My bathtub won't drain and is always filled with standing water. How do I fix it?

Question

Every time I take a shower my bathtub fills with water up to my ankles and drains really slowly. For awhile, I would use Drano and the drain would clear for a little. But lately it has gotten even worse. I took a shower yesterday at 2pm. It is now 24 hours later and the water is still there. I have tried using Drano but it isn't working anymore. The plunger doesn't seem to work either. What can I do on my own before having to call someone? (I live in an apartment and my landlord is notoriously slow at getting things fixed, so I'd like to be able to fix it on my own if possible). Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

Go to Home Depot or Costco and buy a bottle of extra strength Draino. You could also buy a 'snake' they sell those at HD. It's just a thick but flexible wire or plastic that you stick in the drain and then pull out. It should unclog all the stuff that's in there.

Answer 2

I had this problem and I accidently stumbled on a great way to unclog it. I had tried all the other stuff liquid plumber coat hanger what have you but the water just would not go down. So after it stood there for a day or two I decided to try to bail out the water so I could get a good look inside the drain. I tried using a pan and I was getting no where. Suddenly I remembered my wet-vac which I bought a while ago because sometimes my basement floods. Well as soon as I vacuumed up the standing water I still had trouble peering into the drain. So I thought to myself hey if it can suck up all the water outside the drain why not?
I put the full mouth of my hose over the drain and this shop-vac I have is pretty powerful it also doubles as my leaf blower I heard my vac make to be sucks from my drain. after that I checked the nasty gooey blob of hair and other gunk that got sucked up it was pretty gross but needless to say I ran my water afterwards and I have never seen it go down my drain faster in the whole five years I have owned this house so try a powerful wet shop vac!! In a weird way I think letting the standing water sit in my tub for a few days really helped to. I think it made everything wet and softer for my vac to pull it out easier! Good luck!!

Answer 3

here is an idea which may help. alot of times the shower drain gets cloged with hair, at least it does in my house with all my long haired daughters, what you can do is take a coat hanger and put a small 1/4" j hook on the end ot it. Then sick it into the drain and spin it around, usually you will pull out a soap filled hair ball, you may even be able to see the hair hanging from the drain strainer. this may help. if you have a tub drain that has the built in stopper that you push down to stop the water, unscrew that then do the coat hanger trick

Answer 4

Bathtub Won T Drain

Answer 5

I saw the coolest thing at Home Depot yesterday,that's perfect for this problem.It's a long flexible plastic ruler type object with pointy plastic barbs on it.It retails for 1.99,so it's economical too.I think it will work better than a hanger for 2 reasons...First,it's plastic and won't damage pipes;second,the barbs can cut thru the hair clog and soap residue instead of cramming it further down the line.and by yanking it up and out,the clog will come out in a matter of seconds.Also,while at the store, by a sink strainer to prevent this from happening in the future.

Answer 6

Take the drain cover off and clear it out. It's probably a hair clog. Use a wire hanger or something to pull the stuff out, or put gloves on and dig it out. Calling a plumber would be expensive and he would just do the same thing I told you. You can also go to wal-mart and buy a pipe snake.

Answer 7

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[1] there is a screw on the drain plug, loosen the screw and pull the plug off there may be hair in the drain that can be easily removed or [2] if you are using a plunger you have to cover the overflow plate with a rag or the force from the plunger will not be directed down the drain which is probably why that is not working for you. most likely it hair caught just below the drain plug.

Answer 8

Try to manually clear the drain with a undone wire hanger or some other slim tool. Try using a bacterial drain opener that will literally eat away most biodegradable material like hair and oil after you clear out what you can manually. This will have to set about 24 hours before it can be flushed. I forget the name of it, but it's the almost like the stuff that you use to maintain a septic system.

Answer 9

How do I fix trip drain ...so water can drain. It's just standing ..itvwanr release water

Answer 10

Try to remove the hair or whatever is blocking the drain........a metal coat hanger or a drain snake should work for that. If you want to try the drain cleaner, get either the gel type or the type that has two compounds that mix together in the drain (foaming, i think).....those types of cleaners work best with showers because the caustics will actually cling to whatever is clogging the drain and then eat away at it slowly.