Does your sink take forever to drain? Slow flowing, gurgling drains are a problem most homeowners face occasionally. You may wonder about using a commercial drain cleaner or another do-it-yourself method, but maybe you’re not sure how safe or effective that might be.
Well, your worries are over. Out of This World Plumbing is here to tell you how to fix a slow draining sink.
Soap scum, hair, skin flakes, dirt, and food particles all leave sediment in the drainpipe. The result? Your slow draining sink.
Fats, oils, and grease are such a common cause of slow draining sinks that plumbers nickname them — FOG. Resist the temptation to throw leftover cooking fat down the drain; it will harden and clog. Instead, pour carefully into an empty can, cool, and dispose of it in your regular garbage. In Ottawa, you can dispose of FOGs in your green bin.
Ageing pipes tend to deteriorate and corrode. This corrosion may be responsible for partial obstruction of your drain. This could also be a sign of a broken sewer line.
Tree roots growing into the sewer line can slow down your whole plumbing system. The conventional remedy was cutting out the root and replacing the damaged pipe.
Now, Out of This World offers an easier alternative: RootX, a trusted product by professional plumbers. Although it’s not a permanent solution, RootX will inhibit root growth for 6-12 months (9months on average).
Kitchen and bathroom sink drains have a curved section, the P-trap, to catch debris before it clogs pipes. When it overfills, though, the P-trap itself may become clogged.
We plumbers have stories of strange objects that mysteriously get trapped in dbrains and slow water flow. A big part of the mystery is how they got there in the first place. Legos and other toys are understandable (Junior was doing a science experiment!), but cell phones, glasses, and heirloom engagement rings???
Pro Tip: Keep your valuables far away from the sink drain!
We recommend BioOne, a natural drain cleaner. It contains live vegetative microbes, which literally eat the residue in household drains. This biodegradable product is safer for you, your family, your pets, and the environment (as well as your septic system — in fact, it boosts performance after a septic tank pumping).
Get your slow drain running normally again: treat for 5 days with BioOne, then continue using it monthly to prevent minor clogs.
The following scenario sounds so simple, doesn’t it? Fix a slow-draining sink by blasting it with a chemical drain cleaner.
Unfortunately, there are problems:
1. Chemical drain cleaners usually solve only very minor clogs. Watch our video about this topic:
2. These cleaners are made of, well, chemicals. Such as lye, bleach, sodium nitrate, and/or sulfuric acid, which react to your sink clog, generating heat to dissolve it.
These chemical cocktails are dangerous to human health (if you must keep them in your home, lock them in a childproof cabinet). They’re also caustic and can actually damage your fixtures, septic system, and plumbing pipes — especially PVC and older metal pipes. Not to mention the environmental effects these chemicals can have when leaching into the earth.
DIY solutions compared to hiring a plumber are cheap, they’re easy, they’re all over the internet… but they often don’t work. A vinegar-baking soda mix will freshen your drains and make them smell clean, but it won’t improve drainage. And pouring boiling water down a porcelain sink or toilet means you’re risking a crack.
Plunging or augering the drain and clearing out the P-trap could help — as long as you know what you’re doing.
All DIY solutions have one thing in common: even if they help your slow-draining sink, they are just temporary fixes. Ultimately, you’re only delaying the inevitable — drain camera inspection and repair by a plumbing expert.
When your kitchen sink drain is taking longer than usual to empty, it could mean that it’s time for a drain cleaning – learn the signs that your home is in need of our professional drain cleaning service.
Did someone say “plumbing expert”? Whether you have a slow draining sink or an overflowing drain, Out of This World is a professional plumbing service in the Ottawa area that’s here to help. Contact us to purchase BioOne, or to request expert drain cleaning and plumbing repair.
