Use baking soda and salt. Mix about a cup of baking soda with half a cup of salt, and pour this mixture down the drain. Let the mixture sit for several hours, then flush with boiling water. You can repeat this process if it doesn't clear the clog.
Attack with boiling water
When hair, grease, soap residue and other debris get stuck in your drain, boiling water may be all your pipes needs to loosen the blockage. It's the simplest fix, which means it should be your first move when trying to unclog a sink.
If you have a sink clog, start by pouring a pot of boiling water down the drain. If this doesn't work, try a combination of baking soda and vinegar. The next method is to use a plunger. If the clog still won't move, try a plumbing snake or clean the P-trap.
You can use Drano® Clog Removers to unclog a kitchen sink, bathroom sink, shower or clogged bathtub, but DO NOT use them in toilets. For clogged or slow-running drains, apply the product and let it work 15 minutes, then flush with hot water. For tough problems, allow 30 minutes before flushing.
In conclusion, while baking soda and vinegar may seem like a simple and easy solution for cleaning drains, they are not actually very effective in most cases. In some cases, baking soda and vinegar can even cause damage to your pipes.
Vinegar. Vinegar is both safe and beneficial to pour down your drain. It acts as a natural cleaning solution and can remove blockages and harmful bacteria that cause foul odors.
Preventative Maintenance
Pouring bleach into the drain when the unit is not operating can leave residual bleach, which will damage the drain pan and line. Using vinegar for preventative maintenance throughout the year will keep your drain clean and clear and will not damage your line.
A manual drain snake, also known as a plumber's snake or a drain auger, is a small boring tool that rotates slowly as it's physically pushed through a stubborn clog. The terminal end of the device is a corkscrew-shaped hook that is fed into a clogged drain or toilet.
It is Extremely Corrosive For Your Drains
When your pipes are clogged, Drano will sit on top of the clog, continually reacting and generating heat until the clog dissolves. This can put a great deal of stress on your drains as the heat can cause PVC pipes to soften and even break or collapse.
It is not a great drain clog remover. Bleach has no effect in dissolving the common culprits of household drain clogs, like hair, food scraps and grease. Also, pouring bleach can harm the integrity of your drains and pipes.
Using Hydrogen Peroxide on a Clogged Drain
You can try pouring some down the drain directly, but for more effective drain clearing, follow these steps: Sprinkle about one cup of baking soda down the clogged drain and wait for 10 minutes. Pour one cup of hydrogen peroxide down the drain and wait for the foaming to stop.
Salt & hot water
While hot water can help loosen up debris, coarse salt actually scours the inside of your pipes, removing more material than hot water alone. After removing standing water from the sink, pour about half a cup of table salt down the drain before you pour in the hot water.
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.
BLEACH DOESN'T CLEAR DRAIN CLOGS.
It cannot dissolve things like food waste, breadcrumbs, grease, and hair. Instead, pouring bleach into a clogged drain will make things worse. The bleach could react with other chemicals, creating dangerous fumes, and if the reaction is violent, it can even burst your drain pipes.
Using a solution of baking soda, vinegar, and hot water
For more stubborn clogs, a combination of baking soda, vinegar, and hot water may do the trick. Because vinegar is an acid and baking soda is a base, mixing the two will cause a chemical reaction that will create pressure and possibly dislodge the clog.
If your snake isn't unclogging your drains, it could be because the thumbscrew is loose, the clog is too severe, or the auger is dirty. Or maybe you just need a refresher on how to use a drain snake. A drain auger (snake) is a simple, inexpensive necessity for every homeowner.
What if The Baking Soda & Vinegar Hack Doesn't Work? If your drain doesn't unclog right away, repeat the baking soda & vinegar process another time or two. If you have a stubborn clog, sometimes the baking soda & vinegar trick just doesn't work. You may have to use a sink plunger to help push through the blockage.
Some people say weekly, bi-monthly or quarterly. However, we feel that cleaning your drains monthly should be sufficient to avoid major plumbing issues. A monthly cleaning will allow you to use safe cleaning methods which will save you time, energy and money in the long term.
Baking soda is an alkaline substance and vinegar is a mild acetic acid. When the two are mixed, they react somewhat dramatically to neutralize one another; the fizzing action you hear is the reaction that will often dislodge clogs in your drain.
Another option for dissolving hair in a drain is to use a mixture of baking soda and vinegar. This mixture will create a chemical reaction that will break down the hair. Mix equal parts baking soda and vinegar and pour it down the drain to use this method.
You can also pour vinegar down the drain on its own.
Pour about 1 cup of vinegar down your drain and let it sit for 30-40 minutes.