Air Conditioning, Heating and Plumbing - Advice, Discussion and Tips from ARS®/Rescue Rooter®. Welcome to the ARS/Rescue Rooter Home Connect, your online resource center for information, answers and interactive advice about air conditioning, heating, plumbing and drain maintenance. As part of our commitment to providing exceptional service, we created the ARS/Rescue Rooter Home Connect to be a useful tool with many helpful ways to find what you need.
My tub drain is super slow and by the end of a shower, I'm standing in dirty, soapy water. I've tried plunging it. I've tried liquid clog removers. Nothing works. Is there anything else I can try?
Stan, like it or not, we all lose hair in the shower. That loose hair gradually builds up, clumps together, and eventually, you’ll find yourself with a clogged drain. If the mass isn’t very large, liquid drain cleaners might remove the clog. In your case, it sounds like the problem is beyond that point. You could rent a "drain snake" and attempt to clear the pipe yourself, but I wouldn’t recommend it. Getting the cable down the overflow and through the trap is no easy task, plus you run the risk of getting it stuck or breaking something. In all likelihood, you would waste more time and money trying to fix your clogged shower drain on your own. It's time to call a professional plumber/drain cleaner. Left alone, the problem will just get worse.
What I don't understand is why you can use a drain cleaner and the shower drain will work for awhile, and then it backs up again a few days later.
Drain cleaners will sometimes work to fix a clogged drain -temporarily. Many drain cleaners can be abrasive and may have harsh acids or other chemicals that are not good for the drain pipes, especially if they are metal. These types of drain cleaners will eat away at the blockage (as they may also eat away at the drain pipe) and sometimes only partial blockage will pass - which is why it will back up again a few days later. Professionals use drain cleaning cables that will scrape the sides of the pipe where the build up is occurring, allowing the blockage to pass through the drain pipe. After the drain has been properly cabled, we recommend proper drain maintenance to prevent this from happening again. This includes installing a drain strainer (if you don't already have one) to catch hair and other items before they can clog the drain. You should also have an ongoing, preventative maintenance program with a drain safe product, like our Rescue Rooter DrainRight® Drain Maintainer, to help remove any build-up from the walls of the pipes and preventing clogs before they form.
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