Is There a Eco-Friendly Alternative to Caustic Drain Cleaners?
by John Laumer, Philadelphia on 01.17.06
One of our readers posed this very question. We imagine it's a common one, especially for anyone who has just read the label on a bottle of caustic drain cleaner. If kitchen drain plugging is a regular problem, a pencil or other object in the drain pipe could be the 'root cause'. Also, some plastic plumbing parts are made with interior tangs that snag things. You may need a plumber or an experienced friend to help disassemble, examine, and possibly replace some parts. More after the fold.
The single most important plugging prevention step in the kitchen is to stop putting grease down the drain. Even a tablespoon of bacon fat now and then, especially when the tap water is cold, is a cause of plugging problems. Save some old jars or cans and keep them handy for waste fats. When the jar is full, screw the lid on tight and toss it in the trash.
If you share a kichen and are not able to control the cooking habits of others, it is helpful to occasionally pour a pan of boiling water down the drain to help remove the beginnings of a grease plug.
Once a drain has stopped, try a small rubber plunger. They are cheap and effective at freeing vegetable matter caused backups. CAUTION: if the drain pipes are corroded and old, and especially if they are leaky, efforts to unplug with a plunger or any pressure generating or mechanical snaking device is likely to burst the corroded pipe and dump a sink-worth of filthy water at your feet and on downstairs neighbors. This is why the plumbing intervention is listed first.
Never put large amounts of vegetable peelings or seeds in a garbage disposal. The result is almost certainly going to be an intractable plug. Better to compost anyway.
If you've done all the above, there's little harm that will come from an occasional shot of sodium hydroxide solution to remove fatty or hair deposits. A properly installed and used drain should only need this treatment rarely. Buy it in a small container and "use to completion" so you won't have a bottle sitting around where children can be accidentally exposed.
Bathroom drain plugs are usually hair related. Even with a drain sieve in place, some will slip by and snag around the in-pipe stopper. It's really not so hard to remove the internal drain device and clean it with rag. Gross yes. Hard no. If that's not going to be an option for you, a caustic cleaner is one of the few remaining options.
After years of use a bathtub or shower drain becomes narrowed with condensed soap scum and disgusting hard water precipitates. The narrowing makes for easier plugging. Caustic cleaners will not touch that problem. Enzyme powders can be purchased for this purpose. Be patient. Follow the directions and it will likely reduce the freqency of clogging.
Another common cause of clogging is the intrusion of tree root tips into the discharge line that carries wastewater from your home and into the sewer beneath the street. When that happens, ground-level sinks and toilets slow, with the lowest ones backing up first. Caustic drain cleaners will not touch tree roots. You can buy a bottle of cupric sulfate crystalls to flush down the toilet: that will usually kill the roots off in short order. Or you can hire the "rooter man" to have at it with an electric cutter head on a cable. Ultimately, the root intrusion problem calls for replacement of the connector line.
“If you share a kichen and are not able to control the cooking habits of others, it is helpful to occasionally pour a pan of boiling water down the drain to help remove the beginnings of a grease plug.”
We had been pouring boiling water down the sink and after a while it melted the plastic pipes. The plumber said if you have plastic pipes run cold water when pouring out boiling water.
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I checked an MSDS online and it indicated softening was possible when the pvc pipe was warmed to over 80 degrees C (about 175F). If this is typical, your admonition is correct. Boiling water in metal pipes only people. Hot water (below 175F) would be approprite in plastic pipes. Better still, keep out the grease!
One Second Plumber might do the trick. I've never tried this product, but it uses only air to blast clogs out of drains. There is an obvious downside to this, in that if the clog won't move, you may end up making a bigger mess involving bursting pipes.
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Pressure shooters were left out of original post because I was worried about inviting people to inadvertently cause a decoupling of the pressure-fit drain joints. Unless everything is properly snugged and in perfect shape it would well be a blow out like you say. Besides, you can use a small plunger to get a similar effect but with lower pressures, as long as you can seal the second interconnected drain mouth while you plunge on the other.
or use one of those whirly wires... whirl it down offending drain until it hits blockage then wriggle it in, wind it back up & exclaim at what you've caught! Only a problem if there's a bend in the pipe that you can't get around. The enzyme powders can cause stone like blockages, especilly if u use too much or too frequent. Avoidance, plungers & whirly wire gadget thingo are the best options. Or move house.
Seen the compressed air cans but haven't tried it. Some drains are difficult to block with air or plunger if they have secondary air holes in sink or elsewhere (pain).
i experimented with liberal doses of vinegar left overnight to see if, beign acidic, it might help to dissolve the more alkaline(?) soap scum & bacterial cities and other random gromits, but dont think it helped, it was probably a dumb idea. Using natural products might allow more scum to grow rather than using toxic avenger soaps n stuff!?
You can also just don some rubber gloves, put a bucket underneath the pipes, un-do the pipes, and manually take out the hair and gunk that is causing the stoppage. When putting it all back together again, if you don't over tighten the pipes, you can do this manoeuvre in a few minutes.
Before a drain gets really plugged, dust lots of bicarbonate of soda down the hole, sloosh it down with vinegar and listen to it fizzing its way down the tubes. Be generous with these cleaners, they're cheap. Leave overnight if possible and then pour boiling/very hot water down (depending on pipe material).
Tip from about.com's frugal living section which has loads of things to do with vinegar, bicarb and stuff. Ecological clothes washing powder, frinstance.
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A pH shift toward the basic side (which would come from baking soda) would, by itself, do nothing to solids and is not alkaline enough to dissolve grease. Subsequent addition of vinegar to the baking soda mix in the pipes would re-shift the pH back to neutral or acid side; but that swing too could not touch solids or grease. What MIGHT be happening is that the sudden burst of reaction-liberated bubbles from within a permeable hair clog could dislodge it enough for a subsequent hot flush to move things along. Anyone else tried this?
I have had success with filling the tub or sink full of water, then using a plunger. The weight of the water can help clear out the blockage.
I'm a fan of avoiding the situation to begin with. Save bacon grease and re-use it. Keep a small old coffee can (metal) to dump other grease into and pitch it once a month or so. Brush your hair before you shower to reduce the amount of hair that may go down the drain. As for tree roots, once the problem is remedied, there is a chemical (alas) that can be flushed twice a year to keep the roots at bay. Any type of air can or plunger can cause more trouble in a house with any age.
Before washing greasy plates, pans etc - coat with baking soda then scrape off into the garbage. This will reduce the amount that ends up in the sink - also reduces scrub time significantly.
If you do the plunger thing, make sure you plug the other drains on that line with wet washcloths. If you do not, most of the water that you're trying to send down the pipes to unplug the drain will come shooting out of the other holes.
the acid based drain cleaning products are incredibly nasty. I have a deep scar next to my left eye that was caused by a few tiny drops of liquid plumber. I washed it off immediately, and there was no indication any was left on my skin, but the next day there were 4 little dots which kept getting larger and finally merged into a nickle sized wound. 20 years later, it has barely faded. Obviously, I will never touch anything like that again. Mechanical means only now.
@Eric:
The drain cleaners are not acid based. They are base based. Usually they use sodium hydroxide (NaOH), which is a strong base, not an acid.
. . . but you're right. They are seriously nasty when not neutralized.
However, being caustic is not enough reason for me to shun them entirely; they don't remain potently caustic after they are diluted or neutralized, and the active ingredient is not intrinsically toxic as its parts combine with other items that neutralize it. Sodium Hydroxide neutraizes upon contact with anything that is a proton donor. For example, when contacting hydrochloric acid (such as stomach acid), sodium hydroxide neutralizes into salt water (HCL + NaOH -> NaCl + H2O). Other acids neutralize this strong base into other salts + water.
My suggestion is to never pour grease down the drain, especially grease that will solidify into a plug. Throw it away after it's solidified, or donate it to your local DIY biodiesel collective.
The baking soda + vinegar, then chased with boiling water works well for slow pipes. You need to do it a few times over a week or so, but it works. I suspect it's partly chemical and partly a surfactant action helping to break things up.
I've noticed that the corportate chemical companies are now selling "foaming pipe snake" products or something, imitation=flattery?
I've found that SUCTION works better than pressue to release a clogged drain. I have a rubber plunger with a rubber cone on the bottom that fits into the sink train. I fill the sink with water and insert the cone into the sink. I push down on the plunger at a slight angle so that water is expelled from the side of the bulb as the bulb is compressed. Then I shif the plunger to an upright position so a vacummn seal is formed and lift UP strongly. This lifts the clog a bit and then the water from the filled sink sweeps it away down the drain.
Yes suction is the way to go. I'm a home repair and improvement show junky and both Ed the Plumber and Richard T. from Ask this old house has said this is the correct way to do it. Many of the pipes under your sink are fit togeather with slip joints and can't take too much positive pressure. Using suction with a plunger to dislodge the clog and then flushing with hot (but not too hot) water should do the trick. If that doesn't work undoing the trap and cleaning it out should fix the problem.