Handyman Shares Neat Technique To Unclog Slow-Draining Tub: 'It Actually Works!'

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One could be forgiven for skipping the YouTube comments on a video that promises a quick fix for a seemingly intractable problem. So when YouTuber Jeff Lindborg (@Monkeyboy68Mr) posted a video about clearing a tub drain clog with a shop vacuum, he probably expected the comments to be clogged with negativity, but his tip was so genuinely useful that a bunch of people took the time to thank him instead. Imagine that.

So, what was this paradigm-reversing revelation? His notion was to use a vacuum to remove a clog, but the stroke of genius was realizing that if sucking doesn't work, try the opposite: Blow the clog away. So he snaked the drain, which dredged up a little hair and residue, but still left the drain slow. But the snaking step is important, he said, to first loosen the clog. He removed the cover from the tub's overflow and plugged it with a small cloth in a plastic bag. To make his Craftsman 3.5 HP shop vac's hose fit snugly in the tub drain, he cut the tip off a shop vac concentrator nozzle to match the tub drain. He reversed the shop vac's flow direction so that it blows (like when you use a shop vac as a leaf blower) and used the force of the air to blow the clog through. It's best to use a wet/dry Shop-Vac, and note that this trick won't work if the clog is too deep, since you'll just end up blowing air into a vent or toilet just as you would blow air out the tub overflow if it were left unplugged.

In some close-knit YouTube communities, commenters act like people who know each other, while videos meant for a broad general audience can attract dyspeptic snark. But people seem to have seen enough drains clogged and backing up into the bathtub to know a good thing like Jeff Lindborg's clog-busting trick when they see it, and they let Lindborg know they were thrilled. "This worked incredibly fast and I'm incredibly grateful that you took the time to make this video," wrote @jjai471 incredulously. "I plunged a hundred times, I tried snaking the drain and the overflow and got disgusting hair clogs out of both but it was still backed up," said @mskim1214. "I tried the shop vac on suction and still nothing. Then I found your video and it worked." One commenter went so far as to buy a wet/dry vacuum for the task, which was cheaper than a typical plumber visit.

Some commenters, perhaps uncomfortable with undiluted positivity, resorted to indirectly criticizing other YouTube creators, as @mandymoore5774 did twice: "[I love] that there's no ridiculous music in the background playing making it impossible to hear you," @mandymoore5774 wrote, adding, "I can't tell you how much your video vs basically all others is exceptional." Even the single complainer was polite. "Blowing did help somewhat, but didn't do the full job as you did in this video," @guitarman3968 said. "I guess I'm calling a plumber tomorrow."

The community was not only positive, but positively helpful, making suggestions like running hot water first and using the same process with suction to recover items from the drain. Self-doxxer @LaTashiaReedusPhD_2010_OSU said that it helped to alternate between running the vacuum on suction and blowing. (This also works on toilet clogs. Underwater, push all of the air out of your plunger, then vigorously push and pull to exert force in both directions.)

@podcast_smitty couldn't get his overflow cover unscrewed, so he just held a rag over it, which worked. And, of course, there's the all-American solution to the drain cover problem: "I used duct tape to seal the overflow drain hole," said @bit-tuber8126. "The first strip ran horizontally to cover the screw holes. Then used [two] more strips to seal the top and bottom hole, being sure to have lots of overlap everywhere." Of course, now he probably needs a professional of some sort to remove the duct tape residue.

There are commercially available products that work on the same basic premise as Jeff Lindborg's hack by blowing compressed air from a manual pump or a carbon dioxide cartridge through the drain line. They're usually designed for toilets or A/C condensate drain lines, but some models claim to help with sink and tub drains, like the Olpchee kinetic air drain blaster pump (currently $62.99 at Amazon). And if you're worried about finding the right concentrator nozzle for your vacuum, consider the Shop-Vac universal tool adapter ($11.29), which is useful in all manner of applications from CNC dust collection to pond pumps to drain blasting.