You probably use your kitchen sink drain every single day. It processes food scraps, soap, garbage disposal rejects, and more. Consequently, your kitchen sink gets dirty quickly and frequently. Dirty kitchen drains are kitchen drains that clog up. Clogged kitchen drains are drains you can’t use. That’s a big problem.
Luckily, this big problem isn’t terribly difficult to avoid. All you have to do is remember to clean out your kitchen sink’s drain every once in a while. We can help with that. This is everything you need to know to clean your kitchen sink drain as effectively as possible.
How should I clean my kitchen drains?
These are the two simplest, easiest, and most effective ways you can clean a kitchen sink’s drain. If your sink’s drain is really dirty, we recommend trying both in succession. The next time you clean your kitchen drain, try:
- Flushing the drain. First, boil three cups of water. Pour the hot water down the drain. Be careful! Avoid splashing and steam. Boiling hot water will help loosen up any gunk in the drain and, hopefully, wash it away. After pouring the boiling water down the drain and letting it sit for a minute, follow it up by pouring just as much cold water down the drain. That will help remove any remaining debris or grease. Repeat the process a few times if you want to make especially sure you’ve cleared things.
- Using a mixture of vinegar and baking soda. Pour a cup of baking soda in your drain and then follow it with four cups of distilled white vinegar. When they come in contact with one another, the white vinegar and baking soda will start a reaction that fizzes and foams. That fizzing and foaming will work its way down your drain, clearing away debris as it goes. Run water down the drain for a little while afterward to clear anything else away.
What shouldn’t I do when cleaning my kitchen drains?
The number one thing you shouldn’t do when cleaning your kitchen drain (or any drain really) is use a chemical drain cleaner. Liquid drain cleaners are toxic, damaging, and barely ever do what they’re supposed to. The chemicals in drain cleaners produce fumes that can cause lung, throat, and nose irritation. The acidic chemicals used in chemical drain cleaners also can’t tell differentiate between clogs and the pipes themselves. They might clear a clog, but they’ll eat away at everything around that clog, too. Conventional chemical drain cleaners wear away your pipes until they develop holes or leaks. Use something else.
When should I call a professional for drain cleaning assistance?
Sometimes even the best at-home remedies can’t clear especially robust drain clogs. When that happens you need help from the pros. Professional drain cleaning uses more advanced tools and methodology to clear drain clogs. We can clear most clogs using motorized drain augers, or even break out a video pipe inspection and hydro-jetting to determine what’s going on and blast it away. If you can’t clean out your kitchen sink drain, rest assured that we can and will, no matter what’s going on.
If you’re in the market for professional drain cleaning, all you need to do is call the team at Ben Franklin Plumbing. Our well-trained expert technicians are backed by fully stocked trucks and decades of experience. We can help get any of your home’s drains clean, clear, and working properly in no time.