Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Need help with clogged bathtub drain

Just went though the same thing with my bathtub.... it started draining slower and slower and slower. Pour this down. Wait a few hours, then grab a bucket and fill the bucket with water from the shower hot water line until the water is HOT- then pull the bucket out and let the hot water go down the train and let it go for a while.

Bust out the torch, oakum and lead pot and get after it!

Probably a mess of coagulated soap and
hair conditioner like ^ ^ ^ others have said

Plumber showed me that one time after
my niece had lived in the house a while.
Auger full of a big glob of what looked
like dirty crisco. Regular bleach down the
drain is what he recommended. Definitely
NOT pressure he said AFTER I split a
section of pipe with one of those hose
end dog knots . A lot of the newer houses
here get clogs from the 45 minute showers
that newcomers take.
The city had to clean out the main in front
of the house one time when the border
jumpers across the way had small anchor
babies, and flushed diapers and wipes
regularly

Do it the easy way, hire a plumber. Eases the aggravation factor, worth the money. JMHO

Best advice so far lol

Quitter!

Get this exact product.
Pour a couple or 3 cups down at night
Let it sit till morning
Fill a 5 gallon pail with HOT water from somewhere else in The house as to not let any cold water down that drain.
Dump the 5 gallons down all at once and you’ll be good to go

Liquid Fire.

Caustic based.

Google it.


Make sure the windows are open.

Smoke will be boiling out.

It’ll fix it or eat the pipes up. 😂

Pfffft.

That's an easy one.

Go through the access or go through the roof.

Might have to put a torch to that access.

I worked for a number of years doing apartment maintenance. I never found a clogged bathtub that would not succumb to a power snake.

That being said, a sulphuric acid-based cleaner like Liquid Fire is a lot easier and can be very effective on hair/soap clogs.

The only real and lasting fix is to replace the ancient cast iron pipes with PVC.

Finally did that in our house this past summer after years of dealing with slow and stopped up drains, buying chemical drain clearer products, plungers, snakes, and calling Roto Router. Replaced all bathroom and kitchen cast iron sewer lines with PVC out to where they connected to outside clean-out plug. Old cast iron pipe had rusted from the inside out so bad in spots that just tapping on it could break through it.

Last time mine did that ( approx same age) I used compressed air with success. Mine had a piece of plastic going down to old iron pipe. I cut a piece of 1/4 plywood to fit inside slip nut & drilled small hole in middle. Put the air through that and it came loose.

That might work before the vent but it appears his is below it.

cut it, fernco it, forget it

Had a slow bathtub just like you, couldn’t get it clear for. For Love nor money.

In frustration trying to get a better look or angle for the snake, I unscrewed the plate on the tub, can’t recall if they’re above or below the spigot, it’s 4 a.m. here not gonna go back in the house to look.

After removing screws the plate didn’t just drop off, took some twisting & turning.

End result looked like I was delivering a baby Chewbacca as a wad of hair, soap etc. came out attached to the plate.

It was one of those, wish I’d tried this earlier gigs Bathtub drained just fine after wwe brought baby chewy into this world

Don’t know if you’ll have the same fortune, but I haven’t seen it mentioned & ime it’s def worth a try cause it’s so easy.


Never thought it was gonna be our solution, but it was in that instance


Wishing similar good fortune for you

Are you running the snake down the overflow or the drain? If you are getting snake to go in a couple of feet and then it stops, you are hitting the back of the sanitary tee. If that’s the case you need a clean out in the vent pipe.

Not many plumbers left that could install lead and oakum cast iron pipe. I did bunches of projects with it before they went to no hub cast iron. Those were the days of real plumbers.

wifey has long hair, that always the issue with mine.

When daughters were in their teens and still living at home that skin lotion stuff they used at tanning beds was really bad about leaving a hard to clean off oily grease-like buildup on tubs and drains.

Yep, long hair gets tangled up in all that stopper linkage crap. A piece of bailing wire with a short hook on it, keep running it in and give it a twist and pull out. You'll get all of it and it will drain again.