Spending $7.00 to save $75.00

We were having some more drain problems.

The laundry tub was draining very slowly, so when we were doing laundry it was filling up. Since we don't watch the washer & dryer like a hawk we didn't notice this until we also did a load of dishes at the same time.

The laundry and kitchen sink drain through the same stack, so they conspired to fill and overflow the laundry tub. Luckily we have a floor drain right in that area so there was no damage. The drain was blocked BEFORE the floor drain, other wise we'd have had a bigger problem.

I could have snaked the drain if I had a snake or if I could have gotten the brass access plug off of the stack. So I went with Plan B.

In this case, Plan B was liquid drain cleaner. At $7.00 a bottle it's much cheaper than a plumber. IF it works.

I gave it a couple of tries according to the manufacturer's directions and didn't notice any appreciable changes, it still drained verrrrrrry slowly.

Hoping that the chemicals at least started breaking things up I decided to give it a little force. One of the two tub drains was plugged and a hose was stuck in the other one. A wet towel was used to seal around the hose as well as possible.

After a few seconds of pressure from the hot water heater I could hear things break loose and the water started draining quickly.

I'm not sure if it was the pressure or the chemicals or a combination of the two, but the job is done and I didn't have to call the plumber to snake the drain.

Granted it might not be a bad idea to have somebody come out and scrape the pipes, but at least I don't HAVE to do it now.