How to Clear a Clogged Bathtub Drain

When you walk into your bathroom and turn on the faucet to either take a bath or a shower, all you’re really thinking about is how much you’re looking forward to standing under the warm water and getting clean. That is until you step out of it and realize that it’s taking a lot longer for the water to drain out than it normally does. When this is the case, it’s usually the indication of a clogged bathtub drain.

Fortunately, there are several easy and cost-effective ways to remedy the problem. If you’d like to know what some of them are, here are five that you can try the very next time your drain clogs up.

Use some boiling water. One of the quickest and most effective ways to clear a clogged bathtub drain is to simply pour some boiling water down it. All you need to do is heat up some water inside of small pot. Once it’s boiling hot, pour about half of it down the drain and wait a couple of minutes. Then pour down the rest of it. If you wait five more minutes and then run the faucet, you should see a noticeable difference in how the water flows.

Try a toilet plunger. If you’re standing in front of your bathtub and you look to where your toilet is, there’s a pretty good chance that there is a plunger nearby. And just as your plunger is quite useful when it comes to dislodging debris inside of your toilet, it’s equally as good at doing the same for your bathtub drain. Simply stand in the bathtub, place the plunger over the drain, and apply pressure several times to release the clog.

Invest in a snake. The next time that you’re in a home improvement or hardware store, be sure to pick up a snake. Basically, it’s a spring steel cable that has a spring on one end and a crank on the other. The reason why a lot of people like using the snake to treat bathroom clogs is because it’s designed to go as much as 15-25 feet down into any drain or pipe.

Mix some baking soda and vinegar. If you were to call a company like Northeast Plumbing & Mechanical for another recommendation on how you can clear a clogged bathroom drain, one thing that they might recommend is using some baking soda and vinegar together. By mixing equal parts vinegar and baking soda together, it creates a solution that fizzes. Once you pour it down your drain, it will help to breakdown any of the gunk that’s inside. Just make sure that after using the baking soda and vinegar, you pour some hot water down the drain afterwards – just to make sure all of the debris is gone.

Call a plumber. There are some instances when a clog is so severe that a professional plumber needs to be called. So if after trying all of these things, you still are not able to remove the clog, schedule an appointment with a plumber so that they can inspect the issue for you. For tips on how to find a reputable plumber in your area, visit FindLocal-Plumber.