Last night at a family dinner party, we heard a lot of praise for a chemical-free drain cleaner that costs around $2.50, is made from a piece of thin plastic, and is said to work better than toxic chemical cleaners...
The Zip-It Drain Cleaner by Cobra is fashioned from a thin piece of flexible plastic with jagged edges, a sort of poor man's plumbing snake. It's thin enough to slide underneath a drain stopper, and it works particularly well on hair clogs. It's more eco-friendly and more effective than Drain-O, our only qualm being that the instructions recommend disposing of your Zip-It after one use. The company warns that the jagged edges can hurt your fingers (and the stuff that comes up isn't fun to clean off), but you could probably get a few uses out of a Zip-It if you use rubber gloves to wipe it clean. Zip-Its are available at hardware stores and other retailers including Amazon, Ace Hardware, Sears, and Lowe's.
For another non-toxic drain declogger you can whip up at home, see this post.
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Would love to hear feedback on this. I had a clog a few days ago and resorted to a nasty chemical in lieu of something snake-like.
I've used one of these for about a year now. Bought mine at my local hardware store.
It works great for my hairy bathroom drains. I rinse and re-use. I usually use this, and then give the drains a vinegar and baking soda treatment.
I haven't had to buy any Draino since I bought it. Might not work as well on non-hair clogs, though.
I had really good luck on my recent shower drain clog with a plunger. I ran some hot water to "loosen" up any gunk, then plunged repeatedly. Clog was gone!
1. remove drain cover if possible. (Usually just takes a screwdriver in a c\shower or tub.)
2. Use a plunger. (no chemicals)
3. Pour a kettle of boiling (not "hot" -- actively boiling) water slowly down the drain.
4. Use plunger.
5. Replace drain cover.
I have never had this fail so far with hair/soap scum/mildew clogs. (Our old plumbing had a now code-non-compliant T-connection in the drain and we had a lot of issues because of it.)
I used one of these to fix my slow-draining sink a few months ago. It's super easy and worked really well! I wiped it down and put it back in its package to use again. I agree with jyw, the jagged edges seem designed to pull hair out, so I'm not sure how it'll work on other kinds of clogs.
sounds like a fun dinner party.
There's a sort of pump plunger thing my housemate saw on some TV show - it was about $10 at Lowe's. I was lucky enough to be uninvolved in the actual drain clearing, but from the aftermath, it looks like the pump thing one of these did the trick.
If you have to throw it away after one use that doesn't seem very eco-friendly. I'm glad most people say that they are actually fairly reusable.
I just finished cleaning my shower drain and while I was doing it I hoping for something like this to help as I ended up also resorting to draino after trying several other non chemical ways.
These would only work if something was caught in the trap.
Anything further down you need the boiling water and plunger for.
How do you rinse it off? Doesn't that just send the crap back down the drain?
Rinse it in the toilet.
If you have to throw it away after one use that doesn't seem very eco-friendly.
More eco-friendly than a huge plastic bottle of Draino, I would think.
I bought this at home depot and it didn't work for me because:
-the bathtub pipe bends behind the wall, I guess, and I can only insert the ZipIt about 4 inches
- the kitchen sink drain has an insert to hold the drainer. The "thorns" of the ZipIt don't fit through. I don't feel comfortable removing this drain cover.
How about turning a zip tie upside down? All it needs to do is pick up a few hairs and the rest comes out. Think I will try on my kids tub tomorrow...some hair build up, its due.
I swear by these things. I live in a 100 yr old bdg, with a bathtub drain that seems about that old. I would be scared to put any chemicals down there. Mine also has a pipe that bends into the wall. You should be able to find a little slot towards the bottom of the drain trap on the wall side. The Zip it will bend and slide right in and go in about 6-8 inches. It doesn't need to go in the entire way of the strip, because the clog will be mainly up around the beginning of the drain. Follow up with a little baking soda and boiling water for good measure and your drain will be cured.
You can re-use them, but you will want gloves or paper towels and a garbage can nearby to throw away the clog- not another drain or toilet. Depending on how nasty your clog is, you may find it worthwhile to just throw it away.
I have and use it fairly regularly. I have had the same one for years. It can be gross to remove the clog from the tool but a paper towel usually makes it doable. I wipe it down with some cleaner and store til next use. It works remarkably well on hair clogs and these are the only kind I seem to get in the sink and tub drains. The kitchen seems to respond better to a plunger.
I'm willing to try this. My bathroom sink has been slow to drain for the past few weeks and I tried lots of things from boiling water and vinegar and baking soda and nothing has really worked. I don't want to try a chemical cleaner because I have a feeling it might eat away at my rubber pipe. Yes, for some reason maintenance removed the metal pipe and replaced it with a squishy rubber pipe that's just clamped on.
It didn't work for me, I think because my pipe bent? I don't know. Had to resort to the super-duper strength Drano. I use very green methods for the all the rest of my home cleaning though, so I try to think I offset the Drano.
For sinks that stop up, we've always just unscrewed the S-trap underneath and cleaned it separately--the S gets cleaned with a hose outdoors, and gunk in the straight pipe up to the sink can be scraped out from underneath into the bucket and then flushed away. Since this method completely wipes the pipe it doesn't need to be done more often than every few years (and I have long hair). We replace the gasket on the pipe each time which also cuts the risk of leaks. Some of the newer pipes are designed to be unscrewed this way by hand; you don't even need a wrench.
But this could be handy for a tub, maybe, although we rely primarily on an after-market trap supplement which prevents hair and other stuff from going into the drain in the first place. Calling a plumber to completely clean the tub drain with a real snake and then adding a hair trap seems like a better solution than repeated forays with either zipties or Drano, though. I had a roommate once who'd probably spent hundreds on Drano for years without getting the drain to work right. A $50 plumber's visit resolved the problem in an afternoon without chemical intervention.
Ok so I have been using all sorts of off the shelf liquid drain cleaners and nothing has worked so today I bought this zip it and Hello in minutes my drain is clear. Thank you for this awesome and inexpensive "Made in America" product!!!
Oh and by the way I did it several times in a row to get all the gunk out. Works great.