How do I get a rubber super bouncy ball out of my tub drain without having to rip the tub out?

Question

The drains in our house don't have covers on them and my son was playing with a super bouncy ball in the bathroom and it managed to get in the drain and it has been stuck there ever since. I've had 2 plumbers come and stick a snake in it to push it out but they had no luck. They told me the way the pipes are in our old house that it's stuck and the only way to get it out is to tear out the tub! I don't have that kind of money! So the drain drains REALLY REALLY SLOW. I was thinking I could find something to dissolve the ball entirely. Any chemists out there who know what would make a rubber superball dissolve that would be okay to put down the drain?

Answer 1

Acids will not work on something like that. The only thing that will work is some kind of organic solvent. I would say either acetone or methylene chloride. These may not work but it is probably your best bet. It would work better if the ball was stuck in a drain trap where one of these solvents would collect and the ball would sit in it. The only problem is that these solvents will eventually end up going through the drain and into the sewage system. This not very good for the environment. If you want to try, I will give the website of a good company to buy these solvents from.

http://www.sigmaaldrich.com/Local/SA_Splash.html

.......and, if your pipes are metal, it won't hurt them.

Answer 2

Get a corkscrew on something long enough to reach it and still able to turn. That's ONLY if it's somewhere stopped! Other than that, try a thin vacuum hose with enough suction to hold it. If that doesn't work, just go under the house and take the pipes apart. You do not have to rip out the tub. And then get some drain covers. They'll save you a fortune in plumbing costs and stress. And just because they mentioned it, DO NOT use Drano or glue! It might dissolve with solvents, but you're asking for problems and glue is just DUMB AS HELL! Just get it out.

Answer 3

I'm no chemist, but I would bet that anything strong enough to desolve a rubber ball would badly damage your pipes. Otherwise, if the thing isn't stuck, jammed, you might try using a Shop Vac (it's one of those vacuums you see on TV that will pick up nails and screws, etc.) and try sucking back out. Beyond that, the laws of ingenuity say that I need to know, is it one of those hard rubber balls as opposed to somethin spongy, how far down the drain is it, can you still see it, or has it gone around a curve? There's probably a way to get it out of there without have to rebuild your house, but the information in your statement doesn't provide quite enough details.

Answer 4

I'd see (this may be totally retarded) if you can't go to like an ace hardware store, get some clear tubing and cover end of it in some kind of high-strength glue (rubber cement?). Maybe you could feed the tube down the drain, stick it to the ball, let it bond over night, and try to pull it out the next morning? (after that, I'd run some drain-o through it incase any of the bonding glue touched a pipe. like I said, may be totally ridiculous, but i bet it's cheaper than pulling out the whole tub?

Answer 5

Don't pour water in the tub and keep the drains dry. Find a metal welding person in your local place. Ask him to burn the rubber ball with the help of the long neck burner, he has.

Answer 6

You might try acetone (same thing that's in nail-polish remover)...that will dissolve many plastics and rubber compounds. I would get another ball of the same type and try it first to see what happens. It may just soften it, but that might be enough to snake it the rest of the way out.

Answer 7

I don't know it sounds like those plumbers are trying to pull a scam... Ripping out the tub? I know there's another way maybe a vaccum pump or something... good luck!!! ^___^

Answer 8

becareful, I would not recommend using any flamable liquids,
Too bad that the plumbers tried to shove the ball down, I was going to recommend taking a long philips screwdriver and srew a long dry-wall nail into the ball and you'd have a way to pull the ball out.

Answer 9

Of course i have a rubber ducky in my bath tub who doesn't

Answer 10

Mieratic acid. After using the acid make sure to flush the drain.