Safe & effective (and easy) drain cleaning?

[Prof Wonmug]

About 2-3 times a year, the sink in the bathroom starts to drain very slowly and I have to take the S-trap apart and clean out the gunk. The gunk contains some hair, but not a lot. It's mostly a black, tarry/gelatinous mess.

I used to use one of the liquid drain cleaners, but a plumber saw a bottle and told me not to use it anymore.

Are there drain cleaner products that are effective and safe? It's not a huge task to take the S-trap apart, but it would be easier to just pout something down the drain.

Thanks

[Bill]

Remove the strainer and shove an old piece of garden hose down the drain.

[DerbyDad03]

Google Drain Blaster

There are 2 types:

Drain-Blaster (hyphenated) is a thin plastic hose that attaches to your faucet with the adapter provided and uses a "high-pressure" nozzle on the other end to clear the clog. It's basically a plastic snake that blasts water out of the working end. I used to use one before I replaced my galvanized pipes with PVC and stopped getting clogs.

Drain Blaster (no hyphen) is a air-pressure "gun" that you pump up, place over the drain and supposedly blast the clog away. Videos can be found via Google. I've never tried one of those.

[norminn]

I boil water, add some Dawn, and pour in slowly. Rinse, pour down a little bleach to soak in the trap. Taking globs of slimy hair out of a drain is the most disgusting chore there is :o)

[Ron]

I have the same problem in my shower. I use baking soda and vinegar.

Don't have to use those exact amounts. I use about 2 tablespoons of baking soda and pour in a little vinegar at a time until I hear the foaming stop. Usually takes 2 times to clear the drain. Works great and is a LOT cheaper than drain cleaner.

[Stormin Mormon]

Crystal drain cleaner with sodium hydroxide should help dissolve grease and hair.

Do you mean "pour" something? Being a spelling monitor for the group, I'll admit that was funny. "But, I wanted to be poured in the OTHER drain. You never do what I want. I was perfectly happy in the bottle, even, but you HAD to pour me in here."

The other plan is to heat your teakettle full of boiling water, and put that in the drain. That softens the grease, which then rehardens some where down the line.

[Stormin Mormon]

Ranks right up there with poopy diapers.

[Joe]

Sinks clogging as you describe are really not that common. You could avoid an onerous chore by changing your personal grooming materials. If you use the sink for shaving, try a different shave cream which might react less with your hard water supply and thus not produce the gunk you describe. A Norelco or Braun shaver might be an improvement,too. Similar experiments would be useful for hair washing, if you use the sink instead of shower. Bottom line, eliminate the cause and you eliminate the problem.

Joe

[Doug Miller]

Easier still is to stop putting down the drain whatever produces that "black tarry gelatinous mess" to begin with.

By any chance, do you wash up in that sink after doing your own car repairs?

[Han]

"Stormin Mormon" wrote in news:hk4nei $b16$ [e-mail]:

That's for Mom to do. I'm Grandpa ... Only fun stuff for me.

[Han]

[e-mail] (Doug Miller) wrote in news:hk4nlj$i19$ [e-mail]:

I have the same kind of problem with the shower/bath drain. There is nothing to clean out with a snake, except that after a lot of water and working the snake the drain cleans up. I think one of the problems is that the pitch of the pipe from the drain to the stack is very shallow. I will try the baking soda approach now.

[DerbyDad03]

september.org:

re: "There is nothing to clean out with a snake, except that after a lot of water and working the snake the drain cleans up."

Huh?

How could the snake clean the drain if there was nothing for the snake to clean?

[Frank]

Drano works fine but contains caustic and others contain sulfuric acid and either in the eye could cause a severe burn, even blindness so you just have to be careful. I've had to replace several drains and they are fragile and corrode easily. I replace with PVC. I'd prefer not to open the trap as it might eventually break.

[dadiOH]

The bubbling from the reaction of baking soda (base) and vinegar (acid) will stir stuff up, won't do squat to dissolve hair, grease, etc.

[SteveBell]

Here're a couple of recipes you can try for preventive maintenance:

[norminn]

Our shower suddenly started acting sluggish couple of years ago. I took off the drain cover and tried a coat hanger; when I pushed the coat hanger down, it felt like there was no pipe, just mud. Got the trusty flashlight and could see "something" dark. Bent a little hook on the end of the coat hanger and probed again; this time I pulled out a HUGE clump of hair, about 8 oz cup size. Gack!!! Another time I had a plumber out to unclog the tub drain - he could tell that two different people had used the tub by the hair color. That would be my mom and I with not very different hair color. He impressed me :o) Got the drain clear, too.

[norminn]

I'm a mom - immune to poopy diapers and cleaning up emesis.

[Bob F]

I always add lots of detergent to emulsify the grease so it doesn't harden down the line.

[norminn]

Until granny gets old and sick :o)

[Han]

" [e-mail]" wrote in news:ptmdnb18g8t-b_jWnZ2dnUVZ [e-mail]:

Maybe not nice from me, but I'm planning to go before se does ...