One of those "Doh" Moments

Our poor tub has a tendency to clog quite easily.  It's very annoying.  I loose a lot of hair while showering for whatever reason and this usually is the culprit, but this tub seems to clog easier than any other we've had.  Anyway, its been slow again and I have been putting off trying to fix it, so when it stopped completely on Saturday, neither of us were too surprised by it.

The problem is, we have a house guest, I took the dog for a really long, sweaty walk, and Andy and I did a lot of cleaning on Saturday.  Three of us were in bad need of showers and we were having a party that night.  I dumped a bunch of baking soda down the drain (thank goodness that stuff sinks) and then poured the last of our vinegar down it and threw a wet towel on top hoping it would be enough to force the suds down to the clog.  No dice.  I decided to straighten out a wire hanger and leave a hook on the end to shove down the drain and try and pull the clog loose.  It stopped about six inches in, like solidly stopped.  Wtf?  I figured the pipe must take a turn right there that the wire just wasn't flexible enough.  So, we went to the store and bought a bottle of gel Drain-o with a zipper thing to shove down the drain and help pull the clog out.  Same problem.  What kind of pipe set up do we have?  Why does the pipe turn six inches after the drain?  No wonder it clogs so easily!  Well, I poured the Drain-o in and walked away.  

I went back in 15 or 20 minutes like the instructions said and turned on the hot water to flush it, and I succeeded in just filling up the tub more.  I walked away again out of frustration.  I went back again in a bit and noticed the water was down a bit.  Okay, so it's draining a tiny bit.  I got the brilliant idea of using the plunger!  That should work right?  Wrong.  We are all getting frustrated at this point and Andy is threatening to just go out and buy a drain auger or call a plumber and it's getting closer and closer to when everyone is to show up.

I sent a text my sister and asked if they had a drain auger.  They do but they aren't home.  Damn.  Hmm okay.  Plumber is too expensive.  I don't want to buy our own auger.  And we now only have a half hour.  Guess it's a good thing everyone coming to the party are close friends.

As we were going to bed, Andy decided to brave it, and take a shower anyway.  He comes to bed, wakes me up, and says, "Hun, guess what?  The valve was closed."  OMG! Duh!

I had cleaned the tub earlier in the day and must have bumped the knob!  It wasn't fully closed which is why it was draining, just over several hours.  At least the Drain-o still did it's job, once he opened the valve it all drained right away!  And no wonder the wire and zipper only went in six inches!

GAH!  lol