Figuratively and literally, our bathtub drain backed up—and we need your help.
Last week the drain in our tub began to slow, which wasn’t surprising given years of experience with shower drains and three sisters who taught me that hairballs are inevitable. Still, after one post–basement-painting shower the situation went from a minor trickle to a complete stop: water wouldn’t go down at all.
We started with the usual home remedies and simple tools:
- We fished around with our fingers (yes, gross) and pulled out a sizable clump of hair, but it didn’t restore proper drainage.
- We tried plunging, which brought up a few unpleasant discoveries, yet the water level in the tub remained unchanged.
- We deployed our 25-foot drain snake (auger) even though we weren’t optimistic; it didn’t help.
- We boiled water and poured it down the drain—an approach that had worked on our kitchen sink in the past—but after five attempts we’d only added more water to the tub.
- We mixed a half-cup of baking soda with a cup of vinegar, watched the fizzing “drain volcano,” let it sit for five minutes, then flushed with hot water. No change. A second attempt yielded the same disappointing result, just more effervescence and memories of middle-school science projects.
- We tried a $3 Zip-It tool someone recommended online. It came out clean—no gross hairball like the dramatic videos—but also no improvement in drainage.
Hoping for a better option, we spoke with a hardware store expert who recommended a biodegradable enzyme cleaner: Roebic Laboratories Bacterial Drain Cleaner. The instructions said to mix two small capfuls into about 12 ounces of warm water, pour it down, and let it sit overnight. The next morning the 12 ounces were gone, suggesting some slow drainage had occurred, so we felt encouraged—until we turned on the faucet and the tub began filling up again.
After two nights of repeating the enzyme treatment, multiple showers that turned into baths, and the tedious task of bailing water out with a bucket each time, we’re close to calling a professional plumber.
That said, we’d much rather DIY this and beat the clog ourselves. So if you have any tried-and-true solutions—safe, practical methods that actually worked for you—please share them. We’re open to anything reasonable: different mechanical tools, specific enzyme or chemical treatments that are effective and safe for household plumbing, tips for accessing and cleaning the trap or overflow, or step-by-step approaches that helped you remove stubborn buildup. We’ll document what we try and report back so others with the same problem can benefit.
We’re not ready to surrender without a fight. Fingers crossed round six is the charm—please inundate us with your best drain-unclogging advice.
Update: We did it—we finally unclogged the dastardly drain. Woohoo. Read the details on how we fixed it in our follow-up post.