My shower drain is clogged and I can't get a plumber here until Wednesday. I'll need to shower long before then. What works amongst the retail clog removers?
My shower drain is clogged and I can't get a plumber here until Wednesday. I'll need to shower long before then. What works amongst the retail clog removers?
As far as chemicals I have usually had luck with drano max gel.
Agree with the Drano max gel. I've found that the cheaper generic cleaners don't work very well. Price seems to matter, IME.
Yeah, I have good luck with the Drano Max as well, or barring that, I fall back on the Liquid Plumr in the gold bottle.
GET A BIG BOTTLE AND USE IT ALL. My tub is the slowest drain in the house. It has a weird configuration for the trap and if I use half a bottle as directed, it is not enough volume to reach the area I need to reach.
The best drain cleaner is a coat hanger with a hook bent on the end. You want to physically remove the obstruction, not attack it with caustic solution. And there is something disgustingly satisfying about dragging that nasty slimy soapy hairball out of the drain. The dog whimpers, the cat hides behind the sofa, the wife screams. Yeah, it can be that scary.
I have never had any luck with any liquid cleaners. 25 years ago I bought a snake for less money than a big bottle of cleaner and I still have it and it still works. It has unclogged dozens of drains.
I'll third the snake. The hand operated Rigid one from the big orange store is 30 bucks or, if you have a Ryobi system, a powered auger for 70.
Mine has paid for itself several times over now.
Zip-strips or Zip-it from Home Depot is what I usually use. Cheap plastic and at $2 each you can throw out after 1 use (they usually last 3-5 times max). Looks like they now carry Brasscraft plastic drain snake now, but basically same thing. Much better to remove the hair instead of dumping chemicals down the drain. IMO, using stuff like Drain-o is the equivalent of dumping fuel line cleaner in the tank instead of just replacing the clogged fuel filter.
In reply to stroker :
I'm a remove the p trap kinda guy but I'm lazy tonight I'm going to try a little Drano Max
Drain cleaner is pretty caustic. If you do try it and it doesn't work, be sure to tell the plumber when he comes that it's in the pipe so he can take precautions when he starts rootering it out. He won't be happy if it gets on him.
I've had good luck with boiling a large pot of water and pouring it in the drain. You might have to do it a couple of times. The problem is , as I see it, that the soap scum makes a gelatinous mess and the hot water will soften/ dissolve it.
Liquid cleaners suck because they have to cater to the fact that people might have PVC, ABS, cast iron, or stone/tile somewhere in their drain lines. There is one called Drain Heat that works (I think) the best of all of them, but it still sucks.
If its just the shower and not the bathroom sink or toilet, you won't have to go far. The $3 solution is to get a "drain zipper." It's just a 3' piece of flexible plastic with teeth on it. Shove it down in, the teeth grab the wad of hair and pull it out. The slightly more expensive option is a $15 snake that will get you 25'.
The free option is to take the cheapest, leftover coat hanger you have and cut it and bend a J-hook in the end. I have also used some 10-ga primary wire (more flexible) and some 3/8" ID poly tubing. The tubing I just used a box cutter to cut some light "snags" in the end.
In a shower, usually the clog is immediately past what you can see. Hair goes down the drain and gets caught in the strainer. Then more hair gets tangled up in it and it "hangs" from the strainer just out of sight. If that's the case, you can use a pencil with some of those teeth cut in it. Ever sharpen a pencil with a box knife? Do that, but don't cut the shavings off. Just dig into the wood and leave little hooks of wood hanging out.
Stick the pencil down the drain and point the tip toward the direction the drain turns. Start spinning the pencil. Chances are, those teeth will catch a few hairs and pull a monster chunk of hair with it.
Pure NaOH, "Red Devil" is one brand, but read the label. Put a tablespoon down the drain, add a cup of water or so, let it sit. Come back and flush with water, then fill the tub/sink with water, open drain hit it with a plunger. That's what I do.
I'm sure you have this in mind but remember that if you are on a septic system that some of the chemical cleaners can cause the little microbes in the tank to die a horrible death and they won't eat up the solids anymore. You will need to put in some more of them after using the cleaners.
When I was a teen, I worked as a stock boy at the local grocers. One task every night was to mop the floors. We had one of those large plastic mop sinks in the store room that a lot of stuff went down the drain that shouldn't have. Teen boys, idle hands, etc... Anyway, we would pour a can of straight lye in the drain to clear it, man the p trap and drain pipe, all metal, would get hot.
So I would not use lye drain cleaner now, I have one of those snakes and also use the zipper tool. Wife and daughter have long hair so I am quite good at clearing hair clogs.
Progress report. I went to the basement and looked at the drain plumbing for the tub. It has what I believe is called a top hat trap. I believe the green corrosion os from drain cleaner I've added in the past. If you look just above where the corroded pipe feeds into the trap, you can see a pipe at the top of the trap exiting to the right. If you follow that pipe (which is the actual path of the drain) it goes about 8", turns 90 degrees downward then 90 degrees horizontal. There was no way a snake was going to get in there. As it turns out, the metal pipe transitions to PVC slightly further downstream (notice the hose clamp) and there's a rubber connection. I pulled the connection out of the way and was able to extract about 18" of hair. I reconnected and the drain now runs free. No more drain cleaner, based on the green corrosion...
I keep a little plunger in the upstairs bath--for shower and sink only. It has never let me down.
It looks like this but is purple.
Baking Soda and white vinegar will clean a slow drain.
In reply to stroker :
18" eh? That's impressive. 
If it's a common problem (like at my house) I'd go get a tubshroom or showershroom to cut down on the hair going down the drain.
I don't have to snake the drain weekly anymore. So win.
There's also topside ones.
Dr. Hess (Forum Supporter) said:Pure NaOH, "Red Devil" is one brand, but read the label. Put a tablespoon down the drain, add a cup of water or so, let it sit. Come back and flush with water, then fill the tub/sink with water, open drain hit it with a plunger. That's what I do.
Liquid fire. E36 M3 is scary. But it works.
The best drain cleaner if you dont have old metal pipes is a shop vac, just gotta plug the overflow with a wet towel, then use another wet towel to make a seal between the vaccum and drain. Works great will also work on new metal pipes, but old corroded ones may leak after trying this.
Also works for retrieving things sent down the drain by accident.
1988RedT2 said:The best drain cleaner is a coat hanger with a hook bent on the end. You want to physically remove the obstruction, not attack it with caustic solution. And there is something disgustingly satisfying about dragging that nasty slimy soapy hairball out of the drain. The dog whimpers, the cat hides behind the sofa, the wife screams. Yeah, it can be that scary.
I clog drains with hair. I bought this stuff that came sealed in a Ziploc bag. Might have been acid based.
Pour the stuff in, stay away from the fuming vapors, run the water on top, wait a bit. After 2 minutes I heard a pop and the sink drained.
Never had drain cleaner work audibly before...
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