He Cleared a Standing Water Shower Clog in 5 Minutes for Under $5 Using Only a Shop Vac, Duct Tape and a Piece of PVC Pipe

Standing in an inch of gray water while you shower is nobody’s idea of a good morning. Before you reach for a snake, a bottle of harsh drain cleaner or the plumber’s phone number, a home fixer who goes by That Fix It Guy says you may already own the tool that clears it, a shop vac.

Shower drain clog being cleared with a shop vac, next to a modern tiled shower

In a YouTube video, he shows how to clear a shower drain full of standing water in about 5 minutes for under $5. The only things he adds to the wet/dry vac are a few feet of PVC pipe and some duct tape, and no snake is needed.

Why Shower Clogs Are So Stubborn

The trick works because of how a shower drain is built. The drain runs straight down from the strainer and then hits the P-trap, the U-shaped bend that holds back sewer gas. Most of the hair, soap, scum and gunk that cause trouble collect right around that trap.

A shower also has something a sink or tub does not. A sink or tub has an overflow opening, which lets air leak in when you try to pull the clog with suction. A shower has no overflow, so there is nowhere for the suction to escape. That is why a shop vac can pull so hard on a shower drain.

What You Need

His supply list is short and mostly lives in the garage:

A wet/dry shop vac
A larger towel and a smaller towel or rag
Duct tape, which he calls every do-it-yourselfer’s favorite
Disposable gloves
A 2 1/2-foot piece of 1-inch PVC pipe

The PVC pipe is the only item most people need to buy, and it is what keeps the price under $5.

Safety First

Before touching anything, he has a warning. If you have put any kind of chemical drain cleaner down the drain, or if the standing water might contain it, you do not want that on your skin. If any of it gets into the shop vac, flush it down the toilet, or dispose of it safely somewhere outside. Wear the gloves, and keep the larger towel handy for the spills that come with any drain job.

One more common-sense note for anyone nervous about mixing electricity and water: a wet/dry vac is built to pick up liquid, but it is still plugged into the wall. Keep the cord and the plug up off the wet floor, and wipe up spills as you go.

Setting Up the Shop Vac

Start by removing the paper filter from the vac. He says it will be ruined if you run water through it. Make sure the canister is empty before you begin.

Next, slide the PVC pipe into the end of the hose and wrap it well with duct tape. Any air leak costs you suction, so do not be stingy with the tape. If the pipe is loose in the hose, add more tape. If it does not fit at all, you will need an adapter. He says to use the 1-inch pipe for a clogged drain like the one in his video, and an inch and a half if your 2-inch drain is clear. When the pipe is on right, he says, there is a ton of suction.

Clearing the Drain

Remove the drain cover, which usually takes two screws, though some simply lift out. Pull out the hair you can see by hand, which he calls the easy stuff. In his case, there was some gnarly buildup around the edges, and he could see the ABS pipe the whole way down.

Then put the vac pipe to the drain and let the suction do the job. Once it was clear, he said the drain was running like a boss. Put the cover back on, taking care with the screws, which are very small.

To test, lay the smaller rag over the drain, run the water, and let it fill at least an inch before letting it drain. That is how you want your shower to drain, with no puddle left around your feet. He points to his other video on clearing a clogged bathtub for anyone with that problem.

Keeping It From Coming Back

A little prevention goes a long way in a shower, since hair and soap scum are the main troublemakers. A cheap mesh hair catcher over the drain stops much of it before it reaches the trap, and pulling out what it collects every week or so takes seconds. Running hot water down the drain after a shower can help carry soap residue along.

It also pays to skip the chemical cleaners when you can. As the video warns, standing water full of harsh chemicals is hard on your skin, and a mechanical fix like suction avoids the problem entirely. If you ever do use a cleaner, tell anyone else in the house so nobody reaches into the water unprotected.

Finally, know when a drain problem is bigger than a shower. If several drains in the house back up at the same time, or you hear gurgling from other fixtures, the clog may be farther down the line. At that point, a plumber is worth the call. For a single slow shower, though, a shop vac, a length of pipe and a roll of tape may be all you need.

Willow and Hearth