How to unclog your sink drains
So, your pipes are clogged. No big deal; it happens all the time, and it doesn’t mean you did anything wrong. Particles of grease, hair, oils, soaps, detergents, dead skin, and all sorts of other stuff flow down your showers, sinks, toilets, bathtubs, and every other drain pretty much every day. Over time, all this assorted sludge and grime will build up along the inner walls of your pipes and can eventually create a clog.
Obviously, you want to clear this clog. The question is how to go about it. There are lots of options you have at your disposal, and they are NOT all created equal. You should start with a plunger made for the type of drain you’re dealing with. If the plunger doesn’t do the trick, you have two more options: a chemical cleaning agent or a plumber’s snake. But which should you use on this particular clog?
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Chemical Drain Cleaner
When choosing a chemical drain cleaner, the most important thing is to choose one that will be safe and effective. There are a huge variety of chemical cleaners available, but a lot of them contain harmful or even toxic chemicals that can be dangerous to interact with and harsh on your plumbing. If you’ve ever been around a chemical drain cleaner before, you probably remember how they tend to sting the eyes. Make sure you use gloves whenever handling chemical cleaners, and consider goggles as well.
We know we don’t have to say this, but DO NOT drink chemical drain cleaning solutions. Your plumbing isn’t quite as resilient as your home’s. Chemical cleaners use acid, bleach, lye, or other caustic materials to generate heat and break away the buildup that causes clogs. That heat can also eat away at the pipes themselves. You don’t want to try to fix a clog and end up with a leaky pipe!
What to use instead of Drano
The most famous chemical cleaner is probably Drano, but for the reasons we mentioned above, Benjamin Franklin Plumbing doesn’t recommend that product. You need a cleaner that will solve your immediate clog problem without creating bigger problems in the future. When we use a drain unclogger liquid, we go with BioBen.
BioBen is a natural biological drain line, which means that unlike Drano or similar substances, it doesn’t use harmful or caustic chemicals to clean out your clogs. Instead, BioBen introduces naturally occurring bacteria into your pipes. This bacteria eats the kind of grime that builds up inside pipes, clearing it away without harming the actual walls of the pipe. It’s considerably safer and more environmentally friendly than traditional chemical drain pipe cleaners.
Know how to use drain cleaner
Whichever cleaner you end up going with, do some research on that specific brand. After that, read the instructions and follow them carefully. Make sure you take your time and take all the proper precautions. Using chemical cleaners may feel routine, but that’s part of why you should be careful; most car accidents, for example, happen in neighborhoods those involved are familiar with.
Chemical cleaners work best on the sorts of clogs that occur from build-up. They’re designed to eat away the grime that accumulates from regular usage. If you have a naturally occurring clog that you suspect is close to the top of the pipe, near the drain, a chemical cleaner should be perfectly effective at treating it. Chemical products tend to become less effective the further away the clog is from the point of entry. They also won’t be effective against tree roots or other solid items clogging your pipes.
If you suspect that something lodged in your drain is the cause of the clog, you probably should skip the chemical cleaner and try a more invasive solution. Chemical cleaners can be a good first-pass at clearing clogs as long as you use the right one and follow the instructions. If the cleaner proves ineffective, you still have other options. If it does work, it’s the quickest, easiest, and (usually) cheapest solution.
Plumber’s Snake
Use a plumber’s snake when a plunger or chemical cleaner isn’t doing the trick. Plumber snakes are made of a long, thin and flexible length of metal wire, usually around ¼-inch thick and tightly coiled. At one end of the snake is a handle and crank. At the other end is an auger (it’s that corkscrew-looking thing). You thread the auger end into the drain you want to snake. Continue to push the snake further into the drain until you hit an obstruction. This may be a bend in the pipe or a clog. Either way, rotate the handle clockwise to spin the auger head to maneuver it forward.
Keep uncoiling the snake further down the pipe until you think you’ve found the clog. Keep rotating, but yank up on the snake every now and then to see if you can “catch” the clog in the auger and remove it. Keep working the clog this way until you feel it breaking up. When you remove the snake from the drain, do so slowly so you don’t lose the crud you’re pulling out. If that happens, you’ll be back at square one! After the snake is out, pour some water down the drain to check on whether or not it’s still clogged.
Drain Snake vs Drano
As far as home solutions, the snake is your strongest drain unblocker. It can be very helpful to keep a plumber’s auger or snake in the house. You have to be a bit more careful with snakes than you would be with a chemical cleaner, however. Make sure you’re not jamming the snake too hard or rotating too violently. If you do it wrong, you could scrape up the inside of your pipes and damage their integrity.
The other main disadvantage of a plumber’s snake is it doesn’t always fully break up or remove the clog. Sometimes, the best the auger at the end of the snake can do is push a hole through the clog. That leaves behind part of the clog, which means it’s free to build up and clog again. Using a snake is also more invasive and time-consuming than using a chemical cleaner is, and can often become a dirty job. When it comes to getting at and removing major clogs or clogs that are deep down in your pipes, however, a plumber’s snake is your best bet.
Drano vs Snake vs Punctual Plumber
If you’ve tried a chemical cleaner and a snake and you still can’t clear out your clog, it’s time to call in the cavalry. Your Benjamin Franklin plumbers have access to yet another tier of clog-clearing technology: hydro jetting pipe rejuvenation. Hydro jetting uses a high-tech type of snake with a video camera installed in it. We put it down into your pipes to see where the problem is and then we blast the obstruction away with highly pressurized jets of hot water. Consider it a kind of clog-clearing “nuclear option.”
If you’re ready for professional help with your clogs, get in touch with Benjamin Franklin Plumbing today. Whether it’s plunging, chemical cleaning, snaking, or awesome techno-hydro blasting, we’ve got the experience and skill necessary to unclog your plumbing and restore your pipes.
