How often do you unclog drains?

[FakeMountainMan]

I spent my morning attending to a couple of clogged drains in my house. The worst was the shower in my master bath, where my wife's hair likes to collect. But the second was my sink in the bathroom where I shave, and I guess the water doesn't do a good enough job getting the tiny hair and soap scum through the trap. I probably have had to unclog that sink twice in the last 3 years. Do you guys find your shaving to be a nuisance to your plumbing? How bad does it get?

 

[GearNoir]

At the sink where I shave daily with few exceptions, in the 5 years we’ve been at our current place…I believe we’ve never had to clean it out. The only drain that has to be cleaned out once in a while is the shower, due to head hair reasons, then kitchen once in a while for food/grease reasons.

 

[FakeMountainMan]

At the sink where I shave daily with few exceptions, in the 5 years we’ve been at our current place…I believe we’ve never had to clean it out. The only drain that has to be cleaned out once in a while is the shower, due to head hair reasons, then kitchen once in a while for food/grease reasons.

Yeah, I'm really surprised that I've had trouble with that sink clogging. I don't wash down any substantial amounts of hair, if I trim my beard there, I'll do it dry and wipe it all up and throw it in the trash before I shave or anything. Not sure what it's deal is. The water pressure in our house is kind of low, due primarily to the builder installing a lot of low-flow fixtures I think, but our well is also old and probably needs to be overhauled. Just chalk it up to the joys of home ownership I guess.

 

[NurseDave]

In my shaving sink the junk tends to accumulate in the drain itself. So a few times a year I just unscrew the plug thing and take some needle nose pliers to it and that seems to keep everything in shape.

 

[FakeMountainMan]

In my shaving sink the junk tends to accumulate in the drain itself. So a few times a year I just unscrew the plug thing and take some needle nose pliers to it and that seems to keep everything in shape.

My sink has one of those plungers that raises and lowers the stopper, it's a pain to remove it. I stopped at the hardware store and picked up one of those long, flat plastic drain snakes. Ran it up and down a few times and it did the trick pretty well.

 

[NurseDave]

My sink has one of those plungers that raises and lowers the stopper, it's a pain to remove it. I stopped at the hardware store and picked up one of those long, flat plastic drain snakes. Ran it up and down a few times and it did the trick pretty well.

But the actual flat stopped at the top of the plastic rod doesn’t unscrew?

 

[FakeMountainMan]

But the actual flat stopped at the top of the plastic rod doesn’t unscrew?

That would be too easy. I tried just now to make sure I wasn't crazy, and I managed to twist it enough to pop the whole thing out, lol. It's just a one-piece plastic plug. But I gave the drain a good cleaning while I had it out. We went with a manufactured home during Covid in order to get on our land quickly, and while it's mostly nice, they definitely skimp on some things. I think that the primary source of the clog was actually my long beard hairs, probably that fell out while brushing my teeth or something. So maybe the clog is a direct result of my not shaving enough.