apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

I unclogged my shower drain by attaching a strip of velcro (the spiky side) to a narrow stick. It's a gross process pulling up all the hair, but no chemicals were used and the drain was unclogged!

I've used this technique on a slow drain and it worked. For drains that are actually clogged, I much prefer to use a plunger.

pour 1 litre of regular Coke down the drain and let it sit overnight. Flush w/a kettle of boiling water in the morning. (my dad's been doing it since before I was born...ha ha)


if you're worried about your pipes freezing- I had friends in a panic dump old liquors down the drains during a major temp drop and they had no problems when a neighbor did.....'course, that could've been chance. But the Coke thing works!

(this is why I don't drink dark sodas....ew)

I've used boiling water to unclog my kitchen sink. The sink was filled with 6 inches of water and all I did was pour the boiling water into the center of the sink and within a minute the water drained.

Toby

i've had plenty of luck without the salt, just the baking soda and vinegar followed by the boiling water. That, accompanied with a few vigorous turns with the plunger, has always unclogged my drains. The baking soda/vinegar thing once a week is also just good maintenance.

our kitchen sink drains, but VERY VERY slowly. i end up using a plunger each time i wash the dishes.

tried this trick (with boiling water, without salt) about 5 times already. helps for about 5 minutes, and then stops. the super stopped by, replaced a blown gasket in the pipe, and checked the drainage right under the sink - there's nothing there!

any advice? we don't have money to pay a plumber.

(as in, is a plumber our ONLY choice now?)

This isn't "green" at all but it's a pretty cheap home remedy. I work as a bartender and the sink behind the bar gets seriously clogged at least once a week. My manager is too cheap to hire a plumber to actually take care of it, or to even buy some Drano, so what I do is pour a bunch of bleach down the drain. Like, half a gallon. It works pretty well.

I've always used the baking soda/vinegar/boiling water and the only time it didn't work was when we had a serious plumbing issue.

Another hint, run the water full on for several seconds after you've used the disposal. It helps clear all that debris from your pipes. (this is my totally unprofessional opinion, but we haven't had a problem since I started doing this)

just tried this on our slow draining shower today. it didn't work and didn't even seem to speed up the draining process unfortunately. i may try the coke trick that buzzybee recommended.

Milk tea: never knew enough to try this on my slow draining tub before I moved, but I've read that the mechanism that stops the drain during a bath can be the culprit. Remove the overflow plate/drain lever and pull out the stopper. Check for hair, etc. wrapped around the stopper. Also, adjust the height of the stopper--it may be too low, causing the slow draining. See http://tinyurl.com/2wk4f3 for details.