Removing an old tub drain can be a daunting task.
My drain came new with the house in 1998.
After about 9 years and a lot of hard water
the little cross bars inside the drain
that supported the toe touch stopper,
disintegrated!
Leaving us with just a hole.
To solve the problem easily,
I bought a rubber stopper.
That worked fairly well for years, except
when it would slightly tilt while the water
was running letting the water empty out.
Also the dry rot and cracks were
starting to be a problem.
I had to face facts, it was time to stop
lollygagging and replace the drain
with a new one once and for all.
After a few searches on the internet
I found several how-to sights.
Some a little over complicated
like sawing notches into the metal
in order to unscrew it....
to very simple, like using a claw hammer
to grab and twist the drain...
(My claw hammer wasn't shaped right.)
Another suggestion was to buy an expensive
drain key to twist the drain out.
I headed off to Home Depot to check out
my options and came across this...
A drain removal tool!
Only three steps to a removed drain!
I figured it couldn't hurt.
Step one, lightly hammer
that sucker into the hole.
Done!
Step two suggests using a ratchet and a
really large extension to twist the drain loose...
I used my monkey wrench.
Applying steady pressure, It started to give.
It was tough going there for a minute,
and it nearly felt like I was going to break the
pipe under the tub.
Then suddenly it was loose and started to move!
I breathed a sigh of relief.
Step three, remove!
That was easy!
I cleaned up the hole and wiped away
the hard old plumber's putty.
It wasn't easy removing the tool from the
old drain, but a few whacks on the other side
with the hammer popped it
right out.
Now it was time to install the new drain.
I chose the "twist and close" design
due to the stress the toe touch one
put on the old cross bars, plus the toe touch
mechanism doesn't seem to hold up well.
This one just twists sightly and drops
down to plug the drain, then just lift and
twist to lock it into the open position.
Not a bit of stress on the cross bars.
A bit of plumber's tape or
"Thread Seal Tape"
around the threads to keep it watertight.
Plus another drain removal tool
that uses the cross bars
to tighten down the new drain.
I used my monkey wrench again.
JUST DON'T OVER TIGHTEN!
Then I twisted on the new plug support
and lowered the plug.
Ran some water and let it sit.
No water leakage...
A complete success!
And it looks all new and shiny too!
I wonder how long this one will
last with our hard water?
Only time will tell...
Thanks for stopping by
and happy fixing!