Unclog a drain with a shop vac :-)

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My great tenant reported a slow draining bathroom drain. I have read about using a shop vac to unclog drains by using the sudden "reverse flow" to pull all the crud out of the drain. I have a powerful shop vac with Goretex filter (impervious to water) and tried it. Worked perfect! I had the drain flowing perfectly in less than 30 seconds time, no disassembling pipes, no chemicals, no drain snakes. The vac pulled about a pint of disgusting, soupy black crud out of the drain in seconds.

There are a lot of Youtube videos on how to do this.

My secret weapon for slow flowing shower drains is the Zip It tool. Looks like barbed wire only it is made of plastic. Slip the barbed part into a clogged shower drain and you will pull out a huge clump of hair. Cost about 4 dollars at most big box stores.

The shop vac trick worked so well I wanted to share it.
 
Gotta try that. Thanks
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Neat idea, but when I had rentals I never cleaned drains. It was in the lease that drain cleaning was the tenants responsibility. Otherwise they would put anything and everything down the drain, because they didn't care if it plugged up.
 
Great idea, but when I first read the title, I was thinking toilet (probably because my kids clog theirs on a daily basis). I was thinking why on earth you'd want to suck out a toilet clog!!
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The shop vac is useful when removing a toilet. You can pull all the water out of the bowl and trap in seconds, which makes the job of setting the toilet aside less messy. Handy for replacing the toilet or changing the wax ring.
 
Another trick to try is to bring in the garden hose. With the nozzle I blast away at the drains. This cures slow drains for me.
 
Originally Posted By: Oldtom
My great tenant reported a slow draining bathroom drain. I have read about using a shop vac to unclog drains by using the sudden "reverse flow" to pull all the crud out of the drain. I have a powerful shop vac with Goretex filter (impervious to water) and tried it. Worked perfect! I had the drain flowing perfectly in less than 30 seconds time, no disassembling pipes, no chemicals, no drain snakes. The vac pulled about a pint of disgusting, soupy black crud out of the drain in seconds.


Originally Posted By: Oldtom

My secret weapon for slow flowing shower drains is the Zip It tool. Looks like barbed wire only it is made of plastic. Slip the barbed part into a clogged shower drain and you will pull out a huge clump of hair. Cost about 4 dollars at most big box stores.


I've seen these for less than $2 some stores.
 
I've done the shop vac trick on our tub on many occasions. A couple of things: I'll remove the filter from the shop vac, so I don't ruin it (it does have a floating ball inside to cut off the suction when it's full). I'll run hot water into the tub until the drain backs up to get a solid pull. I'll hold a wet wash cloth over the overflow (it's hidden under the drain lever), again to increase the pull.

A couple of years ago I got a drain strainer, stainless steel with stainless steel screen, to catch the hair. While I do have to clean it out ~daily (easy clean - use a Q-tip), I very rarely have to use the shop vac trick anymore, maybe once a year.
 
I’ve also used my Ridgid vacuum to suction out my A/C condensate drain. Saved me some big bucks by not having to call the HVAC guy in.
 
Originally Posted By: 28oz
Great idea, but when I first read the title, I was thinking toilet (probably because my kids clog theirs on a daily basis). I was thinking why on earth you'd want to suck out a toilet clog!!
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American Standard Champion 4 for serious "business".
if medium duty, Champion 3

Elongated and the new higher height, of course.....
 
I've used a shop vac a few times to clear a plumbing clog. I just recently freed up a long stretch of PVC drain line from our kitchen sink to the main waste stack. It's about two 20ft sections of almost level pipe before it spills into the main stack. Luckily there's 2 clean outs along the way. Oh lawd was the stink that was blowing out of the shop vac horrendous! Kitchen sink drains fast and furious now.

I recommend taking the filter right out of the shop vac. Drain crud is nasty. Your right on shower and bathroom drains. Shop vac pulls the gunk right out.
 
Originally Posted By: Oldtom
The shop vac is useful when removing a toilet. You can pull all the water out of the bowl and trap in seconds, which makes the job of setting the toilet aside less messy. Handy for replacing the toilet or changing the wax ring.


Yes, I can see that. But that's different than sucking a clog out.
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I use the shop vac on my tub drain about every 3 months to get all the hair my daughter leaves in there. Check the hardware stores there is a device that looks like a plunger head with a round hole in the middle. You stick that on your shop vac and it forms a seal and works great.
 
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Shop-Vac-9193400-Drain-Hero/231672277923?epid=1300655276&hash=item35f0be6ba3:g:pMIAAOSwKwVaXjKI
here it is.
 
Originally Posted By: oilpsi2high
I'm going to have to try this. I've been using a plunger but it keeps re-clogging. Tons of hair/[censored] down there.

Good tip.

If you have women in the house (I have 4) clearing hair clogs is always going to be temporary.
 
https://www.amazon.com/Cobra-Products-30...WC9VDJN5EZRY8FT

Used this at the rental a few weeks ago. I spent hours with a 25 foot drain snake after removing the P trap with no success. Put it all back together and told the tenant that I'll have to address it at a later date, and while at Menards for something else stumbled across this. Less than $10 and 30 seconds later the drain was clean and clear. Now I use it on the toilet in the kid's bathroom almost on a daily basis. Plus it's easy enough to teach a 9 year old to use so he can take care of his own "issues".
 
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