Unfortunately, I have become an expert on unclogging a bathtub drain. It mostly has to do with the fact that our home is on a concrete foundation and all of the plumbing is underground making it difficult and nearly impossible to work on the pipes to make them flow better. My husband swears that it is my long hair that clogs the tub drain; however, many reasons cause our bathtub drain to become clogged. Troubleshooting a clog in a bathtub drain is not difficult, as I have learned over the years in this house.
Troubleshooting a clogged bathtub drain
Clearing a blockage at the drain
Often, a bathtub drain will become clogged because of hair, soap and other buildup. If you can see what is clogging the drain, you can easily remove it with your hands (or for the squeamish like me a twisted coat hanger or pair of pliers). Most tubs have a cover over the drain that is very easy to pop off so that you can see further down the drain and remove clogs that are close to the top of the pipe.
Plungers and snakes
Unfortunately, our bathtub drain becomes clogged further down the pipe than we can reach with a coat hanger; therefore, we must use something a big stronger to unclog our bathtub. Someone suggested that we use a plunger to unclog the bathtub drain. To do this you fill the tub with enough water to cover the bottom of the plunger, placed the plunger over the drain and push down and up five or six times. The pressure should clear the blockage; however, as we discovered the overflow outlet must be covered for this to work properly. This is not too bad if the overflow outlet is easy to get to; however, most of them are behind the overflow plate (where the drain stopper is located) and removing that is just a lot of trouble for something that does not work well.
We actually purchased a “snake” or auger because we were tired of paying a plumber to do what we could do ourselves. A plumbing snake is a flexible long steel cable that is fed through the overflow (not the drain so you do have to remove that overflow cap for this) to dislodge the clog. Slowly feed the snake into the overflow outlet, turning it as you push it forward. When you encounter the clog, push back and forth while turning the snake to either dislodge the clog or pull it back out to clear the drain and pipe.
Chemicals
I hate using chemicals to unclog a drain because they are highly caustic and horrible for the environment. However, there are environmentally safe options to keep drains from becoming clogged. Every other month we pour one-half cup of baking soda into the drain and add one-half cup of vinegar. Allow this to sit in the drain for several minutes before flushing with hot water.
Sources:
DoItYourself.com
HomeTips.com
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