Can't close my bathtub drain.

December 2, 2008 5:37 PM

I am really dumb, and I cannot figure out how to get the stopper back into my bathtub. I live in a new apartment, and I am not used to this style of bathtub stopper. It looks just like this. I pulled it straight out, but when I go to put it back, it doesn't seem to lock on to anything, and I can't get it to sit flat. Is there some trick to these? Feel free to describe it to me as though I were a three-year-old child because I think that is the only way I will understand! Thank you.
posted by foxinthesnow to Home & Garden (7 answers total)

Usually you need to rotate it around until the little hook part of it hooks on to what it is supposed to. It might be helpful if you were also fiddling with the thing that opens and shuts the drain. I'm not trying to be opaque here but those two things in various combinations have worked for me to get it to work. Just keep telling yourself it went together at one point and it will go BACK together.
posted by jessamyn at 5:44 PM on December 2, 2008

It sounds like this particular style might need to be twisted to the right in order to close completely, is there any other puzzling hardware in the bathtub? This hardware might also cause it to close.
posted by ktrey at 5:56 PM on December 2, 2008

I agree with jessamyn. I JUST had the same problem with a sink one. I cursed it and cursed it and tried to line the little notch part to the right hand side of center and lower than it should be and slide the little thing into place, but it was hard and made no sense. I think after the 3rd or 4th beer it worked. I suggest drinking more, keep playing with it, and trying not to get too upset.
posted by likesuchasand at 5:58 PM on December 2, 2008 [1 favorite]

Just to be clear, it looks like the kind that isn't supposed to be pulled out. It stays in all the time, but you have a knob somewhere near the taps that you twist, and the plug pops up. Twist the knob again and the plug goes back down. Find the knob, twist it into the 'plug open' position, reattach the plug to the hook, and then twist the knob back into 'plug closed' position while guiding the plug back into the hole.
posted by Beautiful Screaming Lady at 6:01 PM on December 2, 2008

Beautiful Screaming Lady has the right answer (& others before her, but she has the clearest). I've been in this spot before.

The third or fourth time it happens, you'll know just what to do...
posted by IAmBroom at 6:53 PM on December 2, 2008

Damnit I have one of those and I hate it, exactly for this reason. We have to take it out to clean it because we, as humans, have hair, and that hair catches on the long part in the drain and eventually clogs. We take it out to clean it and then can't get it back in. I'm going to try Beautiful Screaming Lady's advice!
posted by bedhead at 9:14 PM on December 2, 2008

Here is an article that tells you how to adjust your drain that also has a diagram that may be helpful. You might want to consider replacing your drain with a plunger type stopper (also diagrammed on that page) as those are less prone to hair clogs as there is less of the machanism in the pipe to snag the hair.
posted by TedW at 5:54 AM on December 3, 2008