How To Clean A Clogged Drain With Salt And Baking Soda
You may know how to clean your sink with baking soda but without adding salt. If the baking soda and vinegar method fails to clean the drain, try using salt and baking soda. Its better to do it right before bedtime since the drain wont be used until morning.
Here are some easy and simple steps of how to clean kitchen sink with baking soda and salt:
1. Pour one cup of baking soda into the clogged drain or you can use a funnel if you have a small drain.
2. Now pour ½ cup salt into the drain. Allow the baking soda and salt to soak in the drain for at least a few hours or overnight.
3. In the morning, boil 2 cups of water and carefully pour the boiling water down your drain.
4. If the drain starts to drain, flush it with hot tap water for several minutes to ensure that any residue in the drain is removed.
5. If the drain remains clogged, repeat the process once or twice. If that doesnt work, the clog may have to be removed by disassembling the drain.
Check out this video and learn how to use baking soda and salt to unclog the drain.
Scrub The Tub And Tile
Use a sponge to wipe the surface with vinegar, then sprinkle baking soda or non-iodized salt, scrub with a damp sponge, and rinse well with water. For another option, combine 1 2/3 cup baking soda, 1/2 cup castile soap , and 1/2 cup water. Add 2 tablespoons vinegar and use the mixture to scrub the bathtub or tile area.
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Baking Soda And Hot Water
If the odors are especially bad, there could be some greasy residue left behind that the baking soda cant dissolve on its own.
You can add hot water to the process to reduce this residue and get the water flowing freely again.
Heres what to do:
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Can You Really Clean The Drain With Baking Soda And Vinegar
Youre usually careful about keeping your sink clean, but you just watched your Great Aunt Betty pour a whole skillet full of bacon drippings straight down your drain after a family dinner.
Now all you can think about is having a house full of company and a clogged kitchen sink, hands plunged into gross dishwater with the residue of a dozen plates and cooking pans burping backward onto your basin.
Dont worry because, yes, you really can clean your drain with baking soda and vinegar.
How To Clean Your Sink With Baking Soda

This article was co-authored by Susan Stocker and by wikiHow staff writer, Hannah Madden. Susan Stocker runs and owns Susans Green Cleaning, the #1 Green Cleaning Company in Seattle. She is well known in the region for outstanding customer service protocols winning the 2017 Better Business Torch Award for Ethics & Integrity and her energetic support of green cleaning practices.There are 8 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page. This article has been viewed 206,741 times.
Sinks get a lot of use, which means food and grime can build up in them. This can make them drain slowly or even look dingy. To use baking soda to clean your sink, buff baking soda into your sink and wash it away with white vinegar. To deal with a clogged drain, try flushing your sink with boiling water, baking soda, and white vinegar.
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Things You Can Clean With Baking Soda
When foods start to go off in the refrigerator, it can quickly become a bit smelly inside. So keep a small bowl of baking soda in the refrigerator and this will help to neutralize any odors. As part of your refrigerator cleaning regime, change it every few weeks to keep it working efficiently.
If you’d rather not use strong chemicals, using baking soda to clean windows can be a more eco-friendly way to get a streak-free finish. ‘Simply apply the baking soda to a damp cloth and smear over the glass then simply remove and buff it clean,’ says Megan Slack, H& G’s News Writer and resident cleaning expert. ‘Any stubborn marks, perhaps caused by limescale or grease, can be removed by applying the baking soda, then spraying on some white vinegar before wiping off and buffing.’
Lynsey Crombie also recommends making your own freshening spray for a carpet, curtains and fabric surfaces, ‘Mix up into a spray bottle half boiling water, two teaspoons of baking soda and a capful of your favorite fabric softener. Allow to sit for half an hour so all the products mix together and then spray away. Always keep a distance of approximately 8in when spraying and be careful around pets and children.’
Limescale is the enemy of all showers, especially if you live in a hard water area. To get rid of that scaly build-up quickly and without fuss when youre cleaning a bathroom, take a wet microfiber cloth and sprinkle a small amount of baking soda and a few drops of dishwasher liquid onto it.
How To Clean Drains With Vinegar And Baking Soda
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Tips For Cleaning Your Sink With Baking Soda
Follow these easy steps to get a sparkling clean sink with an item you may already have in the housebaking soda. The only good thing about dirty dishes is they cover up a dirty sink. If your sink is showing rust, stains and wear of years of daily use, a quick swish of soap and water may not be enough to make it shine again. Fortunately, the solution to your dirty sink is probably in your kitchen cabinet: baking soda!
How To Clean A Bathroom Sink Drain
Soap scum and grime can build up quickly in your bathroom. Cleaning gunk out of your bathroom sink drains isnât a fun chore, but itâs essential to avoid floods and odors.
Step 1: Begin by pulling any visible hair and grime out of the drain, then choose one of the following methods to clean your sink.
Step 2: For regular cleaning, you can simply flush your bathroom sink drains with boiling water. This will dissolve soap buildup and keep your drains flowing freely.
Step 3: For a deeper clean, we recommend baking soda and vinegar. Mix together 1 part baking soda and 1 part white vinegar in a bowl. This will immediately start to fizz, so tip it straight down your bathroom sink while this chemical reaction is at its peak.
Step 4: Leave the solution to sit for 30 minutes to an hour, then flush the drain clean again with boiling water.
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Baking Soda And Vinegar Drain Cleaning Made Easy
Jennifer worked for five years as a housekeeper in a large hotel chain. In that capacity, she learned how to clean just about anything.
Learn about our Editorial Policy.
Green cleaners want to know can vinegar and baking soda be a drain cleaner? Yes, it can. Learn how to use baking soda and vinegar to unclog your drain, and find out why baking soda and vinegar work to remove drain gunk.
Here Are Several Ways Of Clearing A Drain Clog Without Toxic Chemicals:
1. Dish Soap and Hot Water
Boil about two liters of water and mix in a few tablespoons of liquid dish soap. Take this mixture and slowly pour down the sink.
This method may take a few tries, but it will work great on grease clogs because it is heating the grease back to a liquid so it can travel all the way out of the pipe.
2. Wire Coat Hanger
Straighten the hanger out but leave the hook. Make sure you have a grocery bag or something to discard your findings.
Use the hook end of the hanger to fish in the drain and pull up any food or hair buildup that is clogging the passageway in the pipe. After removing as much as you possibly can, run hot water down the sink.
3. Baking Soda & Vinegar
Clear the area around your sink and put a 1/2 cup of baking soda down the drain. Follow that with a 1/2 cup of vinegar. Now plug your drain and let it sit for an hour.
Then, unplug the drain and pour a pot of boiling water down it. Continue pouring boiling water down the drain until it is clear.
4. Salt, Borax, and Vinegar
Start with 1/4 cup of salt, 1/4 cup of Borax, and then a 1/2 cup of vinegar. Add a pot of boiling water and let it sit for at least an hour or until it clears.
Finally, rinse with hot tap water to clear all ingredients down the drain.
5. Baking Soda & Salt
Mix salt and baking soda together. About a 1/2 cup of each and pour down the drain. Let it sit for a minimum of a half hour or as long as overnight. Once it has a significant time, clear it with a pot of boiling water.
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Baking Soda And Vinegar Work To Clean Bathroom Drains Too
Have you been taking a shower to feel water creeping up over your ankles?
Its the accumulated hair, shaving cream, and soap scum that have congealed in your shower drain.
Cleaning the drain with baking soda and vinegar works in showers and tubs, too. Do it on a regular basis to avoid the dreaded dirty-water-ankle-creep.
What To Use To Clean Kitchen Sink Drain

Pour half a cup white vinegar into the kitchen sink drain right afterward. Immediately plug the drain with anything that will fill the hole and prevent any of the fizzings from coming out. Leave the mixture of baking soda and vinegar in the drain to settle for about 30 minutes. While you are waiting, begin to boil a tea kettle of hot water.
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Natural Homemade Drain Cleaners That Actually Work
It happens to everyone, but it can be embarrassing when you have house guests, and dirty water backs up in your sink or tub.
You may feel conflicted because you dont want harsh chemicals in your home but you want clear drains, so use non-toxic products.
We have solutions and tips to help keep your home drains toxic free and clean!
Going Green is the thing these days!
Green enthusiasts are taking thoughtful strides toward an eco-friendly environment.
So how does this work with household issues like clogged drains? Home remedies of course!
Benefits Of Using Baking Soda As Drain Cleaner
Baking soda, formally known as sodium bicarbonate, is an alkaline powder, so it reacts when it comes into contact with acidic materials.
These include mineral deposits that can form in your drain, as well as organic materials, like grease or oil.
As it eats away at these materials, it leaves the metal of the pipes in the drain alone, so you dont need to worry about any damage occurring.
There is also a reason why people put baking soda in their fridges. Its because this powder can eliminate odors, leaving a fresh scent behind.
Putting baking soda in your drain has the same effect, removing any nasty smells from any food, grease, or liquids that have collected there.
It also has disinfectant qualities that eliminate fungus for an even cleaner drain.
Baking soda is cheap to buy, much cheaper than manufactured drain cleaners, so you can save some money using it on all your kitchen and bathroom drains.
Since it is a naturally-occurring mineral, it is also environmentally-friendly, so you wont have to worry about any chemical residue on your sinks and counters that could be dangerous for your family.
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How To Clean Sink Drains In Your Kitchen And Bathroom
Solve smelly or blocked drains with our top tips for cleaning your sink drain. Pick from a variety of sink drain cleaning methods that don’t use harsh chemicals.
The sinks in your home attract a lot of yucky stuff. From food, to hair, toâ¦whatever that gray slimy thing is. Unclogging your kitchen and bathroom sinks can be pretty unpleasant, and getting rid of those funky drain smells can be a challenge too.
Weâre sharing our expert tips on how to clean a sink drain in your kitchen and bathroom with gentle, natural methods that leave your home smelling fresh.
Of course, if youâd prefer to leave these time-consuming kitchen and bathroom cleaning tasks to a professional, you can always book an affordable cleaner in your area through Homeaglow.
When To Call A Professional
You might be tempted to try a store-bought liquid drain cleaner if you have trouble clearing a clog, but many have dangerous fumes and can even damage pipes. Try an enzyme or bacteria-based drain cleaner if you want to give it a shot. If your drain is still clogged or draining slowly, it’s time to call for help. A professional can use more powerful tools to clear any clogs and identify other problems that might be present in your plumbing.
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How To Unclog A Sink With Baking Soda
Your home can have a couple of different sinks, yet the one in the bathroom can be the hardest to deal with when it gets clogged.
Hair, soap scum, toothpaste, and other grooming chemicals can form an impenetrable clog in bathroom sinks. But before you call a plumber, there are several easy and inexpensive ways to unclog your drain.
If you have a severe issue, you could need to know how to unclog a drain using a baking soda and vinegar drain cleaner, yet the first course of action is to know how to deal with clogged drains.
In our guide, you can learn how to unclog drain using these chemicals to best advantage.
Why You Should Never Use Baking Soda And Vinegar To Clean Clogged Drains
Published: by Bren
Want to naturally unclog a sink or clean a slow-moving drain? Learn why you should skip the baking soda and vinegar when cleaning FOG clogged drains and see the experiment!
This post uses affiliate links.They dont cost you a thing and help us bring you all natural cleaning tutorials. Read more in Policies and Disclosures.
Hundreds of natural cleaning blog posts, books, and magazine columns recommend cleaning slow kitchen drains by pouring one cup of baking soda down the drain followed with one cup vinegar. I used this combination for many years then I began to doubt its effectiveness.
I decided to conduct an experiment to compare the drain cleaning abilities of vinegar & baking soda to another popular green cleaning solution -> dish detergent & hot water.
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How To Clean A Sink Drain With Baking Soda & Vinegar
You can clean sink drains and remove minor sink clogs using a mixture of baking soda and vinegar. The fizzy chemical reaction is ideal for dissolving sink clogs caused by grease, toothpaste or soap buildup. This helpful how-to video shows you the step-by-step directions on how to clean a sink drain. For tougher clogs, contact your local Roto-Rooter to inquire about our drain cleaning service.
Recipe For Using Baking Soda And Vinegar

Ingredients:
1/2 cup of baking soda
1/2 cup of white distilled vinegar
In an empty sink, put the baking soda down the drain followed by the vinegar. Plug the drain and wait at least an hour. Unplug the drain and pour a large pot of boiling water down the drain.
Baking soda and vinegar are a great, affordable way to clean your drains. Not only are they effective, but they are also safe to use with PVC pipes. If you have any questions or concerns, be sure to consult a professional.
If you have any questions about how to clean a drain or are having some problems with it, call Atlantis Plumbing today at . We are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
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