The Best Home Remedy For Clogged Drains

Clogged drains are the worst!

It doesn’t matter if it’s a bathroom sink, kitchen sink, tub drain or shower, if the water doesn’t go down the hole, it’ll get annoying pretty quickly. Slow drains are easier to fix than ones that are totally clogged, so anytime the water begins to slow, you’ll want to clear the blockage as soon as possible. If you don’t you’ll be standing in water while showering, or you’ll have to employ special maneuvers in order to wash hair, toothpaste and other stuff down your bathroom sink drain.

Most people have a plunger on hand, or some liquid drain solution made from harsh chemicals, but many people overlook a very effective combination of ingredients when unclogging drains in their home.

You don’t have to plunge like crazy, or resort to toxic liquids to clear your drains. Whether you want to avoid the dangerous ingredients, eliminate strenuous activity, or skip a trip to the store, you may want to try a home remedy to clear your clogged drain before resorting to other options.

The Best Home Remedy For Drain Clogs

When searching around, or asking others, one homemade solution is the clear winner above all others.  The instructions that follow will detail the most popular way to eliminate build-up in your pipes and allow water to flow freely down the drain. Continue reading for other popular options for the job, and by the time you get to the bottom of the list, you’ll have discovered at least one way to fix the clogged drain in your home, by using stuff you already have.

Vinegar, Baking Soda and Salt

Many people will suggest boiling water and salt for oily clogs, and baking soda and vinegar for other ones, but when you combine both methods in the right way, you can eliminate most clogs with one simple solution.

Who really wants to investigate the actual contents of a clogged drain anyway? Not most people. Most folks don’t care what’s stopping the water, they just want it to flow again.

Stuff You’ll Need

To try this method, you’ll need to collect the following:

• 1 Cup Baking Soda
• 1 Cup Regular Table Salt
• 1 Cup White Vinegar
• Several Cups Boiling Water

Instructions For Cleaning:

1. To prepare, make sure that you allow all of the water to flow down the drain. For this reason, you will not be able to try this method on a fully clogged drain.
2. For a drain that is so clogged that the water will not go down, use a plunger first to free up some of the blockage, and allow water to flow. No matter how slow, if you are able to get it to drain, you’ll be able to proceed to the next step, and eliminate the rest of the clog.
3. Once the water is gone, you may want to remove any stopper, strainer or other obstruction that is able to come out. You can still proceed if there are things of this nature in place, but for best results, you’ll want to get them out of the way.
4. To begin, pour one cup of baking soda directly down the drain.
5. Follow that with one cup of salt.
6. Allow a short amount of time for the first ingredients to settle, then pour in one cup of vinegar on top of them.
7. Once the vinegar hits the dry ingredients, it will trigger a reaction. Allow the reaction to do it’s job by waiting for 10 minutes.
8. After the ten minutes is up, flush the drain with several cups of boiling water, all at once.

In most cases this will clear the drain completely, but if it is still slow, repeat the procedure to remove the rest of the build-up. When attempting for a second round, allow the vinegar to sit longer before flushing. It can work for several hours, so allow 2-3 hours before flushing with boiling water on the second attempt.

If you try this home remedy twice, and you still have a problem, continue reading below for other options, or call in a professional to fix the problematic drain.

Periodic Maintenance

BONUS TIP: To keep your drains clear for long periods, try a weekly flush with boiling water, or a weekly treatment using a combination of 1 cup baking powder, 1 cup table salt and 1/4 cup cream of tartar.

1. To treat your drains, just add 1/4 cup of the mixed solution to each drain in your bathroom and kitchen.
2. Follow the mixture immediately with a cup of boiling water.
3. After adding the boiling water, wait a few seconds, then rinse with cold water to finish.

Regular maintenance will ensure proper flow, and will eliminate the possibility of total blockage.

Other Ways To Clear a Clogged Drain

If you don’t have the ingredients listed above, if you want to try something different, or if you already followed the steps, but still have a clog, continue reading below for other ways to clear your drain. None of the methods are better than the other, but one may be preferred based on the exact problem and location you’re dealing with.

1. Use a Liquid Drain Opener

Dumping a stinky liquid down the drain is the easiest way to fix a clog, but it doesn’t always work, it’s pretty darn expensive, and the dangerous chemicals are harmful to your health, and they may also be harmful to bathroom and kitchen fixtures.

If it does work, it’s an effortless solution, but when it doesn’t work it’s a putrid waste of money.

If you already have some liquid drain cleaner on hand it’s definitely worth a try, and if you don’t want to use any energy or effort to fix the problem, there are no other options that can compete.

Instructions will vary based on the manufacturer, and the exact chemical liquid you are using, so be sure to follow the directions for best results. In most cases it’s as simple as filling the sink with water, and then adding the liquid drain opener. The chemical should do all of the work, so in a matter of time, your drain should no longer be clogged.

How To Do It:

1. To try this technique to clear your clogged drain, make sure to follow the exact instructions on the container. As most are similar, you can also follow these basic steps in a pinch.
2. You will usually need to fill the sink or tub so that there is standing water. This ensures that the pipes are filled as much as possible, so the liquid cleaner will be able to travel where it needs to go.
3. Pour in the cleaner down through the water and into the drain. Use as much as directed.
4. Allow time to work. In most cases the cleaner will work and the clog will clear. You can easily determine this because the water will begin flowing down the drain.
5. To finish the job, rinse the sink and drain thoroughly with hot water.

You won’t want to try this method more than once, and you should take care to avoid contact with your skin, or surfaces that may be affected by the strong chemical mixture.

2. Use a Plunger

Although a plunger may not clear all of the stuff clogging your drain, it is one of the quickest and easiest ways to get the water flowing again.

How To Do It:

1. To try this method, you’ll want to prepare your sink or tub first. In order to get proper suction and allow the plunge to work, you’ll need to cover any overflow hole that exists. On bathroom sinks it’s usually at the top of the basin, for tubs it’ll usually be near the drain plug switch, and for kitchen sinks, it may be somewhere on top, near the back. If you have two bathrooms in close proximity, the sinks may share a drain. If this is the case, then you’ll have to cover the overflow for both sinks, even if only one is draining slowly.
2. Clogging the overflow is essential to proper function of the plunger, so use a wet washcloth or something similar to cover and plug this opening.
3. Once the Overflows are plugged up, fill the sink or tub with enough water to cover the plunger.
4. To improve the seal on the plunger and basin, you can coat the plunger with petroleum jelly first.
5. Once there is enough water, position the plunger over and around the drain, then press down.
6. Once you press down, the plunger base will suction around the drain hole, and seal in place.
7. To unclog the drain, move the tool up and down rapidly to pull and press the contents of the blockage.
8. After you repeat the up-and-down movement for ten of=r more times, quickly pull up on the plunger and remove it from the drain.
9. The water should now flow rapidly down the drain.
10. If the water is still slow or not moving at all, repeat the steps to try again. Repeat 3 or 4 times before moving on to another method, or resorting to a professional Plumber.

Use a Snake Or Wire Hanger

When all else fails, you may have to resort to physically removing the blockage that is clogging your drain. A snake or drain auger is the perfect tool to remove stubborn clogs, or those that are in areas where liquids and other methods prove ineffective. By using this tool, you can reach deep into the drain to dislodge, or pull out whatever is preventing the water from flowing.

There are a few key areas where stuff likes to collect, so when using a drain auger to remove a clog, you’ll want to move methodically throughout the system, removing anything you encounter, until the drain is clear.

If you don’t have the actual tool on hand, you can make something similar using a wire clothes hanger. Just bend and unwind until the metal wire is as straight as possible, then add a little hook or loop at the end. It won’t be quite as effective, but it will help you to loosen or remove stuff that other techniques leave behind.

How To Do It:

1. For sink and bathtub drains, you’ll want to begin by removing the stopper or strainer to open the drain as much as possible. For kitchen sinks, showers and other drains, you may not have anything to remove, but if there is something similar, take it out for best results.
2. Most clogs will be located right below the drain opening, or down below that, inside the trap(where the pipes form loop, right below your sink or tub). To clear this type of clog, simply insert the auger down through the drain opening.
3. As you advance the wire down through the drain, crank the handle to help locate and capture the stuff clogging your pipes.
4. If you feel the blockage, move the wire back-and-forth while cranking, and then begin to pull it out to remove the debris you collected.
5. If you’re using a wire hanger, you’ll need to work harder to hook the debris, and you won’t have the same flexibility or reach. If you use a careful technique, then you should be able to reach in, and pull the clog out of the drain.
6. If you’re unable to locate the debris from the drain opening, you’ll need to go in through the trap clean out, or by removing the trap itself. If you look under the sink, the trap is the curvy part of the pipes that you can see. Most can be removed easily, and without any tools.
7. Just loosen the connectors, and take it out. Use a bucket to collect any water inside the pipes. You can pretty much guarantee that some will come out.
8. The clog may be right in the trap, so be sure to inspect it first. If nothing is stuck inside, check out the pipes above and beyond the trap location to see where the obstruction is.
9. While the trap is removed, it’s a good idea to use a brush and hot water to thoroughly clean the interior.
10. If you can’t see anything in the pipes under the sink, the debris may be stuck inside the pipe that goes into the wall, so insert the auger, and then advance into that pipe to remove anything you can reach.
11. Once all pipes are clean and clear, reassemble the parts, and check the water flow. If you were able to remove the clog, the water should drain quickly, but if you still have a slow drain, or an outright clog, the obstruction may be in a location you can’t reach, or you may have a bigger problem.

NOTE: For tubs and sinks with an overflow, you may be able to get better results by attacking the clog by going in through the overflow hole.

Other Home Remedies For Clogged Drains

As mentioned briefly above, there is more than one way to clear a clogged drain using homemade solutions, or supplies you already have at home. We narrowed it down to one best way, but you may have luck with something a little more simple also. If the clog is not that bad, or if you want to try something that is basic and guaranteed to be on-hand, then try one of the other home remedies listed below.

1. Use Hot Water

Regular hot water can clear drains surprisingly well. Because grease and soap scum cause  much of the clogging in kitchen and sink drains, really hot water can often loosen and dissolve it to fix the problem. You can’t just turn on the tap to the hottest setting because it won’t provide the heat required to get the job done. If you want to try this method, simply boil some water on your stove top, and then pour it, all at once, down the drain.

2. Use Hot Water and Salt

When boiling water alone does not do the trick, you can increase the drain-clearing power of your solution by adding in some salt. Mix in a cup of salt to your pot of boiling water, and it should work better on greasy build-up.

Prevent Clogged Drains

Most clogged sink drains are the result of a build-up of food, oils, hair and other common materials. For this reason, most clogs can be eliminated without the help of a professional. The best home remedy for clogged drains is a combination of vinegar, baking soda and salt, but for some problems you may need to get more hands-on, or resort to something a little less Eco-friendly.

For most situations, one of the techniques above should solve the problem easily, but be sure to call a plumber before attempting anything you don’t feel comfortable with.

Have your own home remedy, or a tested method or tip that works way better? Be sure to share your drain clog tips and tricks in the comments section below.

Tip Contents

• The Best Home Remedy
• Other Ways To Do It
• Use a Liquid Cleaner
• Use a Plunger
• Use a Snake
• Other Home Remedies
• Prevent Clogged Drains