Hidden Plumbing Problems: What to Look for

What Exactly Do Those Natural Drain Cleaning Ingredients Do?

24 July 2019

Herbert Chambers

It's no secret that the best way to keep your drains open is to clean them regularly. The most thorough way to clean them is to have a plumber clean out each and every one at your home. In between plumber appointments, however, you can use ingredients like baking soda to at least hold growing clogs at bay.

Yet sometimes the ingredients don't seem to work as well. Maybe the sink remains slow despite repeated attempts to open it up, or a smell lingers even though the drain appears to be open enough to let water drain from the sink freely. That's usually because of how the ingredients react with each other and the various materials that can stop up a drain.

Baking Soda and Vinegar

Most recommendations for drain maintenance involve pouring baking soda into the drain, following it with white vinegar, and then stopping up the opening to the drain as the two ingredients start fizzing. Baking soda and vinegar do more than just create a lot of fizz. The bubbles create a lot of pressure, so if there's a clog at one end of the pipe and a stopper at the other, the pressure from the mixture heads toward the (likely) softer clog, pushing at it and loosening it up.

That's great for clogs caused by a buildup of general gunk in the drain like soap scum and dirt. However, it doesn't really work on hair or clogs caused by solid items like foods that have become lodged in the drain.

Salt

Sometimes you'll see recipes call for salt to be added along with baking soda before pouring vinegar into the drain. The salt crystals act as little scouring pads, scraping the surface of the clog as the mixture bubbles up. Again, this will not work on hair clogs, but it could work on tougher dirt clogs that don't seem to respond well to baking soda and vinegar without salt. However, if you try using baking soda, salt, and vinegar several times and still can't seem to make progress, it's time to call a plumber.

Hot Water

You'll also be instructed to pour hot water into the drain after letting those vinegar mixtures sit for a while. The hot water not only washes away the mixture, but it can soften and loosen, and then wash down bits of gunk that are still stuck to the pipe walls. Running hot water into the sink every few days can also help loosen newish gunk, too.

Lemon Rinds and Ice Cubes

If the drain in question is one that has a garbage disposal attached, you may also see advice to put some lemon rinds or small ice cubes into the disposal and turn the disposal on. (This is assuming you've been able to unclog the drain.) These are supposed to handle odors left behind by food that got stuck to the inside of the disposal. The oil from the lemon and the rough texture of chopped ice work to scrape off the gunk and deodorize the drain.

However, sometimes the gunk is stuck in hard-to-reach places like just underneath the opening rim of the garbage disposal. If you use these items after opening the drain up but you still smell something funky coming from the drain or disposal, have a plumber clean out the drain and disposal. For more information, contact local drain cleaning services.

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