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With that out of the way, let’s get into it!

We’ve all been there… It’s the eve of an important event and you’re busy running errands, cooking meals, and cleaning the house. Your kitchen sink has been slowing down for a while, but it works, so you’ve let it go. In fairness, it’s been on your mind that you’re going to have to get someone in to deal with it eventually, but who has the time? All of a sudden, the water doesn’t seem to be going down the drain anymore… But you have guests coming in the morning… Panic! What do you do now?

Since this newsletter is aptly called “How NOT to Call the Plumber”, I’m here to tell you what not to do in this situation, what you can try instead, and most importantly how to prevent this happening in the first place!

Before we get into it, let’s talk about why your kitchen sink might become clogged (it may not be what you think)… When it comes to blockages, plumbers have an acronym that we use, FOG, which stands for Fats, Oils, and Grease.

So here’s the thing - aside from improperly installed drains (you’d never believe how many drains we’ve seen that the ‘installer’ must have assumed water can flow uphill), FOG’s are the catalysts to any and all kitchen clogs. The fats, oils, and grease that go down the drain stick to the inner walls of the pipes and in turn gives everything else something to stick to. Once that happens, bad news, FOG’s stick to that stuff - around and around we go until there’s no room left in the pipe for the water to flow.

We’ve established we should *really* try to limit the amount of FOG’s that make their way down the drain… but at the moment we’re still stuck with a clog and we’ve only got 12 hours until the in-laws arrive.

Let’s talk about what NOT to do first:

Promise Me You’ll Never Use Draino

Whatever you do, for the love of the plumbing gods, do not pour Draino or a similar drain cleaning chemical down the drain. These chemical cleaners:

• Have a low success rate

• Are very dangerous to both you as the homeowner as well as the plumber that will likely need to come when it doesn’t work anyway

• Can and will damage piping to the point of needing replacement (not fun when that pipe replacement happens to be in the wall behind your kitchen cabinets!)

• Have the potential to interact with the blockage rather than clear it, and harden it to the consistency of chalk - leading to more pipe replacements by the plumber

If you go against this advice and still try to use a drain cleaning chemical, I promise we won’t give you grief, but please let us know so we don’t unknowingly splash it all over ourselves!

Don’t Bother with the Drain Auger

Now I know it sounds like I might be trying to get you to call the plumber - I promise I’m not, but I’m always hesitant to suggest a homeowner tries a manual drain auger and would suggest never using a motorized one without the proper training. To put it plainly, the manual ones simply just don’t work and the motorized ones can be quite dangerous.

The hand turning, manual drain augers that you buy from Home Depot for $25 simply don’t have the power to cut through most blockages in the kitchen drain. With that said, they are a great option for issues with the bathtub or bathroom sink where hair is usually the culprit! Also, you’ll have to take apart the piping under the sink to use it (the head of the cable won’t fit through the opening in the sink), so there is a fairly good chance that the drain leaks when you try to put it back together. You’ll never guess how many calls we get for a clogged kitchen sink that now also includes a homeowner induced drain repair to go with it!

For the motorized augers I want to be clear - they do work quite well if you know how to use them. Every plumber in the world uses them! What makes these so dangerous is that when the cable is in the drain, spinning around trying to clear the blockage, the torque generated by the machine can and will twist the steel cable right over itself, not only breaking the cable, but potentially also your fingers as well. I’d wager a guess that a good number of plumbers have had close calls with this, even with proper training and years of experience. Do they work? Yes. Are they dangerous? Yes!

Now that we’ve talked about what NOT to do, here’s what you can try instead:

Baking Soda and Vinegar

Believe it or not, a baking soda and vinegar combination is enough to clear some blockages, especially if you catch them early enough (bonus points if you do this before a total blockage!).

To use baking soda and vinegar to clear a drain, take these steps:

1. Pour a pot of boiling water down the drain. For any of you that worry about this damaging the pipes - don’t! It’s no different that straining your pasta or vegetables after cooking! The piping under your sink can easily handle boiling water here and there without issue - they are designed to do so!

2. Open the pantry and get a scoop of baking soda - about 1 cup should do the trick. Pour that baking soda down the drain. Using chopsticks, a straw, or something similar, try and get as much of that baking soda into the actual drain as you can.

3. Pour 1 cup of vinegar into the drain. Now I know it’s fun, but don’t let your inner child’s need to see the reaction win out for too long! Once the vinegar is in the drain, we want to put the cover on to trap as much of the reaction inside as possible. Let it do it’s thing for about 15 minutes.

4. Once we’ve played the waiting game, pour one more pot of boiling water down the drain to clear excess debris. You can even leave the hot water running from the faucet for a few minutes to give it that extra flush

Use the Plunger

For more stubborn clogs, a simple plunger can sometimes be the better choice - and as with any other tool, there is a proper way to use it!

1. Fill the sink so there is a few inches of water at the bottom. In theory this shouldn’t be a problem, since the whole reason you’re doing this is because the water won’t go down the drain anyway. The plunger needs this water to help push and pull the blockage out of the way. Think of it the same way as how a hydraulic system works! If the system isn’t completely sealed and full of water, the air will compress and act as a cushion, therefore lessening the power of the plunger.

2. Choose the correct plunger. In this case, we’re specifically going to want to use a “Cup Plunger”. This type of plunger allows for a proper seal against the bottom of the sink, helping once again to push and pull that blockage with as much power as possible.

3. If you have a two compartment sink, plug the other side using the drain cover. Create as much of a seal as you can - bonus points if you have someone there to help hold it in place while you do the real work in step 4!

4. Use the plunger properly. Here’s the trick to using a plunger - it’s more about the pull than the push. When used properly, you will have more success trying to “pull” the blockage back up through the pipe in your upstroke with the plunger than you will with the push of the downstroke. Make sure you keep a solid seal with the bottom of the sink on both the pushing down and pulling up motions with the plunger to give yourself the best chance of success!

How do you prevent a blocked kitchen sink in the first place?

As I mentioned, the first and most important thing we can do is to limit the amount of Fats, Oils, and Grease that can make their way down the drain. Now I know this is nearly impossible to do completely, so there are a couple of things we can do to help prevent buildups!

1. Use the baking soda and vinegar trick. Not only will it help with actual blockages, but it will do it’s part to clean the inner lining of the drains before it becomes an issue.

2. Dish soap and hot water. Once a week, pour a bit of dish soap into the sink, plug the drain, and fill it with hot water. Once full, drain the sink and allow that bubbly water to make it’s way down. The combination of the hot water and degreasing dish soap will help to lessen the buildup of FOG’s on the inside of those pipes.

In Conclusion…

There’s no better way to describe a blocked kitchen sink that just plainly annoying. Is it the biggest plumbing issue you’ll ever face? Probably not. Is it something that happens to most people at some point or another? Definitely.

With that said, if you are able to limit the amount of Fats, Oils, and Grease that make their way down the drain and take the preventative steps we’ve outlined above, you could be in the lucky few that avoid that dreaded call to the plumber!

If you’re a Toronto homeowner and STILL have a plumbing issue after reading this, we’re here to help! You can reach us by email at [email protected], by phone at 416-587-4302, or on the web at www.watermarkplumbing.ca!

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