There’s an orange gritty gook that smells like broccoli that is forming in the bowl of my bathroom sink. Plus my sink is about 80% clogged, and it looks like the same stuff is in my drain.
What is this, and how can I get rid of it, without getting a plumber?
Algae, mineral deposits, bacteria.
You’ve probably got a hairball blocking the drain.
Pull off or unscrew the drain stopper and pull out the hair with a tweezer/pliers/cut coathanger with a hook bent into it etc etc etc.
Clean the sink, and throw some bleach in there to soak.
Slime mold
Yep.
Depending on the sink construction you might actually need to unscrew something in the piping underneath the sink, rather than simply removing the drain plug. I had to do this with our bathroom sink once - the plug could be raised / lowered by a knob on the faucet control, and that was connected down underneath the sink to a lever that actually went into the side of the pipe just under the bowl of the sink.
Just make sure the sink is as well drained as possible - you don’t want a lot of water trapped in the pipe, coming out when you undo the connection.
Well worth doing it though - the amount of gunk that can build in there is impressive.
Then follow through with thorough cleaning / bleach rinse as others have noted.
Does this look like what’s in your sink?
My sink is not so dirty to support slime mold. I clean out the drain a couple times a year.
So what do you do about the slime oozin’ out from your TV set?
I’d try calling the Ghostbusters for that.
Beat me to the punch!
Yuck! Can I use draino???
Sure, but it doesn’t work as well as going in after the stuff with tongs.
Plus, if your sink’s trap is old and cracked or poorly made, the lye’ll eat through it and you’ll have a horrible drippy caustic mess to clean up under the sink, before you replace the trap.
I have used a tool called “Zip It” with far more success then Draino. It is a white plastic strip with barbs all along the sides. It does and amazing job of grabbing all the hair without having to take apart the drain. It also has the advantage of being really cheap.
I think I even got the recommendation from someone here on the boards.
“Zip it” is fabulous. I keep one under each sink. You can probably get one at your local hardware store for less money, but if not, Amazon has them:
http://www.amazon.com/Cobra-Products-400-Drain-Cleaning/dp/B000BO9204/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=hi&qid=1255746257&sr=8-1
Try this instead of chemicals. It’s better and poison-free. We have rental properties and have pulled out horrible hair clogs/rubberbands/bits of plastic wrappers/dental floss with these. Totally worth the small investment.