Tub drains slowly when full and stopper closed

[cpferris]

Hello! First time visitor and poster to this forum. We bought a new house and was using the bathtub for the first time. We noticed when the tub was full and the stopper closed, there was an audible drain sound.

So I drain the tub, and remove the stopper and adjust it to be longer thinking that maybe that was the issue. When the lever is up, the stopper drops and the tub should hold water. I must have extended the stopper a bit too far, because now the drain lever won't lift all the way up. I figure this is not a big deal for testing if it fixed the drain issue, it should have only impacted the drain rate when the lever is down, because the stopper isn't being lifted high enough.

I fill the tub again and I can still hear the draining sound. But if I push the lever down some, it appears to stop (which doesn't make sense because pushing down would lift the stopper and cause it to drain). I removed and adjusted again, and I still can't make the drain issue go away. I cleaned the stopper too. I don't hear the audible draining sound when the tub water is shallow, but it is still draining because if I come back later the water is gone.

Is it possible for hair or some other obstruction to get caught in the drain where the stopper drops which might keep it from sealing properly? If so, how would you go about getting it out? Anyone have any other ideas?

Thanks!

[jadnashua]

It depends on the type of stopper. And, yes, some hair caught could cause capillary action and drain the tub, but that would normally be quite slow and unlikely to hear it.

Is the stopper all internal, or can you see something move up and down in the tub other than the lever? If it is all internal, it may be a sleeve that gets moved up and down with the lever. It often has an o-ring on it, and changing the height aligns a hole in it with the drain. Adjust it, and it may always have an opening.