Plumbing with Chopsticks

I was in denial about the slow water drainage in my bathroom sink and hoped the problem would resolve itself - after all, the sink was still functional. As the months passed, the water drainage slowed to a drip and eventually the sink became totally gross and unusable. I hopped in the car, drove to the nearest Home Depot and bought two large bottles of Liquid Plumber. Following the instructions closely, I poured the prescribed amount into the sink, ran hot water over and walked away. An hour and a gallon of Liquid Plumber later, I approached the sink with high hopes, turned on the faucet – it did absolutely nothing.

Time for some home style fixing!

Stage One: Diagnosis
I removed the pop-up stopper that obstructed my view down the drain pipe. This was a four-step process:

(1) release the spring clip by squeezing the two ends together to separate the lifting rod and pivoting rod (image A). (2) unscrew the retaining nut which was loose enough to turn by hand (image B). (3) slide out the pivoting rod. A detail view of the pivoting rod (image C). (4) pull out the pop-up stopper (image D).

 

With the pop-up stopper out of the way, I was able to look straight down the sink hole. Aided with a flashlight, I immediately discovered the cause of the problem – the plumbers used such an excessive amount of plumbing putty during the installation,that it formed a thick lining around the pipe. Overtime, the lining loosened and partially separated from the pipe, restricting water flow.

Stage two: The Fix
To remove the excess putty, I instinctively thought of the perfect tool -chopsticks! ‘Practice makes perfect'- I use chopsticks so often and they are my default tool of choice when extricating any small item from hard-to-reach places. I selected an extra long pair of chopsticks (I mean it's the bathroom sink we are talking about here). Holding one chopstick firmly, I scraped once around the pipe wall to separate the layer of putty, and then picked up the loose pieces, easily, with both chopsticks (see image E). The job was done in less than a minute with hardly any mess.




Random Thoughts
In college, chopsticks vs. silverware was often a topic of conversation over dinner at Chinese restaurants with my American friends. We each cited reasons why our utensil of choice was a more effective way to transport food from the plate to the mouth. While my roommate from Colorado usually made his case with steak and mashed potato, I made my case with Kung Po chicken and steamed whole fish on the bone. If I tracked him down today, I would add plumbing tool as a new use for chopsticks. I doubt that he ever used silverware to fix a plumbing problem.

A chopstick joke
I hope you find this “fix-it” article entertaining. In that spirit, let's end it with a chopstick joke that goes like this: If American babies use baby forks and baby spoons to eat their dinner, what will Chinese babies use? Toothpicks!