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Took me 4 hours to fix a slow drain that was just a bottle cap stuck in the pipe | Junk Science Watch - Free To Speak

Took me 4 hours to fix a slow drain that was just a bottle cap stuck in the pipe

I spent way too long last weekend dealing with a bathroom sink that kept backing up. Tried all the store bought drain cleaners, then the baking soda and vinegar thing, even bought a cheap snake. Finally pulled the trap off and found a plastic bottle cap wedged in there. Probably my kid dropped it in months ago. Whole fix took 2 minutes once I saw it. Has anyone else spent way too long on something that had a stupid simple cause?

3 comments

3 Comments

dylan_brown302mo ago

Yeah that bottle cap thing is so common it's almost funny. I had a similar thing with my kitchen sink last year, the drain was getting super slow and I tried all the same stuff you did. Pulled the trap off and found a chunk of a broken spatula that must have fallen in there. Like @allen.iris said, once you've been through that you learn to just check the trap first every time now. It's wild how much time we waste on complicated fixes when the answer is literally right there in the bend of the pipe.

jessica7072mo ago

Wait, didn't I read somewhere that something like 90% of household plumbing problems are caused by stuff like that? Not numbers exactly but you know what I mean, just random junk. I helped my dad fix his kitchen sink once and we spent a whole afternoon tearing apart pipes and trying to figure out why it was draining slow. Turns out his cat had batted a bottle cap into the sink and it ended up in there. I was so mad because we could have just checked the trap first. Its always the little things that trip you up and make you feel like a clown afterwards. Makes you wonder how many hours people waste on stuff that's just a simple fix.

allen.iris2mo ago

Oh man, that cat story is hilarious... I've got a buddy who spent three days trying to figure out why his toilet was running constantly. $150 plumber later, turns out his kid dropped a toy car down the back of the tank when he was like four years old. It was just sitting there wedged against the flapper the whole time. Did you end up checking yours after that experience or do you still go all the way and pull everything apart? I feel like once something like that happens to you, you never trust a complicated fix again.