Why Isn’t My Bathtub Holding Any Water?
When running a hot bath after a particularly stressful day, the last thing that you want to happen is to discover that your bathtub isn’t holding water. Noticing that your bath doesn’t fill up to your desired level or noticing that the water drains away at the same speed as you’re running the tap can be extremely concerning.
This can immediately leave you feeling panicked that a leak will suddenly come through the ceiling and leave you with an even bigger problem. However, there can be other explanations for your bathtub not holding water that don’t equate to an immediate risk of a catastrophic leak.
However, it’s still important to get a qualified plumber to take a look and ensure that the pipes and bathtub are in good condition. A plumber can assess your bathtub plumbing and find a comprehensive solution that ensures that you can get back to taking hot baths after a long and stressful day in no time.
To help you understand why your bathtub isn’t holding water, we’ve compiled this guide to some of the reasons this might be happening.
Reasons Why Your Bathtub Isn’t Holding Any Water
Although we might immediately associate a bath not being able to hold water with a leak in the tub, there are several reasons why you might notice your tub not filling with water properly. From faulty drain stoppers to rust and corrosion, there’s a whole host of things that can go wrong with your tub if you don’t conduct proper maintenance. Here are some of the reasons your bath might not fill properly.
Defective Overflow Tubes
Bathtubs aren’t just giant containers with a plug-hole attached. There are a few things you should take notice of when you take away the protective bath cover. One of the things you might notice when you do this is overflow tubes.
Overflow tubes, also known as overflow drain assembly, are the safety component that channels bath water back into your drains if you overfill your bathtub. Usually, if you overfill your bathtub and get in, this will cause the water level to rise above the bath’s capacity, meaning the water will flow easily into the overflow tubes, stopping you from flooding your bathroom.
If you notice that the bath can’t hold this level and the water flows over the bath top, then you have a possible fault with the overflow tube. Most of the time, this is due to loose fittings.
A plumber in Oshawa will be able to tighten this fitting or install a replacement gasket to ensure the bath can maintain a safe water capacity and decrease your chances of flooding your bathroom.
Rust/Corrosion
If you have an older bathtub with even older pipes, your bath’s inability to maintain an adequate water level might be down to rust and corrosion in the pipes.
How fast your pipes rust or corrode will depend on the water pH in your area. pH levels dictate how acidic or alkaline something is. A pH number lower than seven (neutral) is considered to be acidic.
Acidic water will be able to slowly corrode your pipes by absorbing the minerals and chemical properties from the pipe walls; this, over time, will thin your pipes and cause small leaks, which in turn, stops your bath from filling to capacity as water can easily escape into your home instead of flowing directly to your bathtub.
Rust is a significant danger to your bathtub if you have a steel or iron tub. Accumulating rust over time can eat away at the metal, causing minor holes that lead to significant plumbing leaks. This will cause water to pool beneath your bath, potentially damaging the structures in your home.
You should always act fast to treat the first signs of rust and call a qualified plumber in Oshawa to conduct vital maintenance work on your bath and pipes to stop the damaging effects of rust and corrosion.
Your Bathtub Is Clogged
Anyone with long or chemically treated hair will tell you that clogging their shower drain is one of the most annoying parts of showering and bathing. Although we think that we’ve successfully removed all the hair from the drain in one sweep, hair accumulates much further down the drain over time.
This is a big problem over time as grease and hair will start to clog your drain and stop water from flowing through the pipes correctly. This will cause water to find alternative routes to escape. Unfortunately, not even placing a drain stopper will help in this scenario. Other non-dissolvable objects can also become lodged in your shower drain and cause significant problems.
Old hair ties, shower bottle caps, razor heads and other plastic objects will clog drains and act as a stopping object for hair and grease to accumulate over time. If you need plumbing services in Oshawa to remove this type of clog, you can contact a plumber from Caldwell Plumbing.
Water Temperature Changes
Pipes are made of metal, making them extremely susceptible to problems as a result of water temperature changes. Hot and cold temperatures will cause the pipes to expand and contract.
While this isn’t a problem immediately, over time, this will cause connections or drain seals to loosen. This provides water with an escape route and stops your bathtub from filling properly.
If you notice that you have very low water pressure, you should call a qualified plumber in Oshawa to inspect our pipes to find a leak or loose connection, as this could be your culprit.
The Drain Stopper Isn’t Working
For those of you that don’t have a simple plastic bath drain stopper that you manually insert into the hole, you might be experiencing a faulty drain stopper with a broken or disconnected spring or linkage.
Your drain stopper is attached to a lever that controls when to hold bath water and when to release it. If the drain stopper disconnects from the spring, then the drain stopper will not form enough of a seal to stop water from draining down to the pipes.
If you have a manual drain stopper with a linkage, you may also experience problems. Over time, this plastic stopper may shrink or start to crumble, causing minor leaks that allow water to drain from the tub quickly.
Although this is one of the most common issues with baths, this tends to be the easiest to fix. You can simply replace the stopper or call a plumber in Oshawa to replace the spring for your drain stopper.
If You Are Looking For A Professional Plumber In Oshawa To Help You With Your Bathroom Plumbing, Call Caldwell Plumbing Today!
If you notice that your bath is suddenly not holding water as it’s supposed to, it’s time to call a professional plumber from Caldwell Plumbing to help you! We have extensive experience fixing and maintaining bathtubs to ensure you can enjoy a long hot bath as many times as you like.
We can help to mitigate serious issues like major leaks, as well as conduct maintenance work like drain unblocking to stop minor issues from becoming serious over time.
We’re proud to serve every customer in Durham Region and the surrounding areas, so don’t hesitate if you’re looking for amazing plumbing in Oshawa. Contact us today to find out how we can help you!
