How to Retrieve an Item From a Drain

I just saw this on aol this morning. Would you believe my neighbor down the hall (we live in a condo) called this afternoon and said his wife had dropped her earing down the sink drain and did I have some tools to get it out. I told him about this trick and said I'll go get my shop vac and we'll try it and see if it works. Well, it worked just like he showed in the video. In 5 seconds we had the earing out and what a happy neighbor I have. It sucks all the water and of course any gunk out of the p-trap along with the jewlrey. But it's very quick and it does work, even if there is an overflow drain. A shop vac is very powerful.

The vacuum will only work if the ring happens to slide through the little grate you will see if you look down the drain in your sink. The easiest and least frustrating way is to simply to remove the P trap. They are hand tight, and generally come off quite easily. Use teflon plumbers tape when re-installing the P trap to insure no leaks, (available at any home improvement outlet). Be careful not to overtignten which will strip the threads. The teflon tape is less expensive than buying a pair of nylons also and a roll will last a homeowner a lifetime. Not many people own a shop vacuum. They are meant to vacuum up water and/or debris. Remember when you attempt to remove the P trap, lefty loosey, rightey tightey.

Dissall33 absolutely knows what he is talking about here. Did enought of that work to know it's a fact.

Be sure to use a wet-or-dry shop vac. If you use a regular home vac, and suck up some water into the vacuum cleaner, you will have some real problems.

This also works well for finding a lost contact lens or other hard to find items on the floor. OK to use a regular vac for that.

I've never seen 'pop apart' pipes before. Never ran into one that didn't require at least a wrench.

Ha! Thats much better than having to buy a box of tampons..save your money, a wrench
under the sink works much better!

May I suggest that you edit the above video so as to emphasize using a SHOP vac. Not everyone has the brains to know that shop vacs are designed to vac up liquids, whereas the regular household vac is for DRY only!!! thying that trick with a regular household vac will, at the very least, ruin the machine. Could give the user a near fatal, if not fatal, shock.

Great idea. I will have to go out and buy a pair nylons. I hope the clerk doesn't think I will be wearing them

He is SUCH a hunk!