*Snaking A Tub Drain*
By: Jaden
30 April 2007

The Rubicon isn’t just about “survivalism”, it’s also about being self sufficient and self reliant. Simply knowing how to snake out a plugged drain can save you $50 bux that a plumber would charge, plus you won’t have a stranger in your house.

Read this Super Drain-O article. The tub drain opened up and worked great for about a week, then started slowing down again, there was OBVIOUSLY something wrong. I brought home the “baby” snake from work; it’s about 16’ long and is “da stuff” for small drains. The snake costs about $25.00. There are different styles of snakes for different purposes. Don’t go rent a snake, just buy it, then you have it incase you ever need it again.

Ok, this one is just a spring with an auger at the tip of it.

I have already snaked the drain

Notice the auger tip. It’s made for a clockwise rotation. Stick it down the hole as far as it goes, when it fetches up, tighten the thumbscrew and start spinning. It’ll eat its way through about anything. I hauled a big gob of hair out of the trap tonight. It gets all twisted up in the auger, but isn’t too hard to remove. You would be surprised at just how much hair goes down the drain every time the shower is used…especially for longhaired people. Pet hair does a pretty good job too.

You only want a few inches of snake between the handle & the drain. If you have too much snake out, you won’t have much force when turning the drum.

Simple concept, tighten thumb screw, hold pistol grip, spin blue drum clockwise while slightly pushing the snake down the drain. When the handle reaches the tub, loosen the screw and feed some more. I was able to shove the snake most of the way, didn’t have to use the auger much. I just kept pushing in a few inches and pulling it back, then advance some more, this would help knock any crap off the sides of the pipe. I ran the snake right out to the end.

I cleared the hair out and ran the snake in again. I hit against something and managed to bring up a child’s bathtub crayon holder. Gee, I wonder how that got there?

It’s made with plastic

A solid object will snag EVERY freakin’ piece of hair that goes down the drain and start a big gob growing. The acid will clear it up until more hair starts getting stuck.

Once the drain was clear, I ran some water…no problem. Then I gave it a charge of "Super Drain-O" just because.

Now I guess it’s safe to assume “problem solved”.

How many people reading this would have called a plumber for this?
Jaden



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