Pour Baking Soda Into The Drain
Measure out 1 cup of baking soda. You need to pour the baking soda into the drain. A smaller drain will need a funnel to get the baking soda down it.
Or you can simply pour the baking soda directly into the drain from your measuring cup. Push any baking soda that falls into the sink into the drain with your fingers.
The Science: How Baking Soda & Vinegar Help Unclog Drains
Baking soda is sodium bicarbonate, a base. Vinegar is made up of water and acetic acid, which is an acid.
When you combine these, a reaction happens where molecules get exchanged, creating carbon dioxide and water that bubbles through the clog, breaking it up to create loose material.
And drainage pipes arent pressurized like your typical water system. When you use boiling water to flush the drain, pressure is added. Along with gravity, this pressure helps remove unwanted goop out of the pipes and unclogs drains.
Baking soda, vinegar and boiling water can help clean drains naturally, but you may need something stronger, like Liquid-Plumr, to fully unclog those really tough drain clogs.
Kitchen Uses For Baking Soda
10 Useful Baking Soda Solutions
Sam Henderson
Pour 1/2 cup baking soda, 1/2 cup salt and 2 tablespoons cream of tartar in a jar that seals. Close jar, and shake to combine ingredients. Pour half the jars contents down drain, and save the other half for later. Follow the solution with a pot of boiling water. Let drain sit for one hour. Then, run tap water to rinse any remaining solution down.
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Baking Soda And Vinegar Drain Cleaner
Use the vinegar and baking soda combination to help clear a sluggish drain. And there really isn’t much to this method.
Then add half a cup of white vinegar.
A 1:1 ratio of baking soda to vinegar works best to clean drains. However, you can play around with this ratio depending on the clog.
Can You Use Baking Soda And Vinegar To Clean A Drain
Yes, baking soda and vinegar are effective at cleaning drains. When baking soda and vinegar mix together, they create a chemical reaction that can break down the grime and dirt in your drain. Be sure to pour baking soda down the drain first, then follow up with white vinegar. Let the mixture sit for a few minutes before rinsing with hot water. If your drain is really dirty, you may need to repeat this process a few times.
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Tips To Keep Your Drains Clean Longer
How can you keep your drains from clogging in the first place? First off, use sink strainers and regularly clean any debris from strainers and throw it in the trash . Second, never pour grease down a drainâpour hot grease into a can to cool, and wipe greasy pans with a paper towel before washing. It’s also a good idea to put coffee grounds and food waste in the trash or compost instead of the garbage disposal. And finally, place a washcloth over the tub drain before washing your pooch to catch its shedding fur.
Why A Vinegar And Baking Soda Solution Is Bad For Your Drain
Solyman Najimi | 2022-04-25 23:40:16 -0400
The internet is filled with various do-it-yourself hacks that advertise themselves as great alternatives to common home problems. However, a big chunk of these hacks isn’t really as effective as they may seem. One popular hack that people commonly believe to be effective is the use of baking soda and vinegar to unclog a drain. But is this hack really that great for your drains?
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Will Baking Soda Damage Drain
It turns out my high school chemistry teacher was right the fizzy combination of baking soda & vinegar is INEFFECTIVE when fighting grease clogged drains. Baking soda is a base while vinegar is an acid, their chemical reaction produces water with a tiny amount of salt in it, not a fat destroying drain cleaner.
What About The Pressure Created
Lots of readers ask about the pressure created during the vinegar/baking soda reaction and wonder if it will force a drain clog out. The answer is yes and no.
- Yes, when baking soda and vinegar are combined the chemical reaction produces carbon dioxide gas which creates pressure in a closed container.
- No, the baking soda/vinegar reaction created in a drain/household plumbing system does not take place in a closed system so pressure cant build up enough to blast a clog out of the pipes.
You may have seen vinegar/baking soda experiment conducted in a closed container like a balloon or bottle. Theyre an impressive demonstration of the power of chemical reactions. However, its important to note that these experiments take place in a sealed container where the CO2 gas has nowhere to escape.
A household drain system is not a sealed container. From kitchen drain to sewer your pipes hold a much larger volume of liquid or gas than a balloon or bottle, so it would take a lot more CO2 to fill the pipes to a point where pressure builds up. Plus, the CO2 being created byt the baking soda/vinegar reaction can escape though the plumbing vent system, holes in your drain or drain cover, and/or spaces in the clog. Its not air tight!
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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.
Baking Soda & Vinegar Drain Hacks To Clean A Clogged Drain
Baking soda and vinegar are not just for the science fair their volcanic reaction produces a powerful cleaning solution that can solve an array of drain problems. These two common household items are inexpensive, plus they do not contain the harmful chemical, sodium hydroxide, also known as lye, found in store-bought clog remover.
If your drain is suffering from a major clog and you need immediate drain cleaning service, find your nearest ARS/Rescue Rooter location to book your appointment online right away!
If you want to try the DIY route first, try these baking soda and vinegar hacks for routine drain cleaning:
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How To Make Your Own Drain Cleaner
Dead skin cells, soap scum, random food scraps, human hair, pet hair, and just regular ol dirt these are all the things you regularly wash down your sink or tubs drain. And if they sound gross now, image how much worse they are once theyve congealed into a stringy, slimy ball of gunk inside your pipes. Yuck!
You want to prevent any of this gunk buildup before it becomes a real problem especially in homes with older pipes or large families. The first sign of a growing clog? A gray ring around your tub or sink from the water sloooooowly draining, giving soap bubbles ample time to attach and dry to that formerly clean porcelain. Another sign is water pooling around the drain. If you can actually see the slow drainage, its time to act!
There are strong chemical cleaners designed to tackle truly clogged drains , but for prevention and regular maintenance, a DIY unclogger will do. This method combines a couple products with surprising cleaning powers that you already have in your cabinets.
Run the hot water
How Often Should You Clean Your Drains
To prevent too much build-up, its best to flush your drains once a week using the boiling water and baking soda method we described above.
This will eliminate any residue before it can turn into a clogged drain.
You can also sprinkle baking soda alone whenever needed to get rid of those nasty odors for a fresher-smelling drain.
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Is It Safe To Use Baking Soda And Vinegar To Clean A Drain
Lets start out with a basic question. Is it safe to use baking soda with vinegar in your sink drain? The short answer is yes. Baking soda and vinegar are both fairly natural and can work to unclog and clean a drain.
You will need to remember that baking soda and vinegar alone arent always enough to unclog a nasty drainpipe. Sometimes you have to bring in bigger guns, which well talk about later.
How To Use A Drain Snake
If you try the drain cleaners above to no avail, you may need to go in and manually get out the source of the clog. A drain snake, also known as a drain weasel, is an easy way to do thatâjust don’t try to DIY one with a wire hanger. “I do not ever recommend using the wire hanger method as we often see broken p-traps from the rigid sharp metal poking through the bottom. Once this occurs there is no longer a seal on the plumbing system to keep unpleasant sewer gasses from entering the home,” says Mulder. “The better suggestion is to use a small drain weasel.”
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For Most Clogs: Baking Soda And Boiling Water
Most run-of-the mill clogs are caused by fatty deposits and other gunk that coats the side of a pipe, eventually restricting water flow. A homemade drain cleaner made with baking soda and boiling water will dissolve those deposits, clearing the drain, says Jackson.
Start by pouring half a cup of baking soda down the drain. Allow that to sit for about 5 minutes while you boil a pot of water. Dump the boiling water into the drain and repeat if necessary.
Quick tip: Performing this method once a month on a regular basis will keep your pipes clean, Jackson says.
Why You Should Use A Hair Trap
“It’s normal to shed 50 to 100 strands of hair on an average day, so it’s no wonder that hair can be a major culprit when it comes to clogged shower drains,” says Mulder. “Hair can get wrapped around other items, making existing blockages worse.” To prevent this from happening, Mulder says to use a hair trap. “Use a drain cover with holes small enough to let water pass through without allowing small objects or debris down the drain.”
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The Recipe For Cleaning The Drain With Baking Soda And Vinegar
Its a simple recipe using basic kitchen staples you probably have on hand.
If your drain is clogged, clean it by pouring a pan of boiling water down the drain. Follow the water with 1 cup of baking soda and one cup of vinegar.
Youll probably see some bubbles as the chemical reaction works its magic and opens your drain.
Perform a drain cleaning on a weekly basis to keep the problem from happening at all. If you use a box of baking soda in your refrigerator to eliminate odors, you can simply pour the old box down your drain when you put the new one in.
Best Homemade Drain Cleaner With Baking Soda Recipes
Sometimes you may notice that the water from the sink does not go well. This is due to clogging of the drain with fat, food debris, or other waste.
Also, various foreign solids in the pipe lead to serious damage to the drain. You can use household as homemade drain cleaner with baking soda and how to do that let discuss.
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Baking Soda And Vinegar
Sometimes baking soda doesnt work well on its own, requiring something a bit stronger to clean out the gunk from your drains.
Luckily, adding some vinegar to the process can help since the alkaline properties of the baking soda react with the acid properties of the vinegar.
When combined, these two products create carbon dioxide and water, which fizzes around everything in your drain, dissolving it quickly to clear out the mess.
Using baking soda and vinegar to reduce clogs in your drain is similar to the water method we described above.
Heres the method in detail:
The water should run much more smoothly down the drain after this point, depending on how bad the clog was.
You can also repeat this process if necessary to get rid of any leftover residue.
Why Is Baking Soda And Vinegar Recommend As A Drain Cleaner
Maybe the fun chemical reaction tricks our minds with all the bubbling, maybe companies like to sell more of their products, or maybe it is the hot water.
- When you look at baking soda + vinegar drain cleaning instructions youll notice that they recommend following the baking soda/vinegar with nearly boiling water. As shown in the experiment above, extremely hot water does a great job melting FOG clogs.
- Bonus: the weight of the hot water creates pressure on the clog which can help loosen or move it .
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One Southern Living Writer Puts The Popular Method To The Test
Perri Ormont Blumberg is a writer with a particular interest in news, travel, food, country music, and commerce. She holds a B.A. in psychology from Columbia University and is also a culinary school graduate from the Natural Gourmet Institute. She was previously a senior staff writer at Southern Living on Southern Living’s News Team. Her work has also appeared in the New York Post, Men’s Journal, Architectural Digest, Robb Report, Rolling Stone, and many others. Her goal is to visit every state in America, and all the better if she can catch a Dave Matthews Band concert in each one . She’ll never turn down a bloody mary or yoga class. Got a story lead? Tweet her @66PerriStreet.
In another life, I was blessed with thick, straight hair…that doesn’t shed like wildfire every darn day. This is not that life. Like clockwork, every three months or so, I have to call up my building’s super to unclog the sink and tub drains in my bathroom. So when I came across this tutorial on how to unclog a drain with baking soda and vinegar on CrunchyBetty.com, I was ready to grab my cleaning gloves and get started. A cheap, green method to clean my drain out with no grocery store trips required? You don’t have to tell me twice.
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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How To Clean The Sink Drain With Baking Soda And Vinegar
So, if you want to give the baking soda and vinegar trick a try to clean your sink drain, this is how you do it.
Step 1: Carefully pour a pot of boiling water down your sink drain.
Step 2: Pour 1 cup of baking soda and a mixture of 1 cup vinegar and 1 cup water down the sink drain.
Step 3: Cover the drain with a plug and wait 10 minutes.
Step 4: Pour another pot of boiling water down the drain.
Why Does Cleaning The Drain With Baking Soda And Vinegar Work
Remember back in science class when you studied the difference between bases and acids? Baking soda, or since were thinking about chemistry, sodium bicarbonate, is an alkaline base. Vinegar is an acid. When you mix them together, theres a chemical reaction that produces carbon dioxide and water.
Bubbles form. Youll hear them fizzing and popping. Its those bubbles that break up the grease, fat, or oil residues that have solidified and bonded with food particles, forming that nasty, stubborn clog.
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