bathtub draining

just curious...

what do you do if the bathtub is taking forever to drain?

Reply to
dilbert firestorm
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I clean the hair out of the drain screen . Might need to pull the screen and clean out under it too , most have a cross bar support for the screen .

Reply to
Terry Coombs

How old is the tub I had a super slow drainer:( that ended by replacing the drum trap with a regular trap, and replacing the copper drain line that was mostly filled with crud, to nice new smooth PVC

You can try drano or liquid plumber, but that lead to pinhole leaks, that grew to bring down my kitchen cieling.

Sometimes it just best to replace the mess. In my case that must be approaching 8 or10 years ago.

Before replacing the entire drain line it was getting pieced together every 5 years or so.

I pulled down all the drywall and plaster, and decided to get a plumber to do the job. The replacement line has better slope and drains great.

Reply to
bob haller

Some times you can take off the plate with the drain lever, pull out the stopper drum and run a closet auger (small snake) down the overflow hole. If there is a big wire ball on the end, you may need to cut some of it off. Make a smaller cone. Some designs will block the snake right at the bottom tho. It is usually a hair clog exacerbated by soap scum. A drain cleaner might work but you just want to dribble a little in over a period of time since most of it just goes down the drain. You just want to wet the hair clog and dissolve it.

Reply to
gfretwell

Clean the hair out of the drain. Had that problem with shower drain years ago, and I got some stiff wire, fashioned a hook on the end and stuck it down the drain about a foot....it felt so mushy, I thought the drain might be broken and I was reaching mud. It took a little probing to pull out the most ghastly glob of hair imaginable! It was surely 35 years worth, knowing age of building. Gack! The slow draining showed up rather suddenly.

Reply to
Norminn

You run down to your local hardware store and spend two buck to buy a Zip-It drain cleaning tool:

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Thread it down the drain into the trap, then pull it back out. The hair and gunk stuck in the trap will be pulled out with it. Cheap, fast, easy.

Honest to pete, everyone should keep a couple of these handy for quick drain clearing.

Reply to
Moe DeLoughan

I'd think either some hydroxide type drain cleaner, or a drain snake.

Closet auger:

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is far too large to go into a tub drain, it's designed for toilets.

- . Christopher A. Young learn more about Jesus .

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Reply to
Stormin Mormon

Hi, Dollar store sells plastic flexible barbed stick for that kinda job. We only use bubble bath aand never use soap bar in the shower, always liquid soap. Never had bath room drainage problem in any house we lived in.

Reply to
Tony Hwang

Others have suggested already.... drain snake, and possibly hydroxide base drain cleaner.

Best wishes, let us know how things work for you. So we can learn.

- . Christopher A. Young learn more about Jesus .

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Reply to
Stormin Mormon

Try the zip-It (or alternative like it) first. I'm going to get one of those. But what I've done in the past is run some hot water and then squirt some dish detergent in the drain. Let it set about an hour. Then cover the overflow with a wet rag and use a plunger to loosen the hair/soap scum blockage up. You should draw some up into the tub is you're plunging right. Repeat that process a few time until in drains well. You might be surprised if you don't see much hair. I don't. I think just a few hairs meeting up with soap scum repeatedly can eventually clog the drain. The dish detergent seems to dissolve the soap scum. My tub is slowing about 6 years after I last did that process, so I'm due to do it again. My wife uses a drain hair screen so no long hair is getting down there.

Reply to
Vic Smith

That is why I said you go down the overflow.

Reply to
gfretwell

Good idea to see what type drain you have and look on-line for instructions on snaking if chemicals are inadequate.

Reply to
Frank

And, as you pointed out, some bathtub drain lines are configured in a way where that will work and some are not.

Reply to
TomR

Just do a YouTube Google search like this on:

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Lots of excellent vieos that show you what to do.

Reply to
TomR

I don't have an overlow to test, at home. But, I'm guessing a closet auger is both too large, and not long enough. Perhaps we'll get a real life report from someone?

Anyone want to field test this?

- . Christopher A. Young learn more about Jesus .

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Reply to
Stormin Mormon

I'd be curious if a closet auger will fit into a drain over flow for a tub. I rather doubt it. I await a field tester to report here.

- . Christopher A. Young learn more about Jesus .

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Reply to
Stormin Mormon

I understand your point, and a closet auger does seem like it would tend to be ratherr large for this type of drain line. But, I have designed and run new bathtub drain lines for a new tub from underneath, and when I can, I design them so that a snake placed down through the overflow would go straight down into a trap and then back up and then continue on inside the horizontal drain line. I like to do it that way when I can to allow for easy snaking out of the tub drain line. I haven't tried it, but I think that the ones that I have designed and installed would accept a closet auger.

Reply to
TomR

Well, it's very possible. As for me, I'd think to try a sink drain snake, and then follow that with boiling water, or hydroxide.

Takes all types to make a world.

Reply to
Stormin Mormon

Make sure the trap is filled with water. Wet a rag of cloth, cover the overflow with the _wet_ cloth, get a wet/dry vac and suck the trap out. Repeat making sure the trap is filled with water, and make sure the cloth covering the overflow is wet.

Reply to
terry

Maybe that's because the last empty space, the last hole through the clog, finally got filled.

If hair is the problem, as all of you say, they selll a flexible plastic stick maybe 1/8 or so in diameter with plastic barbs on it, so you push it in like you did your wire, and pull it out (read the directions) and it has several hooks along its length and sounds pretty good.

I had long hair in the late 60's but I've never had a clog.

Reply to
micky

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