Eliminating Pain in the Drain

By Billy Aldridge

We’ve all been there, trying to put our game face on first thing in the morning, either trying to shave or fix our hair when we hear that annoying sound coming at us from out of the bathroom sink.  Glug, glug, glug.  Or perhaps it last happened to you when you finished doing the dishes and pulled the plug on the kitchen sink only to watch as the water stubbornly refuses to go down.  You know what I’m talking about.  I call it the pain in the drain.  You may have some more colorful ways to describe the situation when it happens to you.  But like it or not, drain clogs come to all of us from time to time.  Sometimes they are the kind that you can unclog them on your own and sometimes they are the stubborn kind that requires professional help to clear. Well fear not, because in the next few minutes I am going to show you the care and feeding of your household drains.

English: Drain cleaner as sold in the hardware shop which contains 99+% NaOH. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

In the first place the worst time to tackle the problem is when the sink is stopped up.  More often than not, t

he pipes will give you subtle warning signs that a stoppage is imminent, by either slowing the outflow of water to a crawl or by making those strange intestinal noises, the ones most humans make after eating either Cajun cuisine or hot chili.  When most people detect either of these problems they usually reach for one of those caustic drain cleaners.  This is their first mistake.  While this kind of product might temporarily open up the drain, it also exposes you to two potential dangers.  The first is a chemical burn you could self-inflict if any of the product gets on you.  The second is erosion of and possible rupture of your pipes that can come from repeated use of these products.

If you want to try a chemical solution to a slow drain, try this no-caustic recipe that’s guaranteed not to burn you or your pipes.  Put ½ cup of baking soda mixed with ¼ cup of salt into the drain.  Follow this by pouring ½ cup of vinegar.  Then let the mixture sit for 20 minutes and then run hot water for a minute followed by cold water for one minute.  While this procedure won’t break up the most stubborn of clogs, it is a recipe used in conjunction with a plunger can improve flow without harming either you or the pipes. 

Send in the Snake

If your sink is completely stopped up and the plunger won’t clear the clog, it’s time to send in the snake.  Known as an auger in the trade, this is the long slender contraption that fits down most drains and is capable of making it around the tight turns in most pipes.  Some augers are meant to be used by hand and others are designed to be attached to a drill or other motorized device.  Just as with caustic cleaners, you want to exercise caution when using power augers.  The last thing you want to do is save some money on a drain cleaning job only to wind up in the ER.

English: Handheld Drain Auger (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Manual augers can be purchased at most any hardware store.  They usually come in 10-foot lengths and have a t-shaped handle at one end and a coiled head at the other.  If the clog is located close to the sink, 

manual augers can be a godsend.  By simply threading the snake down the drain and turning the handle these handy helpers are designed to grab and retrieve hairballs, grease wads and other yuck that’s situated in the first few feet of pipe.  However, if the clog isn’t located near the drain you need to be aware that clearing a clog can take as much as 50 feet of cable to reach and is not something that anyone but a professional should attempt.

Preventative Maintenance

Besides, with a little preventative maintenance, you won’t need to call out the plumber so often.  One of the best ways to keep a drain clear and clean is to fill the sink once per month to the top with hot water and a couple of drops of dish detergent.  Once the sink is full, pull the plug and allow the hot water to run full tilt with the water still running until the sink empties.  You will know that you have a happy drain if you see that little water spout come up in the middle of the sink followed by a sound not unlike my nephew finishing off the last of his slurpy.  That means that your pipes are able to handle the flow. You can also use the homemade drain cleaner that I told you about above as a monthly maintenance measure as well.  After all, clean pipes are happy pipes.

Next week I am going to show you how to clean out the cleanouts in my latest DIY video.  So stay tuned and be safe.  Always wear goggles and gloves when handling any caustic substances.  No pain in the drain is worth a hospital stay.

Billy Aldridge is one of the Doctors of Plumbology at Aldridge and Sons Plumbing in Jacksonville, Florida.  Visit his site at http://plumbing-jacksonville-fl.com for even more helpful hints and DIY videos.