It’s a horrible experience. You enter your bathroom for some me-time and then sit on the toilet seat indulging in some serious conversation with yourself. Once you’re done, you press the flush button, and nothing happens. You slightly panic but put a bucket full of water in the flush and instead of it running down the drains, it fills up the toilet bowl. It’s gross and worrisome.
Clogged drains are the most common household issues. While your mom might have figured out how to prevent clogged drains, you may still face the problem more often than you want. To get out of it or to avoid it for a long time, I have compiled a list of drain cleaning tips. Read it if you wish to know how to avoid clogged drains and how to unclog a drain.
How to prevent clogged drains?
1. Discipline
Clogged drains don’t happen due to wear and tear. That happens because you dispose of things in your drains that you shouldn’t. For example, that leftover oil after you prepare fried chicken at home shouldn’t go in the pipes. The grease or oil gets stuck in the drains and begins the gradual process of blocking the pipes. Cotton balls, stray hair, wet wipes, sanitary napkins and dental floss are the most common things that cause a clog in your bathroom’s pipes.
The point is how you would know which items to dispose of and which not? In the bathroom, you should flush only tissue paper and excreta. I wouldn’t recommend that you put anything else. I am not a plumber but hey! There are many products which have ‘flushable’ on the label, but it is often put without any verification.
Why take the risk? In the kitchen, ensure you’re not throwing away any oil or greasy products in the sink. I agree that it isn’t entirely possible to watch out for what you throw in the kitchen’s sink but try your best. And liquid materials are still fine but never try to pass off solid materials in the drain.
If you manage to take care of your drains, you wouldn’t need any drain cleaning tips ever.
2. Watch out for clogs
Now that you have decided that want to keep reading the drain cleaning tips, here’s another essential tip to avoid clogged drains: look for minor clogs. If you see slowed down water drainage, you need to act right then. Don’t wait for the drains to get completely clogged before you act. Minor clogs can be fixed quickly, and you wouldn’t need to spend a lot of money in the process. But if you let the clog turn into a significant blockage, you’re just inviting extra expenditure and hassles.
3. Pour hot water in the drains every week
While you get your hot water bath, you do your drains a favor. Hot water helps to keep the pipes clean. However, you’ll need it the most in the kitchen. Those greasy liquids that still go into your drain no matter how hard you try not to let them can be treated with hot water. If you pour boiling water, it’ll do the job. But don’t pour hot water in ceramic sinks and toilet bowls. Just a warning!
Drain cleaning tips to fix clogged drains
1. Go for fishing
Say you have a minor clog in your sink. What would you do? I suggest fishing. Take a metal cloth hanger, straighten it and then use it to pull the gunk and hair out of the drain. If the blockage is just near the drain opening, you’ll be able to remove it perfectly and viola! You just unclogged your drain. If not, keep reading.
2. Use the magic ingredients – vinegar and baking soda
Why do I call them magic ingredients? Because they’re multi-purpose products. You can use these in cooking and cleaning some things in your home including carpets and drains. But unlike other home cleaning activities, you need to use vinegar and baking soda in a specific way to clean the drains. It’s the fizzing reaction that these two products cause that helps to remove the clogs. So, either you put baking soda in the drain and then pour vinegar over it or mix both of these and put the mixture in the drains very quickly.
3. Stock a bathroom and sink plunger
I got the tip from a local plumber. Most of the times the clog can be cleared with just a plunger and the technique to use it very simple. All you need is cover the drain opening with the plunger and press it back and forth steadily. Do it for 1-2 minutes. The motion that will be produced inside the drains will be enough to clear a clog.
4. Use soda as they’re excellent dissolving agents
The sub-heading said it all. Unlike many claims of rival juice brands, sodas work as good cleaning agents due to the presence of phosphoric acid in them. They’re not insecticides! They’re just good dissolving agents that can function better than usual drain cleaning chemicals. Try them!
When all that fails
I gave you four best ways to unclog a drain, but if these don’t work, I am sorry to say, but you’re in big trouble. You need to call a drain cleaning service and get the clog removed, lest you’re waiting for a more significant incident like a burst pipe or something. A useless bathroom or kitchen or a burst pipe is worst than spending a few bucks on drain cleaning. I think we all will agree to that. No?
There you have them! The best drain cleaning tips you can find on the internet (of course, it’s only me who currently believes the claim, but you will join the list once you try these out & realize their effectiveness). Do let me know if you have any questions regarding drain cleaning. I will help you in whatever way possible.
