Pop up bath plug won't stay down.

oligopoly

Please help! As title suggests, bath plug is one of the click/pop up and down ones. Went to push it down tonight for baby's bath and the plug wont stay down - it just pops up straight away.

I've unscrewed the top plate to reveal the screw mechanism underneath. The following photo shows what's there. I must apologise for the absolute state of the plug hole. I hope no one reading is squeamish or eating their dinner!

The screw on the side looks like it could be relevant but a) it doesn't appear standard screwdriver shaped or Allen key and b) even if it was I don't have an implement that's short enough to fit down there.

I am really reluctant to call out a plumber and would love to be able to sort it myself but I am desperate as it's the only bath/shower in the house.

Please help!

jk0

Those things are a nightmare. I changed them for normal wastes in my flats.

I suggest you do the same.

oligopoly

jk0 wrote: »

Those things are a nightmare. I changed them for normal wastes in my flats.

I suggest you do the same.

Ok thanks. How easy is it to diy?

shown73

Normally you can unscrew the centre pop-up mechanism and just use any old plug from Wilco, at least until you sort it out. There are flat ones which fit any size hole, often used in kitchen sinks, so needn't necessarily be the exact size.

jk0

oligopoly wrote: »

Ok thanks. How easy is it to diy?

Fairly easy.

Take off the side of the bath. Unscrew the u-bend from waste. Detach overflow. I think you will need some strong slip grips to unscrew existing waste. Clean off any sealant around the hole.

Put a sausage of plumbers mait around the bottom of new plug hole. Put it through the hole in the bath, and screw it into bottom bit. Re-attach overflow, and reattach u-bend.

Rub off any plumbers mait around plughole that has been squeezed out by tightening, and check for leaks by running a bath.

If everything seems okay, put side back on bath.

Probably only an hour's work for a plumber. Maybe leave it to him.

oligopoly

For the benefit of anyone that comes here via Google in the future, I discovered you can remove the pop-up mechanism using an adjustable monkey wrench. In my case, the pin which controls the pop-up mechanism had broken but I found a replacement unit on ebay for around a fiver (search for POP UP PLUG BOLT). Just screw the old one off and replace with new one. Piece of cake and real money saving doing it this way!