Apparently there is this baking soda and vinegar trick (that I saw over on Tidy Mom) that is supposed to magically unclog your drains.
I thought that I would give it a try as our kitchen sink has been draining slow and occasionally backing up into the other sink. So I dumped the baking soda and then the vinegar down the drain. I waited the requisite 30 minutes then ran the water for several minutes. Then I put the stopper in one sink and let the sink fill up with a few inches of water. I pulled the drain plug and...nuthin. Absolutely nothing. It drained exactly the same as before I dumped down the baking soda and vinegar.
There are people who swear by this kitchen staple drain un-clogger, but they must have less tricky sink problems. Until there is a real problem, like the sink won't drain at all, I'm not going to call a plumber. Mrblocko thought perhaps that there might be something wrong with our garbage disposal. I sure hope he is wrong. Aren't there magic drain unclogging fairies? Maybe if I wait long enough the problem will fix itself.
I tried this recently in our bathroom sink and didn't have any luck either. I thought maybe I should have mixed the baking soda and vinegar before dumping them down the drain, but then I came across that same Tidy Mom tutorial you did. I had really been hoping it'd work. I liked the idea of a cheaper, more Earth friendly solution.
ReplyDeleteWell, at least it wasn't just me who couldn't get it to work.
ReplyDeleteWe did, not too long ago, find out that there was a massive clog in that drain. The plumber took out a piece of gunk that was the size of a bar of soap. EW! It was acting as a lever and keeping the water from draining properly.
No amount of anything, earth friendly or harsh chemicals, was going to unclog that gross-ness!
I've heard that for really bad clogs, repeated attempts are necessary. I'm guessing the "failed" attempts people are having are from clogs that are super super bad like Mrsblocko's plumber discovered. I bet each try does help a little. Just depends on how patient someone is!
ReplyDeleteI've got twin kitchen sinks that the pipes join directly under them, too. I'll be giving them both "the green treatment" at the same time - double whammy, as it were. And, I'll be doing it multiple times, if necessary.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the negative report and the comments; I would have been disappointed, and not have all of the information to digest if I hadn't found your link over in the Tidy Mom article comments. :)
I do know that this technique works sometimes. I tried it on a slow drain in the bathroom and it fixed the problem. I think it depends on the blockage. We bought our house in foreclosure so there was a fair bit of neglect and general unsafe do-it-yourself patch jobs. I'm sure the people that lived in our house prior to us were just trying to make due with the means they had. The plumber did say he had never seen a clog quite like it before. Makes me wonder what kind of junk they dumped down the drain!
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