Sink Clogged

[William Thompson]

This is a typical problem I am sure. The bathroom sink drains ridiculously slow. It has been neglected for years. It does not help that recently I was sick (the cause of which is an entirely different story) and I did not make it to the toilet one day and projectile vomited a lunch into the sink.

There are many ways I can think of to unclog the sink but I thought I would take a moment now to ask the experts for the latest and greatest method.

 

[Geofd]

Plunger,or electric snake

 

[breplum]

Power snake run by a professional.

 

[Mitchell-DIY-Guy]

I’ve found that the sink tailpiece, the trap and and horizontal pipe before it enters the drain in the wall can get horribly clogged with soap scum, toothpaste gunk, hair etc. after years of use. It’s a few minutes job (though disgusting) to disassemble those pieces, clean and reassemble. If that doesn’t work—yes the snake in the wall by a pro.

 

[amj105]

IMO,follow these steps. 1) Purchase plastic barbed drain snake 2) open drain and remove the lift rod (hold plunger so in does not go down) 3) With drain open put your thumb over lift rod opening and run water for a few seconds wait a few more seconds for water to flow pass lift rod opening 4) Replace lift rod without plunger 5) If you don't have hot water on demand run shower until water is hot. Use a barbed snake to remove blockage run hot water repeat till clear 6) Remove lift rod and replace plunger making sure the rod goes through hole in plunger. hand tighten, fill the sink with hot water and let drain. IMO

 

[William Thompson]

I am shocked at how easy and seemingly miraculous the fix was. I hesitate to post this because even though it happened, it does not change the fact that it was unbelievable. It is unbelievable even to me and it happened to me.
In order to get the stopper out of the drain hole., I pushed and pulled on it thinking there was some sort of metal hook in the pipe that the stopper was attached to. In fact, I remember years ago this was how another stopper worked. The metal hook was a kind of leaver and when you pushed down on the control mechanism (I am sorry but I do not know the plumbers terminologies) I jiggled the stopper side to side for a while before giving up and thinking I would have to make a post here on how to remove it.

But to my dismay, when I turned on the water, there was no clog. Somehow all the debris and food stuff was clogged around the underside of the stopper just enough to prevent the flow of water and jiggling the thing forcefully was enough to make the gunk fall down the pipe such that it would be washed away. .

Well, it is up to you to believe this or not. It does not matter to me either way. It is the truth and the drain is fixed.

 

[Mitchell-DIY-Guy]

Well, it is up to you to believe this or not. It does not matter to me either way. It is the truth and the drain is fixed.

Of course I believe you. I've taken plenty of these apart, and all manner of GUNK gets stuck on these.

I'm a big fan of the new style ones, that come with most lavatory faucets today: they don't have a skewer or any connected pieces to catch this crap; they are push down to seal, push again to unseal, all from the sink itself. Genius...

Many of the older skewer style I've seen also have corroded away. Being all plastic the new ones will not. They are cheap enough when they give you trouble you don't even think about it for a second--REPLACE IT.

 

[amj105]

I am shocked at how easy and seemingly miraculous the fix was. I hesitate to post this because even though it happened, it does not change the fact that it was unbelievable. It is unbelievable even to me and it happened to me.
In order to get the stopper out of the drain hole., I pushed and pulled on it thinking there was some sort of metal hook in the pipe that the stopper was attached to. In fact, I remember years ago this was how another stopper worked. The metal hook was a kind of leaver and when you pushed down on the control mechanism (I am sorry but I do not know the plumbers terminologies) I jiggled the stopper side to side for a while before giving up and thinking I would have to make a post here on how to remove it.

But to my dismay, when I turned on the water, there was no clog. Somehow all the debris and food stuff was clogged around the underside of the stopper just enough to prevent the flow of water and jiggling the thing forcefully was enough to make the gunk fall down the pipe such that it would be washed away. .

Well, it is up to you to believe this or not. It does not matter to me either way. It is the truth and the drain is fixed.

It happens, do yourself a favor and at the least run the water till its hot then fill sink and let it drain when full.

 

[Geofd]

Yeh, you can also buy a plastic tool at hd/Lowe's that you fit in the drain it usually works pretty good or you can get in the practice of removing the pop up rod from the drain and removing the pop up and cleaning the drain that way