Hose Bladder Broke off of Connector and clogged Drain

[Mark-in-NC]

About one month ago I purchased a Husky Medium Drain Bladder from Home Depot which I have been using to help clear a PVC open pipe pool drain. It's been working pretty good opening the drain clog, but I will eventually need to get the pipe reamed out by a plumber.
This weekend while I was using it, the bladder broke off of the connector and shot down the drain pipe. The pipe is now clogged with the bladder.
I need help in getting the bladder out of the drain pipe. It's imperative that I'm able to drain the area with that drain pipe.

Here's a link to the bladder:

Husky Medium Drain Bladder 82-976-111 - The Home Depot

Get your professional cleaning job done with comfort and ease by choosing this Husky Medium Drain Bladder.

www.homedepot.com

I am looking for advice on how to get the bladder out of the drain pipe. I estimate it's about 6 inches down at a 90° bend in the pipe. I've tried some needle nose pliers, and a piece of wire hanger fashioned into a small hook at the end, but it's only pushed the bladder deeper into the pipe. I contacted Husky Tools thinking that they may have seen this before and have some novel idea about how to get it out. But they were pretty useless.

Any ideas? I will try to get it out myself, but may wind up calling a plumber.

 

[Kaylee34]

Auto parts store. You want a mechanical retrieval tool. Grainger sells them also.
Local reef aquarium supply shop. They sell very long tweezers.
Long straight hemostat (what I use).
Shop vac might get it if it's not jammed in there.

 

[nuttyp]

On occasion I have taken a cheap hand auger and bent the end of the snake to make a sharp small coil-like hook protruding from the end, to grab a hair clog. It might dig into the rubber bladder and catch it. I think there are snake attachments to do similar. Thanks for posting, it's a valuable tip to know those bladders can break off. Now we know not to use them on a pipe that cannot be easily disassembled for retrieval. Apparently there are many mishaps caused by those bladders, among them what can happen if the pressure forces sewage to come shooting out of a different drain. A friend of mine covered a good portion of the cooking area in a fast food shop with sewage, before the screams stopped him from continuing to unclog from the spot he was working. Maybe we need a new forum category for mishaps! I have some good ones. Like the time my buddy was loading bags of yard waste onto a golf cart and one of the bags landed on the accelerator. The cart shot across the yard and plowed through the entire equipment pad, destroying 3 pumps, filter enclosures, valves, and every pipe including underground breakages that partially drained the pool.

 

[Mark-in-NC]

Auto parts store. You want a mechanical retrieval tool. Grainger sells them also.
Local reef aquarium supply shop. They sell very long tweezers.
Long straight hemostat (what I use).
Shop vac might get it if it's not jammed in there.

Thanks, I'm going to try using a pair of hemostat pliers. Grainger offers them for about $63, but I found a cheap pair on Amazon for $10 with free next day delivery. My main challenge is that the drain opening is in a pretty inaccessible spot under my automatic rolling pool cover, so I can't look down the hole while using the pliers. I may also first suck the hole with my shopvac to see if I can bring the bladder up a little, but it will also be hard to maneuver the shopvac hose down there.

 

[Mark-in-NC]

On occasion I have taken a cheap hand auger and bent the end of the snake to make a sharp small coil-like hook protruding from the end, to grab a hair clog. It might dig into the rubber bladder and catch it. I think there are snake attachments to do similar. Thanks for posting, it's a valuable tip to know those bladders can break off. Now we know not to use them on a pipe that cannot be easily disassembled for retrieval. Apparently there are many mishaps caused by those bladders, among them what can happen if the pressure forces sewage to come shooting out of a different drain. A friend of mine covered a good portion of the cooking area in a fast food shop with sewage, before the screams stopped him from continuing to unclog from the spot he was working. Maybe we need a new forum category for mishaps! I have some good ones. Like the time my buddy was loading bags of yard waste onto a golf cart and one of the bags landed on the accelerator. The cart shot across the yard and plowed through the entire equipment pad, destroying 3 pumps, filter enclosures, valves, and every pipe including underground breakages that partially drained the pool.

I have a drain auger, but the coil is definitely not sharp enough to grab the rubber bladder - it's pretty hard rubber. I may look for a sharp attachment for my auger like you mentioned. To grab the bladder I will need something like a fish hook.

 

[1poolman1]

About one month ago I purchased a Husky Medium Drain Bladder from Home Depot which I have been using to help clear a PVC open pipe pool drain. It's been working pretty good opening the drain clog, but I will eventually need to get the pipe reamed out by a plumber.
This weekend while I was using it, the bladder broke off of the connector and shot down the drain pipe. The pipe is now clogged with the bladder.
I need help in getting the bladder out of the drain pipe. It's imperative that I'm able to drain the area with that drain pipe.

Here's a link to the bladder:

Husky Medium Drain Bladder 82-976-111 - The Home Depot

Get your professional cleaning job done with comfort and ease by choosing this Husky Medium Drain Bladder.

www.homedepot.com

I am looking for advice on how to get the bladder out of the drain pipe. I estimate it's about 6 inches down at a 90° bend in the pipe. I've tried some needle nose pliers, and a piece of wire hanger fashioned into a small hook at the end, but it's only pushed the bladder deeper into the pipe. I contacted Husky Tools thinking that they may have seen this before and have some novel idea about how to get it out. But they were pretty useless.

Any ideas? I will try to get it out myself, but may wind up calling a plumber.

Drain King 186 lasts forever (the two I have are at least 20 years old). Husky bladders last until you try to use them on a pool. You could get a Drain King and try to force the broken part back from the other end of the pipe if accessible.

 

[Mark-in-NC]

By the way, I suspect the reason that the bladder detached from the connector (aside from being a cheap Chinese piece o' Crud) is that the bladder was sitting out in the hot sun just prior to me using it. I think the sun may have softened it up allowing it to over-expand and pop off of the connector. Also didn't help that I was using a 50 ft hose and the residual water sitting in the hose hadalso heated up in the sun. I think the bladder was hot, soft, and swollen (queue jokes now...)

I attached a few photos of the connector.

 

[Mark-in-NC]

Drain King 186 lasts forever (the two I have are at least 20 years old). Husky bladders last until you try to use them on a pool. You could get a Drain King and try to force the broken part back from the other end of the pipe if accessible.

Thanks! Ordering one now. $15 on Amazon.

Which size do I need, or should i just order the "No SIze" size (???)

 

[Mark-in-NC]

Has anyone ever had any luck using on of these "Grabber Claw" tools? Lots of cheap options on Amazon.

Amazon.com

 

[1poolman1]

Thanks! Ordering one now. $15 on Amazon.

Which size do I need, or should i just order the "No SIze" size (???)

Drain King 186 is the one I use. You could get a Drain King 501 (slightly shorter and smaller). Be sure to insert the bladder completely into the pipe. If a portion of the rubber is out of the pipe it will be damaged. If the area that the bladder has to fit into is short, get the 501.

 

[Kaylee34]

Has anyone ever had any luck using on of these "Grabber Claw" tools? Lots of cheap options on Amazon.

Amazon.com

That's the mechanical retriever tool I mentioned. Don't go super cheap here, get a decent quality one with good grabbing strength. This kind of tool is meant for fishing out dropped nuts, bolts and stuff from hard to reach spots like down in an engine. The prongs won't hold on if you need to use a lot of force to unwedge the bladder. Try the shopvac first. It might be that simple. If you can grab it with the hemostat, lock them and then you can concentrate on getting it free.

 

[Kaylee34]

Do yourself a favor and get one of these: Lowes or these Home Depot
They come longer as well. Very handy to have.
If you can get to the open end of the drain, push the bladder backwards.

 

[1poolman1]

Do yourself a favor and get one of these: Lowes or these Home Depot
They come longer as well. Very handy to have.
If you can get to the open end of the drain, push the bladder backwards.

Be very careful about using any kind of "snake" like this. Get it past 2 elbows and it may not come back out. They were made for drains that have long sweep elbows, not the kind used in pool plumbing that are "hard" 90s.

 

[Kaylee34]

Be very careful about using any kind of "snake" like this. Get it past 2 elbows and it may not come back out. They were made for drains that have long sweep elbows, not the kind used in pool plumbing that are "hard" 90s.

Excellent point. You don't want to run it with a drill either unless you know what you've got. Hand only.

 

[Mark-in-NC]

Drain King 186 is the one I use. You could get a Drain King 501 (slightly shorter and smaller). Be sure to insert the bladder completely into the pipe. If a portion of the rubber is out of the pipe it will be damaged. If the area that the bladder has to fit into is short, get the 501.
View attachment 586596View attachment 586597

I ordered the 186, but after seeing this message I may need to order the 501. I'll know this afternoon when I get back home from the office and try out the 186 which will have hopefully been delivered.

 

[Mark-in-NC]

Do yourself a favor and get one of these: Lowes or these Home Depot
They come longer as well. Very handy to have.
If you can get to the open end of the drain, push the bladder backwards.

I already own the Kobalt 25' auger that you linked. I've tried using it in the past to clean this pipe, but haven't had much success. I think it's clogged with hardened silt. The Husky Bladder was having some marginal success in at least allowing it to slowly drain, but I think the pipe is still clogged. It's just a very poorly designed drain. I have been toying with complaining to my builder, who may then get me some action out of the pool subcontractor. My house build was completed in May '22 and the pool was part of the house contract. I've had trouble with that pool drain ever since the pool was completed in late Summer '22.

 

[Kaylee34]

My house build was completed in May '22 and the pool was part of the house contract. I've had trouble with that pool drain ever since the pool was completed in late Summer '22.

I'd contact the builder. It's only been two years and you shouldn't have been having trouble with it since the beginning. That makes me think either a very poor design or there's a failure somewhere in the line, possibly at a joint.

A plumber with a water jet should be able to get it clear in no time. Question is, why is it clogged so bad this fast and will keep it from happening again.

Can you post some pics of the pipe in question? Both ends. and where it runs.

 

[Mark-in-NC]

You'll be as shocked as I am to know that I was able to retrieve the bladder from my pool drain. I purchased a retriever tool on Amazon and after many tries, I pulled the bladder out of the drain hole. Yesterday I went home at lunch, since I saw that the retriever tool had been delivered, and I tried unsuccessfully for a 1/2 hour to pull out the bladder. I was planning to call a plumber, but thought I would give it one more try in the evening. After another 1/2 hour of trying I was able to yank the bladder out.

It turns out that the bladder was lodged in the first 90 degree bend in the pipe which is only about six inches down. However, as I was unable to see down the drain hole because it's obscured by my rolling cover, I was pushing the retriever tool down past the lodged bladder. I finally realized that the bladder was only a 1/2 foot down because I could hear the sound of the tool against the rubber bladder. When I realized this (and at the time it was only a hunch) I started using the retriever only a few inches down from the drain opening. It soon became obvious that I was hitting the bladder and within a few tries I had yanked it out. I let out a triumphant howl and looked over at my wife who was sitting on the patio. She looked up from her phone and then looked back down. I guess she didn't realize the historical greatness of the moment.

I've posted a photo of the retrieved bladder (for your doubters) , and a pic of the trench where my cover rolls up. The drain hole is underneath the rolled cover.

 

[Kaylee34]

Yay! Glad it worked.