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We recently moved into a new residence with a tub that would drain very slowly, to a point where a regular shower resulted in nearly knee-high water that took ~30 minutes to make its way down the pipes. Applied all the usual troubleshooting - removed the lever drain plug, tried the baking soda & hot water method, snaked the drain as much as we could, used copious amounts of dish soap and plunged it vigorously with the overflow covered to no effect.

Finally we decided to get out our wet/dry vacuum, stick the hose on top of the drain with the cover removed, plug the tub overflow and run the unit in suction mode.

The result was instant - we pulled up nearly half a vacuum container's worth of black sludge, hair, gunk and other nastiness out of the pipes, and after ~5 minutes the tub was draining again perfectly. I was left wondering why this isn't the go-to solution for persistent clogs before the "call a plumber" step.

My question is, can I safely use this method on other blockage-related slow drains around the house (like sinks)? Does it depend on the material of the pipes used for a particular section? Would doing so be likely to damage any seals? It seems too convenient of an approach to forego, but I don't want to cause any long-term damage either (and I'm a bit surprised it's not frequently advertised as something to try). Thanks in advance!

Kibbles
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    I guess it depends what kind of drains you have. Cast iron and oakum, maybe a problem? PVC, doubtful—shouldn't be any seals. Your biggest problem may be cleaning the shop vac. – Huesmann Jun 22 '23 at 12:57
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    It should work if the clog is close to the drain and not in the main drain pipes with the vent. Once you get near a vent, the vac will just pull air instead. – crip659 Jun 22 '23 at 13:10
  • @crip659 Type this up as an answer. – JACK Jun 22 '23 at 13:50
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    There likely aren't any _hazards_ beyond possibly making a mess. You need to have an appropriate wet(/dry) vac and the right size hose to make a good connection. Many people do not have that. Also, you're sucking a mess up out of the pipes and into the house. Most people prefer that all that crud be pushed _down_ the pipe and directly into the sewer system. Depending on which section of plumbing you're vacuuming out you may get some very unpleasant results. – FreeMan Jun 22 '23 at 17:18
  • sounds like a good option if the zip tie thing doesn't work or snake doesn't work. generally the clog is close to the drain and in the p-trap and is just hair and pulling it out with a zip tie device doesn't involve dragging a shopvac around or emptying a shop vac. You can also typically just give the zip tie a rinse afterwards..... I have had one block that I couldn't do even with a snake, didn't think to try a shop vac - next time. – Fresh Codemonger Jun 23 '23 at 02:05

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To add to the other great answers, the best guess as to why the wet/dry shop vac method isn't suggested, is that most people don't "think outside the box." Also, it would not be effective for clogs much further from the drain, and the average person would not have a wet/dry shop vac. BTW, I'm wondering what you did with the black sludge and muck. (I'd like to think it was flushed down the toilet.)

Robii Robin
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