When in doubt, turn to the Teeming Millions. (Tillions?)
My gf has been staying over at my place sometimes, and when she does so she likes to shower. Her hair has been kind of falling off, and lately my roommates have told me that the drain needs to be cleaned due to the hair. I noticed the drain earlier, but I didn’t notice all her hair in the tub cause I can’t see without my glasses and I usually don’t look IN the tub when I’m not taking a shower.
So I applied some Draino to it, and I followed the instructions. The instructions of EVIL, I tell ya! When I poured the water on, some of the stuff fell out onto the surrounding part of the tub, and not in the drain. When I turned the tap on to let it flush, this carried the green stuff down the tub, so now it’s all spread out. Plus, it took a long time for it to drain. So it looks like I’m gonna have to go in by hand and do this.
My question, finally. What is the best way to do this, plus to clean the tub? Those pellets were listed as corrosive. I paid attention when I was young, don’t touch stuff that says corrosive!! Before I put that in I’d reach in and try and feel around for hair. Ick, but it has to be done. But now if I reach in I get the feeling they’re be BURNING and PAIN! PAIN in the GLAVEN! Oy. My gf has suggested using the vacuum cleaner, my roomates don’t think that’s a good idea. I don’t know WHAT’s going on.
DRANO pellets are sodium hydroxide, also known as lye. The reason it eats through hair clogs is because it is a seriously caustic base. It has no problem eating through your skin. Do not handle it, especially when wet. Do not bring it into contact with aluminum when wet (it reacts exothermically, producing heat and hydrogen gas - in some cases, this can cause small explosions).
Flush with large volumes of water (if you want it to continue eating away at the hair). If you need to neutralize it so you can handle the hair yourself, turn on the fan and flush it with vinegar (acetic acid) or lemon juice. Once you’ve flushed it, leave the bathroom and let it ventilate. Buy some rubber work gloves and pluck the hair out by hand, or use a steel wire coat hanger to slip down the drain and pull out the clog.
Next time, use liquid Drano or Liquid Plumr. They are just as effective, but they flow downhill and generally stay where they’re put. The risks from skin and eye contact are similar, but there’s less chance of a stray wet pellet hitting your skin and burning a scar onto you.
One last solution: you could go buy liquid Drano, pour it in the drain, and hope that that will clear the hair, leaving you free to rinse the pellets down the (now clear) drain. If this doesn’t work, however, you will be hard-pressed to remove the whole mess without rubber gloves. Of course, if it doesn’t work, then there’s something more stubborn than hair down that drain.
To clean any remnants of the Drano out of the tub, you can fill the tub with hot water and pour in some CLR (mildly acidic) cleaner or a bunch of vinegar. Any mild acid with hot water (to accelerate the reaction) should neutralize the lye.
We had a problem with a clogged drain in our shower. I thought that it was hair, so I unscrewed the drain cover and then used a plumber’s snake to try and ream the pipe entrance. I ended up pulling a big old wad of nasty looking stuff out (there were some earlier experiments with liquid drain cleaners to no real avail). It turned out in the end that the main cause of the clog was not hair (although there was definitely hair involved) but bristles from the back scrub brush doohickey that I use to clean my back. I don’t know whether or not lye would eat through that anytime soon. Maybe. But net, I recommended using your plumber’s snake in getting the glop out.
If you can look down the drain and see hair, go get an old fork and pull the stuff up. (after first flushing with water thoroughly) It’s pretty icky but most of the time, that will clear the drain up enough that water will flow freely. If the water is still runnign slow, try the Liquid Plumer suggestion.
I second the recommendation for a coat hanger bent to pull the hair out of the drain. It works in out house pretty well. You usually can access the drain if you remove the overflow cover on the tub. This is generally where the lever is to fill the tub. The lever apparatus will come right out and there is liable to be hair and soap all over it. I never had any luck with Drano or any similar products. I use Bon Ami cleanser to clean the tub and sinks in our home. It will not scratch.
I have this problem all the time. I have long hair and old pipes and they clog up fast. You need to get a plumber’s snake at your hardware store, read the directions and pull the hair out. The snake is a flexible metal cord with a coil on the end that grabs the hair. It works. You can get one for about $15 at Home Depot.
Once you unclog it, you need to get a screen for the drain so it catches the hair before it goes down the drain. Prevention is the best medicine.
Also, every couple of months, pour some Drano down the drain just to clear out any growing gunk to keep the pipes free-flowing.
I always used the coat hanger trick to clean our drains. If the water still drains slow some Liquid Plumr or Drano will help.
As for cleaning the tub… get a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser!! They only cost about $2 (2 in a package I think) and they clean all kinds of shit. I used one on my shower stall and my shower looked brand new when I got done. Doesn’t take a lot of elbow grease and you’re not breathing in all those nasty chemical smells from cleansers because you just wet the magic eraser with water and start rubbing.
I’ve always just used a shitload of Drano to solve this problem; Mr. Levins had never heard of such a problem when he moved in with me, so he was mystified when the drain kept backing up. (He has hair about two inches long, so this was obviously never a problem til he moved in with a girl for the first time.)
He’s the guy who’ll go in there and yank out gobs of hair and scum and stuff; I cannot physically handle it. I’m not particularly squeamish, but old scummy hair–even if it’s mine–makes me gag for some reason. I freely admit that if Drano ever stopped working, and Mr. Levins left me, I’d call a plumber before I’d physically tackle the problem myself.
I applaud you guys’ bravery in the face of the shower drain.
When I turned the tap on to let it flush, this carried the green stuff down the tub, so now it’s all spread out. Plus, it took a long time for it to drain. 
)