A year ago, I purchased a house that has a septic tank. We've had to have Roto-Rooter come out once to flush the lines because the toilet kept backing up (no problems with the tub). The Roto-Guy told us that we would need to have the tank pumped soon and also add the septic treatment regularly.

We haven't had a problem until recently: the tub takes literally up to 12 hours to drain! The toilet is flushing fine and the bathroom and kitchen sinks are draining well. I used a septic-safe drain opener, but to no avail. I can't afford to pump the septic tank right now. Any other low-cost suggestions or ultimate advice?

You have a wife with long hair? Just under the drain is a cross that keeps large objects out of the drain, it is full of hair. Make a small pick with a hook out of a coathanger and pick the hair out.

Thanks for your reply. I am the wife with long hair :) and try to keep my hair from going down the drain. I looked and felt around the cross--there is no hair or anything else caught at that point. Any other suggestions/advice?

Try this mix, its quite fun actually. Mix 1/2 cup of table salt with 1/2 cup bking soda and dump in the drain. Add a cup of vinegar and allow o sit over night followed by a bucket of very hot water. Yopu can also buy a cheap plastic strap that has small barbs along two sides. Slide this down into the trap and it snags most hair balls.

Does the tub have a lever drain? If so, remove the 2 screws holding it in and the cover with the apparatus and see if that helps. If so, your lever is out of adjustment. I also forgot to ask, how old is the house? Also, I am very much opposed to pumping a septic tank unless you are putting lots of grease in it. If you understand how a self cleaning fish tank works you will understand.

Also did you have the septic cleaned out??

Has anyone checked your drain field for the septic tank

Is there a clean out between the house and septic ( if not you should put one in) if there is open it up and see when you run water does it go straght into septic or is water backing up into the pipe from the septic.

Also does other water back up, washing machine, toilet and so on.
If not, then it is in the pipe at the bath and that needs to be cleaned out

I think we can safely forget about the septic since "The toilet is flushing fine and the bathroom and kitchen sinks are draining well. " It may need some attention but it is not the cause of a 12 hour tub drain. Follow Doug's route to rod it out or my concoction. I am not opposed to pumping a septic tank every 5-10 years depending on how many people live in the home. There is a lot of non-organic stuff going down your drain that will never degrade and slowly builds up a thick layer on the floor of the tank. However, for the moment finish cleaning out the tub trap and drain line.

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Originally Posted by doug238

does the tub have a lever drain? if so, remove the 2 screws holding it in and the cover with the apparatus and see if that helps. if so, your lever is out of adjustment.

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I did this. There was a bit of hair on the metal cylinder. I removed the hair, then put the apparatus back in. The water stopped draining entirely.

Then, I purchased the plastic strip with barbs (ballengerb1's suggestion) and had some trouble getting it completely down the drain (don't know if I was hitting a joint or something hard?). However, the strip came up without anything. Then, I plunged without the lever drain in it. The water... very slowly but finally, went down.

I am now going to try ballengerb1's suggestion of the baking soda/salt/vinegar followed by hot water thing.

But, I thought it strange that the tub stopped draining entirely when I removed the lever drain apparatus. All other sinks, toilet, and washing machine have NO problems draining. It must be in the immediate bathtub drain.

How well did it drain with the lever plate out?

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Originally Posted by doug238

how well did it drain with the lever plate out?

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It stopped draining at all.

I put the lever plate back in. Last night, after plunging it, it started SLOWLY going down. Once it was down, I poured VERY hot water straight down and it drained still slowly. It is still taking HOURS to drain, but may be minimally better.

As you can see from my previous response, I used the plastic ZIP-IT and did not get any thing out with that (hair, etc.).

Is there a chance a cap from a small shampoo bottle went down the drain?

Ok first thing is first, seeing as how there are many soutions to this problem, first off are there trees near your septic tank, if so you may have roots in your lateral lines, the reason this is relavent is because I had the same thing happen to me, tub took nearly a day to drain, due to the water in the septic tank not draining fast enough into your yard, to see if your lateral lines are working properly, check for really green grass, oor in the case of winter a lot of dead grass that extends far, most septic tanks have three to four lateral lines, I had to install a new one, if your lateral lines are malfunctioning, you need to dig them up and replace them, now if its not that bas which we all hope it isn't, buy some draino hair and clog remover, what it does it melt the hair or something I'm not to sure which, what I had to do was put the stuff in there, and than I used a plunger to get the obstruction out, this seemed to work best for me you do not have to drain your septic tank often, because your lateral lines should be draining most of your gray water, the only thing that stays in the septic is toilet paper human waist, greas, etc. I'm not going to go fully into detail the reason that the drain level plug when you took it out and it didn't work could be that the plate that keeps the water in the bathtub when your bathing was down not allowing water to go down, I pulled mine out today just to see why it woudlnt drain for you, and I noticed the wiare attached to the apparatus was to a stopper inside of the drain which doesn't allow water out of your tubthe good thinga about this is, you can keep the water in the tub and wait a while and let the water in the lines go to the septic than pour some solution or something into the drain that sucks water in if you add too much this should directly help the problem but I would have the same results as just letting the water drain out of the tub, only it would take about 50 gallons of water to drain in a 12 hour span as for onl a little bit would take 1 hour at the most