I've a partially blocked sink in my bathroom (it does drain slowly) and have unsuccessfully tried chemical unblockers and a plunger, before I call a professional to sort it does anyone have any other suggestions? I was thinking of one of those pressure type unblockers, do they have any obvious pitfalls apart from blowing your pipes asunder?
never used one, normally when a sink needs unblocking, it's best to unscrew the trap from the bottom and remove the crayons / pens / elastoplast etc and then screw it back on.....have an old towel ready to catch the half pint of dirty water as it comes free.
PS, don't rinse the aforementioned trap in the aforementioned sink
I'm surprised a plunger hasn't shifted it. You did block the overflow when using the plunger and have a good basin full of water? You might need a small 2 to 3" dia plunger on a basin. A normal 4" one can have difficulty getting a good seal thus losing a lot of it's hydraulic effect.
I agree you need to take the trap off and clean it out. The snag is that it can be very difficult to get a watertight seal when you put it back on -- be sure to dry all the threads/O-rings before you screw it all together.
My own sink drain has the additional problem that its discharge pipe has a long horizontal run where it goes through the wall, and pretty shallow outside. I find I have to scrape the gunge out of the horizontal bit with a mini drain rod lookalike.
But before you do all that, check for hairs in the plug hole itself -- it's amazing how much a few strands of hair dangling around the hair- catcher grid can impede the flow. A small bottle brush should do the trick, but you can often just pull them out with fingers or a tweezer.
Oh, and if you _do_ remove the trap, put a bucket under it first :-)
How silly! What you should do is clean the trap out into a bucket. Then grab the bucket full of filth and pour that down the sink. Only then remembering you have not put the trap back...
On 5 Jan 2009 12:30:40 GMT someone who may be "Bob Eager" wrote this:-
It seems like we have all done these two. The other one I have done is to remove a dishwasher connection in order to get the trap out, put the trap back, run water into the sink in order to test the re-installed trap, pull the plug out and then be reminded that I hadn't re-installed the dishwasher connection by the sound of water coming out of it and into the cupboard.
Even better when you get the mrs to be helpful by emptying the bucket when you're lying with your head in the kitchen cupboard trying to refit the trap
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