Actually, you can buy sulfuric acid at the hardware store. Though you have to be very careful using it.
I had one plug in a tub drain I couldn’t clear with drano, tried a snake, couldn’t get it to work. Got some acid, it did the trick, but I nearly had a serious snafu.
I was trying to be careful. I even put on gloves and a full face shield. I carefully moved into the tub, and as I was gently trying to handle the bottle and a funnel, I managed to spill it on myself. I was wearing jeans, but a short sleeved shirt. Trying not to panic and spill more everywhere, I gently sat the bottle down, extracted myself from the tub, and moved to the kitchen to start washing the arm with the spill. And remembered “base base base” and started applying soap liberally.
Then I had to strip off my jeans, because I got some spots on them as well. Ended up with a couple of holes in my jeans and a nasty splash wound on my arm that left a scar that’s now finally fading out.
However, I did return and complete the drain job, and it worked like a charm. Also got a spot on the tub where I sat the bottle. :mad:
Anyway, I don’t really recommend it, but it did work. And saved me a plumber call.
I tried one of those, but the plastic teeth catch on things in the drain like drain plugs, metal grates, etc. And they don’t go around bends well, as they catch on the way back. YMMV.
I tried to use a zip-it last week on a slow (not stopped) shower drain.
The thing was so flimsy I could not get it to go around / through the trap. It started around the corner then just buckled when I tried to push it deeper. So it was about as effective as using a long screwdriver like a swizzle-stick to grab the hair in the vertical tailpiece upstream of the trap. IOW, useless. In a fit of foolish optimism I cleaned it up & kept it so I can use it to fail again next time. What am I thinking??!?
A couple gallons of boiling water down the drain got things moving normally again. Then I applied a lye-based liquid drain cleaner for good measure. I’m not a fan of chemicals in drains, but used occasionally as maintenance well before you’ve got a clog might be the exception.
I’ve had slow/clogged drains be cleared with Drano/Liquid Plimber. Inches of standing water, pour it in, wait a while, and the water is gone. Run the water and it’s draining.
Is it the best? Probably not. Can it be dangerous? If you’re not careful. But to say it doesn’t work is just inaccurate. It can and does on occasion.
Other times I’ve only fixed a drain with a plunger, snake, or calling Roto-Rooter. I lived in a place once that kept having roots grow into the pipes(!) which required my landlord to do extensive fixes. It won’t always work.
Any high pH formula will dissolve hair just fine though.
I’ve had really good luck using a shop vac to literally suck the clog out. Run the water a little in the tub, put the nozzle over the drain hole and hold a rag over the overflow. With your other hand reach over and flush the toilet. Viola the hair clog gets pulled out of the pipe. You sometimes have to fish some of it out of the bottom of the drain(that’s what needle nose pliers are for)
Having lived with two college roommates (not at the same time) who had waist-length hair, you have to remove the clog before drain cleaners will work to effectively flush out the rest of it.
It’s every bit as disgusting as it sounds. I didn’t make them do it each time, because I had the “Bettie Page Haircut” that was popular in the early 1990s and contributed somewhat to the yucky gunk myself.
I rent now, and chemical drain cleaners are prohibited in the lease. They will come and remove a clog at no cost if you call them; however, damage caused by chemical cleaners will result in a charge, or a deduction from the damage deposit.
As it happens, this is pretty close to what I did. It turned out that there was a circle of matted hair right at the top that was blocking most of the flow past the drain stopper. I picked most of it out with a paper clip, and that allowed some boiling water to go through at a rate that washed out the rest of it.
Maybe I’m naïve, but I’d amend that to something more nuanced:
Do not put any chemical down a drain that isn’t sold as a drain cleaner. No sulfuric acid, no pool chemicals, no home-brew combos.
Do not put chemicals down a drain that leads to a septic system.
Do not put chemicals down elderly plumbing that’s already demonstrated leaking problems.
And most of all
Do not put chemicals down a drain in hopes of avoiding a plumber call. If you think you *might *need a plumber it’s already too late for chemicals.
Which leaves this:
Assuming you pass all the above tests
5) Do not put chemicals into a stopped or nearly stopped drain. In a slowish or normally functioning drain they are acceptable though not ideal.
Mind you, I’m hardly an authority on plumbing, but FWIW, this is my usual procedure:
Pour very hot water down the drain; if that doesn’t work, use a plunger; if still no luck, use a snake. If the snake doesn’t work, it’s time to call a plumber.
People will never listen. Plumbers don’t carry draino for a reason. It doesn’t fix the problem. At best it’s a band aid solution at worst it a hazard the plumber will now have to deal with.
Rinse with mongooses afterward and keep your distance from PETA rallies.
At best, the chemicals will punch a hole through the blockage, which allows all the chemicals and water to drain away. Doesn’t take long for that little hole to plug up again. A snake has an auger on the end of it so we can screw into the entire blockage, and drag the thing back out (hopefully) completely. Just make sure your mouth is closed when it does come out …
Snakes are surely a much better tool. No debate there.
I’m more looking for feedback on using chemicals prophylactically every few months before the drain is strongly constricted. And obviously both chemicals and snakes won’t solve the problem of a tree root in your lateral; I’m talking in-house P-traps and the next few of feet of pipe.
The chemicals would have to be strong, because we’d just coat the goo while most drained off. Depends on the users’ hair, I’m still going to have to snake my drains once a year either way.
Tree roots in your lateral isn’t the problem, it’s the symptom … the problem is your lateral needs replaced … have shovel, will dig.
Baking soda and distilled white vinegar, push the soda into the drain with a chopstick, pour in the vinegar, and hold the plug over it so the bubbles all go down the pipe, not back into the sink.
Use the plunger when the drain seems to be slowing down; get a few plungers.
I had two plumbers and a rooter guy tell me that dishwashing soap and hot water work better than Drano.
On the subject of tough clogs, I had a sink that consistently ran slow and finally stopped responding to even snaking. My plumber cut through a cabinet wall to get at the pipes and discovered that my two bathroom sinks were connected to the drain pipe with a regular T, rather than the kind with a little curve that enables the snake to go down further (hope I’m painting a good picture here, I don’t know what the terms are). Below this T junction was the most disgusting mass of hair, toothpaste caps, metal, grout (?)…
The owners before us half-assed a great deal of things that we’re still discovering (they alsy hadn’t glued the PVC pipes in the bathroom!). The frustrating thing was that I couldn’t even put in the right kind of curved junction without tearing out my sinks because of the geometry of the thing; so my plumber had to do another jerry rig.
TL;DR persistent slow draining may be something Drano or even a snake won’t help.
