What is a drain zip tool and does it work?

The best-known brand is Zip-It. Its maker describes a 25-inch flexible design with "barbed hooks that latch onto hair and debris," made for clearing clogs in sinks, tubs and showers. It is reusable and chemical-free. Other brands sell similar strips in different lengths, but the idea is the same. There is no motor and no chemical, and it does not cut. The barbs point back toward you, so hair snags on the way out.

That design tells you what it is good at. Hair is a very common cause of a slow bathroom drain, and hair is exactly what barbs catch. That match between tool and clog is why it works so well when it works. It is less useful against soft clogs like grease, which slide off the barbs, and it cannot break up a solid object.

The manufacturer's instructions are three steps: insert the tool into the drain opening, push it further into the drain, then gently pull it out. A few small habits make that work better:

1. 1Take the cover off first. In a shower, remove the strainer with a screwdriver and clean it. Delta Faucet notes that the strainer itself often accumulates "hair and soap scum as well." In a bathroom sink, take out the stopper if you can. Our pop-up stopper page shows how.
2. 2Feed the strip in slowly until you feel resistance. That usually means you have reached the clog.
3. 3Work it back and forth and twist gently. This lets the barbs catch hair.
4. 4Pull it out slowly, still twisting, so what it caught stays on the strip.
5. 5Wipe it off into the trash and repeat until it comes out clean. Wear gloves. It is a messy job.
6. 6Flush with warm water for a minute, and check how fast the water drains.

Keep a trash bag or an old towel within reach, because the strip comes out wet. Set the cover and screws aside where they cannot roll into the drain.

Do not force it. If the strip will not go in, or you feel something hard, stop. Forcing a plastic strip past a solid obstruction can bend it, and it will not clear an object anyway.

Where you use it changes the details:

• Bathroom sink. The stopper usually has to come out first, and there is often a pivot rod under the sink attached to it. The drain opening is small, so feed the strip in at a slight angle.
• Bathtub. Remove the stopper or the overflow-plate linkage if yours has one, then work through the drain opening. Tub drains are wider, and hair often sits in the first few inches.
• Shower. Remove the strainer or cover. This is the easiest of the three, and the best use of the tool.
• Kitchen sink. Not recommended. Kitchen clogs are grease and food, not hair, and a disposal makes access unsafe. InSinkErator's own instructions say: "Do not stick your hand in the garbage disposal at any time."

Yes, on the clog it was made for. A hair clog near the opening is the kind of blockage a strip clears in one or two passes. It is why bathroom sinks and showers are the usual places to use one. Do not be surprised by how much hair comes out on the first pass. A drain that has been slowing for weeks can hold a lot.

It does not always work. Delta's guide on shower clogs describes a similar hand method, a straightened wire hanger with a hooked end, and it adds a warning that applies to any tool you push into a drain: be careful "not to push any debris back down the shower drain, which will likely cause a bigger clog." A strip that is pushed too hard can shove the clog deeper instead of hooking it.

Look for a strip that is flexible enough to bend around the curve of a drain, long enough to reach past the trap opening, and made of a plastic that will not snap. The barbs should be firm and pointed back toward you. A very stiff tool can jam. A very soft one will not hold hair. Rinse it after each use, let it dry, and toss it when the barbs wear down or it cracks. A worn strip catches less and can leave pieces behind.

If you use one often, that is a sign. A drain that needs a hair pull every few weeks is telling you to add a strainer. Start with a fine-mesh strainer over the drain, and empty it into the trash after each use.

A zip tool reaches only as far as its length, and it catches only what its barbs can hook. It will not clear:

• Grease in a kitchen line. Grease coats the pipe and hardens as it cools. Phoenix Water Services calls grease the most frequent cause of sewer problems, and the fix is disposal habits and a proper cleaning, not a hair strip.
• A foreign object, such as a toy, a cap or a piece of packaging.
• A clog deeper in the line, past the reach of the strip.
• A blocked vent or main line. If several fixtures are slow, or water shows up in a different fixture, the problem is not in one drain. Read main line vs branch clog.

If the water still drains slowly after two or three passes, stop. Check the flow with a full minute of running water, since a drain can look clear and still be partly blocked. If it is not moving normally, the clog is beyond the tool. Try a plunger and cleaning the trap. AAA's list of chemical-free methods puts the trap check and a snake after the plunger for a reason: each one reaches further. Our slow-draining sink page walks through the order.

Why not a chemical cleaner instead? For hair, a strip or wire is better than a bottle. Poison Control explains that non-enzymatic drain cleaners contain acidic or alkaline chemicals, such as sulfuric acid and sodium hydroxide, and that they can burn skin. A physical tool removes the hair, while a chemical only tries to dissolve it and leaves a basin of corrosive water if it fails. Our is Drano bad for pipes page covers the pipe side.

If a clog keeps returning, the hair is a symptom, and the tool only treats the symptom. Read why the same drain keeps clogging. For the shower version of this job, see unclog a shower drain, and for a bathtub, bathtub won't drain.

HQ Plumbing & Air is licensed and insured, gives free estimates, and is available 24/7 when a clog is beyond a plastic strip.