Drains of all types are prone to clogging, but perhaps none more so than the one in your kitchen sink. Kitchen sink drains are heavily used for food disposal, which means everything from starches which expand when they get wet to fats which solidify when they cool off are tossed down the drain, where they can catch on the wall of a pipe and progressively turn into an obnoxious drain clog. However, you can fix a kitchen sink clog fairly quickly with nothing more than a little bit of handiwork skill and a few common household tools.
Clearing a Drain in Three Easy Steps
Step 1: Suck Out the Water
Sometimes you may not even notice your drain is clogged until water is pooling up in the basin. When that’s the case, use a wet-dry vacuum to suck any water in your sink out of it. You may also want to try sucking the water out of the drain directly to see if you can dislodge the clog. However, if this doesn’t work, at least remove the water from your sink to the best of your ability.
Step 2: Use Natural Products
Commercial drain cleaners advertise that they’re amazingly effective at removing clogs and debris from drains, but they’re also great at eating away your plumbing. Don’t use them. Instead, use a mixture of vinegar and lemon juice or baking soda to try to break down the clog. Simply make a batch of this concoction by mixing equal parts of vinegar with either baking soda or lemon juice, pour it down your drain, wait a few minutes, and then try to flush it out with hot water.
Step 3: Use a Tool
If that doesn’t work, then you probably have a more stubborn clog than you might have thought. Either use a coat hanger (bent straight with a small hook on the end) or a plumbing auger (usually available from your local hardware store) and lower the cleaning end down into your drain. Once the end contacts the clog, spin the tool a few times to try to get it to catch the clog, then slowly pull it outward to try to remove the clog. If you’ve done this right, the clog should separate and your sink should start running smoothly again.
Of course, this process only works properly if you don’t have a garbage disposal. If you do, you’ll have to disassemble your plumbing system beneath your sink and try to get rid of the clog in a different way. In this case, it’s strongly advised you trust a Columbus plumber to fix the problem.
Schedule your clog removal service by calling The Eco Plumbers today!
