All homeowners will have to deal with tough clogged drains at some point. It’s just something that comes with the territory when you own a home. There are many better ways to unclog a drain, including methods that won’t damage your pipes, and although it may be simple and tempting to grab for liquid drain cleaning, there are many other techniques that are far more effective.
The expert plumbers list some of their favorite drain unclogging techniques, many of which involve the use of items commonly found around the home.
Routine Drain Maintenance Tips
Keeping your kitchen sink draining smoothly doesn’t have to be rocket science. Regular preventive steps can help you avoid future blockages (and emergency plumber calls). Here are a couple of simple routines to adopt:
- Flush With Hot Water: Make it a habit to pour very hot water down your kitchen sink at least once a week. This helps melt away potential buildup (like lurking grease and stubborn food particles) clinging to the inside of your pipes.
- Vinegar Rinse: Once in a while, send a cup of vinegar down the drain. Let it sit for about half an hour to break down any organic gunk starting to collect, then follow up with a generous rinse of steaming hot water.
When it comes to dirty dishes, there’s a right way to prep them for the dishwasher:
- Scrape off leftover food and rinse dishes with cold water before loading them up. Cold water keeps any residual grease solid, so it’s less likely to stick around in your pipes.
- Avoid rinsing with warm or hot water, which melts grease into a liquid that may seem vanquished—until it cools down and stubbornly coats the inside of your drain lines, setting the stage for future clogs.
By sticking with these small habits, you’ll keep things flowing freely and sidestep those nasty kitchen sink backups.
Water Should Be Boiled
The first piece of advice we have is also the simplest: just bring a pot of boiling water or hot tap water. As soon as it is ready, pour it down the blocked drain in shifts. Wait a few seconds in between each rinse to give the hot water time to perform its job of dislodging and flushing away muck and filth. If you’re dealing with a particularly stubborn clog, try filling the sink with very hot water and letting it sit for an hour or two. The weight and pressure of the water itself may help push the blockage through. Sometimes, a little patience and a lot of hot water are all you need.
Once it is ready, pour it down the clogged drain in shifts. This simple (and low-cost) trick may clear the drain of the vast majority of obstructions, however, it is possible that you will need to carry out the technique more than once to entirely remove the clog.
If you suspect that grease is the culprit, you can add some vinegar to the very hot water. Let the mixture sit for several minutes to give it time to melt and loosen any greasy buildup. Afterward, use a cup plunger to gently force water through the pipe—this may help move the clog along. You might need to repeat this process a couple of times for really tough blockages.
Handling Grease Clogs in Your Kitchen Sink
If you think your kitchen sink is suffering from a grease clog, there’s a simple approach you can take before reaching for specialty cleaners. Start by mixing a generous amount of hot water with vinegar—both staples you likely have in your pantry. Pour this blend down the drain to help break up and melt the greasy buildup lurking in your pipes.
Give the solution a few minutes to loosen the clog, then follow up with a plunger to nudge the blockage along. You might need to repeat this process a time or two for particularly stubborn grease, but it’s a safe and effective technique that won’t harm your pipes.
Wire Hangar
The use of a wire hanger, which can be found in most closets, is yet another uncomplicated method that may be used successfully to unclog a drain. Then, straighten it out as much as you can, and then make a little hook with one of the ends.
Throw your line down the drain, and the hook should get caught in the hair and other things that have gathered there. Remove the hanger, wipe the hook off, and then feed it down the drain in a serpentine motion until it stops pulling stuff up. After you are finished, you should flush the drain with hot water to remove any debris that may still be there.
For a bit of extra effectiveness, consider making this a part of your regular bathroom cleaning routine—once a month is a good rhythm. If you’re not a fan of the classic hanger, tools like the Drain Weasel work, too. Regardless of the tool, the goal is to pull out all the hair and gunk that’s been lurking down there.
And don’t neglect the pop-up stoppers in your sink or tub. Lift them out, remove any collected debris, and give them a good scrub with an old toothbrush before rinsing and putting them back in place. Little steps like these keep your drains running clear and your bathroom routine blissfully uneventful.
Cleaning and Maintaining Pop-Up Stoppers
Bathroom sink and tub drains often slow down thanks to buildup around pop-up stoppers. To keep things flowing smoothly, lift the stopper straight out from the drain. You’ll likely spot hair or soap scum clinging to it—just pull off anything you see.
Scrub the stopper thoroughly with an old toothbrush, making sure to get into all the tricky crevices where grime likes to hide. Give it a good rinse under warm water before popping it back into place. Regularly maintaining your stoppers like this can help prevent clogs and keep your drains running clear.
Baking Soda with Vinegar
Baking soda and vinegar, when used together, have a cleaning effect on drains that is comparable to that of liquid drain cleaners, but they are gentler on the pipes and thus makes it an effective homemade drain cleaner. Combine in a mixing bowl a 1/4 cup of baking soda and a third of a cup of vinegar.
It is critical that you pour the solution down the blocked drain as soon as possible so that you do not miss out on the benefits of the reaction that just took place. The result will fizz practically instantly. Before you run hot water down the drain, let everything at least an hour to sit (for the greatest outcome, leave it for the whole night if you can); otherwise, just skip this step
Baking soda and Table salt
Baking soda and salt, when mixed together, produce a chemical reaction that loosens even the most stubborn clogs in a drain. This method is similar to the one described in the preceding tip.
Blend together a half cup of salt and a half cup of baking soda, then pour the solution into the pipe that is blocked. After allowing the mixture to settle for at least 15 minutes.
rinse everything well with water that has been brought to a boil.
If you have followed these steps and are still having issues with water backups or clogged drains contact a professional. Our crew is capable of doing a wide range of tasks, including the cleaning of drains and sewage lines, as well as the treatment of water and the installation of fixtures. We use cutting-edge materials and are dedicated to performing each task correctly the very first time.
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