Advances in my plumbing-fu
Jan. 20th, 2022 09:10 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
which_chickI have a lot of sinks. Most people have fewer than five sinks... a kitchen, a bathroom, a powder room, a laundry, possibly another bathroom. Maybe a shop sink. But I have about a hundred sinks (Apartments have a kitchen sink and a bathroom sink. I have about fifty apartments. Hence, a hundred sinks.) I also have about fifty bathtub drains. So, I get to play drains a lot.
If it's a bathroom sink or tub drain, the typical problem is hair or hair+conditioner. You might have a decent amount of luck with a small, handheld drain snake. Bathtubs, definitely try the drain snake. It's hair almost 100% of the time. There is a knack to snaking a tub drain, but you'll get it in about five or six tries if you have any mechanical ability at all. Sinks, you take apart the trap and thread the snake in there. Tubs, you take off the overflow (above drain, below spout) and thread the snake there.
If it's a kitchen sink drain, the problem is grease. Almost always, it's grease. SOMETIMES (but not often) it's new apartment dweller has put an entire pan of cooked and now rotten macaroni down the disposal without running enough water or similar, but I expect that if you are the person with the clogged drain, you probably know that you did that.
For grease, you do not use a snake. You use a chemical drain opener. My previous go-to was a product called Liquid Fire which was basically sulfuric acid. It worked, but... ew. And not very quickly, plus smelled like burning hair all the time. Spatter put holes in my clothes. Household lye works better (most of the time) and is easier to handle. You need a little flow in your drain (like, it's slow but not completely stopped... it can be VERY slow as long as it drains a little) but it works great. Follow container directions.
To get "a little flow" in a drain so that you can dump household lye down it, I suggest plunging with a plunger. Most people do not plunge sufficiently... vigorously. They are gentle. If you are plunging, it should be violent and thrust-y like a gonzo porn where the girl is crying because dude be slamming her cervix alla time. There should be horrible whoopie-cushion noises. You should have some spatter out the other side of the double-bowl sink stopper even though you are holding it down. Aim for a VIGOROUS up and down with lots of suction going on. DO NOT half ass your plunging. Make a yeoman effort, here.
Do not use the humorous half-circle red rubber plunger like from cartoons. It is shit. Get a heavy duty black rubber toilet plunger (with collar) and use that. I have no time for weird accordion-shaped plastic plungers either. GET A HEAVY DUTY TOILET PLUNGER AND USE IT. (Most of my tenants who have a plunger have a useless flimsy piece of shit, the aforementioned red rubber plunger thing. Don't do that. Get a good one that will hold up to you whaling on it.)
If it's a bathroom sink or tub drain, the typical problem is hair or hair+conditioner. You might have a decent amount of luck with a small, handheld drain snake. Bathtubs, definitely try the drain snake. It's hair almost 100% of the time. There is a knack to snaking a tub drain, but you'll get it in about five or six tries if you have any mechanical ability at all. Sinks, you take apart the trap and thread the snake in there. Tubs, you take off the overflow (above drain, below spout) and thread the snake there.
If it's a kitchen sink drain, the problem is grease. Almost always, it's grease. SOMETIMES (but not often) it's new apartment dweller has put an entire pan of cooked and now rotten macaroni down the disposal without running enough water or similar, but I expect that if you are the person with the clogged drain, you probably know that you did that.
For grease, you do not use a snake. You use a chemical drain opener. My previous go-to was a product called Liquid Fire which was basically sulfuric acid. It worked, but... ew. And not very quickly, plus smelled like burning hair all the time. Spatter put holes in my clothes. Household lye works better (most of the time) and is easier to handle. You need a little flow in your drain (like, it's slow but not completely stopped... it can be VERY slow as long as it drains a little) but it works great. Follow container directions.
To get "a little flow" in a drain so that you can dump household lye down it, I suggest plunging with a plunger. Most people do not plunge sufficiently... vigorously. They are gentle. If you are plunging, it should be violent and thrust-y like a gonzo porn where the girl is crying because dude be slamming her cervix alla time. There should be horrible whoopie-cushion noises. You should have some spatter out the other side of the double-bowl sink stopper even though you are holding it down. Aim for a VIGOROUS up and down with lots of suction going on. DO NOT half ass your plunging. Make a yeoman effort, here.
Do not use the humorous half-circle red rubber plunger like from cartoons. It is shit. Get a heavy duty black rubber toilet plunger (with collar) and use that. I have no time for weird accordion-shaped plastic plungers either. GET A HEAVY DUTY TOILET PLUNGER AND USE IT. (Most of my tenants who have a plunger have a useless flimsy piece of shit, the aforementioned red rubber plunger thing. Don't do that. Get a good one that will hold up to you whaling on it.)
no subject
Date: 2022-04-09 03:20 pm (UTC)