How to unclog a shower drain
Every few months, our shower drain starts to clog up. Water drains a little slower and pools in the bottom of the shower. I have a solution that takes me only a few minutes and works great. Warning: there are some gross drain pictures with hair in them. I want to show you exactly what I see when I go through this process.
Tools Used
What not to do
Do not use Drano or other chemicals to fix this problem. Before I learned how to fix this, chemicals are what my wife defaulted to because it sounds easy. All you have to do is pour something down the drain.
The problem is that it just doesn’t work well, it’s not good for your drain, and there’s no way it’s good for the environment.
The easiest way to do this is to invest in a drain auger.
Removing the drain cap
First, take the drain cap off. Some drain caps have screws holding them in place. Others the whole thing twists off.
My drain cap has no visible screws and does not twist off. At first, I wasn’t sure how to remove it. Turns out, you just pull it off. Grab some needle nose pliers and just pull hard and it’ll pop right off.
Using a drain auger
Now, it’s time to use the drain auger. It’s easier to use than it looks, but it took me a minute to learn the ropes.
First, pull the metal cable out of the auger. Mine has a release that you flip forward or backward where the cable comes out. Open the release and pull out 1 - 2 feet of cable from the auger. Then close the release so that the cable is locked in place.
Next, put the cable in the drain. If you just try to push it down the drain, it won’t go down that far. The trick is to twist the cable. The auger has a handle on top that allows you to rotate the cable. Start spinning the handle and the cable will work its way down. Do not try to push it farther down in the drain. Just rotating the cable will allow it to navigate down.
Finally, pull the cable back up when you feel like you’ve caught something that was blocking the drain. The first time I did this, I had to go down the drain to about 3 - 4 feet to get everything out. Now that I regularly do it, the hair is caught closer to the drain entrance and I only have to go about a foot down.
Finishing up
Clean off the auger and throw the blockage away.
Reinstall the drain cap. For me, I just press the drain cap on hard and it stays in place. You may have a screw or need to twist it on.
Turn on the water and enjoy your properly functioning drain.
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