NinetyWt - the snot and all of it, including the water you are running through there, come back out the other side of your nose and most people do it over the bathroom sink (but I supposed if you wanted a trophy you could do it into a cup like the girls in the linked video).
Anyway, it all runs down the drain fine. Jut think of it as spitting loogies into the sink. It doesn’t clog up any worse than that.
Thank you ShelliBean. That is all I wanted to know. 
My brother in law uses his in the shower. Less mess to deal with.
StG
I’m a user of the neti and love it.
A key thing that no one has mentioned is the temperature of the water.
Try to make it as close to “body temperature” as possible. I’ve found that water that’s either too cold or too hot will create the sensation that others described as getting chlorinated pool water up your nose; the nasty burn.
Mr. brown smokes cigars. As most of us know, smoking paralyzes or burns off or otherwise wrecks the performance of cilia, so a chronic sinusitis sufferer is well advised to give up the smoking, awreddy. But nooo . . . .
Excellent point. Too hot or too cold is like torture.
I’ll shoot for about 102 degrees, at times, to help soften and loosen stuff a bit better.
And one can use their neti pot pretty much as often as they want/need to. It’s pretty much like gargling with salt water, only moreso. As long as the salt/bicarb mix is correct, at least.
How long for results? Depends on what results one is looking for. To clear out a nasty blocked head without a sinus infection may take only a time or two. To clear out chronically infected sinuses may take a week or three of regular use. And to maintain health in nasal passageways/sinuses prone to congestion and/or infection, it may require continuous daily use, at least during the ‘problem’ seasons.
And after a while, one may just get to the point where they say “I’m bored. I think I’ll go use my neti pot, for that great fresh feeling I get. And to kill time before the game comes on.” Beats eating too many Twinkies.
This is another advantage of doing it in the shower (in addition to not having to clean up the mess).
Well, I think I give up for now - I’ve been feeling worse all day and made an appointment with my doc for tomorrow. I should ask him about a couple of other things, anyway - plus I’m overdue for a fresh batch of Armenian jokes.
Okay, I got one and tried it out. I didn’t see any snot come out and I know I got lots in there.
I was one of the people really freaked out about the idea of pouring water in my nose but it wasn’t that terrifying. It was kind of weird. The instructions tell you to keep your mouth open, if you don’t you feel a pressure in your sinuses like a sinus headache. When you open your mouth then the stuff starts flowing, you can breathe through your mouth and as long as your don’t try to inhale through your nose it’s not at all like drowning.
However, as I said I didn’t get anything out so not sure if I was doing it right or I just have stubborn snot that is waiting to build up so it can wake me at 4 in the morning again.
The mucous doesn’t flow out of your sinus’ while you’re using it. It loosens it up so you can blow it out afterwards.
You didn’t accumulate all the snot up there in one day, so it is unlikely to come out in one day.
If the sinuses are full of stuff, those take a loooooooooong time to clear out. They’re like large rooms with one or two tiny doors in and out of them. The irrigating solution needs to leak in a little at a time, soften things up, and leak out again. Often hours later.
If you’ve just got nasal passage junk, that comes out a lot faster.
Well, I didn’t expect it all to come out but the way everyone was talking I expected something. I did wake up in the middle of the night again but I woke up to sneezing instead of a clogged nose. I have less sinus pressure this morning so either it’s helping or just getting better on it’s own. But since it wasn’t as horrific as I thought it would be I’ll keep trying the neti pot.
Count me as one of the in-shower users. It’s really easy that way–the water is already at about the right temperature. I fill the pot first, then let the salt dissolve and the water cool a little while I shampoo.
Maybe I’m the odd one out for this, but I use regular Morton’s salt on the assumption that a trace amount of iodine wouldn’t be a bad thing to put on a minor bacterial infection. Then again, I am not a doctor and I do not have sufficient knowledge to recommend this to anyone.
I have a head cold. I used my neti pot a couple of days ago and, as always, even though I was careful when blowing my nose afterward, got some water in my ears. Now I think I’ve got an infection in the right one.
What am I doing wrong? I mean… you’ve gotta blow your nose just a little.
I actually have to hold my ears shut with my fingers, blow over a sink, wipe nose off, repeat. If not it pains my eardrums.
Iodine tends to burn, and it’s of no proven benefit.
As for the ear issues, fluid goes up the eustachian tubes, also. The neti pot is actually good for those who have chronic eustachian tube plugging, as the fluid can help open them up too. But it can be uncomfortable for those unable to clear their ears. My advice: When done with the neti pot, if you have ear popping issues, pinch the nose shut and gently inhale, with mouth closed. This will usually remove fluid from the middle ear.
Some folks do a gentle exhale/inhale maneuver this way to clear their ears.
The head is full of cavities, passageways, and tubes. What can I say?
Don’t squeeze your nostrils when you blow. Just exhale forcefully into a tissue.
Another new user chiming in. I followed the instructions and did get the water trickling out of the non neti pot nostril, however I could hardly get any to actually go in. I started w/ 1/2 a neti pot full and couldn’t even get all that in my snoot. What’s the deal w/ that?
I think that if you’re well and truly clogged, you’re not going to get much flowage happening. Hopefully the action of the this session’s salt water and the subsequent nose blowing will open things up a bit so you’ll get more fluid dynamics the next time.
Yeah, water is only going to go in as fast as it trickles out.