Hello everyone...I really need some help.

I have the lift and turn drain and i manage to get the small knob off the top and I don't see any space to put the screw driver in...it's just flat in that little hole...it's driving me crazy ...and there's no screw under the drain...

any help would be great....

 

I have a Watco stopper without a screw in the middle of the handle post. It is the kind of stopper you must push down and pull up manually. It will not lock in the up position even if you twist it. I was able to easily unscrew a decorative cover on the top of the stopper to reveal a post that the stopper rides on. I just used a pair of pliars to unscrew the post directly. Too bad I can't post pictures here.

 

Thanks for all the great posts! They gave me the inspiration to keep trying. I will explain how ours worked. This is a Kohler lift and turn model circa 1999. There is a brass pin that has the stopper and pull knob attached to it. On that brass pin is a small brass "nub" that slides into a slot in the drain allowing the stopper to drop and seal the drain under it's own weight. To open remove the stopper, first remove the knob by turning it counter-clockwise with the stopper in the closed position. Before removing the knob completely, pull up on the stopper so that you can get hold of the stopper itself once the knob is removed completely. Once the pull knob is removed, allow the stopper to go back down but only enough for the "nub" to rest down against the slot which will allow you to grasp the stopper and turn it counter-clockwise as well. I did mine with no tools at all. Good luck all.

 

I too have the Watco push pull drain. Thus far I havent seen anything here that works on my drain. I have felt under the stopper and noticed that there is a rod with 2 flat spots. I put a 9/16ths wrench on it and was only successful in getting the knob removed. Underneath the knob is a metal pin. Its flat on top and underneath of that is a groove that goes around the pin. There is no screws or set screws whatsoever that I can see. It also appears that there is a washer that is round on the outside and appears to have a "D" cut into the inside of the washer. This corresponds to a slit underneath the flat head of the pin. I was told to pry it off but the washer wont slide in the path. And this also appears to be what is holding the stopper on to the shaft. Someone told me there was aset screw...none that I can find. ANyone have any ideas how to get this apart? I appreciate the help..

 

I found my Watco drain stopper to be a "lift & turn" closure (below). After unscrewing the knob (#1), and reading other notes here, I realized that I had post (#2) that I could unscrew with a wrench, after pushing the stopper down. The messy cleanup was easy after that. Thanks.

 

Well I'll be......................I can't believe there was a screw there all this time and I never saw it.

Thanks.

Beer 4U2

 

Hi, thanks to this forum I was able to disassemble my watco drain stopper and clear the nastiness inside. I decided to photograph the assembly to hopefully aid in the descriptions others have given.

There are three pieces to the drain. From left to right, they are the stopper, the bolt and the knob.

The stopper slides onto the bolt, and the knob screws into the stopper.
<a href="http://s13.photobucket.com/albums/a265/heretics_bane/?action=view&current=disassembled.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a265/heretics_bane/disassembled.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" width="320" height="240"></a>

The bolt, with the stopper attached, screws into this area in the bathtub:
<a href="http://s13.photobucket.com/albums/a265/heretics_bane/?action=view&current=Drain.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a265/heretics_bane/Drain.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" width="320" height="240"></a>

After unscrewing the knob to expose the bolt, this is what it should look like. Also, after you've cleaned the drain, this should be what it looks like before you screw the knob back on.
<a href="http://s13.photobucket.com/albums/a265/heretics_bane/?action=view&current=Assembled.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a265/heretics_bane/Assembled.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" width="320" height="240"></a>
Step one, unscrew the knob to expose the bolt.
Step two, slide the stopper down to give you access to the bolt.
Step three, use pliers to unscrew the bolt from the bathtub. The bolt is not round, there is a flat side you you can use for leverage if you can get up under the top of the bolt.
Step four, clean drain.
Step five, with stopper attached to bolt, screw bolt back into bathtub.
Step six, screw knob back into stopper.

That should be it. I know my bathtub isn't the cleanest, but hopefully these photos will help someone visualize the procedure.

 

Thanks plumber 2000. I couldn't figure out how it came out. Thanks to you it was so simple. Got the clog out and all is well.

 

oops, soory, should have read to the end.

 

This post was wonderful in helping me remove the stopper and get to the clog... alas, I was sad to see how much hair I had lost, but it was spot on in directions, including the screwdriver size to get the shaft up without damaging it. I am very pleased to be able to clean it out, pour my boiling water down to help clear and to follow directions on other parts of this site to keep it clear running. (baking soda and vinegar--NO chemicals!)
Thanks to all who posted. I had this new tub for 2 years, first time I could get in there and get it clean!

 

Yeah! I am so thankful for these post. Mine was stuck so had to get some pliers and turn with all my might. Now it's unclogged and sparkling clean.

thanks everyone!

dependent on me,
T.

 

tbano-thanks for asking the question, so I could see a post with something to work with.
Mike Swearingen and Plumber 2000-Thanks for saving my arse or I would have broke the drain plug off in frustration. CHEER'S ALL FIXED and I showed my kids how to do it so they are set for life on this issue!

 

Excellent thread. It helped me deal with mine, which was simple in comparison to many others below. The drain worked by lifting and rotating to make it stay open, then rotate until it fell down to close. The top cap of the drain plug had a set screw in the side, removing it allowed removing the drain plug, leaving a shaft with on flat side on it. The shaft was easy to unscrew using a crescent wrench.

Then you can use a needle nose pliers or whatever to clean out all the hair that has clogged the drain. The clump I dug out was roughly 2" x 3" of yuck!

Putting it back together is a little more tricky. The way it works is the plug has to be set so the set screw can rotate 360 degrees around the recess in the top of the central, shaft. Turning the plug so the set screw aligns with the flat side of the shaft allows it to drop into place to seal the drain. Otherwise it keeps the plug elevated above the drain, so water can drain out.

 

I am a 74 year old woman married to a physicist who knows lots of things but doesn't do much around the house. Our new Watco bathtub (6 mos. old) has been draining very slowly and I had no success trying to plunge it because the stopper is a foot step-on type and the plunger couldn't get to the drain. I found your website today and read about 50 suggestions and decided to try to unscrew the stopper. I had been afraid to do so because I didn't want to break anything but after reading all the blogs, decided that it was supposed to unscrew. After much turning I managed to get the stopper out and right below it, sitting on the drain screen, was lots and lots of hair the color of my older son's hair. I removed all the hair and plunged the drain and replaced the stopper and the drain operates perfectly. This all took ten minutes at the most. What a relief! Thank you for this wonderful site. It shall be my new favorite "Favorite."

 

Welcome Granny! Glad you found a solution.

My ex-FIL was an Aeronautical engineer...so I understand when you talk about your DH.

 

Thanks for all the suggestions on How to remove a bathtub drain stopper.
I ran into the stopper that is one piece without a screw in the top and no other visible screw to assist in removing the stopper. However, there IS a set screw ! To release the screw lift the stopper (turning as necessary) , tilt the stopper toward the ‘faucet end of the tub’ and – with your head down ‘in the tub’ turn the stopper until you see the screw! Proceed with the project!

 

Thanks to many of you it turned out to fairly easy to remove the stopper. I had been stuck on that for about 10 minutes when it occured to me to check this site. When I was done I registered!

BTW, there is something better than a coat hanger for grabbing that hair in the drain. It's a "Zip it" (see Zip-It Clean). I got one for about $3 at the local do-it-yourself warehouse and once I had the stopper off, that thing grabbed an huge amount of hair left there by my two teenage kids.

Thanks all,

David

 

thanks for the help with the watco tub drain removal....i used a small screwdriver in the brass stems square hole on top and used my slipjoint pliers on the screwdriver handle and turned counterclockwise a few rounds....it was very tight...removed easily...found wives wedding band and disaster avoided....thanks to all...garyash

 

I couldn't figure out how to get this stopper off- it is a one-piece stopper with no separate knob. There is a molded-in knob on the top of the stopper so that you can pull the stopper up to (hopefully) let the water out. After scanning the other posts here, I tried closing the the stopper (putting it in down position) and then with pliers holding the knob turning the whole stopper counter-clockwise. That served to unscrew it and it came out easily. The key here was to put it in the DOWN position and then unscrew it. (In the up position it just spins around) Then pulled out the guck that was clogging things up and reversed the procedure. Whole thing took maybe 5 minutes. Thanks for everyone who shared - I was going to call a plumber.

 

I just want to say thanks to those of you that put in time and effort to this site!!! You have saved me from strangling my husband and yelling at the land lord!!! Our drain has been stopped up for a month, and we have gone through about 3 bottles of draino that helped for a day or two. When we fiqured out we couldn't get the plug out we decided to call the landlord, even though we didn't want to it's inconvientent for us to be here for him./ So I got online and searched came to this page and walla found you great guys and gals!! Never did I think to look for a screw under the stopper (neither did handyman hubby). Once off I realized that in the 5 years this house has been built and how ever many tenents where here before us, noone ever thought to clean the drain!!!!! What a disqusting task... but I got it done and it looked like a small rat worth of hair!!! Thanks again!!!

 

Thanks to everyone who shared their frustrations. It must have been draining. After reading the posts, I cleared my drain in about 2 minutes. Thanks again.