As I understand it, this thing(I learned from the fire dept. today its called a waterman or water watch or something like that) is hooked up to a garden hose and piped through the wall into the crock to start a siphoning action when it gets to a certain level if the pump hasn't come on. If I knew any more I wouldn't have had this problem in the first place. And speaking of free water from outside, we got plenty of that today too, because I guess my DD had turned the "water whatever" lever to off. I had an appt. to meet an appraiser there today at noon, so I got there an hour early to get something out of the basement. Was met by water above my ankles in a basement we've always called the bowling alley. Boxes etc. were floating around for goodness sake! The fire dept. came to pump us out, discovered the "water whatever" had been turned off, and also the float on the pump had broken off (probably why the WW had been running) and was also floating. I'm sick to death of water. A little advice: Never depend on a doctor to check your sump pump. DD is an OB-GYN, and although her dad crassly calls her a plumber, she failed big time on this one. Luckily, though, she had bagged up 30 bags of clothes for pickup by charity tomorrow or I'd be hauling heavy soppy clothes out of the basement forever as well as all the other stuff. Hope y'all had a better day. Sandy

I have long thick hair and since I am the one who is responsible for cleaning the drain I was motivated to modify my hair washing technique to (mostly) eliminate the problem. You can "grab" the lose hair before it hits the shower floor by running your fingers thought the hair in a combing motion during washing and cream rinse. Most of the lose hair will be on your fingers where it can be removed (not washed off) and put aside to be discarded after the shower. IÂm not sure how you could motivate your daughter to do this, but it will elimate the problem.

Copper is an even better method. Copper sulphate will kill back the roots very nicely. Table salt will have some affect, and bleach will also. All are stopgap methods.

Random update since I posted 2 years ago in this thread...a few weeks ago I finally had a handyman replace the push-down drain that came with my Brizo Odin faucet that I posted pics of above with a Cal Faucets Zero Drain. The Brizo Odin push-down drain was impossible to keep clean (mineral deposit build up on the top) and the mechanism by which it pushed down and popped up seemed to work less smoothly over time. But mainly it just looked ugly with the mineral deposits and I was never thrilled with the mushroom head look of it anyway. BTW, after the Brizo drain was removed/replaced, I took the Brizo drain and got more aggressive trying to clean it with bar keeper's friend and I think a bit of the chrome finish started to flake in one tiny spot. Anyways, I'm glad to be rid of it and so far am very happy with the zero drain which I had bought based on chispa's recommendations which I saw in several threads when I was researching.