I need to know how to remove hair from the bath tub drain? The water cannot go down well, because the drain is clogged up with hair. Please also advise how to avoid the same problem in future? Thanks a lot.
Someone had posted elsewhere on here, that for prevention,or to speed up slow drains, to boil some water on the stove. Pour about 1/2 cup plain ammonia down whatever drain, then pour in the boiling water. Leave a window open, cause if you are leaning over the drain, the hot water will cause ammonia fumes to hit you in the face. Also, be careful carrying the boiling water, don't trip, don't burn yourself or pets.
I just used the hottest tap water I could get. The original poster said that the ammonia cuts the body grease and soap scum that line the drains, which is what causes them to be slow in the first place. They recommended doing this about once a week.
This worked great at my father in laws. Pour about 1/3 box of baking soda down drain, then any type of vinegar on top of it. Leave it alone for about 1/2hour then rinse with hot water. You may have to do this a few times. Its cheaper than drain cleaner or a plumber.
I saw somewhere that some husband was amazed when his brilliant wife poured Nair down the drain and it worked. Haven't tried it, but it sure makes sense to me! Good luck!
Hi. I was going to suggest using the wire clothes hanger too. I bought a strainer to put over the opening from walmart for around $1. It came with two sizes. One for the tub, and the other for the sink. They work wonderfully!
Take a wire clothes hanger and take it apart to make a long piece of wire. Then crimp on end to make an L shape bend. Insert this into the drain a little ways turn a little and pull back up. This will usually have a glob of hair attached. Remove the hair and do again until it comes back out clean.
I'm assuming since the hair got down the drain you don't have a strainer type cover. This is important to prevent this from happening in the future. You can probably find a universal one in any hardware store or get creative and make your own. If you do not want to use chemicals to dissolve the clog, you will have to pull the hair out with a crochet hook or something similar. A coat hanger with a hook at the end may do the trick.
If the hair is too far down to reach, try plunging it upwards a few times. Push down slowly without force to create a seal and pull up quickly to force the clog up where you can better reach it. Good luck!
Try Draino or the other drainer uncloggers. Rinse - go to a hardware store & buy what they call a "snake" - just a big flexible wire contraption to pull out the hair, or if the hair is really obviously bad - pull out as much as you can first by hand (you can often lift up the cover of the drain to clear the hair clogs) and then applying drain cleaners - as the corrosive components of the drain cleaner might splash up when you are using the snake & burn you.
Request: Unclogging a Bathtub (04/06/2009)
I need some help in cleaning out my bathtub drain. I have used "Plumbers Helper" like it was going out of style but still no results. How about a few ideas?
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Request: Unclogging a Bathtub
Archived on 08/04/2009
How can I unclog a tub drain without the use of harmful chemicals?
You can go to a store like Home Depot and buy an item called Zip It. It is a plastic strip with teeth along each side. It is a very inexpensive item. Here is a link to the site of the people who manufacture Zip It, you can read all about it and see it in action: http://www.zipitclean.com/ . (04/23/2009)
I also use zipit, but then follow it up with the following:
1 box of baking soda
1 cup of coarse (Kosher) salt
Stuff into your drain (don't worry, it won't make it worse). Chase it down with a small bottle of vinegar and let it bubble away. Wait 15-20 minutes or until you cannot hear any more fizzing and then pour a teapot full of boiling water down the drain.
PS. This is good for freshening any drain! (04/23/2009)
There may be built up gunk and hair just out of sight. Try using a small hook made of an untwisted metal coat hanger, and see if you can fish anything out. Be sure to wear gloves, cause if you see what is usually in there, you won't want to touch it. (05/06/2009)
The hair might be higher up, not down in the drain. Here is what I did, and some other suggestions:
http://www.thriftyfun.com/tf78187185.tip.html (04/06/2009)
You can use a thing called "Zip-It" (or a similar product) that you should find in the plumbing aisle at your local hardware store. It's a thin plastic strip with thorny looking things along the sides. Push it down your drain as far as it will go then slowly pull up to remove hair (likely what's clogging your tub). Since you have already used chemicals to try to unclog your tub be VERY CAREFUL when pulling out the hair. The chemicals could splash up and get on your skin or in your eyes. Once you have unclogged your tub, you can put a hair catcher either inside your drain (usually metal) or on top of your drain (usually plastic) to prevent hair from going down and clogging your tub again.
(04/06/2009)
I need some help in cleaning out my bathtub drain. I have used "Plumbers Helper" like it was going out of style but still no results. Plunging has been almost a daily chore and still no relief. How about a few ideas? Help!
Louis from Sarasota, FL
Answers:
RE: Unclogging a Bathtub
If you have an old tub with the lever type stopper sometimes those get to the point where they don't go either open or closed all the way. This will cause it to drain slowly. My DH removed the plate where the lever is and pulled the stopper thingy out and put the plate back on. We bought a rubber stopper at the dollar store. It drains fine now. (02/19/2009)
Best of luck. Last summer, our tub wouldn't drain. The plumber found that our P-trap had disintegrated. We ended up taking backyard showers for 6 weeks (after dark of course) until we could find the $6000 to replace the trap and some rotted pipes under our 40 year old house. (02/20/2009)
By Leslie
RE: Unclogging a Bathtub
Quick fix: Take a pair of needle-nose pliers and pull out the hair at the top of the drain. My bathtub was clogged and I blamed my white dog's bath; nope, the culprit was me! The proof is always in the drain, lots of brown hair. (02/21/2009)
I just did mine yesterday. I put in the baking soda followed with vinegar. Let it sit about 15 minutes then followed up by turning on the hot water. Yet no results. Then I took a plunger, plunged it a couple of times and I heard gurgle, gurgle and now the water is draining beautifully. Hope this works for you. (02/21/2009)
By Kinga
RE: Unclogging a Bathtub
As far as exactly how to get rid of the clog, I am not sure. I have heard a lot of theories about vinegar, baking soda, hot water from a tea kettle. I don't know. However, if it turns out your clog is caused by excess hair, invest in a small rubber mesh drain screen. I bought one for about $1.00 or $2.00 at Big Lots. $2.00 could save you hundreds in the future by keeping hair out of your drain. (02/21/2009)
By crazyliblady
RE: Unclogging a Bathtub
If you have the kind of tub drain with an overflow fitting that has a lever on it to open or close the drain, just remove the screws and pull the whole shebang out of the overflow hole. Clean the hair and gunk off of that icky thing, then stuff a wet rag in the overflow hole and plunge like mad at the drain with hot water flowing till it runs freely. Now reassemble it and you should be good to go. (03/19/2009)
If you do a search on bathtub drain, you will see some entries about using baking soda and vinegar. I tried it on my slow flowing drain and it helped quite a bit. You put the baking soda in, then pour the white vinegar into the drain and you will see a lot of foaming. Some say to follow that with hot water. I did notice that it did not work as well on my Mom's drain but she has a permanent screen that covers the drain - she can't remove it to clean hair or anything out of it, so it is a real pain. (01/29/2009)
By KL
RE: Unclogging a Bathtub
Remove the plug and run the hot water to unclog.
There may be hair in the drain. I use a piece of a thin coat hanger or wire with the tip bent like a hook. Try to fish out any hair that might be in the drain. Just clean just below the drain, don't try and shove the wire too far into the drain.
Then use a 1/4 cup baking soda and 1/2 cup vinegar.
Pour the soda down the drain (you may need a pin or something to push it down the drain). Then pour in the vinegar and it will start to fizz.
Put the plug in as fast as you can and let sit for about 5 min.
(02/02/2009)
I have discovered a wonderful tool - It is a hose bladder. You connect it to a garden hose and place it down the drain clean out (overflow), insert it past the trap. Turn on the water and when there is enough pressure built up on the line it forces the clog out into the sewer system. No Chemicals- I have 1 bathroom and 5 kids (3 girls with lots of hair) and even with a screen we get clogs often. I can clear a drain in about 10 min. and don't have to worry about and chemicals in the tub. Hope this helps. (02/03/2009)
