How To Fix Bathtub Drain Lever
When a tub won t hold water the two potential causes are easily repaired.
How to fix bathtub drain lever. Slotted screwdriver used to remove the trip lever plate flexible retriever if required used to fish out brass plunger. When the plunger is down it presses down on the stopper lever and forces the stopper up into the open position. The problem arises when you have a bathtub drain that refuses to close. Old style mechanisms like the one shown in our illustration above and newer spring loaded pop ups.
The lever on your bathtub operates the hidden stopper in the drain. The drain in your bathtub closes to allow you to hold water in the tub such as for a bath or washing clothes. This is usually due to the spring mechanism behind the faceplate. Some drains have stoppers that are spring loaded operated by a push of the toe or by hand while others use a trip lever mounted on the bathtub s overflow plate.
If you have not used the lever in a while you might find that it is stuck. Tools for how to fix a bathtub drain stopper. When the stopper in your lever style bathtub drain won t pop up anymore because the linkage is damaged or clogged replace it with a much simpler lift and turn style tub drain. Often a simple cleaning resolves the issue.
It s easy to remove a tub stopper to check it for mechanical problems or blockage. A bathtub with a trip lever drain stopper works using an internal plunger that moves up and down inside the waste and overflow tube to pivot a drain stopper in the drain opening. Some people refer to the system of adjustable rods that connects the drain stopper of a bathtub to the trip lever as the guts of the bathtub. When the plunger is pulled up it levers the drain stopper down into the closed position.
Repairing the stuck bathtub drain lever requires removing the entire mechanism from the tub. An old style bathtub pop up is raised or lowered with a lever at the tub s overflow plate. Bathtub drain assemblies are mysterious things. Any bathtub drain stopper that doesn t do its job is an annoying inconvenience.
You can fix the two main type of bathtub drains the plug type and the lift and turn type yourself. You ll encounter a couple of different types of bathtub pop ups. The linkage in a lever style drain attracts dirt and hair like a magnet and must be cleaned regularly in order to keep the drain working properly. How to remove a bathtub pop up drain stopper.