My new apartment has a garbage disposal. I was disposing of some food scraps last night and now my sink is backed up. It seemed to be a bunch of shrimp shells that caused the problem. After the clog, I read online that it is a bad idea to put shrimp shells down a disposal…I wish I had stumbled upon that tidbit a little earlier!
Anyway, the shells got all ground up, but the water is not going down. I took a strainer and removed as many remnants of the shells as I could. I also dug my hand into the drain and pulled them from the disposal (after unplugging it, of course). I also used a plunger to try to get the water moving, but nothing seemed to work.
By the end of the night it seemed that I had removed most of the shells that were in the sink or in the disposal, but the water was still not going down. I had to go to bed, but I figured the sink would be drained by the time I woke up, but it is not! It looks like it barely went down at all.
Anyway, my question is…should I try putting some Draino or something else down there? Is it OK to use Draino on a garbage disposal? If I put Draino down there and it still doesn’t unclog, will I be able to take the pipe apart without getting covered in Draino water? Any advice would be helpful at this point.
I’d go the plunger route again. When plunging, the trick is not to try and push the clog forward, but try to pull the clog back. That will loosen it up and let gravity drain it away. Push, and you can just impact it, making it harder. If you feel comfortable taking the drain apart, that’s what I’d do next.
Thanks. Yeah, for a while I was actually pushing the plunger down outside of the sink and then just putting it over the drain and letting it pull water up. It seemed like it was pulling water from the drain, but it still doesn’t go down. I also did my fair share of just plunging the hell out of it with push and pull motion, so I hope that didn’t make it worse.
I can’t say I “comfortable” taking the drain apart, but it doesn’t seem too tough, so I might give it a shot tonight. I guess whatever water is the sink will just spill out all over the place, right? Any tips on how to control the mess?
Taking the drain apart is a last resort. I have had lots of disposal clogs (including the shrimp shell experience) and have never had to do that. If the plunger doesn’t do it, I have had excellent luck with Liquid Plumr. I do not recommend a crystal drain opener in standing water.
I was just doing some online research and I realized I forgot to mention another X factor. I have a dishwasher that has a hose running into the garbage disposal. One of the sites I was on said that could affect the suction I am getting with the plunger. Is there a good way to plug that up?
And make sure you turn off the power; might want to switch the breaker, because you really need to make sure that you’ve turned off the power first.
sorry, I couldn’t resist!
When I was plunging mine, I had an extra rubber connector for the dishwasher drain hose. I clamped the far end of the thing shut as tightly as I could, then connected it to the disposer in place of the real drain hose. Any length of rubber hose the right size can be clamped shut on one end and attached to the dishwasher drain of your disposer to plug it up. That extra connector is stashed under the sink just in case I need to plunge again.
If you take apart the drain line, put a bucket under the trap and take the trap apart, all the water/mess will go into the bucket. Unless the clog is before the trap, that is.
Oh, when you disconnect the dishwasher drain, the water in your sink will come flowing out, so get a bucket under there first.
Thanks for all the help! I am going to try the plunger again first. Then I will probably try to plug the dishwasher hose as mentioned above. if that fails I might take the drain apart. Sounds like this could messy…