Sunday, January 13, 2013

Never Discount the Preposterous

Being that it's Sunday, I'll do a little bit of a light hearted entry today. I have two daughters. They both have long hair. I like long hair on girls, I think it's cute, so hey, if they like it, I like it, no worries. What I don't like is when you end up with a tub that is plugged because, well, there's a wad of hair in there. You've gone through the normal routine of Drano and other approaches, and I don't own a snake and I don't want to call a plumber. What's a guy to do?

Lifehacker posted something a little while back about using your shop vac as a drain opener. Huh?! Seriously, it works like this:
  • Put some water in the tub so that it's at standing level above the drain.
  • Turn on the shop vac and put it right on the drain.
  • With the seal, let it run back and forth for a few minutes. Add more water and repeat the process.
I will admit, when I read this, I thought it seemed kinda' weird, but hey, when you need the shower and there's standing water, and you've exhausted all other available options, heck, why not?

So I tried it.

And you know what?

IT WORKED!!!

Now, granted, I may be over-enthusiastic, and there may be a problem deeper down the line I'm not aware of, but for a relatively quick fix, don't discount the ideas that might seem ridiculous out of hand. Be wiling to try a few. You may just be surprised at what actually works ;).

1 comment:

Pete Walen said...

Cool. Interesting. Except I'd need to empty my shop vac first - given what is in there most of the time, unclogging the drain with the shop vac would result in a really gross mess... in the shop vac.

Other suggestions - depending on the nature of the drain/trap - a wire hanger? OR - a drain catch - one of theose things that can be inserted in the drain to catch hair - and then be removed to pull the hair out?