denforum

Here is my advice for anyone out there with a bathtub that doesn't drain (or drains slowly). But first, I need to go through your options so you can fully appreciate the toiling and suffering and utter studious nature and intellect i needed to come up with the solution.

When your bathtub doesn't drain, these are your options.

1. Use drain cleaner (terrible for the environment)
2. Use a drain snake (these have been consistently useless for me)
3. Plunge it (EVEN THIS has problems. my god)
4. Call a plumber or landlord (LOL)

I've lived in a few different apartments and they usually have this design, with an overflow drain on the front of the tub.


Here's the internal view of how the drain works, plus a helpfully labelled pube clog.


For my bathtub and the others I've tried a (consumer level) drain snake on, it never fucking works. Based on my experience, the drains have to meet in that T shape because this is what happens:


If the T joint was rotated 90 degrees in either direction, the snake would be able to get to the clog from at least one of the drains, but plumbers and home designers are too busy sucking and fucking and huffing their shitty apartment paint to care about me or my feelings i guess

The snake is a very rigid coil of metal. It physically can't make it around that kind of bend. It can curve in one direction, it can't do the kind of zig-zag maneuver required to get down there.

Here's what happens if you try to plunge it:


All the suction from the plunger is just making air get pulled through the overflow drain. When you plunge, if it just feels like you're moving air around, it isn't going to accomplish anything. You need to seal the overflow drain somehow.

If your overflow drain is designed in a way that lets you plug it, then you can just do that and plunging will work as long as the seal in the overflow drain isn't rotted. All the tubs I've seen don't have that though, they are just permanently open. In that case, the best thing to do is to get a plastic container that's the right shape and size and cover the whole overflow drain with it. I use something that used to have some kind of cheese in it I think. Something like a sour cream container or other plastic tupperware type bowl could work as long as its the right size. Bathtubs usually have a little curve to them so this will probably only work with a circular container, not square.


I would say that this is "kind of sucky" to do. You need to be able to push the tupperware onto the drain hard enough to make a seal AND plunge the bathtub at the same time, but the suction will help the seal if your container has the correct fit.

This method is way faster than using drain cleaner, which sometimes just doesn't work anyway and is really bad for the environment. It's pretty satisfying to plunge it real good and see all the black sludge come up. Be careful plunging, ESPECIALLY if you tried drain cleaner recently. Shit can get splashed onto your face and drain cleaner will just melt your eyeball clean off not even to mention the bacteria

can i do this to my sink

umbreon wrote: ↑Sun Mar 19, 2023 3:19 am can i do this to my sink

Yes and there's actually sink tech I can share too


If you have a 2 sink setup like this, the same thing can happen where air just comes in from the other drain. Just plug the sink and plunge the other one. If the drain plug is under a bunch of dishes you can also flood the sink with water and that will give it a little seal too.

UPDATE: Literally the DAY after I make this thread a bathroom sink clogged and plunging it doesn't work. I feel like an absolute fool

it's back to the drawing board with this one :/

i have had to plunge my sink before and my toilet but not the tub. or maybe one time i tried plunging my tub but it didn't do right so i just bought draino and had to dump it down my tub every few weeks because my hair is all falling out and would get into the drain

Poo wrote: ↑Mon Mar 20, 2023 12:42 am i have had to plunge my sink before and my toilet but not the tub. or maybe one time i tried plunging my tub but it didn't do right so i just bought draino and had to dump it down my tub every few weeks because my hair is all falling out and would get into the drain

That is so fucked.

god, the sink which was clogged hasn't been plungable or snakable, and draino has been sitting in it for a couple days now.

edit: I remember seeing "use a wet/dry shop vac to suck the shit out" as an option. that might be worth considering, otherwise we gotta call the landlord.

marty wrote: ↑Wed Mar 22, 2023 11:10 pm god, the sink which was clogged hasn't been plungable or snakable, and draino has been sitting in it for a couple days now.

edit: I remember seeing "use a wet/dry shop vac to suck the shit out" as an option. that might be worth considering, otherwise we gotta call the landlord.

sounds pretrty yucky... is it fixed now

I had to use a toilet auger like this to get the clog partially dislodged. Then I poured a bunch of draino down the pipe.

BTW: For sinks, make sure to plug the little holes when plunging to get a good seal.

marty wrote: ↑Fri Apr 21, 2023 6:25 pm I had to use a toilet auger like this to get the clog partially dislodged. Then I poured a bunch of draino down the pipe.

Marty wins a thread award for successfully unclogging the sink, congratulations! You have been awarded with this badge:


I Plunged The Sink

HOORAY!! im glad marty did it

new problem, water from clogged kitchen sink get's pushed into the dishwasher when plunging.

You can take off the little J-bend piece and see if there's a plug in there. (remember to have a bucket underneath to catch the water.)
The clog was deeper than the J-bend, so I had to plunge it out, but first disconnect the drain hose from the diswasher and plug the hole in the pipe where the dishwasher drain hose connects.

i will show this thread to a plumber /threat