NOT ALL BATHTUB DRAINS ARE ALIKE So yesterday Jan says to me, “The drain in the bathtub is starting to get clogged up. Can you clean it out?” I was feeling very tired from my trip to Oklahoma, so I said to her, “I’m not sure I know how to do that.” She was insistent: “At least try before you say you can’t do it.” So I dutifully went to look the situation over. I knew you can’t clean these clogged drains using products like Drano; you’ve got to get into the drain and pull out the disgusting crud yourself. But how to get the stopper out of the drain? I knew from experience that these bathtub drains can be maddeningly difficult to figure out, so I followed the advice I once read from the psychologist Scott Peck. Rather than rush into one of these unfamiliar handyman situations, patiently survey the situation first, observing the various parts and their relations, and try to figure out how the thing works. I’d never seen a drain like this one. Most bathtubs have a sort of toggle switch that makes the drain stopper open and close. But where the toggle switch would be this tub had just a plate with two screws in it. I figured that was therefore just a potential distraction. Investigating the linen closet beside the tub, I saw that it afforded no access to the back of the tub. So I figured I had to attack the stopper directly to get it out. This tub has a really peculiar stopper. It looks remotely like a rook chesspiece. If you twist it one way, it comes up enough to allow the water to drain out; if you twist it the other way, it settles down into the drain and blocks the water. I couldn’t see any way to get it out. I noticed that there was a little, bitty screw in the side of the stopper, and since I saw nothing else promising, I figured I’d take out that screw and see what happened. A little foresight made me realize that I’d better close the drain first, otherwise I’d take out the screw and with my luck it would roll down the drain and be lost, and my goose would be cooked. So I twisted the stopper to close the drain and after a few tries got the screw out. Bingo, the stopper then lifted off a sort of stem in the middle of the drain! That enabled me to use my screwdriver to pull out all the revolting gunk in the drain. I think it was mainly cat hair because our cats like to romp in the tub (when it’s dry, of course!) and I even pulled out one of Jan’s hair twisties which the cats like to steal and chew on. So now I had simply to put the stopper back onto the stem and be done. I don’t have the dexterity in my hands to manipulate little things like this screw, so I called Jan to screw it in with her dexterous fingers. I then twisted the stopper to open up the drain—and it wouldn’t come up! It was stuck in the closed position! I figured that it must be settled too low on the stem to open the drain. So I loosened the screw again and tried turning the stopper. Then the stopper and the stem both came out of the drain! Oh, no! Now what? Taking the stopper off the stem, I discovered that the stem has a sort of flat, indented space near the top. I figured that the screw is supposed to go there and keep the stopper at the right height on the stem. I saw that the stem was threaded at the bottom end, so I figured it was all right; I must have just unscrewed the stem. So I tightened the screw in the proper position and then put the stopper and stem back in the drain and screwed it into place. Sure enough, the stopper now went up and down on the stem enough to open and close the drain! Success! In the end I realized that I hadn’t needed to unscrew the little, bitty screw after all, but rather the stem. But I had won my wife’s admiration and appreciation, so all is well. It turns out that this ingenious type of stopper makes it really easy to clean the drain—if one only knew it in advance!
Posted on: Sun, 27 Jul 2014 09:02:07 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015