Dropped valve into 4" drain pipe

askman · 8 Oct 2018

I had a mare at the weekend and dropped an isolating valve, along with about 2" of copper pipe on the bathroom floor where it inevitably rolled into the 40mm boss I've fitted for the bath waste, and into the soil pipe.

The pipe is horizontal so thankfully it's not dropped away, and I can still see it from above.

Any ideas on how I can get it out? It's too small to get my hand into, and I can't get the pliers down into it. Also tried bending a bit of solder to hook into the end but I couldn't wrangle it, so I'm here pleading for some help! Sadly copper isn't magnetic either...

rsgaz · 8 Oct 2018

Vacuum cleaner with a hose?

JohnD · 8 Oct 2018

There's a pickup tool with a spring claw on the end of a sort of Bowden cable. There is a button on the user end to open the claw. I think I got mine in Halfords or somewhere like that.

Difficult to find as searching mostly shows the magnetic or the invalid ones.

How far down the pipe is it?

edit

https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_...w=pickup+tool+-magnetic+-magnet+-gem&_sacat=0

askman · 8 Oct 2018

rsgaz said:
Vacuum cleaner with a hose?

Good idea. I'll give that a go.

JohnD said:
There's a pickup tool with a spring claw on the end of a sort of Bowden cable. There is a button on the user end to open the claw. I think I got mine in Halfords or somewhere like that.

Difficult to find as searching mostly shows the magnetic or the invalid ones.

How far down the pipe is it?

edit

https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_...w=pickup+tool+-magnetic+-magnet+-gem&_sacat=0

The top of the boss is level with the floor, and it's sitting in the bottom of the pipe so it's approx 6-7" away below the floor, but it's pretty much straight down. If I had access to a very small child (careful what I'm saying here...), they could probably just reach in and pick it up.

I like the tool you've linked but I could do without hunting for a new tool as I need to get to get the pipework done tonight, complete with my AWOL valve. I'm going to try a thin piece of timber with a clip on the end and try to press that onto the pipe section. Getting the clip that I dropped in there before is going be another issue...

Ian H · 8 Oct 2018

Flush the toilet, you will never see it again.

bernardgreen · 8 Oct 2018

This might work. Use the blue pipe to inflate the balloon and then with the balloon inflated lift the blue pipe up. The copper should come up with it.

askman · 8 Oct 2018

bernardgreen said:
This might work. Use the blue pipe to inflate the balloon and then with the balloon inflated lift the blue pipe up. The copper should come up with it.
View attachment 149871

I was thinking of something similar actually, but not sure I'll be able to get the balloon into the end of the copper tube.

askman · 8 Oct 2018

Ian H said:
Flush the toilet, you will never see it again.

Oh but to have the luxury of a toilet at the moment...

garyo · 9 Oct 2018

what about a length of dowel with a dab of superglue on it. You'll need some wiggleability though, so start by putting the superglue on a separate wooden tip that's tethered to the end of the dowel with some string, and then held in place with bluetack just enough so that you can press it on to the valve for the 5 seconds it takes the glue to set.

askman · 9 Oct 2018

I got it with a long bit of wood and a clip screwed to the end. Thanks for the suggestions guys.

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Dropped valve into 4" drain pipe

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