Keeping the drains in your home clean and running free is important for the overall health of not only your plumbing system, but your family as well. Clogs left untreated can have some nasty repercussions.
So then, do you need a professional plumber to visit regularly to clean your drains? That might be a chore you want to have the plumber handle, but you can avoid the cost in many cases by clearing the minor clogs yourself. Chemical drain cleaners are not always environmentally friendly and can be dangerous to use, but there are some common products you may already keep around the house that can take care of most minor clogs. Taking care of the minor clogs promptly can prevent them from becoming a bigger problem.
There are a lot of household remedies that people use in their drains, but a combination of baking soda and vinegar seem to do a pretty good job. Here’s how to use them to clean your drains:
- Start by pouring a pot of boiling water down the drain
- Next pour in a cup of baking soda and a one to one solution of water and white vinegar
- Cover the drain and wait for five or ten minutes
- Pour boiling water down the drain again
The bubbling reaction from the baking soda and vinegar helps to loosen the drain clog, and the boiling water in the final step helps to flush it all down through your pipes.
So how does this work? Baking soda is a bicarbonate, a base. Vinegar is basically acetic acid. Combining the two produces carbon dioxide that bubbles through the clog, breaking it up. Adding the hot water at the end creates pressure in your system, which helps to move the clog out.
Over time, baking soda and vinegar may work as a natural drain cleaner on minor clogs, and the benefits of regular drain cleaning can help keep your drains free running. But for tougher clogs you may want to turn to the various chemical drain cleaners on the market. When all else fails, you may need to schedule a professional drain cleaning by a plumber.
Count on Puget Sound Plumbing & Heating to deliver sound solutions to all your plumbing issues, from emergency plumbing to toilet repairs. A family owned and operated business, we’ve been providing plumbing and heating services to the Seattle area for over 20 years. We adhere to the highest quality standards, and our work is backed up by available lifetime warranties. Trust our staff of highly trained and qualified plumbers to get the job done right.
If you have a plumbing problem or would like any additional information, visit our website or contact us 24 hours a day, 7 days a week at any one of our four locations:
Seattle: (206) 938-3219
Eastside: (425) 998-0187
South King: (253) 753-1687
North End: (360) 568-0900