I live in a house with VERY temperamental pipes! Over the years we have had 3 floods in the basement and numerous backed-up sinks, showers and tubs — all due to clogs! That’s a lot of time, money and consternation! Needless to say clogged drains cause me a great deal of fear and loathing! That’s why whenever I run across a way to DEAL with them I am compelled to read about it, try it, and SHARE it! :-)
I was actually surprised to realize just how much sharing I’ve already done about clogged drains in the past on this blog. A quick search revealed FIVE home remedies I’ve already written about, and you can read the posts by clicking on the links.
Baking Soda and Vinegar
Empty one-half cup baking soda down the drain, followed by one-half cup white vinegar. Cover the drain and let mixture stand for a few minutes. Then pour a pot of boiling water down the drain. The baking soda and vinegar dissolve fatty acids, allowing the clog to wash down the drain.
Borax
Unclog drains with 1/2 cup of borax followed by 2 cups of boiling water. Let it sit for 15 minutes, then run your water for a few minutes to flush it out.
Dawn Dish Soap
A cup of Dawn detergent poured into a clogged toilet allowed to sit for 15 minutes and then followed with a bucket of hot water poured from waist height will clear out the toilet.
The Secret Plumber’s Trick
Fill a bucket with hot water. Pour the hot water down the toilet and the clog should be fixed in no time. The heat melts the fats in the “clog” & makes it all more flushable.
A Wet/Dry Vacuum
With the sink overflow hole blocked and a rag placed over the drain, press the end of your wet dry vacuum’s hose against the drain to form a tight seal. Then turn the vacuum on and let it do all the hard work for you!
All of these I have personally tried and have saved me countless plumber service calls! Not to mention they are inexpensive and non-toxic – unlike traditional drain cleaners that are EXTREMELY toxic!
Do you have any tips for dealing with clogged drains?
Definitely sounds like something we need in our house!
Please log in or create a free account to comment.I probably have the most EXPENSIVE drain clog story around!!! 30 years ago our bathtub stopped up. Not being able to fix it ourselves, I of course called a plumber. I was so grateful when he dislodged not only hair but the top of a shampoo bottle (which my husband neglected to tell me he had dropped.) I was holding my daughter at the kitchen window. As we watched the plumber drive away, water started pouring down through the kitchen ceiling. THE PLUMBER HAD PUNCHED A HOLE IN THE PIPE, thus causing the plumbing to be torn up and fixed, but also the kitchen ceiling repaired and painted!!!
Please log in or create a free account to comment.We have to remove hair from the drains regularly around here. Thankfully, we haven’t needed a plumber to unclog anything. Thanks for the info about this neat little product, Jillee!
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Hair clogged shower and water flooded floor and came through ceiling! Uugh!
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Never never put boiling or too hot water down a toilet drain!
Please log in or create a free account to comment.We have 3 women with long hair in our house. We deal with clogs all the time. The worst was when the basement backed up and flooded every ng from the laundry to the cat box. Blech!
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Currently living in a small studio apartment with awful plumbing! About every week or two we find ourselves having to shower with a tub full of water because it just won’t drain. Would love to try this product and maybe it’d help out some!
Please log in or create a free account to comment.I was having Christmas at my house for about 40 people. found out the hard way you do not put celery through a garbage disposal. I had water backing up in my kitchen sink and bath tub and people coming within a half hour. We had to take an elbow apart in the basement to clear it. Christmas was saved.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.When we first moved into this house, I was doing laundry when we heard odd sounds coming from the bathroom. The bathtub had black water backed up into it and the toilet was flowing over onto the floor. We were horrified! The plumber said it was tree roots, and he found several root balls in the pipe.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.There were a couples years where, right on Christmas morning, a tree root would finally push through a pipe in our yard enough to back up ours AND our neighbor’s kitchen sinks with the awful, disgusting waste water. It became a dreaded holiday tradition.
I have very long hair, and much to my husband’s chagrine, it ends up everywhere! The drainwig would be a very happy alternative to having to dig my hair out of the drain every couple of weeks.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.A few months ago, I was taking my daily pill when I dropped it….down the bathroom sink. I’m not about to have another baby, so I was going to get that pill. I pulled the stopper out, and the pill was there, thanks to the huge glob of slimy hair in the drain. I HAD to take the pill anyway. I gagged the whole way. And since then, I never open the pill package over the sink. The Drainwig would save me!
Please log in or create a free account to comment.My husband turned on the shower to get in, then got distracted helping our two year old and left the bathroom for about 10 minutes. He didn’t know there was a clog and the whole bathroom and part of our bedroom was flooded by the time he went back in.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.My least favorite chore but it’s my hair. I put on rubber gloves and pull out the hair.YUCK. I hate that. This would be awesome. Must find one.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.I have long hair and every few months I have to remove that awful, stinky, gross mess of hair out of the drain….ugh! I have never heard of this product but it sounds fantastic!!
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Our shower wouldn’t drain it was at a standstill. This was the worst we had ever had. Hubby had to take the top off and pull at what was clogging it…Over and over again until this huge thing came out. It was a replica of “Cousin It” from the Adams Family….hair tons of hair…
Please log in or create a free account to comment.With 6 girls in the house we needless to say have lots of drains with hair in them. These tips are great for a slow drain, but what about one that has standing water? Would that still work? Anyway, we would definitely benefit from DrainWigs. Can you also use them in a bathroom sink that has a drain cover?
Please log in or create a free account to comment.OMGOSH…….I would LOVE to win a drainwig! What an awesome gadget! Over the years I have had my sister and her family with 2 daughters & 2 dogs live with us, my future daughter-in-law, & a friend of one of my sons, all of which had long hair & cleaning the drain has never been a fun project for me since my husband is disabled.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.However, I do recall many years ago when I was potty training my youngest son who loved to play with his matchbox cars, he would run them around the toilet seat. Apparently one afternoon, surprisingly, a matchbox car was flushed unbeknownst to me & naturally, the toilet clogged. My husband traveled a lot & was of course out of town so the burden fell upon me to run to the hardware store & purchase a “snake” to remedy the clog. Surprisingly, it did not work & I had to call “Roter Rooter” to come and use their heavy duty machine which did the trick! The technician sternly recommended that in the future I should not let my son have matchbox cars near the toilet! LOL…..we still laugh about it to this day!!!! Thankfully, we all have a good sense of humor in our family!
Since I have really long hair, we deal with this problem all the time. Thanks for the helpful hints.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.We came home to find the pipe burst due to a tree root growing in the pipes. The water overflowed from the upstairs bathroom down the stairs, into the living room. My daughter at the time, being 4, thought it was wonderful to see that much water in the home. The beach arrived just for her. Due to the fact of the overflowed, clogged pipe, the ceiling in the kitchen clasped as well. Needless to say, the trees are no where close to the water lines any longer. The positive thing out of all this, my bathroom and kitchen was re-modeled. Who knew a root would clog the whole width of the pipe?
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Wow! What a mess!
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Our upstairs bathroom has issues. One of the issues is it has almost 100 year old pipes. So not only is the water pressure terrible, the drain has so much build up, it gets clogged pretty easy. One time I tried to fix the clog with baking soda and vinegar method, but it just wasn’t working. I moved onto a plunger. This only made it worse. So it took us a month to try to unclog the sink with every method we could think of without using chemicals or a plumber (we were broke at the time). So finally my husband took apart all the pipes under the sink and used a coat hanger down the pipes from there and released the clog. Having black, stinky water floating in the sink for a month was such a treat!
Please log in or create a free account to comment.The worst clog we have had in our house other than the usual smelly, slimy hair clogs was when we very first moved in. Every time we flushed the toilet it would make a backsplash and bubbles would come up everywhere. I tried several things and was furious because it was a brand new house and having these problems already?? Called the contractors the next day and told them what was happening. A guy came and put a snake down the toilet when he cranked it back up there were 3 salamanders on the wire! I just about fainted! Terrified of creepy crawlers. They took up our pipes that day, seems they had ran the pipes through a part of underground that seemed overrun by these things and installed anyhow. After moving the pipes around we were fine even though it took awhile to use the bathroom without a fear of a lizard jumping onto my behind!!
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Oh my!!!! I think I definitely would have fainted!!! lol! wow!
Please log in or create a free account to comment.My story is the cotton diaper down the drain in the good ole “70s”. Talk about take your breath away in more ways than one. All young people. Say a prayer each day as you throw the disposable diaper in the trash. Long, Blond, Hair, it could only my hair these days in the shower. I could really use these little jems for one less “yucky moment in my day. M.in Kansas
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Few years ago, I painted my laundry room a lemon yellow, and then dh installed my first-ever disposal in my kitchen sink, we prepared for Easter dinner by peeling lots of potatoes…and then “heard” the peelings flying out the drain pipe for the clothes washer! EVEN ON THE CEILING!! My nice new laundry room, my drains, oh, what a mess that was. No more peels in the disposal. (I compost, btw, but, wanted to use the new toy, that day!!!) He had to tear the pipes out, to clean it all away…slivers of peels mixed with laundry gunk, and hair, and grease, oh my!
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Oh Brenda!!! What a horrific story! LOL!
Please log in or create a free account to comment.When I was younger I was babysitting a toddler. I wore glasses sometimes, back then, and could not find them anywhere. When the toilet backed up and we had to call a plumber, that was when I found my glasses! Needless to say, they went in the garbage.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.I had a terrible clogged toilet event I do not want to repeat, suffice it to say I spent a LOT of money on a plumber. Can’t wait to try these methods, thank you for the article, it looks really helpful.
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