How to get a stuck broken plumbing drain piece out
Plastic slip nuts and broken drain pieces often get stuck or stripped during replacement despite using pliers, belts, or picks. This prevents the old connections from coming loose and stops you from finishing the repair.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
- 1Using magic pipe putty
- 2Applying pipe dope
- 3Supergluing the broken piece back on
- 4Replacing the part entirely
- 5using tongue and groove pliers
- 6using a strap wrench
- 7using an old belt
- 8cutting the nut and replacing the trap
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“The left slip nut will turn just fine but I can’t get the right one off. I’ve been using tongue and groove pliers and twisting clockwise and it’s getting to the point where the plastic ridges are wearing down.”source ↗
“Trying to replace drain was going to pop this off and a piece broke I’m trying to get that piece out right now with pick but it won’t budge”source ↗
“Tried turning it in the opposite direction but it didn’t work. Is there any chance the people who installed it would’ve sealed it for some reason?”source ↗
“Didn’t have a strap wrench so I used an old belt but still didn’t budge”source ↗