One of the regular nuisances of life is the clogged drain or toilet. Considering how much use we get from our drains, it’s honestly surprising that clogged or slow drains aren’t happening all the time.

What do you do when you’re confronted with a drain clog? If one of your first thoughts is, “Purchase a bottle of drain cleaner from the store and let it do its work,” then we’re thankful you came across this post! There are other ways to approach a clog and we recommend all of them over using chemical drain cleaners. We’re experts when it comes to drain and sewer cleaning in Tampa, FL, and we’d like to show you the best way to deal with clogged drains and toilets.

First: Why chemical drain cleaners are not the way!

We’ll give this credit to chemical drain cleaners: the companies that manufacture them know how to market. They’ve made these bottles of caustic chemicals seem like the obvious go-to solution for handling all types of drain clogs, and they make sure you can find them easily in every grocery store. 

The truth is that these store-bought “drain cleaners” are bad news in multiple ways. Here’s why no professional plumber recommends using them:

• They don’t do a complete job. The chemicals will only eat enough of a hole through a blockage to allow water to flow again. All the detritus left behind will help clogs come back soon.
• They are harmful to drain and sewer lines because of their hard acidic action. They degrade piping materials, and because of a reaction they have with soap scum, they can rapidly ruin otherwise durable plastic piping. 
• They’re incredibly toxic and not something you want hanging around the house if you have kids or pets. Aside from the danger of ingesting them, these chemicals will burn skin and create serious eye, nose, throat, and lung irritation.
• They’re awful for the environment, often ending up in landfill and leaking toxins into the groundwater.

The Methods That Can Work

There are three methods you can use to clear out a clogged drain. The first two might not work, but they’re easy and inexpensive to try. The third method absolutely will work.

1. Use a sink or toilet plunger. We recommend having both these easily available in your home. (The two have different shapes to better fit their specific use.) Many simple clogs only need the force of a plunger to clear them.
2. Use a drain auger/drain snake. These are simple tools you can send down into the drain to break apart clogs or pull them out. Augers can be as basic as plastic strips with barbs on them, or they can be made of entwined metal with a hand crank that can drill down into tougher clogs.
3. Call professional plumbers. If you can’t get rid of a clog with the above methods, don’t reach for the chemical drain cleaners in frustration. Reach out to us and we’ll see your drains are not only unclogged, but that they’re thoroughly cleaned so it’s hard for the clogs to come back.

Rely on The Clean Plumbers for any help you need with your drains. The one with the bubbles on the trucks.

Tags: Drain Cleaning, Tampa
Monday, November 6th, 2023 at 11:00 am | Categories: Drain and Sewer |