Unclogging drains...

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irvinehomeowner

irvinehomeowner

Well-known member
Some of you guys may already know this but I recently discovered how to unclog a troublesome drain of mine.

My one master sink was always slow draining... over the last year I had tried different drain cleaners to no avail. I knew the culprit was probably hair (I guess I'm balding) and I even got to the point where I was thinking of buying one of those "As Seen On TV" mini-snakes at Target (well... not a snake really but a hook that pulls out the hair).

Instead, I decided to try a different drain cleaner. I always bought the liquid or gel ones and while there was temporary relief, eventually it would be slow draining again. So this time I read the bottles... and it turns out the foam one was for "slow draining" and the gel one was for "stopped drains".

Hmmm.... reading is fundamental. I brought one home and tried it (it's one of those ones with two compartments and when you pour it out they mix and become foamy). I was doubtful because it looked it just ran down the drain but 30 minutes later... not only was the drain free flowing but all the hair I could see in the stopper was gone. Now... it does scare me that the foam was strong enough to eat my hair away but it's been almost two months and no problems.

I'm sure some of you are probably saying "Duh... IHO... you're such a newb"... but for those of you who didn't know... it seems the foam works better on hair clogged slow drains and the gel works on stopped ones.

That's it.
 
Can you link or at least give the brand you used?  The gel one I have says it is for slow drains, but I will give the foam a try.  Thanks
 
Not sure, there are only two brands they have at Target, Drano or Liquid Plumbr.

I think it's Drano, it was a black bottle... I can check when I get home... I bought 2 extra just in case (plus they had those instant coupons stuck on them).
 
i read somewhere that every year people end up going to the emergency room because they try to unclog a drain using Draino or Liquid Plummer when one doesnt work they try other and apparently one is an acid and the other is a base and when they mix its not good.
 
BTW:

This was based on my own personal account (I used it on two different sinks with success) but it seems others aren't as lucky:
http://www0.epinions.com/content_321445858948

Not sure what kind of drain clog they had (mentioned a shower) but for my sink... this product seemed to work as advertised on my sinks. Here are other more positive reviews:
http://www.viewpoints.com/Drano-Dual-Force-Foamer-Clog-Remover-reviews

Like me, they used it for their sinks.

Please don't go after me for your $3.97 if it doesn't work.
 
qwerty said:
i read somewhere that every year people end up going to the emergency room because they try to unclog a drain using Draino or Liquid Plummer when one doesnt work they try other and apparently one is an acid and the other is a base and when they mix its not good.
Click to expand...
I've never done it one after the other. I just decided that the gel one didn't work so well so I tried the foam one.

Also, I think it works better if you let the water drain out first to allow the two liquids to mix to create the foam. That's probably why I keep using gel because I think it's a standing water issue but it's really not.
 
I use zipits to unclog my drains, works well for hair and no chemicals in the house.  Kinda gross when that hairball emerges but I got use to it.
 
I wasn't looking forward to pulling hairballs out of my drain... with my luck... they would be sentient and might ask me to send them to school.

The other benefit of this foam thing... it cleans the sink and the stopper really well... hehe.
 
Same thing happened to me a few months ago. Used a green bottle of Draino, worked as advertised. Had to do it twice though, which used up the entire bottle. Thanks for sharing. Shall try the black bottle next time (hopefully not).
 
Just wanted to thank IHO for posting this.  Used the black bottle on 4 slow drains this weekend and all have drastically improved.  Tried so many other gel things before this and these all worked on the first try. with the exception of one.  That one failed because I didn't use the full bottle (ignoring the instructions) but from then on used a full bottle on each drain and worked like a charm!
 
Thanks for the update 26... my master drain is still unclogged which is the longest that has been.

Looks like one of the other bathrooms might be getting slow, gonna have to bust out one of my backup foam bottles.
 
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