Plumbing problems

The sink drains worked very slowly. One barley flowed at all. And there was a slow leak under the sink. I decided to fix things.

Sound like trouble?

First order of business disconnect all the pipes. Easy enough, hand tight plastic nuts on flexible plastic pipe.

All the seals were bunged up. Looked like whoever screwed the nuts on didn't bother to be sure the seals were seated flat on the coupling. I tried to flatten one so it would seal and hopefully not leak under the sink. Just the little twisting I did to turn it flat caused it to tear. Uh oh! Now I've decided to replace the seals rather than flatten them.

I was prepared to go out and buy replacements. Hương said she'd call the building superintendent and they'd replace the seals. She called, someone came after a bit. He said he'd be back in an hour or so. When he came back he replaced the pipes, not just the seals.

However he didn't replace one pipe. The one that almost didn't drain. (dramatic music now...)

I disconnected it and found it was almost completely plugged. So I started shaking it and a sludge sausage started working its way out. The more I shook the more came out. This was encouraging.

So I kept on shaking. More kept coming out. Then the pipe cracked. Sigh. Brittle. And now began an adventure trying to find a replacement. I walked around Ho Chi Minh for about three hours stopping in every plumbing shop I saw. A few shops had longer pipe but nothing in the needed length.

There's plenty of shops. All small or very small businesses. No one had a replacement. Hương came home and we drove to a market that specialized in tools and parts and we couldn't find anything there. Then we went to where she bought the sink and they said it couldn't be bought, they'd have to send the broken item back to the factory and a replacement could be ready in a day!

Finally we went to one of the shops that had a too long piece and bought that. I installed it and everything's draining again.

Moral of the story? In Vietnam it isn't always easy to get what you want. Your experience with Home Depot, Lowes, Sears, Joe's Plumbing, etc. gives you expectations that don't apply here, even in Vietnam's largest city.

And another thing, sellers don't offer alternatives. If they don't have it they're likely to say it can't be bought rather than suggest another shop or another solution. It's like if they aren't the solution they'll tell you there isn't one.