You Should Know

I once lived in an apartment where the bathtub drain was pretty plugged. It would drain but every shower was done in a slowly rising puddle. I tried draino but it didn't make a difference.

I eventually had a roommate move in and noticed right away that the tub drained better, asked him how he fixed it. He used the plunger. It blew my mind because up until that moment, I had thought a plunger was specifically for use with toilets.

Now I have a toilet plunger plus a smaller sink plunger since the size of the standard one can be awkward to use on a sink, plus the whole not wanting to use something that's been in the toilet on things outside of the toilet.

Not that I've even had a plugged toilet in years, and, having a bidet, it's even less likely going forward.

Here’s the second iteration of the OG patent.

Originally the simply device on the left was the one plunger to rule them all. It works in sinks and toilets. The flange and the concept of a toilet-specific plunger was a later concept.

https://patents.google.com/patent/US186206A/en

I've used both and there's not really an appreciable difference in my experience.

Growing up my mom didn’t understand this and always insisted that the sink plungers were the only kind that worked (she also called them toilet plungers) and that toilet plungers (the fancy kind) were some kind of trick. Took until I was in college that I learned you shouldn’t have to break a sweat unclogging your toilet.

Wow, jackpot upvotes!

Thanks.

I was just as excited as everyone here is when I found out what the flange is for.

Oh snip snaps cumulative upvotes jackpot!