A Welder in the Office

Clogged Drain Giving You A Problem? Learn The Proper Use Of A Plunger

23 January 2015

Gregory Walker

While sometimes a clogged drain requires a plumber to clear you should always attempt to fix the problem yourself with a plunger. However, if you are using it wrong, you may compact the debris and make the clog harder to remove. If you keep pushing and plunging and are not getting any results at all, read these tips to be sure you are plunging the most effective way.

Pull, Don't Push

The biggest mistake people make when trying to clear a clog in a toilet or bathtub is to push down hard and fast on the plunger. They are trying to push the whole clog through the pipes. In most cases this is not going to work. Before you can push a clog down the drain, you need to loosen it and break it up a bit.

1. Make sure there is enough water in the toilet or tub to completely cover the rubber part of the plunger, if not, add more water.
2. Place the plunger over the drain hole so that it can seal around the edges completely.
3. Gently push down to compact the water, creating a vacuum
4. Give a quick, hard jerk up on the plunger to suck the clog back up.
5. Repeat as necessary, you should begin to see dirty water coming back in with each jerk.
6. Once you see pieces of debris coming back into the standing water, make an attempt to push the clog out by thrusting down hard with the plunger.
7. Maintain a vacuum.
8. Keep pulling back hard to make it easier to push the clog through with the downward thrusts.

The idea is to use the vacuum to pull more of the clogged debris away so the pushing action can force everything down the drain.

Block Any Open Drains

Sometimes, such as in the case of a two or three-well sink, there are more open drains between the one you are plunging and the clog. This keeps you from forming a vacuum in the pipes. If you notice that water is spraying up out of a second well, the bathtub, or even rushing back into the toilet when you push on the plunger, you need to block it.

In a multi-well sink, simply put the stopper in the other drains and hold it in place as you plunge. If you cannot reach the other drain, have someone else hold the stopper in place. If a toilet is preventing the vacuum, use the plunger on the toilet and put the stopper in the other drain.

If proper plunging of the drain does not work, it is time to consider calling a plumber for drain services. It could be a bigger problem than you think. Trying to fix a big problem on your own may cause damage to the pipes that would require the plumber anyway.

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