My new bathroom has this kind of drain—The stopper is the spring kind that sits permanently over the drain hole. So there’s no room to put a regular hair catcher in it or over it.
So how do I prevent hair from going down that drain? If I don’t do something, I’ll have to call the plumber weekly.
Maybe you could put the mesh strainer thing upside down over it.
I don’t know, but I would also like to find out. My daughter has drains like that, and they get clogged often.
She does have mesh hair catchers that she puts in upside down that catch some hair, but some also gets underneath it. Since she takes showers mostly, I’m wondering if she should just unhook the drain mechanism and use a regular hair catcher, if that’s possible.
Get astrainer thingie like this at any hardware store, Wal-Mart, etc.
I leave it in all the time, except when I have the drain plugged when I’m taking a bath. When I pull the plug to drain the tub, I immediately put the mesh thingie in the drain.
You put it in with the bump DOWN inside the drain, not upside down so hair escapes around the edges. IOW you INSERT it in the drain.
The previous tenants here could never figure this out either and often had the landlord or a plumber over. I’m ASTONISHED that such a simple, cheap, effective solution eluded them for years…:smack:
Do you fill up the bathtub ever? If you don’t just go to Home Depot/Lowes/Bed Bath & Beyond and get a bathtub strainer and put it in the drain in place of the stopper.
If you do, just let the hair go down it and once every few months get a Zip-It (from Lowes/Home Depot), shove it down the drain and it’ll pull all the hair right back out. It’s kinda gross though, looks like a smelly wet cat. And they’re cheap too, so you don’t have to clean it, I just toss it right in the garbage and get a new one next time I need it.
I like the silicone or vinyl ones much better. I have the one on the top.
didn’t look.
if the stopper is unremovable and raised there are these domed screen things with a metal edge that can sit over the stopper. mine is 4.5" diameter and weighted enough it stays in place with a draining shower or bath.
This is what I was going to suggest. Usually you can remove this type of stopper completely by giving it a quarter-turn and then lifting it straight out.
That’s what I ended up doing. We never really used the tub for baths, so I took out the spring-loaded stopper and put in one of the little metal mesh strainers. I also bought a traditional bathtub plug to use in case I ever need to fill up the tub in the future. That’s been my system for two years and I’m really happy with it.
We have one of those plugs in our bath, and the hair just gets caught over a grille partway down. Once the bathwater starts to drain slowly, I use a bent coathanger to hook it out. It usually comes up in one big clump. It’s quite satisfying, in the same gross way bursting zits is.
There’s a rubber strainer you should find at any hardware store that is designed to fit, inverted, over a stopper like that.
Here’s the best pic I could find.
Thanks for all the advice!
I’m thinking of trying to remove the spring-loaded stopper and replace it with a regular hair catcher. How easy will that be?
Hijacking the thread with a related question of my own:
the drain in my shower (no bathtub unfortunately) has a cover like this:
http://www.buildlineuae.com/dnmcimg/bl_images/6274418493.jpg
Any ideas on how I could stop the hairs going down?
So far I just use a drain cleaner every couple of months or so (whenever I notice the water draining more slowly than usual).
Cut a suitably sized/shaped piece of fabric window screen, and lay that over the drain.
I’ve used exactly that for some years now with total success.
What a good idea! Thanks!
What could I use to secure it? Meaning what kind of tape would be best to use in the shower?
You might have to use some ingenuity on that. In my current situation, I have a standard tub. I use a rubber bath mat. I place it so one end of the mat partially covers the drain. That holds the screen in place.
In a prior existence, I had a shower stall with a drain like yours right in the center. I used a bath mat there too. I cut a round hole right in the center of the mat so it didn’t cover the drain. I cut piece of screen a little larger, and put it over the drain and the mat over that.
Note that the screen gets plugged up with hair and blocks the drainage. I have to remove the hair several times during the course of one shower. I don’t consider that a nuisance.
ETA: It’s possible that you don’t need anything to hold it in place. Maybe if you just set a piece of screen over the drain it will stay there on its own. Maybe if you make the screen a little larger than the size of the drain. Assuming it’s positioned somewhere, where you aren’t stepping on it all the time.
Thank you.
I am just getting ready to go to the super market and I will see what they offer by way of window screens.
(Damn! It just started raining!)
In the worst case, I will use gaffer/ PVC/ box tape that would have to be replaced for each shower, but that wouldn’t be too much of an imposition.
ETA: I have an aversion to bath mats, and anyway the drain is right in the corner which would mean that a hypothetical bath mat wouldn’t be any use for it’s original purpose.
Maybe you could adhere the mesh to the drain surround with some caulk? I’d stick it down only on one side or with intermittent blobs of caulk to make it easy to remove if necessary.
Not sure if a typical supermarket would have window screen. Any hardware store would. You need to get the fabric type, not the metal wire type.
It’s possible that you don’t need to anchor it at all. If the drain is in the corner out of the way and you don’t keep stepping on it, and depending on how the water flows, maybe you can just set it there and it will stay in place. So try that first.
Another thought (that I’ve never had occasion to try): If you could get some pieces of string or twist-ties or strands of screen down one slot in the drain and back up the next slot over, you could tie the screen in place.
However you do it, I’ve always found that this type of screen works well for its intended purpose, which is stopping hair (and lint) from going down the drain.
Heh, no, my typical super market did not have said window screen.
So this will have to go on my list of bits and bobs that need doing around the house (a weekly Saturday morning trip to the super market is all I can fit in my schedule right now as I am working 12+ hour days 6-7 days a week).
So, Mr Muscle will have to do the trick for now. But thanks for pointing me in the right direction.
