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Methods To Unclog A Bathroom Sink
Clogs that build up in bathroom sinks due to toothpaste, soap scum, hair, and other hygiene products can be challenging to clear. However, several less-expensive alternative unclogging techniques are simple and easy to use before you call a plumber.
Sometimes much more is needed to unclog a sink drain than just the traditional plunger, depending on what's obstructing the bathroom sink. You can utilise a tweezer to pull out hair or vinegar and baking soda to clear soap scum clogs. In this article, you will learn how to unclog a bathroom sink.
Why Is My Bathroom Sink Clogged?
The four most frequent causes of bathroom drain clogs are known to most people. A plunger or drain snake works best for more significant obstructions. The most straightforward approach to determining how to unclog your drain is to identify the cause of the obstruction.
Mass of hair
Hair that enters your sink drain congregates, sticking to the walls and becoming a tangled mass. Use a zip-it tool or a long pair of tweezers to remove hair. If none of them works, try taking the drain apart.
Soap scum
This is particularly common in areas with hard water. Over time, it can amass in your pipes and encourage mould growth and mildew. Boil water and pour it down the drain or use baking soda and vinegar to remove accumulated soap scum. Plunge with warm water if the soap scum doesn't budge.
Pipe issues
Over time, rust, corrosion, and other typical pipe problems can cause a slow drain or a blockage. Before they are clogged with debris, replace rusty, outdated pipes. Snake or plunge them for momentary relief.
Unwanted object in P-trap
The curved pipe connecting your bathroom sink to a wall pipe is called a P-trap. It stops dangerous sewage vapours from draining back up the sink. Remove the P-trap from your bathroom sink and clear out any hair or large objects that may have lodged there.
How Come My Sink Is Blocked?
Knowing the components of sinks and how they function will help you clear a clogged sink drain. Kitchen sinks are made to be connected to dishwashers and garbage disposals. A variety of things can obstruct your sink. Bathroom sinks just have a faucet and a drain.
Most of them feature a pop-up stopper that lets you put water in the sink. Others also come with a stopper or a strainer. Sink clogs can occur in various ways, so it's crucial to unclog any blocked drains as soon as possible. The style of your sink will determine how you unclog it. Most sinks also contain a sink trap, commonly known as a P-trap.
The bent section of piping under the sink is known as a P-trap. By storing water, it is intended to provide a seal that keeps sewer gasses from rising out of the sink drain into the bathroom or kitchen. You must understand your sink type and its components to efficiently unclog a sink.
How To Unclog A Bathroom Sink Naturally
While we are concentrating on bathroom sinks, many of these drain unclogging methods also work on other types of drains.
Vinegar and baking soda
This is a tried-and-tested method of unclogging and cleaning drains that works wonders in bathroom sinks. Combine 1/3 cup of vinegar and 1/3 cup of baking soda in a measuring cup. This mixture will bubble immediately, so you should quickly dump it down the drain. The mixture's fizzing action effectively removes the hair and dirt. After letting it stand for about an hour, rinse with hot water.
Salt and baking soda
Salt and baking soda make a potent combo. Pour the mixture—a half cup of each—down the drain. After about fifteen minutes, pour hot water down the drain. All three ingredients produce a very vigorous chemical reaction that can clear some of the most challenging bathroom sink clogs.
Boiling water
This is surprisingly effective at clearing up some bathroom clogs, particularly those caused by soap scum. When the drain is slow, and there isn't a lot of water in the sink, boiling water works best. Water heater installation is the best way to maintain water temperature.
Bring water to a boil in a kettle or large pot, or use a water heater. Pour the water down the drain three to four times. The effect should be immediate; water should start draining out normally.
Dry-and-wet vacuum
A wet and dry vacuum is the best tool for dealing with clogs that are very difficult to remove. To properly use the hose to suction out the obstruction, you might need to make a seal such as the top of a plastic soda bottle or a plunger head. Put your vacuum to the maximum liquid setting. The intense suction is sufficient to remove whatever is obstructing the drain.
Enzymatic drain cleaners
Plumbers often suggest enzymatic drain cleaning to unclog blocked drains. Chemical drain cleaners may be efficient at thoroughly cleaning your drain pipes, but the risk is that there might be long-term system damage.
Their potent chemical composition might generate hazardous vapours in addition to damaging the inside of pipes. Instead of chemical ingredients, enzymatic drain cleaners use concentrated enzymes and bacteria cultures that react to the presence of organic materials.
These cleaners contain enzymes or bacteria that feed on organic items like your hair, food scraps, and mould. Following the digestion of these waste products, the organisms multiply and disperse the beneficial bacteria throughout your drainage system.
Wire hook
You can avoid this technique if you can unclog your drain using one of the abovementioned techniques. If not, you should remove the most difficult blockages with a wire hook.
Materials required to unclog a drain include:
- A wire hanger
- Rubber gloves
- Pliers to help bend the wire
- A container to capture excess water
Utilise a drain snake
Tools called "plumber's snakes" or "drain snakes" are available at your local hardware shop. The drain snake is a coil of metal wire with a broader gap at one end. Simply turn a crank to rotate the wire as it passes through your drain pipe to unclog obstructions.
The drain snake may shred through dense yet easy-to-shred obstructions to clear a clog and allow flow. This may corkscrew or snag an obstruction, such as hair, allowing the user to remove it.
In addition to rotating, the auger thrashes against the pipe's internal walls, scraping out oil, hard minerals, and soap scum.
Using a plunger
Did you know that certain plungers are made exclusively for clearing clogs from sink drains? Sink plungers are designed without an end "flange" and instead have a larger opening for efficient sink clearing.
Place the plunger directly over the blocked drain and use it in up and down motions to unclog the drain. Be ready to empty and clean the sink after plunging, as this may cause obstructions to back up.
Using sodium hydroxide
You must take precautions when working with this substance, sometimes called caustic soda because it can burn your flesh. This calls for the use of rubber gloves and suitable eye protection. You will mix cold water and caustic soda, preferably with a wooden spoon, in place of hot water.
It will bubble just like baking soda. But this time, heat is produced. Therefore, after roughly 30 minutes in the drain, it clears out the entire obstruction. If the usual flow is not restored, flush it out with boiling water and try the process again.
Steps To Clean Sink Clog
Step One: Close the stopper entirely after turning off the water
Clear up the area beneath the sink, and set up a container to trap excess water.
Step Two: The sink stopper needs to be removed
The bathroom sink stopper needs to be removed, of course. Then, crawl underneath the sink and release the stopper by pulling the pivot rod away from the clevis strap with a spring clip. The stopper ought to pop right up and out of your sink.
Step Three: Put on rubber gloves
Put on your rubber gloves because this is where it gets messy. Remove the stopper from the sink drain after it has been loosened. You must completely clean the stopper mechanism of all dirt, hair, and debris. Do not do this while the bathroom sink is running! Use a different sink to clean the stopper if you need to use water. Rubbing alcohol or bleach should do.
Step Four: Grab and bend your wire hanger to shape
Grab your wire hanger and bend it into a shape that will assist you in hooking globs of hair and dirt after cleaning the stop-up mechanism. Consider a backscratcher or a fishing hook as the shape. Once the hanger has the proper form, lower it into the drain. As soon as you detect an obstruction, start twisting and turning the hanger to collect as much gunk as possible.
Step Five: Use the wire hanger to remove as much as possible
Using the wire hanger, remove as much filth as you can. You can also use an old toothbrush to clean the pipe's internal walls. Through the hole created when you took out the pivot rod, some hair and grime might also be able to be removed.
Note: You might need to detach the pipe's P-bend part if you believe there to be a significant obstruction there that the hanger can't reach. Depending on how severe the clog is, this might or might not be required.
Step Six: Reassemble everything
Reassemble everything once more. Pour hot water down the drain in intervals to see if your efforts have paid off. While you are down there, check everything for leaks and rust once you have put everything back together.
Important notes for P-traps
- Cleaning the trap is an intelligent thing to do if you encounter a challenging clog. The trap is the u-shaped pipe underneath the sink. This approach can seem a little tricky, but it only needs a bucket and a plumber's wrench.
- For leak detection, place a bucket underneath the u-shaped pipe. Next, loosen the slip nuts on the pipe's two ends. If at all feasible, pour the pipe's contents into the bucket before removing it.
- You might need to dig around inside it with a wire to remove the junk from the pipe. Run some water into "the trap" after thoroughly cleaning it, and then reattach.
Steps To Unclog A Sink Using A Garbage Disposal
If your garbage disposal in the kitchen sink isn't draining and appears blocked, clear the obstruction using a kitchen plunger.
Note: A toilet plunger differs from a kitchen plunger.
The issue affecting your sink or your garbage disposal will determine how to unclog the drain. Here are the steps to unclog a sink using a garbage disposal.
Step One: Fasten a clamp over the drain lines rubber section
Plunge the drain and fasten a clamp over the rubber portion of the drain line to your dishwasher to unclog a sink with the garbage disposal. You can find it under your sink.
Step Two: Place the plunger over the clogged drain
Position the plunger over the clogged sink drain and add water, about three to four inches (7-10 cm). Plunge for several minutes while holding a damp cloth over the nearby drain. The potent mixture you have made can aid with kitchen sink drain clogs by cutting through standing water to unclog your trash disposal, clean your drain walls, and deodorise your drain.
Additionally, never stick your hand down the kitchen sink drain to reach a clog or anything else that might be stuck while trying to unclog the trash disposal. If something like a piece of silverware falls in by accident, or any other foreign object, turn the disposal off and use tongs to retrieve it.
Contact A Plumbing Expert
Make sure you know how your specific sink drain works and become knowledgeable about your pipes. In case your drain is highly clogged, snake it. Call a plumber if you have severe or chronic drain clogs that snaking and other do-it-yourself solutions can't clear. It can be a symptom of something more serious.
Remove long hairs from the sink before flushing them down the drain and causing clogs. For this, keep an old toothbrush on hand. As for the don'ts, avoid adding water to a fully clogged drain in an attempt to flush it. Disregard the strainer or drain stopper because tangled hair or other debris might get lodged there and clog the drain.
Instead, remove and clean them off. A clogged sink is a nightmare, but there's no doubt it happens with everyone, so we wish you the best with unclogging with our guide!
