Shop vacuum cleaned my drain!

[Billy_Bob]

As I discussed on another topic, I got some dirt in my bathtub which went into the trap and this has made the water drain slowly. I was wondering how I could get the dirt out of the trap...

Anyway I finally started ripping out walls in my bathroom and made a big mess - got out the shop vac. While I was cleaning up I decided to stick the vac hose on the tub drain... (I first covered the tub vent with drop cloth plastic.)

Slurp!

Then ran a little more water into the drain, then vacuumed again...

Slurp!

Now it drains just fine.

[SuperDaddy]

I moved a toilet from the old bathroom to new one yesterday, and forgot to drain it (dry flush) before disconnecting the old waste line below (transitioned to new 4" pvc, and ripped out the old cast iron). I had a full tank and trap.

I got out the trusty shop vac and voila!!!! Empty terlet!!! Sucked it dry.

[Billy_Bob]

Actually a shop vac would be a good way to get *all* the water out of a toilet tank before working on it. There is always that little bit of water left in the bottom which dribbles onto the floor when removing the fill valve...

And then when working on water pipes and trying to drain out the water before losening that one low connection, a shop vac might just suck all the water out of the pipeline!

Maybe we are on to something here...

[Redwood]

When I'm getting ready to pull a toilet for a blockage that I can't get with an auger I always give the shop vac a chance to suck the obstruction out of the trapway... It has worked on several occaisions.