Something has fallen down our bath plughole and it is blocking the waste. It seems to be a bottle cap type thing which keeps flapping UP to block the pipe. It can be cleared but it does stay there and will flap up again in a few days. We were told that there is some high end snake that can clear it but we spent over $100 calling a licensed plumber out to grind it up with his snake and he couldnt clear it.
Does anyone have any ideas on this one short of pulling the ceiling down below it and man-handling it out please?
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D
Dean Hoffman
Would there be a chance of vacuuming it out when it does plug the system? This would be impractical for your needs but it will give you an idea what a vac can do.
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micky
Shop-vac. Not the tiny one and probably not the smallest one Suck out all the water and the cap too.
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DManzaluni
That's an amazing idea. I'll have to try and figure out how to get an appropriate flexible tube connected to a vacuum source down there
M
micky
Yes, exactly. You don't need a tube down the drain. The tube looks like
1.5", without any accessorty on the end. Just hold that right up to the drain and turn it on. First take out the paper filter, which is for dry stuff, and put in the foam rubber filter, which iiuc is there to keep water from getting in the motor. I've used these to suck up water and they are fine.
This is the wet-dry vac that might be too small
2.5 Gallon 1.75 HP
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This is the one I think is big enough: 6 Gallon 3.0 Peak HP
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I had the first one, and bought a bigger one, which was the next size up
15 years ago, but not because it was bigger. Because they didn't make soot filters for the little one. With the soot filter I can vacuum out the flue from my oil furnace. And it's bigger and sucks better.
It also vacuums floods, etc. so it comes in handy for a lot of things.
Shop-vacs are made in the US and they give great service. I was, or thought I was, missing a part iirc and they sent it with one easy phone call. No charge.
D
DManzaluni
That is assuming quite a lot but it is certainly worth a try
D
DManzaluni
This is in a large apartment building: I'll bet they have one
THANKS!!
T
TimR
It might be worth getting one of those $20 endoscopes that show a picture on your phone. Seeing exactly what and where it is may help.
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DManzaluni
Actually i did ask a plumber who was in the flat on another matter if anyone made such a thing and he said emphatically NO!
Meaning, if you do it yourself, how can we charge you for it?
D
DManzaluni
Is that different from this?
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TimR
It says it uses WiFi but that sounds strange. Could it be Bluetooth possibly?
M
micky
I had a colonscopy once without any anesthesia and it was very interesting** to see my insides. I wonder if my sink drain is interesting too?
**I thought it would be like a tunnel with ripples, and consistent, but there were all sorts of things hanging down, like a Halloweeen tunnel. Every two inches it looked different. I'm not counting the things he cut out, which were actually too small for me to notice until he put the wire loop around them.
He was from Hawaii, with a Hawaiian name, but he's moved out of town, and I have to find another guy.
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