The water in the main bathroom vanity has been pooling up and taking a full ten minutes to drain out every time you brush your teeth. It finally got so annoying today that I took a basic plastic drain snake down there to clear out whatever was blocking the pipe. Thought it would be a simple case of pushing the plastic strip down the hole, twisting it around, and pulling the clog out instantly. What an absolute nightmare.
The pop up drain stopper mechanism was completely jammed into the metal collar from years of dried soap scum. Trying to unscrew the horizontal pivot rod underneath the vanity cabinet was a total headache because the metal locking nut was completely corroded solid. I had to wedge my shoulders into the narrow cupboard with a pair of adjustable pliers, slowly twisting the slick metal millimeter by millimeter until the rod finally slid out of the plastic ball joint.
When I finally shoved the flexible plastic snake down into the P trap and pulled it back up, a giant, slimy wad of tangled hair and black sludge came out with it. The smell hitting the room was completely awful, like a stagnant swamp. The clog was so thick and tightly wedged into the pipe curves that the plastic teeth on my drain tool actually snapped off right inside the line, meaning I had to use needle nose pliers just to fish the broken plastic pieces out of the drain hole.
The pipe is completely clear now and the water drains away instantly the second you turn on the faucet. The horizontal pivot rod is screwed back into the ball joint tightly and the pop-up stopper moves up and down freely without any leaking underneath the basin. The sink pipe runs fine now.