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    • #64518
      Unregistered-klang29
      Guest

      My bathtub drain is stuck shut. I have removed the lever and the chain or whatever holds the actual drain is not connected. i have tried using a coat hanger to try to grab it but with no success is there any way to get this fixed without taking the plumbing apart?

    • #284477
      MistressEll
      Participant

      Was this the type of bathtub drain/stopper situation, where you have a hair catcher on the face of the drain, and a lever on the overflow cap, which on its back, has a cotter pin attaching to an adjustable assembly where at the end is a round brass tube which is dropped into the drain from above (via the overflow pipe) to plug the tub, and lifted to allow it to drain?

      If so…first remove the center screw on the hair catcher over the drain opening and carefully remove it (don’t let it fall down the drain), and remove the hair catcher.

      Next, you’ll need a flexible hinged or continuously coiled/bendable snaking type tool to help you reach down the overflow tube and catch the assembly arm.

      Sometimes what works is a very short, narrow drain snake, these usually terminate in a spiral coil designed to twist/drill through clogs, you don’t want to use that coil end to try to retrieve your assembly, but instead, get yourself a piece of wire – a little heavier say than a wire xmas ornament hook, (sometimes a simple drapery hanging hook and a pair of pliers works well to fashion this) and fashion like a fish hook and loop it through and secure it to the end of the coil on the drain snake.

      The total distance from the overflow is usually less than say about 16″ or so (its much less usually), try to catch some part of the assembly and draw it up towards the overflow opening. At some point this will be hinged (usually two eye-loops or a hook end into an eye-loop) so be careful to not force it, carefully angle it up and out, twist slightly as you draw it up.

      If all of the assembly originally came out, and just the brass weight/stopper remains, there is usually a cross in the center of it, and something to hook to within the inner diameter of the stopper. Also snaking some heavy gauge electric grounding wire (solid not stranded) down the actual drain might help to find the bottom edge of the stopper and lift it slightly to help you catch it using the hook on the end of the snake from above overflow opening.

      If you have a different type of assembly, please advise.

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