apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

That method even gets rid of hair?
Baking soda is amazing!

will that acid reaction do anything adverse to PVC pipes?

I am a devotee of this method, but it did not dislodge a recent large wad of crud in our (rental apt. bathroom sink) drain. What did, however, was the method followed by a concerted, gently vigorous plunging with a small sink plunger. Ker-POW! So that's my advice: soda vinegar, but then be prepared to get physical.

Wooo...thats a nice formula. I sometimes use the wire hangers that come with my dry cleaning to scoup stuff out...all of the hair and scum is so gross.

Does the same method apply for a bathtub clog?

You know what it won't cure? The toothpaste cap my boyfriend pulled out of his pipes under his bathroom sink. He had to take the thing apartment to find the culprit.

Thanks for the trick! It was really useful!

I usually follow up the baking soda and vinegar combination with a full tea kettle of boiling water. This works really well on clogged drains. And yes, JLBinBrooklyn, it CAN be successful with a bathtub clog. I try to maintain my drains with this mixture before things get really stopped up though. It's the perfect thing to do with every spring or fall Cure/cleaning.

How do you get the baking soda down the sink? I can't pull the metal piece that plugs the sink all the way out. I've messed with the fittings under the counter, to no avail, and I'm afraid to try anything else since my apartment is a rental. Is there some standard method to this that I'm missing?

I have tried that method in the past with slow draining sinks and it didn't work for me. What I do now is boil a pot of water and slowly pour it down. After a few minutes, if it's not back to normal, I'll repeat. Never had to boil more than two pots. No chemicals, no work. : )

lurker2209 - the vinegar will help get the baking soda down the drain, as would boiling water. it seems you can follow BS with vinegar and boiling water, in either order. avoid the boiling water if you have PVC pipes.

In my experience, this method does NOT work on hair clogs. Or any other major backups. It's not a miracle cure, but works on little clogs and is certainly a great preventative measure.

Boiling water shouldn't hurt PVC drain pipes. Cold water PVC pressure lines may not be able to handle it, but from what I can see on the net drain pipes should be OK.

If you're worried, only run a small amount of boiling water thru the pipe at first.

I was actually read that you can keep your drains from clogging if you do routine maintenance with this solution. I recall seeing boiling water in the directions I fond online. I later lost the link.

Thank you.

the only thing that works for me is a drain snake--and it doesn't hurt your pipes!

I'll add my vote to following the baking soda and vinegar with boiling water. Done several times in a row I've gotten bad clogs out like that (including hair ones). It also works preventatively.

i agree with timmy jr -- the snake is great for heavy-duty clogs. just have someone else do it if you're faint of heart -- what comes out can get pretty unsightly. and noxious.

Lurker, I'm sure you've tried twisting that metal plug thingie as you pull it, right? I was just about ready to use plastic explosives on mine when a vicious twist released the whole thing, and it not only came out, it came out with the offending clog stuck to it!

There is a very good tool to get hair clogs out of sink drains. It is a flat plastic strip about 18 inches long, flexible enough to go into any curvy drain that has sort of pointy thorns on 2 edges. If you thread down the drain and rotate and then pull it back out you will come up with some pretty gross clogs. It is safe and effective. I found mine hanging on a hook in the plumbing aisle of a big orange store, it is called a zip-it drain cleaner.

http://www.zipitclean.com

is this safe with a septic tank?

I've done this a lot, but it's never actually unclogged clogged drains. Of course, i used draino (I know, I'm evil, I'm going to hell) last night and it didn't even clear it up completely...

Our very knowledgeable property manager told the building residents that Drano will cause more problems in the end. Not sure why.
He instructed us to dump a small box of baking soda down the drain and leave it for 5 minutes.
Then follow with hot water, or vinegar.
He suggests to do it monthly.
Glad to see people are going back to these basic, proven products.
Even the internal and external health benefits for the human body are being rediscovered by using baking soda, salt and vinegar.

Another trick to use for a slow draining bathroom sink is to partially fill the sink with water, then flush the toilet. The flush creates a vacuum to suck out whatever is clogging the sink. It has worked for me many times and there are no chemicals involved.

Be careful with the boiling water, it "burned" my sink! I live in a rental furnished with the cheapest materials possible and the new cheap sink in my bathroom didn't hold up to the boiling water/vinegar/baking soda mixture. It's nothing too horrible but it did leave a raised mark. I'm sure a quality or porcelain sink will hold up fine.

Get a cheap (dollar store) plunger. Plug the sink overflow with a rag. Put some water in the sink and plunge it well. Gets all sorts of yucky stuff out.

This works in the tub too, if it's not too bad.

Drano reportedly eats pipes. I'd just moved into a new apartment. The pipes were blocked so we called the apartment manager. He started to clear the blockage with a snake, and it poked right through the pipe and flooded the apartment below us. He said that the previous tenants had most likely been using Drano.

I've been using this technique for a while now and it works wonders in the tub. I do try to get out as much hair as possible and sometimes I have to repeat the procedure but it's so much safer than using all those chemicals.

i tried this in my bathtub last month. I repeated the method 4 times and nothing seemed to work. I got the "snake" and it unclogged whatever was causing the blockage.

Baking soda and vinegar so does not work.

A plunger does, though. You don't need a special plunger, you just need to not use the same exact plunger on your toilet, is all.

You can also buy a $3 gadget from the Clean Team that basically looks like a big ole zip tie, that they swear by. I have a sneaking suspicion that a big old zip tie would be a good substitute.

I absolutely agree with ADonuts - the only thing that really works (IMHO) is the plunger. I have tried the baking soda/vinegar solution, taken the trap out, and found it full of a clog of baking soda. The plunger really works. Seriously.

Needlenose pliers works to pull hair out of drain in tub, sink, anywhere you can see the buildup. I have used vinegar and baking soda a lot in the garbage disposal. Sometimes you have to let it sit, repeat. Running the disposal for a few minutes helps work it in to allow the acidic vinegar in crevices.

While I am a fan of the science project idea (I made soda and vinegar volcanoes back in the day), for stubborn clogs I buy compressed air. You just fill you sink with a little water (easy to do when it's clogged!), place a rag over the emergency drain and push down on the air can. WOOSH! Clog goes somewhere far away. And each can provides several uses. Be sure to recycle the can when it's empty!

i use this in my kitchen sink from time to time just to keep it clear (we don't have a garbage disposal and i'm sure whatever we don't manage to scrape off our plates turns into clogs somewhere along the way). my favorite unclogging miracle is the shampoo-in-the-toilet trick.

I agree with wig3000 and many others. I think with those oil base salt/sugar rubs we use in the shower ... it all builds up. I clean out the drain of hair, etc regularly (something my husband and son never think of doing even when the water begins to reach their ankles :0) .... and I pour many hot tea kettles of hot water down the drain, it seems to help.

Sometimes i take hydrogen peroxid if im out of vinegar, and im telling you, with the baking soda, it works great, all the hair are coming up with the bubbles its making. And after that, just run the hot water on.

Just want to answer lurker2209's question (from 9 months ago!) about removing the bathroom sink pop-up stopper. Don't pull and twist as Aulaire suggested! Read this page for directions on how to properly remove the pop-up stopper. I just did it for the first time and it's really not that difficult. Once I got mine out there was a ton of gunk on it that I cleaned off and I could easily see a ton of gunk in the pipe. I was able to scoop that out with a bent paper clip. My sink drains like a champ now.

Our bathtub hasn't been draining properly for the past year and a half that I've lived here. I used to use lots of chemical uncloggers, but clearly, they didn't work.

So I tried the vinegar and baking soda thing, followed by 2 kettles of boiling water. That didn't work right away (and by right away, I mean I let it sit for 15 minutes). I could still see the clumped up baking soda when I looked down the drain. So my husband just said we'd go out the next day and buy a small snake.

To our surprise the next day, the drain had unclogged! We haven't had any standing water in the tub during our shower for the past week and it's thanks to this post! I'll be sure to do this monthly just for maintenance. Thanks, AP!

(and my AP I meant AT, lol!)

and by "my" I meant "by." Sorry, I'm typing while lying down on my side and am clearly not paying attention! I'll stop now, I promise =D

This method is hit or miss. First time, it worked, then when the sink started to build up, the baking soda just clogged it up and made it worse

A kettle of boiling water works perfectly for unclogging toilets too.

This works like a dream... I cleaned my three drains this weekend. The sinks empty in a flash.