Help! -caustic soda overdose.

[Chris Holford]

I thought it would be a good idea to put a little caustic soda down the plugholes in the shower try. Unfortunately I was over generous and the caustic soda granules seem to have congealed in the trap and blocked it. Would be a big job to get to the trap. I've tried a plunger, and tried neutralising with spirits of salts (NaOH + HCl > H2O + NaCL, ie salt and water). -still no joy. The drain hole has a white disk a little below the opening which prevents direct poking. Any ideas?

[stuart noble]

Whether you've ended up with a plug of salt or soda, it dissolves eventually. This can happen even in a bucket if you don't add the crystals gradually.

[The Natural Philosopher]

hot water and leave it. It will eventually dissolve

[Mr Benn]

That's exactly what happened to me. Had to take apart the plumbing and out popper a solid, rock-hard cylinder of re-crystallised sodium hydroxide. I presume that as it was put down the sink hot and left, it crystallised when it cooled, completely blocking the sink.

I also tried hydrochloric acid and it didn't work for some reason. It should!

You could try and siphon out any liquid and then pour boiling water down the plughole. That may put the caustic soda back into solution.

[Fred]

Hi,

Where do you buy spirit of salts from? It made a brief appearance in the tool station catalogue but I think for one edition only. I can't find any for sale around here. It often gets recommended in this group.

TIA

[Chris Holford]

In article , Fred writes

A 'proper ironmongers' -we have several here in remotest North Norfolk; I got mine from Blythe and Wright in Sheringham; an Aladdin's cave of hardware. Still waiting for the NaOH to dissolve! :(

[stuart noble]

Can't help thinking there's something else down there

[the_constructor]

Have a look here:

G

[Martin Brown]

Does water drain away at all? If so your only remaining option is to risk adding very hot water and hope that it will solvate the caustic. Repeat hourly until the thing runs free again.

Wear eye protection and if possible a full face shield.

Otherwise you are down to a dismantling job. Next time make up the solution carefully from the solid and pour it down the plug hole! (again eye protection essential it gets pretty hot when dissolving)

I reckon most people are better off with one of the proprietory drain cleaners since it avoids pitfalls like this one with overdose of the solid causing a worse problem than the fault it was trying to fix.

[stuart noble]

I've never known it take this long to dissolve, even when it has formed a solid lump. I used to have a tank of the stuff so I know a little about its behaviour.

[bob]

replying to Chris Holford, bob wrote: boiling water removes caustic soda which gone hard, along with a plunger

[harry]

B An acid such as brick cleaner. Not too much. Or vinegar.

[Chris Hogg]

People get fooled by April 1st jokes and the penny usually drops after an hour or so. You've taken four years to answer this one and still the penny hasn't dropped! LOL!

[tabbypurr]

I'd think after 4 years he'd have solved it by now. Try this:

NT

[Brian Gaff]

Its that ridiculous interface that the web site mentioned is using to read the group as if it was a web forum, I doubt anyone is even aware that the group is older than the web portal itself. Its a great pity the powers that be cannot stop this sort of interface being used to inject mail into the usenet system until it complies fully with how things are displayed. Brian

[Bob Eager]

Spirits of salt *is* brick acid. Or hydrochloric acid. Doo keep up.

[Vir Campestris]

They ought to be. The date is clearly displayed at the top of the post they are replying to on their web site.

I can only put it down to a problem between keyboard and chair.

Andy

[Tim+]

I think you'll find the homeownershub randomly promotes a thread to be a "top question" or "unanswered question" with no reference to the date and makes it accessible on the home page of that particular forum. This is why folk respond to these ancient threads.

To make matters worse, HOH also sorts all threads (and responses) by date of the first post, not date of the most recent response. Consequently responders almost certainly don't see their own answers or any follow ups as these don't appear in as recent messages.

Tim

[Chris Holford]

Yes, I have solved it! -it wasn't blocked in the first place, doh! I'd just moved in and wasn't aware that shower tray had a 'Phlexiflow' pumped waste. The problem was with the flow switches and/or the control unit for the waste pump.

[James Wilkinson]

There are no powers that be. Usenet is comprised of many news servers run by different companies, getting them all to comply to anything would be absurdly impossible.