While it is okay to pour boiling water down sink drains, you should never use boiling water in your toilet, as the heat can cause the porcelain to crack. Instead, run your tub until the water is hot and fill a good-sized stockpot or bucket with it.
Pour Hot Water into the Toilet
If you need to heat some in the microwave or the stovetop, you don't want it to reach boiling temperatures. Boiling water can cause toilet porcelain to crack. Allow the hot fluid to sit in the toilet for a few minutes to loosen the clog.
This can melt PVC piping and pipe seals, causing serious damage. In addition, using boiling water to clear a clogged toilet can melt the wax ring around the toilet, or even crack the porcelain bowl, leading to a pricey trip to your favorite hardware store.
Hot Water and Dish Soap
Wait for 10-15 minutes while the dish soap and hot water soften the clog. Once you do so, the toilet will unclog and flush freely. Alternatively, you could use hot water and shampoo from the sink if you wish to clear your toilet without leaving your bathroom.
Pouring boiling water is quite risky as it might lead to a steam burn or scalding. Another thing to keep in mind is what type of material you are pouring in into. If you have a porcelain sink, it is likely to crack due to the heat. All in all, pouring boiling water down your drain will only cause issues down the road.
Ceramics are fired at a temperature above 1,000 degrees and will not crack. Ceramic mugs are usually not cracked, and bone china mugs are no problem, and freshly boiled water is often poured directly.
You can pour the water down the drain without removing the shower drain cover. Do not pour boiling water down PVC pipes, which can be damaged by the heat. This simple fix may or may not work, but it's worth a try. After the boiling water goes down the drain, run some water in the shower to see if the clog has cleared.
Caustic soda is a nasty chemical that can burn, but it's very effective for unclogging toilets. To use this chemical, you need to get some rubber gloves and eye protection. You can pick the chemical from the local hardware or grocery stores. Pour a ¾ gallon of cold water into a bucket, and add 3 cups of caustic soda.
Make your own drain cleaner by pouring one cup of baking soda and two cups of vinegar into the toilet and adding a half gallon of hot water. Dish soap can also help loosen some obstructions. When using either method, allow the solution to sit overnight and then flush the toilet to see if the obstruction has cleared.
In modern houses some of the drain pipes are PVC plastic, and usually the boiling water will just flow through it without causing any damage. But if it goes through the pipe slowly the PVC could the deform.
Bleach is an effective way to deal with blocked toilet drains as it is a dilute solution of sodium hypochlorite and also contains a high chlorine concentration. Using bleach by itself or mixing it with boiling water are effective ways to unclog a toilet.
Avoid Abrasive Cleaning Compounds
It may be tempting to use bleach, hydrogen peroxide, and the like, but it's best to avoid these cleaning agents as much as possible. It's not likely that the chemical compounds above will crack your porcelain toilet, but they can damage the finish of the porcelain.
As it turns out, you can actually unclog a toilet with dish soap instead of turning to a harsh, toxic bowl cleaner. Just as natural dish soap helps break down dirt, grease, and food that may be stuck on dishes and utensils, it can help break down what's in your toilet bowl.
Leave drain as is for about ten minutes, while you bring a couple of gallons of water almost to a boil. Note: Boiling water could crack your toilet bowl, so heat to just under boiling. Carefully pour hot water into the toilet bowl from about waist height to create enough force to push the clog through.
You may just be using it incorrectly. Do this: Next time you have a clog, use your plunger like this: Ensure the flange lip is unfolded. Get a good seal on the toilet drain (that is, make sure you're covering the entire drain or you won't have enough pressure to loosen the clog.)
Coke and Pepsi are loaded with phosphoric acid, which breaks down the buildup that can clog your drains! Phosphoric acid can even remove lime scale and another tough buildup that regular cleaners struggle with. This is an effective and refreshing home remedy if we ever saw one!
When you are using a baking soda and vinegar solution to clean out your drain, you are actually causing the rubber and plastic that are used for the drain's pipes to be eaten away by the mixture. Over time, this rubber and plastic will break down, causing the drain to become even more blocked.
Let it sit for 5 minutes. Boil up a water kettle (or 10 cups of water) and carefully flush the drain. Many clogs, especially kitchen drains, develop due to fats and oils that get cold and harden inside the pipes. Simply using a large amount of boiling water will clear the clog.
High temperatures alone do not cause ceramics to crack. Ceramic crucibles are widely used in laboratories at temperatures well over 1000 deg. F. Cracking can be caused by uneven heating of larger bodies and/or too-rapid cooling.
The effect of thermal shock is powerful and results in the cracking of glass. Even heat-resistant glasses like Pyrex can shatter when poured with boiling water incorrectly. To prevent the glass from cracking when exposed to boiling water, you should avoid extreme and abrupt changes in temperature.
You can buy high quality glass bowls (ie pyrex) that are safe for this. Just take care to let them cool down before letting them touch something cold.