overflow/stopper

Let me begin with the fact that I am not handy. There. I said it.

I believe the stopper (flip lever style) mechanism in my tub is stuck so that the water drains very slowly. Since no one in my house takes baths, can I remove the entire stopper mechnism and replace the faceplate? I ask because that seems a lot easier than trying to figure out the manufacturer of the mechanism and replacing it.

If we want to take a bath that badly, there's always the good old $1.29 rubber stopper Thanks for your help.

Many of the lever activated drains use a tub that gets lifted by the lever. When it is down, it closes off the actual drain hole. When it is up, it is above the drain hole. Sometimes the adjustment gets loose, and it never uncovers the hole completely. Sometimes, gunk gets caught in it. In either case, you can usually take off the cover and pull it out. If you then clean things off, you can probably put it back and all will be well again, ready to use if you want to. It may be that the stopper has nothing to do with the slow tub draining. By pulling this out, you can access the drain with a snake and clean it out. That probably would fix things.

While you have that stopper flipper off, which probably goes via the overflow, you might want to run a snake of some kind down that overflow line into and through the trap. Those stopper linkages are great collectors of hair and other junk like disposable razors cartridges, etc, etc, etc.

Even a thin wire like they use on those clothes hangers with the cardboard bar will often go in there. Put a little hook on the end to snag the hair. The wire is thin enough that you can straighten it out with force if it gets caught.

Then for good measure, run it through the drain opening. It will not go down the trap but may get something that was caught in the stopper linkage.