An example of the worst possible scenario - MY scenario.
Welcome to hell.
It's been 3 days since the drain became fully clogged. Typically you can just pull out the hair, but this time was different. There's no hair or anything else visible to extract from the drain hole. Whatever it is, it's 3 inches back and maybe one inch down.
This morning was day 3 of hell. I was crunched for time before work but determined to take a shower without Liquid Plumr all over my feet and the chemicals in my lungs. I was kneeling outside of the tub, afraid to look the drain hole in the eye at this point. Full-blown cognitive dissonance had manifested itself in my psyche, and in the same sheepish way I might open up a letter that I know contains a collection notice, I avoided looking down, wishing the problem would have solved itself by now.
Were it so easy. Easy?!? Nothing about this has been easy! It has been three days without a shower, two days and 2 jugs of Liquid Plumr. I had already filled the tub over and over with hot water for the 2 days to try and flush it. Plunge plunge plunge, wait 12 hours to drain from full every time, plunge, plunge.. without ANY improvement whatsoever.
Then the snakes arrived from Amazon last night. I thought to myself, "yes! My problems are solved first thing tomorrow! At last!" It has great reviews right? Well. Was I ever mistaken. Those reviews are from peeps with easy drains. With easy access drain holes, I'm sure this thing goes 30" deep and grabs a hold of everything on the way out no prob. Not my drain hellhole.
I began to have an ongoing conversation with it. And the Liquid plumr. And the drain snake. And every other inanimate object in sight. "You can erode away all of my steel but not whatever is clogging the drain??!" I said to the Liquid Plumr. Amongst other things.
You see, I was frustrated because, on top of a million and one problems and not having enough time to deal with this, I had just knelt down harrrrd atop a piece of kitty litter which pierced through the entire limb making a 10" exit wound in back. After intensive surgery and a lower-leg transplant, I was back at it. I had already been here several times in the last 2 days, and this morning screwing around to no avail with this super cheap slippery wet sharp & painful drain snake. It's like holding onto a blackberry briar. Seriously. It is not quite as sharp, but it still hurts, plenty - that is, IF your drain hole originates from hell like mine does.
I finally reached where I felt like I was getting into the 2nd bend (I now believe I was running into the actual clog itself, right inside of that bend) and had just started to think with great hope - "I think I can get it to go in further now!", suddenly a splotch of Liquid Plumr line-drives its way directly into my freakin eyeball! I had to drop everything and flush it out immediately otherwise risk going blind in one eye. And I had to wash my hands first because they have the stuff on them which takes forever to wash off! So at this point my eye was tightly shut and half my face contorted into something unrecognizable.
Inside the tub was diluted Liquid Plumr that, even at only 2 inches, still takes 6 hours to drain. So I used a whole jumbo roll of paper towels to sop it up. "Get in my eye NOW you fricken bleeepin bleeep of a bleep!"
Sigh... "I can do this. I HAVE TO DO THIS DANG-IT! I want to take a shower! I will never let this happen again.... however it even happened? How did this happen?! I'll find out..." Meanwhile, the kitty kitty is like, "meow? Meowwww? Meowwwwwwww?? Meowww meoww meoww meow!!! Meow!" And I'm like "MEOW!?!?!? MEOW MEOW MEOW MEOW MEOW!!" So, he left pretty fast. I'll make it up to him by snuggling his face and giving him treats tonight and playing. And brushing him. And petting him sufficiently. Until he decides he is finished with me. He is spoiled. I am HIS pet as far as he's concerned. Thank God he isn't as big as a panther. I'm 100% certain he would torture me to death or just rip my head off. After getting treats and forcing me to pet him, of course.
Anyway! After completing a thorough kitty litter inspection, I found myself back in hell once again, trembling in fear, peering feebly through my finger slits, tears streaming down my face as my sanity slipped away. And where the heck did I put my safety glasses 6 months ago!? Once again I began to look back down out of the corner of my one bloodshot eye. Down, further down, just a little further, there! On my right side . . .dun dun DUNNNNN . . . the drain hole menacingly comes back into view, breaking through my cognitive dissonance like animated Batman chasing after his parent's murderers on a potent dose of no-fear gas.
Measuring in on the top surface at a staggering 2" inches across, featuring sharp bloody teeth and bubbly chemical breath, my arch enemy laughed at me, gurgling and spewing boiling poisonous droplets in every direction and burning holes in my arms.
A full inch below the surface, but of course, is a fixed, thick, steel crossbar, which creates four iiiiity bity tiny triangular-ish holes to work with. Each hole is roughly a quarter of an inch wide, which is barely enough to slide the snake into. Can it get worse than that? YES! IT SURE CAN! Directly below the freaking crossbar not even one full freaking inch down, this freaking pipe does a 90 degree angle straight freaking back. "Whyyyyyyyyy?" my lamentations echoing out of the tub and down the hallway. "Why? Why would they do this? It is pure foolishness.. It can't get worse than that, I mean, surely, you might ask . . . right??
Yes, it can. It can get way worse. This freaking pipe then TAPERS DOWN TO 1/2 OF AN INCH AND THEN 3" LATER, IT BENDS AGAIN - 90 DEGREES STRAIGHT DOWN.
The clog is in that 90 degree downward 1/2" pipe bend I'm sure of it.
I thought that snipping the crossbar out with my steel snips might help, but it didn't help at all. How will I explain THAT to mgmt and still get my deposit when I move out? Sadly, the fact that the pipe double elbows and immediately tapers to 3/4" makes it impossible for this cheap drain snake to be effective at all. It isn't strong enough to get through these old, ultra thin, bending pipes. I destroyed 2 of the snakes inside 15 minutes trying to get them to go in further, but they won't. They just bend to heck, turning the orange plastic white where it bends. Idk what to do.
I filled the tub with hot water again and went to work. It's still there . . . waiting for me . . . My only options are to pay for a snake that isn't super cheap and won't immediately bend and become unusable, OR hire a plumber.
Moral of the story: This product works well for drains that are uncomplicated and on the newer side bc newer drains should be much wider and not all 90 degree bendy. If the drain goes straight down, or bends but it's a big pipe, of course this will work. Anything will work in that easy situation. Also if there is corrosion in your pipes, this snake has sharp machines edges that easily sticks into the rusty corrosion and that stops it from moving forward. Bit there are brushes included, so good to take advantage of scrubbing your plumbing pipes. They should be scrubbed on occasion anyway. If you can even get to them unlike mine.
Wow I wrote a ton. Sorry. Hope it helps somebody! Please pray for me! LOL.
Good luck with your drain. 3 stars because I am not mean. Like I said I'm sure it would work in an uncomplicated situation. It just doesn't work at all in MY situation.
Update: Later that night
I decided to test my theory about where the blockage was and use the brush to clean the walls for a coat hanger to try and smash the blockage through. Well, I ended up smashing it through with the brushy snake thing that's meant for cleaning. The brush snake lost its white tip down the drain but the sound of the remaining water rushing down the drain was like music to my ears. "I DID IT!!" I exclaimed. Shower time.
Since the coat hanger would have shoved the blockage through as easily as a bent butter knife, I am not upping my stars. The product is cheap plastic. I wish I had thought of getting it manufactured and selling probably 100+ per month. It's a genius idea! And probably ran a total of $5,000 to market on Amazon. I'm impressed. Next step, mfg my own less-cheap product and get rich before "we will own nothing and be happy about it by 2030" rolls around.
If this experience taught me anything, it is that I am definitely going to invest into my product ideas that are a lot better than this one and get rich.
Thanks for reading! If you made it this far, WOW. You really need a hobby! Haha. OR you are experiencing clogged drain hole hell. My thoughts are with you. Again, good luck.
Ty
Angelica Buono
Doug M.