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A slow bathroom sink: the ten-minute fix

Bathroom sinks slow down because of hair and soap around the pop-up stopper, a few inches down. Here is how the stopper comes out, and how to clean it so the drain runs like new.

Plumbing tips · · 3 minute read

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Of all the clogs in a house, the bathroom sink is the most predictable. Hair wraps around the stopper mechanism just below the drain, soap and toothpaste bind it together, and within a few months the sink drains at a crawl. The fix is to get the stopper out and clear what is around it. No chemicals, and no need to touch the pipes.

Which stopper do you have?

  • Lift-and-turn or push-button: the stopper unscrews by hand from the drain, or lifts out after a quarter turn.
  • Pop-up with a lever behind the faucet: the stopper is held by a horizontal rod that enters the drain pipe under the sink. This is the common type in older Bergen County bathrooms, and the one that collects the most hair.

Removing a pop-up stopper

  1. Clear the cabinet under the sink and put a towel down.
  2. Find the horizontal rod entering the back of the drain pipe, held by a plastic or metal nut. Unscrew the nut by hand, or with pliers if it is stiff, and pull the rod back out of the pipe. A little water may drip out.
  3. Lift the stopper out of the sink from above.
  4. Before putting it back, note how the rod's tip sits in the slot or the hole at the bottom of the stopper.

Cleaning

  1. Pull the hair and grime off the stopper. Wear gloves; it is not pleasant.
  2. Push a plastic drain strip down the drain, twist, and pull it out. Repeat until it comes up clean. The strip reaches the hair that has gone past the stopper.
  3. Run hot water for a minute. If it drains freely, you are done.
  4. If it is still slow, the clog is in the trap, the U-bend under the sink. Put a bucket under it, unscrew the two large nuts by hand, empty the trap and clean it, and put it back with the washers the right way round.

Putting it back together

  1. Drop the stopper into the drain, oriented so that the hole or slot at the bottom faces the back of the sink.
  2. Slide the rod back into the pipe so that its tip passes through the slot, and tighten the nut by hand.
  3. Work the lever behind the faucet. The stopper should rise and fall. If it does not, the rod has missed the slot; pull it back and try again.
  4. If the stopper does not open high enough or close fully, adjust the linkage: loosen the small screw on the clip where the vertical rod meets the horizontal one, move it a hole, and tighten.

Keeping it clear

Pull the stopper and clean it every couple of months, before it slows down, and run hot water for thirty seconds after brushing teeth. That is the whole secret. A monthly enzyme cleaner helps; a chemical drain cleaner does not, and it makes a mess of the next cleaning.

When to call a plumber

  • The trap is corroded and will not come apart
  • The drain pipe leaks where it enters the wall
  • The sink is still slow with the stopper out and the trap clean, which means the blockage is in the wall
  • Several drains are slow at once

Find a licensed plumber near your town.

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