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Bathrooms and kitchens would be a mess without a drain cleaner. The residue from detergents and bath soaps can clog your drain. However, commercial drain cleaners can cost more money than they are really worth. You might want to consider some homemade options instead. Below are effective homemade drain cleaner recipes. Use them according to the intensity of your bathroom or kitchen’s clogging.
Simple clogging
If you find that your drain isn’t as efficient as it used to be, all you need are three key ingredients:
- Baking soda
- White vinegar
- Boiling water.
Pour about half the box of the baking soda onto the drain. Add white vinegar to activate the foams of the baking soda. Let it sit for about five minutes and pour boiling water over the drain to clean off the baking soda’s residue. You will notice that the drain is cleaner and that it doesn’t have a mouldy smell anymore.
More serious clogging
For more serious clogging, you can try this solution instead:
- One-half cup of salt
- One-eight cup of cream of tartar
- One-half cup of baking soda
- Six cups of boiling water
Simply mix the salt, baking soda and cream of tartar together, pour them over the drain, and then pour boiling water over the powdered cleaner. Don’t use the drain for several hours. Allow it to set first. As much as possible, leave it alone overnight.
Advantages of using a homemade drain cleaner
The advantage of using and making a homemade drain cleaner goes beyond the savings. Aside from minimizing your household expenses (because it costs less to get ingredients from already-available supplies in your kitchen than it is to buy a ready-made cleaner), you can also be sure that the drain cleaner you’re using is free from harmful ingredients. Commercial drain cleaners compete with one another, so their manufacturers are forced to add strong chemicals into the mix because they’re trying to unclog drains faster than other brands. This isn’t bad per se. Unfortunately, these chemicals can also harm your skin. They’re not necessarily safe for the environment, either. With the two homemade drain cleaner recipes above, you can be sure that you’re using products which are mild enough on your skin. You’re also not pouring anything out of the drain which can be harmful to the environment.
Other options
You can also use a flexible metal snake to push the clog down the drain. This seldom works, though, unless the clog is caused only be a narrower part of the tube. In general, it is best to use only one drain for laundry detergents and to maintain this at least once every three weeks. Other objects which could clog drains include food particles, hair, and lint. To keep these objects from clogging your drain, you may want to install strainers for floor and sink drains. These can be bought from any hardware store and is a common addition to any home. They’re inexpensive and they could minimize your clogging problems.