HOW TO SNAKE OUT CLOGGED BATHTUB

If your sink drain is clogged and you already tried to plunge it but it didn’t work out, you will need to go little further and snake out a drain line. This can be a messy job so if you are not skilled in handling the plumbing tools or you simply don’t have time or nerves to deal with this, maybe it is best to call in the professionals. SUPER MARIO PLUMBING will provide you with professional service and unclog your sink in no time.

What is snake and how to use it

Snake is very useful device, commonly used by plumbers to unclog pipes and sinks. Snake comes with the flexible auger. Plumber’s snakes have a coiled metal wire. When you want to unclog pipe you turn a crank to rotate the helix as it moves through the pipe. This way you are enabling the tip of the snake to attach to the clog and spin it away or chop it up. You can get a kind that with its own motor or the one that attaches to a drill but in most cases, you will do just fine with a cheaper – manual snake with 15-20 feet wire length.

Remove the overflow cover and the trip lever

The first step is to remove a cover from the overflow on the top of the tub. Depending on your bathtub, you will need a screwdriver to remove screws first.

Your overflow cover is attached to a trip lever and they should come out together from the overflow pipe.

Snake it out

Take your snake and advance the wire down the overflow.

Push the wire out of the snake till you feel some resistance. When you feel the resistance, it probably means that you had hit P-trap. In case you wonder, P-trap is this U-shaped pipe that is part of your sink as shown on the image below, it is a most likely place to have a clog and you will need to push your snake thru it.

When you hit the P-trap, leave about 5-6 inches of wire exposed and lock the thumbscrew.

Now turn the drum and push steadily down. As you push wire will slowly travel in the overflow and soon you will need to loosen the thumbscrew and draw back so you get another 5 inches of wire exposed. While you draw back to release, more wire from the drum, hold the wire with your other hand because it will come out as you draw if you do not hold it. Repeat this until you feel no resistance you have passed trap and probably unclogged the sink.

Loosen the thumbscrew and draw the wire back into the drum. Use a piece of rag to clean wire as it comes out.

Test and washout

Test it by running a little bit of water into the bath to see does water drains out of the bath, as it should be. Just to be safe, while hot water is running, take your snake once more, put the wire back down and go back and forth a few times to wash out any leftover grease and other materials that formed a clog.

If everything went well your water should drain normally, return the trip lever and overflow cover to its place.