How do I fix a slow-draining bath?
Clearing the hair and soap blockage in a bath waste, including the pop-up mechanism that traps most of it.
- Difficulty
- beginner
- Time
- 45 min
- Read
- 2 min
- Safety
- caution
Short answer
It is hair bound with soap, usually caught on the pop-up waste mechanism just below the plughole. Remove the plug mechanism, pull the blockage out with a flexible barbed tool, and clear the overflow connection too.
Bath wastes block in a predictable place: right under the plughole, where the pop-up linkage gives hair something to catch on. It is unpleasant and simple, and chemical cleaners rarely shift a hair mat.
Safety
What you'll need
- Flexible barbed drain tool
- Gloves
- Screwdriver
- Bucket
- Old toothbrush (optional)
Step by step
- Remove the plug or pop-up mechanism.Some unscrew, some lift out, and some are released by a screw under the overflow plate.
- Shine a torch down and look — you will usually see the blockage immediately.It is almost always within the first 100mm.
- Feed a flexible barbed drain tool down and pull it back up slowly.The barbs catch the hair mat. Repeat several times; there is usually more than the first pull suggests.
- Unscrew the overflow plate and clear that connection too.The overflow joins the waste just below the plughole and collects its own build-up.
- Clean the pop-up mechanism itself before refitting.It is usually coated in the same soap-and-hair mixture, which is what makes it catch more.
- Flush with a kettle of hot — not boiling — water and a squirt of washing-up liquid.It clears the residual soap film. Boiling water can distort plastic traps.
- If it is still slow, the trap under the bath may need removing.Access is often through a panel at the end of the bath. Bucket underneath first.
- Fit a hair catcher over the plughole.This is the actual solution and costs a couple of pounds.
Tips
- Do it every few months as maintenance rather than waiting for a blockage — it takes two minutes when the bath is draining normally.
- If every fixture in the bathroom is slow at once, the problem is further down the system rather than at the bath.
- A bath that drains slowly and smells usually has decomposing material in the trap rather than a blockage further along.
Common mistakes
- Reaching for chemical drain cleaner first — It rarely shifts a hair mat and makes subsequent manual work hazardous.
- Forgetting the overflow — It joins the waste just below the plughole and collects its own blockage.
- Pouring boiling water into a plastic trap — It can soften and distort the fitting.
Questions people ask
Why does my bath drain slowly but the sink is fine?
The blockage is local to the bath waste — almost always hair caught on the pop-up mechanism just below the plughole. If every fixture is slow, the problem is further down the system.
What is the best tool for a hair blockage?
A flexible plastic barbed drain tool. They cost very little, reach further than fingers, and pull the mat out whole.