just curious...

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

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dilbert firestorm wrote:
just curious...

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

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 .

--
Snag

On Tuesday, January 13, 2015 at 11:00:50 PM UTC-5, dilbert firestorm wrote:
just curious...

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

remove *byteme* to email me

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.

On 1/13/2015 11:00 PM, dilbert firestorm wrote:
just curious...

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

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.

On 1/13/2015 10:00 PM, dilbert firestorm wrote:
just curious...

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

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

http://www.amazon.com/Cobra-Products...eywords=zip+it

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.

"dilbert firestorm" wrote in message
...
just curious...

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

remove *byteme* to email me



Could be Armageddon.

On 1/14/2015 12:14 AM, wrote:
On Tue, 13 Jan 2015 22:00:21 -0600, dilbert firestorm
wrote:

just curious...

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

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.


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

Closet auger:

http://www.rototoolmfg.com/images/6F...N%20HEAD.JP G

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


-
..
Christopher A. Young
learn more about Jesus
.. www.lds.org
..
..

Moe DeLoughan wrote:
On 1/13/2015 10:00 PM, dilbert firestorm wrote:
just curious...

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

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

http://www.amazon.com/Cobra-Products...eywords=zip+it


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.
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.

On 1/13/2015 11:00 PM, dilbert firestorm wrote:
just curious...

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

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
.. www.lds.org
..
..

On Wed, 14 Jan 2015 07:05:28 -0600, Moe DeLoughan
wrote:

On 1/13/2015 10:00 PM, dilbert firestorm wrote:
just curious...

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

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

http://www.amazon.com/Cobra-Products...eywords=zip+it

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.

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.

"Stormin Mormon" wrote in message
...
On 1/13/2015 11:00 PM, dilbert firestorm wrote:
just curious...

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

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
. http://lemonparty.org

LOL

On 1/13/2015 11:00 PM, dilbert firestorm wrote:
just curious...

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

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

On Wed, 14 Jan 2015 14:25:58 -0500, Frank
wrote:

On 1/13/2015 11:00 PM, dilbert firestorm wrote:
just curious...

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

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

....after all that; consume a donut

In ,
typed:
On Wed, 14 Jan 2015 09:05:29 -0500, Stormin Mormon
wrote:

On 1/14/2015 12:14 AM, wrote:
On Tue, 13 Jan 2015 22:00:21 -0600, dilbert firestorm
wrote:

just curious...

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

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.


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

Closet auger:

http://www.rototoolmfg.com/images/6F...N%20HEAD.JP G

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

That is why I said you go down the overflow.

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

In ,
dilbert firestorm typed:
just curious...

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

Just do a YouTube Google search like this on:


http://lmgtfy.com/?q=youtube+unclog+bathtub+drain



Lots of excellent vieos that show you what to do.

On 1/14/2015 12:56 PM, wrote:
On Wed, 14 Jan 2015 09:05:29 -0500, Stormin Mormon
wrote:

On 1/14/2015 12:14 AM, wrote:

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

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

Closet auger:

http://www.rototoolmfg.com/images/6F...N%20HEAD.JP G

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

That is why I said you go down the overflow.


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
.. www.lds.org
..
..

On 1/14/2015 5:45 PM, TomR wrote:
Closet auger:

http://www.rototoolmfg.com/images/6F...N%20HEAD.JP G

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

That is why I said you go down the overflow.

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


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
.. www.lds.org
..
..

In ,
Stormin Mormon typed:
On 1/14/2015 5:45 PM, TomR wrote:
Closet auger:

http://www.rototoolmfg.com/images/6F...N%20HEAD.JP G

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

That is why I said you go down the overflow.

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

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.

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.

On 1/14/2015 6:17 PM, TomR wrote:
In ,
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.

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.


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.


--
..
Christopher A. Young
learn more about Jesus
.. www.lds.org
..
..

On 1/13/2015 11:00 PM, dilbert firestorm wrote:
just curious...

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

Some houses - like mine - have drum traps. Which are fine if you can
get the cap off. Have never tried getting mine off, but might if I
get ambitious. Or I'll just cut it out and put a P-trap in.
Anyway, you can't snake them.

drum traps covers rust in place.

its far better to replace with a p trap

On 1/14/2015 7:49 AM, Col. Edmund Burke wrote:
"dilbert firestorm" wrote in message
...
just curious...

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

remove *byteme* to email me



Could be Armageddon.
lol

--
Dilbert Firestorm

remove *byteme* to email me

On Wed, 14 Jan 2015 07:54:59 -0500, Norminn
wrote:

On 1/13/2015 11:00 PM, dilbert firestorm wrote:
just curious...

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

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.

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.

On 1/15/2015 5:17 AM, dilbert firestorm wrote:
what do you do if the bathtub is taking forever to drain?
--

Could be Armageddon.
lol


Means that the planet has ceased to
rotate on its axis, and the end is
near.

-
..
Christopher A. Young
learn more about Jesus
.. www.lds.org
..
..

On 1/15/2015 5:20 AM, micky wrote:
On Wed, 14 Jan 2015 07:54:59 -0500, Norminn
wrote:

On 1/13/2015 11:00 PM, dilbert firestorm wrote:
just curious...

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

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.

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.


Had a plumber out for a slow tub drain at another home....he ID'd three
colors of hair found in the drain (with no prior knowledge of who lived
in the home). I was impressed ;o)

On Wed, 14 Jan 2015 20:07:32 -0800 (PST), bob haller
wrote:


Some houses - like mine - have drum traps. Which are fine if you can
get the cap off. Have never tried getting mine off, but might if I
get ambitious. Or I'll just cut it out and put a P-trap in.
Anyway, you can't snake them.

drum traps covers rust in place.

its far better to replace with a p trap

Every older drum trap I ever worked on had a brass cover. More than
once I had to chisel the cap apart, and buy a new cap. Some places
later sold plastic caps, which were less likely to get stuck. And for
PVC pipes, they later made PVC drum traps. (which did not get stuck).
I'm retired so I dont do much plumbing work anymore except my own stuff,
but I have not seen drum traps used on new construction for years. I
dont think they worked as well as intended.

If you do open a drum trap, put lots of grease on the threads of the cap
when you put the old (or a new) cap back on. (vaseline works too).

On 1/13/2015 10:00 PM, dilbert firestorm wrote:
just curious...

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

update.

had the plumber come visit the 2nd floor bathroom.

my mother told me that he just used this vacuum gun in the drain hole
and out came the hair & soap scum.

I think this is the equipment he used based on her description.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0HbPHiCVHw

She thought they used one of those power snake equipment, plumber said
not for this type of job anymore, much easier to use the gun.

I can see why after seeing the video.

--
Dilbert Firestorm

remove *byteme* to email me

On 1/13/2015 10:35 PM, bob haller wrote:
On Tuesday, January 13, 2015 at 11:00:50 PM UTC-5, dilbert firestorm wrote:
just curious...

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

remove *byteme* to email me

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.


house was built in 1996. never had bathtub worked on until recently.

--
Dilbert Firestorm

remove *byteme* to email me

On 1/13/2015 10:35 PM, bob haller wrote:
On Tuesday, January 13, 2015 at 11:00:50 PM UTC-5, dilbert firestorm wrote:
just curious...

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

remove *byteme* to email me

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.


did think about using drano, but decided against it for that reason...
bathtub is on 2nd floor.
--
Dilbert Firestorm

remove *byteme* to email me

On 1/14/2015 8:05 AM, Stormin Mormon wrote:
On 1/14/2015 12:14 AM, wrote:
On Tue, 13 Jan 2015 22:00:21 -0600, dilbert firestorm
wrote:

just curious...

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

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.


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

Closet auger:

http://www.rototoolmfg.com/images/6F...N%20HEAD.JP G


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


-
.
Christopher A. Young
learn more about Jesus
. www.lds.org
.
.

I have that tool!

--
Dilbert Firestorm

remove *byteme* to email me

On 1/13/2015 10:00 PM, dilbert firestorm wrote:
just curious...

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

is this worthwhile getting?

for the overflow drain

http://www.amazon.com/OXO-Grips-Bath...PD5SE5TC2YZ C

this ones for the tub drain

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_no...ywords=bathtub
--
Dilbert Firestorm

remove *byteme* to email me