Please help! I dropped a valuable earring (post style) down my bathtub drain. How do I retrieve it without calling a plumber?

Hi, godschosen4!

I've lost contact lenses a number of times down sink drains and had to take the plumbing apart. What you're dealing with is a bathtub drain. That's something different that's more difficult to deal with as far as retrieving objects.

Is it stuck?

Was the tub full of water and draining when you lost the earring? If it might not have been full and draining, but might have had the water running, did you turn the water off immediately?

Thanks!

I hope the ring will still in the trap, If you can remove the drain cover on bath tub floor, install the hose coming with you vacuum cleaner insert it in whole and start the vacuum cleaner there is a hope that you will get it, if not then you need to call a plumber to get to remove the trap and

Please help! I dropped a valuable earring (post style) down my bathtub drain. How do I retrieve it without calling a plumber?

If you have closed the drain off when the earring went down the drain and not drained the rest of the tub it might still be in the trap, (see image). However, unless the earring is heavy and you drained the tub it might have gone on through. In that case it's lost. Sorry!
To check the trap open up the access panel behind the tub and open the trap up, providing it has compression nuts and isn't glued shut. If it's glued it will have to be sawed out and then glued back again. Good luck and I hope you find your ear ring. Tom

Thanks to Tom for his good image I high lighted wher the ring might be once again if you be able to get a hose connected to your vacuum cleaner and try it from the overflow side may work, good luck.

John

Won't using a vacuum cleaner be dangerous considering it is run by electricity and you're vacuuming water with it?

Thanks for your comment, but you responded to a two years old post, Thanks.

John

Oh my God!! Today is 06/07/12. THANK YOU FOR YOUR POST! I lost a diamond post earring in my tub/shower two days ago. Not wanting to pay a plumber, I saw your post and did it myself! I took the overflow cap off, plugged the drain with a washcloth and I used my shop vac (more power). No luck. Then, about to give up, I plugged the overflow and put the hose of the vacuum on the drain. On the second try, the earring came up!! I put the leg of pantyhose into the vacuum hose to catch the debris (and earring) and that way, I didn't have to sift through the dirt already in the vacuum bag. I am on cloud nine!!

Oh my God!!! Today is 06/07/12. THANK YOU FOR YOUR POST!! I lost a diamond post earring in my tub/shower two days ago. Not wanting to pay a plumber, I saw your post and did it myself!! I took the overflow cap off, plugged the drain with a washcloth and I used my shop vac (more power). No luck. Then, about to give up, I plugged the overflow and put the hose of the vacuum on the drain. On the second try, the earring came up!!!!! I put the leg of pantyhose into the vacuum hose to catch the debris (and earring) and that way, I didn't have to sift through the dirt already in the vacuum bag. I am on cloud nine!!!
And another happy customer chimes in. We're so happy that you had a happy ending. Cheers, Tom

I know this is an old post but buddy, you are a freakin' lifesaver!! Thanks to you, I'm my wife's hero! Cheers!

I hope the ring will still in the trap, If you can remove the drain cover on bath tub floor, install the hose coming with you vacuum cleaner insert it in whole and start the vacuum cleaner there is a hope that you will get it, if not then you need to call a plumber to get to remove the trap and

This guy...

6/12/2013

OMG THIS WORKED too!

My girlfriend just put duct tape over the overflow and the vacuum hose over the regular drain. BOOOM! Found the diamond earring!

Thanks!

Happy to see you all fixed up and we thank you for the update.. Good luck Tom

I found this site via Google... OMG to my surprise a week later after losing my earring down the bath plug hole, out of desperation I thought I would try your vacuum method and it sucked it straight out. So thank you sooooo much everyone your advise was truly AMAZING =)))))))) Michelle

And another happy customer, we are so happy that we can help, good luck.

John

We thank you for the feedback. If you're happy that makes us happy. Cheers, Tom

Thank you so much! One of my 25K earring went down the shower drain and thanks to this post, I recovered my diamond earring! It doesn't matter how old the post is... you never know when you might need all this great info. My husband went in the shower drain with the shop vac and took about 10 minutes of working it's way down the pipe and voilà! I did put a nylon to catch it and it sure did. Thank you so much for all the great info!

25K earring

I think John (afaroo) deserves a pizza.

This has been an amazing post with over 14,000 views, which seems to be by far the most views of any post I can find. People must lose objects down the tub drain rather frequently.

Thanks Hkstroud for your comment.

Best Regards,
John