TH Tip: Unclogging the Drain

Thank you Thank you Thank you. I keep looking for better ways of solving problems with out chemicals.

Major things that i am aware of are clogged sinks, and insects.

Here is another solution: Fill the sink or bathtub full of water (cold will do). Once filled, the weight of the water will help push out the clog. To speed things along, block the overflow drain with a cloth, and use a plunger.

I once did this with a tub that was totally blocked even after we had tried chemicals. We filled the tub. The water just sat there for about an hour, and then suddenly the dam broke and the tub quickly drained.

For slow leaks, I first plug the sink or tub, then fill it with water, then open the plug and plung.

For sinks with built-in plugs, you can take apart the mechanism and pull out the plug assembly. I did this at my sister's place and pulled out a long clump of hair and stuff.

No chemical will work as effectively as a $30 drain clearing "snake" that you can buy at your local hardware store (I got mine at Home Depot - available in 25ft - 50ft sizes).

I have cleared my drains dozens of times with it. You just push the snake (a thick wire with a bulb at the end) into the drain. When it hits a curve in the drain pipe, you can twist the snake to get past it. The moment it hits the obstruction, it's all over.

Chemicals, toxic or not, will never to the same job as simply removing the obstruction by force.

If you want to go cheap and avoid chemicals for those really bad hair clogs, there's no better thing than Zip-It. My wife and I foudn these a while ago and keep a few on hand.

They're barbed, plastic strips that really pull out anything. It can get a litte nasty.

I try to reuse them, but they can tend to get nasty, which means they end up in the trash. (Not sure if they're recycleable or not.) But one strip will clean every drain in the house if you time it correctly.

http://www.zipitclean.com/

I second the plunger. It works fantastically on my kitchen sink when I overload the drain with carrot shavings. I haven't had to use it on the bathroom yet.

Also check out Roebics line of bacterial treatment products

You can find them at your big box home improvement store.

Lot's of good tips in the comments above. I recently asked my plumber what he thought the best method was. His response was Boiling Water. Supposedly the chemicals in drain-o and others will actually harden the materials blocking your pipes, making a call a plumber more inevitable.

Desperate to get my tub drain running again, (of course it clogged the day before my mother arrived to stay with us!) I tried the baking soda, vinegar, boiling water method twice. At first, it seemed like it was not working, but the next morning, voila! A most wonderful, clog-free shower. I am a true believer in the wonders of baking soda and vinegar for household cleaning.

I've found some other great tips on Worldwatch's site, at http://www.worldwatch.org/node/1484.

Okay now. I just tried this on my tub. The drain has been slow for the last 5 years despite being snaked and the occasional use of drano.

I put one cup of baking soda in, and then put the vinegar in. I clamped the plunger over the drain so it would go down and not up. Suddenly, my drain goes down 10 times faster. I kid you not.

For good measure, I took Tait's advice and poured boiling water down.

Now, my chronically drano resistant slow drain works like there was never a problem.

I feel like I missed a memo somewhere not knowing something so simple.

Not all methods are guaranteed to work. But the snake is the best, a bit messy but the best.

Call me geeky, but I was trying everything, including plunger, baking soda and vinegar, ect. Then I took my bike pump and slipped a valve from a used bike tube through a stopper from the back. Start pumping, soon enough that clog will be history. Also I have found that this method seems to do a better job than anything else I have tried , better flow.

Call me geeky, but I was trying everything, including plunger, baking soda and vinegar, ect. Then I took my bike pump and slipped a valve from a used bike tube through a stopper from the back. Start pumping, soon enough that clog will be history. Also I have found that this method seems to do a better job than anything else I have tried , better flow.

Why is vinegar more environmentally friendly than lye? I use the snake too, that works really well for the toilet but my sink and tub drain plugs are hard to get out so I normally use lye. It normally only takes a tablespoon to do the job.

Lye, or sodium hydroxide is a strong base. It is extremely energetically favorable for it to release its -OH group and deprotonate anything in the vicinity that can better disperse its negative charge. In the case of drain clogs that substance may be congealed fats and oils which become water soluble salts. Lye's toxicity lies in its high reactivity but it is mostly harmless when diluted with a sufficient amount of water. The reaction produces a lot of heat which may also help to loosen the clog.

This version is a little less gradeschool chemistry, but also helps:

When I have a problem drain, I make it a point to pour out left-over soda in that drain. If I have guests over who have tastes that differ from mine, or if I just can't finish a soda, it goes into the bad drain.

Between the CO2 and the acids, it'll help keep the drain open.

I use SCD Bio Klean. uses natural microbes to eat up gunk. helps with stink too. all-natural. no chemicals, and when it makes its way to rivers it continues helping the natural ecology. i hate chemicals too. this stuff is a great maintenance tool.

"Thank you Thank you Thank you. I keep looking for better ways of solving problems with out chemicals."

Then what, if not chemicals, are baking soda and vinegar?

Are you implying that those two ingredients are chemicals? You haven't done your research. Simply google "vinegar" or "baking soda." Both are natural.

Yes, they are chemicals, although naturally occuring chemicals. Baking soda is calcium bicarbonate. Check http://www.chemistryquestion.com/English/Questions/ChemistryInDailyLife/4c_baking_soda.html for chemical properties of baking soda.

keyword: "natural"

"Are you implying that those two ingredients are chemicals?"

Was I being too subtle? Here, I'll spell it out: vinegar is a chemical compound and baking soda is a chemical.

Are you implying that baking soda (sodium bicarbonate), and vinegar (acetic acid - the subtance of interest) are not chemicals? If so, then what are they?

You should also be aware that by innocently combining sodium bicarbonate and acetic acid, you eventually create a salt called sodium acetate -- another chemical. The solution also creates, as byproducts, dihydrogen monoxide (a very dangerous chemical), and carbon dioxide.

As we all know, carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas. Clearly, by mixing vinegar and baking soda, you run the risk of ending civilization as we know it. Do you really want that on your conscience?

"You haven't done your research."

Well, apparently one of us hasn't.

"Simply google "vinegar" or "baking soda."

Will that tell me something my gradeschool chemistry class didn't?

"Both are natural."

So are cyanide and the Black Plague. Does that mean they are harmless? In any case, both commercial vinegar and sodium bicarbonate are the products of industrial chemical processes -- which is perfectly natural.

I use SCD Bio Klean. uses natural microbes to eat up gunk. helps with stink too. all-natural. no chemicals, and when it makes its way to rivers it continues helping the natural ecology. i hate chemicals too. this stuff is a great maintenance tool.

Is releasing bio agents any better than chemicals? Especially if they don't belong in an ecosystem? By the time it reaches the rivers it will be water, I sure hope your waste water municipality doesn't let it reach the river.

Well I'm glad we have some scientists in the house! And clearly with some time on their hands. You'd better write to this young lady and tell her she's incorrect for even thinking of posting this. And I guess her magazine source is lying then too...

I too am peeved by the ignorance I see here. People rant all the time about the dismal state of American science education, but don't realize it when they are a part of the problem.

FYI, water, carbon dioxide, vinegar, and baking soda ARE ALL CHEMICALS. I hate the irrational fear of anything labeld a "chemical".

With that said, let me point out that Drano is NaOH, which is sodium hydroxide. Sodium is natural. (It actually is; I guarantee it.) The hydroxide of sodium is natural as well; it used to be derived from ashes; that's what lye is, and believe it or not, lye is totally natural.

What people are afraid of is whether it is toxic or not. Rest assured, it is not the toxicity that you should be concerned with; sodium is not toxic, nor is the hydroxide part. Drano won't kill you because it is toxic; what it will do is burn you badly. That is different from toxicity, which describes whether or not it will poison you. It is the fact that it is caustic that makes it dangerous. But that's exactly why you use it to clear clogs. When it's done doing it's job, you end up with a salty dissolved-clog that can rinse away. In fact, vinegar is also caustic, just less so and slower acting.

Lye is natural and has been used by people for thousands of years. Don't freak the hell out because it's a "chemical". It's not even a synthetic chemical. It's behavior like that which gives the environmental community the bad reputation of attracting prefer-to-fear folk who balk at anything that sounds remotely "chemical".

For your illumination, please read this Wikipedia entry on Lye:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lye

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sodium_hydroxide

BTW, if you're wondering why the Wikipedia entry's description of how Lye is made doesn't sound old fashioned enough to have been in use for thousands of years, you're right. In the old days, they used inefficient methods for obtaining the same material, usually involving extracting lye from ashes. The new methods for efficiently obtaining lye don't make it anything different. When it's done doing it's job dissolving clogs, it is neutralized, and no longer caustic.

And guess what? Lye (or Drano or anything that uses NaOH) won't make your drains more likely to clog, as someone said. Your plumber lied to you, or was simply ignorant of the matter. They use a strong base such as Drano rather than a strong acid because the strong base is less likely to damage the piping, which is more sensitive to acid corrosion than to corrosion by bases.

Cool: The sort of old timey lore of my mother and grandmother's age - how to use things you have around the house for other practical purposes. Whether or not Drano is a "chemical" or "toxic" or otherwise dangerous, its pretty much a specialized product with a narrow range of uses, though I've heard tell it can be used by the pharmaceutical hobbyist! Vinegar and baking soda have multiple uses, alone and in combination with other things.

Uncool: extremism. This post went from educational, useful, and even fun, to being a rant on, of all things, definitions of words.

I'd really appreciate a lot more of the first and a lot less of the second.

This month's Consumer Reports did a review of the various devices and chemicals available and just trashed the chemical options. They said mechanical plungers, snakes, and water pressure systems (all affordable, ie

Just a reminder, that everything including baking soda and vinegar is a chemical. By mixing these two compounds together creates a neutral solution with a pH close to 7. The bubbles formed have no abrasive properties against clogs. Thus the cases stating they used baking soda/vinegar methods most likely mean there was more vinegar than baking soda which would bring a solution to pH 4-5. Adding it multiple times would unclog a drain.

Study diligently.
Think Critically.
Then draw your own conclusions.

-BN

I agree with the scientific perspective. I wish people would stop jumping on the natural bandwagon. Maybe the "natural: alternatives do work, but we close our eyes to the fact that they are still chemical compounds. that said everything in moderation shouldn't destroy civilization as we know it.

ps. The way the word natural is being used on this forum, is no different than the crap they sell to us with the words all natural written on the box.

Okay, so we are reminded that baking soda and vinegar are natural chemicals. Still, comparing them to cyanide and Black Plague? An effort to prove a point which (I feel) is beyond the point. The point is that vinegar and baking soda are common food-grade chemicals that we often ingest and though they surely have their potential to be dangerous, they are roughly non-toxic.

Put baking soda in one loaf of bread. Put Clorox in another. Put lye in another. And put cyanide in another. If they're all chemicals...

I agree, that there is a "natural" bandwagon now that it is suddenly profitable and hip to be "green." And I agree, everything in moderation. Still, all educated and assumed arguments aside, I can't help feeling much better about using baking soda and vinegar than Lysol. If someone wants to get into an intellectual discussion about how Lysol is just as much a chemical as baking soda and vinegar, I'm going to cry "semantics!" and then go pour my vinegar down the drain.

To unclog a bathroom sink drain, I've found the quickest way is to pull the stopper up and clean off all the hair attached to it. The trick is to get the stopper back in correctly, which takes some wiggling around to do. Thanks for all your comments.

Very clever, Anonymous:

"dihydrogen monoxide (a very dangerous chemical)"

Dihydrogen monoxide is a fancy word for water (i.e., H2O).

You should spend your time doing more productive things...

Hi-
I just did a google search to arrive at this thread, as I've had a clogged drain for a couple of months and my tried and true method of scalding hot water had not cured it, in fact, it just seemed to have gotten worse. The hot water trick I learned from reading Peter Hotten's column, if you know who he is.

I don't know why I didn't search sooner!! This was the first hit, and I used the advice here, and I am telling you I just unclogged my drain in 10 minutes using this advice!! I don't even have any vinegar in the house, I just used the baking soda. I then took the advice to use the plug that comes wiht the tub to sort of "plunge the drain" a bit (I do not have a plunger either), and then I filled the tub ... and after a few minutes, the floodgates opened. It was music to my ears!!!

Insofar as the debate between "natural" and "chemical" .let me tell you younguns that the precurser to "natural" was just plain old FRUGAL. Some of us have used "natural" remedies at home to save money, and it has nothing to do with the environment years ago, we just did it because it was practical, cheap and seemed less harsh on the plumbing or other parts of the house. "Natural" remedies are much more gentle.

Anyhow, thank you to those who contributed. I am here to give my testimonial that this advice works!!

I heard on radio product that could keep drains free of hair and that it was a cloth. Your page is confusing and can you tell me about thqt product

I had a blocked drain in my tub today and my husband was ready to go buy some Drano. I told him to wait and let me try the baking soda/vinegar method described here. While I was working, my 18 month old son wandered into the bathroom. I did not realize how closely he was standing behind me, and I stumbled into him and spilled a jar of foaming baking soda/vinegar right on the top of his head (and also over my own hands and legs). My first thought was: "My God, what if I had been using Drano!?!?" A little water on my son's face and head, a change of pants for me, and all is well. The clog is cleared, and the bathtub is also sparkling clean. Thank you so much for sharing this article - you may have saved my child from blindness and/or painful injuries!