What causes a bathtub to become backed up when a water heater is replaced?

Question

My house was flooded the other day and the handyman had to replace my water heater. My bathtub was fine before anything happened. But after the replacement, it started to back up. I tried using Drano-type products, but it doesn't work.

Answer 1

It's likely that the two are unrelated. The water heater is on the water supply side, the clogged tub is on the drain side. Unless the plumber (handyman) used massive amounts of flux in sweating the pipes together that ultimately made its' way to your tub drain, thus clogging it, there is no way that replacing a water heater should then cause a clogged drain.
Most tub drain problems are due to hair. When I kept my hair long, I used a rubber strainer-type cover over the drain hole to filter out the hair, of which there was a lot.
I've had luck removing hair plugs by inserting a wire hanger into the tub drain. Simply straighten out the hanger and bend a 1/2 inch hook into the end. Insert the hook end into the drain, twist a little and pull up. Or you may have a trap under the tub that is accessible with a cleanout hole. In that case, open it up and clean it out.

Answer 2

The problem is either in the trap on the toilet or in the pipe that runs to the septic or sewer line. If the sinks nearby drain, it is in the trap and unrelated to the waterheater. You can use a variety of things to break it up. It is probably hair or soap residue. Most soaps are made of lard and lye and the lard can gell in the trap and get mixed with hair.

Go to a home repair store or a good hardware store and see what they have. Look at the ingredients - they might just be a hyper concentrated Clorox type, a sulphuric acid type (generally rather concentrated), or a concentrated lye. Follow the instructions very carefully because the acid and the lye can eat you up.

Lye is Potassium Hydroxide, but they may have Sodium Hydroxide, either will work.

If you can get the stopped out, you can also pour the recommended amount of drano into the pipe and it will break it up. You might have to try several treatments of any of the above.

Otherwise, you need a plumbing snake, which is a long coiled wire or soldid piece of metal. Get one sized to go into the drain pipe - they come in all widths and lengths. It shouldhave a way to crank it into the hole, tearing out the goop in the trap and then everything will open up and the goop will go down the pipe to the sewer or septic. To do this, you may have to take the stainless steel ring out of the bath drain and that will probably require a special little wrench which can be had at the hardware or home store.

If that does not work there is a major stoppage in the larger drain pipe into which the trap fits. If that is the case, there is an inspection attachment that can be loosened and removed and you can push a larger and longer snake into that.

You can do it, but if all of this scares you off, call the plumber back. If he replaced just the heater, he did not come close to the drainage pipes - that ain't his fault.

Answer 3

Damn,no one but maybe dz knows anything close to the correct answer. The two are unrelated but coincidental. Draino does not work, ever.

Fill the tub with 2" of water, using a plunger and sealing up the overflow pipe with a wet rag, You should be able to dislodge a clog anywhere between the tub drain and the vent tee. Make sure you allow no air to escape from the overflow or the plunging will be useless, like what you've been doing so far.

Personally, if water flows slowly through the drain, I would use sulphuric acid sold as a drain cleaner. Any hardware or plumbing supply will carry it. Doubt Home Depot does because of liability. Use this only if there is some flow even if very slow. Let all the water drain from tub, remove both screw that holds strainer screen and screen from drain, and pour in as much acid as the drain can take at one time. WEAR GOGGLES, don't get any on the porcelain or chromed fittings. This will work on hair, soap and grease, dissolving all that gunk easily. FOLLOW DIRECTIONS. IT WORKS.

Answer 4

omg there could be many reasons why this happened yet sooo many odd answers. First off water heater replacement should have NOTHING to do with you tub drain, unless your heater is IN the tub! cold water goes into the heater and hot comes out. nothing from the heater would possibly connect to your tub.
your tub drains usually into your basement into the main stack which goes out to your sewer. unless your plumbing is very home made, yours is this way. Being said, you simply have a coincidence and your tub is clogged.. If the stack was clogged all your sinks would be clogged also

Answer 5

Call a PLUMBER not a handyman. He needs to snake the pipes. If you use Drano-type products in older plumbing, it can make a mess of things. Trust only your plumber.

Answer 6

Call your plumber back. He clogged the new connections with sodder after he fitted the pipes back together. Same thing happened to my husband and his friend when they put a new hot water tank in at his friend's house. He'll have to cut out the pipe and refit it.