No one wants to hassle with a clogged drain on a busy day, or any day at all. If you have drains that won’t clear up on their own, then our drain clearing tips and tricks will have your plumbing humming.
What Is The Best Way To Keep Drains Clear?
Prevention is always going to be the best way to handle the aggravation of slow and problem drains. Once you know these tricks, you can keep the drains clear and not have to deal with clogged drains at all.
The first thing to know is that a kitchen sink with a garbage disposal is one of the most common problem drains. Some people just haven’t been properly informed on what it is okay to put down the drain and what is going to give you trouble. Check out our helpful blog if you have a troublesome kitchen sink drain.
Now on to the standards of prevention:
- Don’t put stuff down the drain that shouldn’t. We’ve covered the kitchen sink, but nothing but water and soap residue should go down any other drain in the house.
- Make a habit of swiping any drain where you might have dropped a lot of hair, like when showering or shaving. You can brush your hair before getting in the shower to prevent excessive loss down the drain.
- Use strainers in every drain; you can even get special hair trapping drains.
- Run hot water down your drains about once a week, it can really help clear out gunk and keep them running smoothly.
How Do You Clear A Drain Without Snaking?
When your prevention methods have failed, but you don’t want to snake the drain, we recommend a simple hack that resembles snaking without all the mess. You can (carefully!) unwind a wire hanger and slide that in the drain and it will hopefully grab any hairs or clogs which you can then dispose of. Then you simply run the hot water to finish clearing it. There are also store bought versions of these you can purchase at any hardware store..
It’s important to note that sometimes you can actually push clogs further down and then you will need to snake to resolve the issue. It definitely makes sense to try to clear a simple clog yourself, but if it won’t clear up, call your plumber and we can help.
Drain Clearing Tips & Tricks
- The solution is often as simple as running your hot water for a few minutes. People sometimes run it for a few seconds and assume that was enough, but it takes the heat applied over time along with standard water pressure to clear the drain so run it for a few minutes.
- If that fails, you can use a high quality dish soap, like Dawn, and put a few tablespoons down the drain to coat it. Let it sit for at least a few minutes, then run room temperature water down the drain.
- Another solution is to put some vinegar or baking soda down the drain and let it sit for about half an hour and then follow it up by running hot water for a few minutes.
- Use your homemade or store bought tool if you are dealing with a physical clog, like hair & debris, rather than soap scum or grease buildup.
- You can use a store bought snake to clear a big clog that is further down the drain yourself, or you can call your plumber for an affordable and hassle free drain clearing if your drain just won’t clear.
So, now you know all the best ticks and trips to handle a drain that is acting up. But, if you are in the East Valley of sunny Arizona and you have a stubborn drain that won’t clear up then give us a call, and we’ll get it cleared. You can reach us at 480-388-6093.