General Pipe Cleaners R-25SM Spin Thru Drain Auger with 1/4-Inch by 25-Feet Cable

I moved into an old apartment with a slow-draining tub. I tried all kinds of liquid drain cleaners, including the one that comes with the long, plastic strip that is supposed to fish out hair and clogs -- nothing worked. 10 minutes of working with this tool, though, and now my tub drains just as well as if it were brand new. It easily saved me $80-100 on calling the landlord or a plumber!One small problem, however, is that there are absolutely no instructions included. Not being a plumber myself, I turned to YouTube and found a few very easy to follow tutorials. The basics though are this:1. Run some hot water2. For a tub, remove the overflow cap (where water is supposed to go in to prevent you from over-filling the tub)3. Loosen the screw on this tool that is holding the springy wire in place, then pull out a foot or so of the wire and insert in your tub's overflow hole4. Keep extending the springy wire and inserting it into the tub's overflow drain until you hit something and can't easily continue feeding the wire.5. At that point, tighten the screw so that the springy wire can't move around much, grab onto the handle with one hand and use the other hand to spin the canister around. The springy wire will twist around in your pipes and clear the clog.6. You're not done yet though. Loosen the screw again and continue feeding the wire into the drain hole further, tightening the screw when you hit places that stop you and spinning the canister / drum. I also ran some hot water every once in a while to flush out whatever I cleared up.7. Turn on the hot water and let that run over the springy wire as you pull it back out (to rinse it off). Be sure to let the wire dry out before feeding it back into the canister for storage.Tip: I found sometimes that after spinning the canister around, the wire felt 'stuck' in the drain (I couldn't push it in further or pull it out). So far, every time that's happened, simply spinning the canister in the opposite direction a few turns has freed up the wire.

excellent.. Dont listen to stupid 1 star reviews. This unit is good quality and will get the job done. Be patient and watch a couple youtube vids...Just a couple FYI's- if you go in the drain too deep, it will be a pain in the butt to remove. It will come out, you need to keep pulling (it wont break!). To avoid the snake getting stuck, you need to insert the snake into the drain and twist little by little, remove it, then go a little further, and repeat.FYI 2: If your tub wont drain, despite hard work... try using the same method above in your sink. Yes your sink!! I used the snake in my sink and it drained my tub... weird but it worked! Maybe the pipes are connected? I'm not a plumber so I have no idea but give it a try.FYI 3: im not sure if the snake will hold up against rust in the long term. I suggest you purchase a small bottle of BALLISTOL (AEROSOL VERSION) and spray it on the snake after use. Its a gun lubricant/cleaner, eco friendly and works wonders (dont spray in the bathroom, your wife may not like it). My advice, do not use wd-40 since it contains some water and wont protect against rust over the long term as good as ballistol. The only reason I recommend ballistol is because its non-toxic. Any gun lubricant will do.

I literally received this drain auger tonight and used it right away. I had a major clogged drain in my bathtub. The water would fill up like i had a stopper on the drain. Before i ordered the product, i watched a youtube video on how to use it. It looked pretty simple. I filled the tub to a point where at least the bottom of the tub was covered...maybe a bit more. The water drains super slow. I removed the cover to the overflow which is above the drain. The issue in my situation as you can see from the photo is that there is this bar in the middle. This is not common. Usually there would be no bar. I believe this is the original tub to the house and maybe this is how it was in the past. The screws were so rusted that i couldn't remove the bar. In any case i had to shove the drain auger above the bar to get it in and down the pipe. There are simple instructions included with this product. Please attached photo. It really works if you follow them. In order to get the auger out of the barrel, you have to loosen the screw. See photo with my thumb. I pull out enough of the auger to push it down the pipe easily until it can't go any further. Then i have about 6 inches at the most sticking out of the overflow. At this point you want to tighten the screw. Now you hold onto the handle and turn the knob clockwise while pushing forward on the auger until it goes further down the pipe and you have reached the overflow. Again you don't have to push too too hard but with a little force. Now you loosen the screw again and pull out another 6 inches of auger. Tighten the screw and again while pushing forward you turn the knob clockwise until you get to the overflow. If the auger doesn't move very well, pull out a few inches of the auger from the pipe and try again with turning the knob and pushing forward. You repeat this process until the water drains. It literally took me less than 10 minutes. I was very impressed! Once the clog is cleared, you loosen the screw and slowly pull the auger back into the barrel. It goes back in very easily. As you can see from my last photo, there was A LOT of hair in the pipe. 😊 that is 5 years of accumulation. I also bought the TubShroom hair catcher specifically for bathtub drains which is available on Amazon. It's meant for 1.5 inch diameter pipes. I am going to use that to see how well it will catch future hair.Just FYI...I am a female with some experience in home improvement. But i haven't dealt with plumbing issues.