How To Get An Object Out Of The Bathtub Drain

Where I live in Texas, we even so get 6 weeks a year of freezing temperatures. During those weeks my mother never fails to call and remind me to let my bathtub faucet drip so the drain doesn't freeze. This yr, nosotros had a tremendous water ice tempest. Frozen tub drains were everywhere, plus burst drainpipes.

A bathtub drain can freeze if there's standing water in the trap or anywhere in the line. Continuing water tin happen if there'due south a clog of debris or minerals causing h2o to pool. A bathtub drain can also freeze if there'due south a slow baste from the faucet or leak in insulation that allows current of air to hit the pipage.

In this post, I'll explore why a bathtub drain can freeze, how you tin distinguish between a frozen drain and a chock-full drain, and how yous can fix a frozen bathtub drain without ruining it. If your tub is besides sometime and you lot're fix to replace information technology, click the link beneath to shop the best bathtubs for 2023.

Why a Bathtub Drain Might Cease Working

Then your bathtub bleed stopped working, and maybe it's really common cold outside. Y'all decided the drain is probably frozen. Information technology's a expert guess but how can y'all be sure?

It'south possible your bleed stopped working for other reasons. Before you can care for the problem, yous need to know what it is and if the drain is frozen, where exactly is the ice?

Hairball in Trap or Frozen Bathtub Bleed?

It's not uncommon to have a hairball clog your drain, especially if you lot have a long-haired person using the tub.

Gels and Conditioners

And it's not just the pilus itself which tin go into the pipage and clog information technology. It's the products that many long-haired girls and women similar to utilize to keep their locks shiny and gorgeous. (It'due south worth information technology, though!)

But did y'all know some gels and conditioners volition expand in the cold? So if you add cold weather to the product plus the pilus, you've got enough to clog the drain.

Slowly Draining Water

Suspect a hairball rather than a frozen bathtub drain if yous're getting some h2o to drain, but it's just going out of the bathtub slowly.  The reason is that the water passing down the pipe would likely warm whatever frozen mass in the pipe, and since yous are able to bleed some water, there's probably non a frozen mass.

Endeavour Tools or The Green Gobbler

If this is the case, remove the drain plate. Employ a flashlight to peer into the drain. If you lot tin see the hairball, use a flat-nosed pliers to remove it. Nevertheless, if the hairball is non visible, endeavor a drain auger or drain zipper.

A drain auger is a cablevision that yous ship down the drain so bring back up in a twisting motion to clear any blocks. (If yous have a drain snake, a bleed auger is the same affair only made for a smaller drain like a sink rather than a bathtub. The cable used in a drain auger is a bit thicker.)

A zipper is a long plastic tool with angled barbs on it. You stick it down the bleed and information technology pulls up the muck.

Or you can try a product similar the Green Gobbler, which dissolves pilus, soap and grease in pipes past using sodium hydroxide. It's less toxic—and can be more effective—than old standbys like Drano.

Mineral Deposits in Pipes or Frozen Bathtub Drain?

If your pipes run horizontally, they are prone to collect mineral deposits of calcium, potassium or magnesium.

Normally, this happens if you have hard water running through the pipes to your fixtures. Wait for hard white buildup on your toilet and tub as evidence. If yous suspect a mineral buildup in your pipes, you can endeavor pouring vinegar through the pipes and leaving information technology in that location for 24 hours.

However, if the deposit is substantial, y'all'll demand a different solution. In that instance, you lot may have to get a h2o softener or replace your metal pipes with plastic pipes that are resistant to mineral deposits.

Yes, It'south a Frozen Bathtub Drain!

If you lot've ruled out the other possibilities and you're confident that y'all but have a frozen bathtub drain, and so there are some DIY solutions that can salve you the cost of a plumber.

The caveat here is that these solutions will simply work if the frozen mass isn't as well far downwards the pipage from the tub.

Bleed and Overflow

Allow'due south take a 2d and talk virtually the anatomy of your bathtub drain. At the lesser of the bathtub is the drain. It's covered by a "drain cover." Yous might flip a switch to make information technology open up and close, or you might step on information technology to create suction and so pull it upward, in order to bleed water.

On the side of the tub, underneath the spout is what'southward called the "overflow pipe." This is what sucks out water from the tub when the waterline gets too high. The overflow pipe protects the bathwater from overflowing onto the flooring.

P-Trap

The overflow piping runs down the back of your bathtub and meets upwards with the drainpipe that is sucking water out from the bottom of your tub. The drainpipe runs nigh a foot before information technology loops around in the shape of a letter "p."

The loop of the pipage is called a P-Trap. This loop tin forbid sewer gases from entering your dwelling. Information technology's also a identify where a pipe is likely to freeze or get chock-full, since the loop of the P always contains water.

If the freeze has happened in the overflow piping or drainpipe before the P-trap, you may have success trying some DIY options to melt the ice causing the blockage. Nonetheless, if the trouble is further down the pipeline, you may need to call a professional. But you might besides try these simple solutions first.

How Did Y'all Cause the Bathroom Bleed to Freeze?

Not to brand you lot feel guilty, but it's possible you did or didn't practise something important during particularly cold conditions that caused the problem. By identifying your actions that are to arraign, we'll help you avoid making the same mistake in the future.

So here is what y'all demand to enquire yourself:

1. Did you plough off the water earlier a freeze, without letting any h2o already in the pipes drain out? If yes, that could go out a puddle standing h2o in the pipes vulnerable to becoming an ice ball.
2. Do you decline the heat so much to save money that the house is frigid, but you're toasty warm nether the covers? This plan tin can backfire, since a burst pipe will cost you more than what yous save past turning down the heat.
3. Exercise your pipes run through a poorly insulated attic or uninsulated crawl space. Pipes are vulnerable to freezing when they're hit by cold air–fifty-fifty on a tiny part of the piping.

The fact of the thing is that water expands. Even a little bit in the pipe during a freeze can have a truly plush impact if it causes a pipe to burst. According to fixr.com, in the Usa, repairing a burst piping costs an average of $500. And that doesn't include fixing any water harm that resulted from the leak or flood.

A clue that yous take a frozen bathtub drain and not a hairball downwardly there in the pipe can too exist that the water is pooling up around your feet when you run the bathtub. But it's non draining at all.

How to Immediately Fix a Frozen Bathtub Bleed

There are 2 DIY methods that y'all can employ to fix a frozen bathtub drain. We'll start with the easiest and work our way up:

A Nontoxic Recipe to Fix the Frozen Bathtub Bleed

When I was younger, I used to brand mini-volcanoes in the backyard out of white vinegar, baking soda and water. Well, you're going to brand a niggling volcano erupt inside your drain.

1. Pour ½ cup of dry baking soda down the drain
2. Dissolve 1 cup of tabular array common salt in 2 gallons of humid water
3. Cascade 1 cup of white vinegar down the bathtub drain. Now you lot've created the mini-volcano that should break up any ice, and so long as the blockage is between the tub bleed and the P-trap and not farther out in the piping.
4. At present pour the saltwater solution downwards the drain to melt any chunks of water ice.

Warning: You don't want to substitute whatsoever unknown chemicals in this recipe considering you could cause a chemical reaction that not only bursts your pipe, only also flies upwardly through the drain and hits your face.

Warming the Pipe

To unfreeze the drainpipe, try warming it up. Only outset this warning.

Alarm: Obviously electricity and water are a dangerous combination. Be conscientious and never use an open flame to try to warm your pipes.

H ot Air, Hot Water Bottle or Heat Record

Try warming the piping past removing the stopper and flooding the pipe with hot air. How? Use a hairdryer and shoot the air straight into the drain.

If you are lucky enough to have an admission panel, you tin can effort to blow dry out the side of the pipe in that location or fifty-fifty warm the pipage by wrapping it with a hot water bottle.

Yous can also try wrapping a metallic piping with estrus record.

Alert: Since heat record is electrical, exist sure information technology's not going to come up in contact with water from a leak. Notation that heat record tin can damage a plastic pipe.

Access Panel

Sometimes your bathtub has an Access Panel. It looks like a little cabinet on the side of your bathtub that allows a plumber to more easily admission pipes without needing to dig into existing walls or flooring.

You'll more than readily notice an access panel on a newer bathtub, a drop-in bathtub or a jacuzzi tub. And you're less likely to see one on an older bathtub or an apse tub. (If y'all're not sure what tub type you lot have, check out this post on bathtubber.com. If you need to contact a plumber to help with the drain, this is helpful information to chronicle.)

Warm the Vent Piping

You might likewise effort to warm the vent pipage (besides chosen a vent stack). This is the piping that leads out of the business firm. It's purpose is to supply your plumbing fixtures with fresh air. It will remove any odorous or toxic air from your home.

In order for your bathtub to drain, the vent pipe needs to exist funneling fresh air into the bleed system. However, if the vent piping is frozen, then it can't do it's task and your bleed could get stuck.

If you lot're really handy (and not afraid of heights), go into your attic and run into if the vent pipe is frozen. You lot can warm that up using the same method you lot would that I suggested to warm the drain.

What If Your Bathtub Drain Is Still Frozen?

If your bleed is still frozen you can call a plumber. According to homeadvisor.com, wait to pay $42-$200 per hour, depending on where you live.

The plumber might become into your crawl space, and volition look for places where your pipes might exist exposed to wind. In a worst-case scenario, the plumber may need to get into the plumbing wall by breaking into your drywall, flooring or ceiling.

Prevent Your Tub Drain From Freezing Again

Once y'all go through the trouble of trying to melt a frozen bathtub drain, y'all'll be more willing to take preventative measures. You lot do want to ward off the problem from recurring in the future, right?

So what can you do in cold atmospheric condition?

• Keep the inside temperature above 65 degrees Fahrenheit.
• Open cabinets with pipes and bathroom doors to circulate the air.
• In apprehension of a freeze, turn off the water lines and be sure to bleed the water notwithstanding in the pipes .
• Audit the water lines that run to your bathroom and the drainpipe and vent stack. If any of these run through uninsulated attics or crawl spaces, consider adding more than insulation.
• Some experts say to leave a deadening drip from the cold tap to prevent freezing.

No Demand to Ruin Your Bathtub Drain

Fifty-fifty if your bathtub bleed froze, in that location's no demand to ruin information technology. Simply remove the stopper, if you lot take one, and try the DIY techniques higher up. If you take a drain basket covering the piping, you don't need to remove it at all before using the mini-volcano or hairdryer techniques.

One time you melt the water ice cake in your bathtub drain, y'all'll be able to hop right into a steamy bath. All your worries volition instantly melt away. On a freezing common cold 24-hour interval, there's nada amend!

Source: https://bathtubber.com/how-to-fix-a-frozen-bathtub-drain/

Share this post