the bathroom sink plugged up again.
Tried two doses of liquid cleaner, poked coat hangers down it but only partially cleared it.
After dealing with this at least twice a year for 35 stinking years...I went out and bought a $20 snake and cleared it out in 30 seconds.
Why in the hell did I not have a snake in the house, I have just about every tool imaginable.
sheesh
What are you folks putting down the sink? Mostly hair strands? I never had any sink plugging up in all the houses I lived in.
I have no hair to speak of, it's all the fault of my wife.
There is a 90 degree bend where it all seems to accumulate.
The next sink on that same run never has a problem.
Anyway, the snake was sure easy to use so next time, it will not be a problem. Much easier than dealing with the wife.
Hand soap and shaving cream can build up in drain pipes. I don't remember having a sink blocked. When a drain gets slow, I agitate with a plunger. I do that several times a year in the kitchen, for the gratification.
To be fair to my wife, when she works on her hair, she keeps a towel in the sink, so there is not much hair going down the drain.
I use castile hand soap which might be the main problem.
Since the snake cleared it, so fast and effortlessly, looks like it no longer will be a problem though.
Come to Florida. Just yesterday evening I came across one in one of our bathrooms. It was curled up on the window sill and tried to bite me when I picked it up to transfer it to its natural habitat.
No idea how it got in; true, it was a baby but the house is pretty tight. I found a Cuban tree frog in the toilet a couple of weeks ago and figure it came down the vent pipe but doubt the snake did.
They're dirty?
PS: After tiring of snaking and snaking, I used those 'expanding' hose attachments for 'flushing' a drain via the roof vent pipe. Went from snaking every year to having clean pipes for at least another 10 years. Ms. really was happy that the drains were clear, but ecstatic that I didn't drag a snake through the inside of our home. I actually had to buy a new snake each use! With what's down there, I kinda agreed.
PS: I know I'm preaching to the choir, but do use common sense when doing the 'high powered' flushing.
When I was a kid, my Dad had to snake out the kitchen sink drain every few months or so. Black grease. He used a snake, as I recall.
About a year ago, I got a request from a friend, his kitchen sink stopped draining. I ended up using a snake, took 15 feet or so of cable to punch through. Then some drain crystals to help clear it the rest of the way.
Perhaps some drain crystals will help your hair sink.
- . Christopher A. Young learn more about Jesus .
Been to every one of the continental states...Florida just once.
Saw the alligator and figured my wife and cats would not like it.
Not sure how much I liked it either.
Since the clog was very possibly just soap the snake did not come out dirty at all.
A toilet snake job might very well have been a different story.
Per philo:
Great timing: one of our sinks has been draining too slowly and I was about to disassemble the u-joint to clean it out.
After reading your post, I realized that I had a snake that I had bought
30+ years ago and only used once.....5 minutes and the sink was draining normally.
Thanks!!
Glad my post did some good...
My wife got a laugh when I gave a friend of mine a spare electric motor that I had been keeping for 30 years..."just in case".
Sigh. You will now hear complaints from people about bringing up a 30 year old snake.
- . Christopher A. Young learn more about Jesus .
I use a hand cranked drum with a 3/8" diam snake. Think it holds 25'. Just use some rag to wipe the snake down before pushing it back in the drum. Just did the tub and pulled out a bunch of hair. It was my son who spotted the screw on the lever activated plug. I never saw it in the
18 years of bathing in that tub. That was a "cosmetic" screw, hiding the screw that attaches the plug to the lever. Luckily they both came off with no trouble, and the snake fit past the lever mechanism. Had to use scissors to cut the hair that was caught by the lever bar. About 4 years I got some hair out by using detergent and plunging repeatedly, and got the drain was flowing okay, but a bit slow. This time the detergent and plunging stopped it from flowing at all. Must have just loosened it up or swelled it up and caused a complete blockage. I think some of the hair I pulled out this time was my daughter's who hasn't lived here for 6 years. My wife has been using a plastic screen drain since I got the hair out 4 years ago, but maybe it's letting some of her hair through, or maybe that was all old hair that was catching soap. Not sure. It's draining as fast as it ever did now. So to answer Tony's question about how it happens, in my case it's the mechanism catching the hair. Though well made, this lever activated pop-up plug also catches hair.
I'm surprised that bacteria wouldn't eat hair in 6 years. Some say it's a combination of hair and soap scum that clogs drains. Baking soda can turn soap scum into soluble soap.
Plumbing-raleigh.com recommends equal parts baking soda and vinegar as the first thing to try for a hair clog. Vinegar is 95% water, so the mixture is essentially baking soda and water. I doubt the vinegar helps.
When my kitchen drain gets a little slow, I remove the strainer and put in a tablespoon or so of baking soda. I add an ounce or so of water to wash it down. Then I wait at least 5 minutes.
Then I put a rubber cover (universal plug) over the drain and put a couple of inches of water in the sink. I remove the cover and plunge. Some of the black stuff that was coating the pipe will come up, and water will drain faster. I've tried it without using baking soda. The soda seems to help.
When I've done it in the bathroom sink, I've had to block the overflow. I've also sped up my shower drain that way.
Makes no sense to me.
Vinegar is acid, baking soda a base
so they'd approximately cancel each other out.
Oren posted for all of us...
Trouser snake aye?
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