Is your sink or tub draining slowly? You may be able to clean it out instead of buying some caustic and dangerous chemical. In a sink the main culprit is Hair caught in the sink stopper arm. Under your sink there is the drain pipe, most people never see the stopper arm behind the pipe, but that arm runs inside the pipe to pivot the stopper up and down. Well that is where most of the hair problem is. You can reach behind the pipe and unscrew the stopper arm. Before you pull it out grab the top of the stopper with your other hand or put in item that won't fall into the pipe under the stopper to make easier to remove. Then remove the stopper arm behind the pipe and pull the stopper out of the sink above. You need to also remove the U trap at the bottom of the pipe coming from the sink. There is a hand tighten threaded ring at each end of the U pipe, put a pan under the pipe to catch any water that WILL come out. Unscrew both rings and remove the U pipe. you can now see from the top of the sink drain to the cabinet bottom (drain pan you put there) unless it is clogged tight with hair. Then all I do is use some old coax TV cable to push or pull the hair out. After doing this re assemble the stopper arm first. Leave the U pipe off in case you need to push up the stopper from the bottom when re installing. Insert the stopper with the bottom part where the stopper loop is aligned perpendicular to the stopper arm. Install the stopper arm with a little practice you need to insert into the stopper arm loop at the bottom of the stopper. Make sure any parts that may have come off when you removed the arm are re installed. Hand tighten the stopper arm retaining ring. When you are done don't turn on the water YET ! ! you still have to re install the U pipe. If you leave the pan under the sink to catch any water then if you do turn on the water it may catch your inadvertent mistake. When everything is back together run the hot water down the drain for about minute to help flush away any debris that may have come loose in the pipe during your work. Wa, La you just unclogged your sink drain. DO NOT put any drain cleaner or any liquid down the drain when the stopper arm or U pipe are off, if you do you WILL have caustic drain cleaner all over the cabinet and maybe the floor. Any questions please post them to this article and I will respond as soon as I can. Thank You,
The Maintenance Crew
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