Since we moved into this place, it’s had a slow-draining bathtub. By the end of a shower, I’ll be up to my ankles in water. The landlord has left us with some chemical (industrial) de-clogging stuff, advising to use this stuff and run boiling water down the drain. My husband did that, but slow draining persists.
Plumbers, can you suggest anything to me? This is a second-floor bath, with a built-in stopper under a sort-of grate on the actual drain hole. I don’t know that I will be able to take it apart, and my husband is out of town.
Most of the bathtub clogs I have had to deal with were caused by large wads of hair caught around the drain stopper or the drain grating itself. Remove the drain and check for that. Every other slow running shower/bathtub drain I’ve encountered was caused by a main sewer clog and the bathtub, being the lowest drain in the home, was the first place it was noticed.
I moved into this apartment in July, the bathtub backed up horribly. I checked for hair, no hair in the drain. After a week, I took off their old shower nozzle and put on my fancy shower nozzle.
Well, the flow of water decreased and now my bath tub drains fine. I told the landlord he would need to buy a lower flow shower head when I move out for next tennant.
The flow is lighter, but perfectly acceptable pressure. You should consider buying an inexpensive shower head and see if that solves the problem.
I’m saving the monster old shower nozzle for when my back hurts, I won’t mind standing up to my ankles in water if it can beat my back very hard with hot water.
Get a big glass of water and dump it in. Does that water stop/slow as soon as it hits the drain or does it ‘swallow’ at least that much? If it’s slowing as soon as it hits the drain, then it’s probably a hair ball right under the stopper. These hair clogs arn’t really removed by drain cleaners. Drain cleaners need to sit and work on the clog, so if you dump drain cleaner down the drain, it’ll work it’s way past the clog and sit in the trap. (Even if the answer to my first question is ‘no’ do this anyways) Pull out the stopper and look down the drain with a flashlight. Chances are you’ll see a lot of smelly gross hair wrapped around the metal parts of the drain (this will be no more then an inch down. You need to get that out. I’ve had decent luck just fishing it out with a piece of wire with a hook bent onto the end, but a needle nose pliers will do the job faster. If you or your husband have long hair, this is something that you should be doing on a regular basis. It’s gross but it only take a few minuets. BTW, if this isn’t the case, if you pull out the stopper and it’s hair free, call the landlord back.
As long as you do it carefully - a kettle of boiling water tends to shift some of the muck that accumulates in the drain. Pour the water straight down the plug hole, don’t dump it into the bath (splash back - scalded!!!)
Well, your landlord should take care of this for you, but if you are curious, or want to swap some labor for a break on your rent:
On a modern tub, the way to auger the drain is via the overflow port (sometimes combined with the internal stopper device). If you try to run an aguer down the normal drain, you’ll hit a right angle bend at about 6", and if there is an internal stopper, you won’t get past that either.
Take the overflow plate loose, and the internal stopper (if present) will come out with some fiddling.
There was an older style that had sort of a round settling box…never encountered one of those, so I can’t advise.
Don’t use caustic chemical drain cleaners. Leave them to the experts. There are enzyme/bacteria drain cleaners which work well for slow but not clogged drains. Try one.
For the bathtub, there is this weird plastic thingee, about a yard long, with little backwards facing “hooks”. Insert into drain, remove plastic thingee with gobs of really nasty hair and stuff* clinging to hooks- clean off “thingee”. Repeat until comes back clean.
OK, we *really * need an “ecch” emoticon for this.
Doing this once a week is a cheap, easy and green way to keep your drains unclogged. You can put 1/2 cup of salt, baking soda, or washing soda down first then pour in the boiling water for added oomph.
It’s called a “ZIP-IT” and it really works. It’s really cheap, even - less than the cost of a bottle of Drano.
It’s really gross, but it really works with no danger of scalding or burning yourself.
If you have put drain cleaner down previously, don’t try this unless you’ve been able to flush it along, or you’ll only splatter yourself with drain cleaner.
What I’ve found works best is a can of compressed air that blows the clog out. You can find them here .
I have not used this particular one, but I cannot find the particular brand I use. It works fantastic, but be careful if you have old pipes - you don’t want to blow a hole in them.
My shower was draining slowly. I didn’t want to use chemicals, and after pulling out the gunky hair clog it still drained pretty slow. At some point, in a fit of frustration, I took the grate off the drain, ran some water, and went after it with the toilet plunger.
Nothing came up, but darned if the drain doesn’t drain a lot faster now! I guess it shifted things around enough to break up one of the worst clog offenders. Might be worth a try.
Thanks for your suggestions, all. I’ll try to clean it out on my own. I’ll leave any chemical or mechanical messing about for when Dave gets back on the weekend.
I was going to suggest using the toilet plunger. In my old place, the shower was three stories up, which is a looong way for gunk to build up. Every six months or so, I’d be in ankle-deep water. A few plunges, and all was good.
Be warned, though: when my neighbor had the same issue, I recommended the plunger. She said that it worked – but only after a ton of really icky gunk came up the drain and into the tub. You’ve been warned.
Here’s what I did, YMMV.
Step one was half a box of baking soda and lots of vinegar until it stopped fizzling.
Step two was eating ice cream
Step three was closing the drain and filling the tub with hot water past the overflow drain
Step four was plunge violently trying to force water down by filling the plunger space with water, not air
Step five was notice hair coming out of drain
Step six was pull on said hair and extract massive wad of hair
Step seven was wash compulsively (I was standing in the tub while plunging) and note how quickly the water now drains
Step eight was eating more ice cream
I don’t know for sure that all the steps were necessary or helpful, but you should not, under any circumstances, skip steps two and eight.
last time i had drain problems i just used the good old fashioned sulfuric acid from lowes. stank like hell but damned if the drain doesnt work better.
