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And some hair. That was what I found when I peered down my sink drain. My sink has one of those pop-up plugs that I find annoying at times since they tend to get in the way, or do not seem to drain too fast, do not completely plug the sink, or in my case, only close when you pull the lever at an angle.
Well, over the past few weeks our sink has been draining VERY slowly. It has done this before, a few times. A few years ago, the sink drained extremely slowly, but after a couple of days, it was fine. About a year ago, the sink again drained very slowly, but it came back, although not as fast after a few days. About four months ago, the sink again started to take its time to drain but this time it just did not get any better.
MJNL complained about it, but I learned to live with it.
Mind you, it was probably a good idea to get to the bottom of it, so I had some time tonight after dinner and decided it was high time to see how to take out the drain plug.
It was surprisingly easy to take out actually. There was just one nut that kept it in place, and I was glad I had finished eating a while ago when I extracted the plug. It was covered in some brown and gray slime with clumps of long hair attached to the bottom of the plug. I started wiping the crap off the plug and started to wash it in the sink..
I realized the error of my ways when I heard the water dribbling out of the sink cabinet. I had figured that the hole in the pipe was small and to the side so most of the water would drain down the pipe. I was wrong.
In any case, I spent the next half hour clearing out the cabinet and mopping up the mini flood that I caused. MJNL and I spent the next hour or so figuring out how to clean out the pipe. Removing the plug made no difference in the drainage rate. Cleaning the top part of the pipe made no difference. We had no 'Roto-Rooter' or 'Drano'. I decided to take some of the bleach that we had and poured it down the drain to see if it would help.
After a few minutes, I ran the water and noticed a marked improvement. I ran some more bleach through and left it for a longer period of time. The water now flows probably as fast as it ever did. So long as the pipe does not back up when the water is going at full blast I think is good enough for me.
No I am just letting the cabinet dry out before filling it with all the stuff I had haphazardly removed from there..
Friday, November 06, 2009 at 14:55:12 (UTC)
1. Dump some sodium bicarbonate down the drain. Follow up with vinegar. Plug the drain and wait 30 minutes or so, depending on how much you put in.
2. Pour a few pots of boiling hot water down.
3. Unbend a metal coathanger and use it to push and scrap the stuff in there.
I find the last two the most effective. The hot water can dissolve soap scum and the like. But sometimes you need to knock the sucker on the head.
ItsAMeHwanio
Monday, November 09, 2009 at 01:30:50 (UTC)
We tried a metal coat hanger, but the grime was all over, and the bleach trick was so fast. In any case, hot tap water in conjunction with the bleach did the trick. I hope I did not damage anything while I did that though.
QYV