partner and I recently moved into a new apartment and the shower drains look kind of nasty and there’s a bit of hair stuck in there.”source ↗
“I noticed last night while showering I looked down into the drain and saw standing water, the shower drains 100% normally with no back up or gurgling, not even any off smell. But look straight down and there’s just standing water, this can’t be how it’s supposed to be right?”source ↗
Where this came up
People with this problem also raised
- 4Water pooling in window tracks even after cleaning weep holes
- 3Can you use silicone to seal gaps around a shower drain?
- 2Why does water pool in flat bottomed sinks?
- 9Why is my brand new kitchen sink draining so slowly?
- 2How to tell if a bathtub leak is the drain, gasket, or tub itself
- 10Why is water backing up into the sink when appliances drain?