The Bathtub Drain Stopper / Trip Waste Assembly is found in countless bathrooms across the country and it’s basically a fool proof way of filling your bathtub when taking a bath. Right? Well maybe…

Prior to this modern method of keeping your bath water in the tub, many homes use to have “Standing Waste & Overflow” a tall cylindrical barrel standing next to the tub with an interior plunger which allowed you to stop the water so you could bathe. Drop  the plunger down and it stopped the water, lift it up and the water would drain.

They were eventually phased out (although thousands are still in service today) because they simply are no longer code compliant in most municipalities across the country. Enter the modern Trip Waste Assembly a simple device which can easily be operated by a flick of a lever located in the bathtubs overflow. Flick it up and the water stops, flick it down and the water drains.

Generally trouble free but as time goes by hair, soap scum and variety of mysterious childrens toys make their way into the drain and interfere with plunger causing it to hang up or not operate at all. In addition the linkage that connects the plunger to the trip lever up top gets loose or completely disconnected.

When this happens some minor (or major) adjustments will be required by removing the overflow plate / trip lever assembly and exploring exactly what the issue could be. The overflow is also the access through which you would run an electric snake in the event of a complete tub blockage.

Care must be taken when performing either of these procedures because not all overflows are secured to the tub thru use of a backup plate which is screwed directly  into the overflow tube. If buy chance that overflow tube becomes dislodged from the waste tee inside the wall, you’ll be placing a call into your local friendly plumber (ouch). This is especially true  when trying to clear a stoppage with an electric snake.

An occasional lubrication of the plunger and linkage is always recommended, but care must be taken whenever you remove the overflow plate / trip lever. Check out the video below to have a better understanding of how the bathtub drain stopper / trip waste assembly works. If you get stuck, you can always reach me at info@bobsplumbing videos.com. I hope you’re getting some useful tips from these videos and if so, please subscribe to my youtube channel, give me a thumbs-up  and leave your comments.

Regards & Happy Plumbing,

Bob