Homemade Drain Cleaner (Without Baking Soda)

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“I have a clogged drain? Big deal! I will just call the plumber or buy drain cleaner product." Wrong!

Calling the plumber or buying some expensive drain cleaner product will take your money and good mood and you will be left with a temporary solution and probably a damaged drain.

There are many solutions for this problem, environmental solutions, which will help you to deal with this problem with a minimum effort, for example making your own homemade drain cleaner.

How to Make Your Own Homemade Drain Cleaner (Without Baking Soda!)

Since I have had the problem myself I have been researching this on the internet and I have narrowed the selection to two methods:

Dish detergent and boiled water

Use boiled water (two liters of it) and with that a few spoons of liquid dish soup. Then slowly pour this awesome mix down the drain and let it work its magic. It’s less known method of unclogging, but it worked for me several times.

If it doesn’t make it the first time, be consistent, give it a few chances, but for sure will work on grease clogs by heating it and transforming it back to liquid state so it can continue its adventure down the pipe.

homemade drain cleaner

If it works, then it will unclog perfectly, if it doesn’t, you will need to try some other homemade drain cleaner method.

Salt, Borax and Vinegar

We’ve already realized that vinegar is almost “must-have” substance for unclogging. Therefore, you can use it in this method as well.

Start with a quarter cup of salt, quarter of Borax, and then a one half cup of vinegar. Then add some hot water and wait an hour or two to do its work.

In the end, let the hot water flow to clear the pipes of all of the ingredients.

You may have noticed that I haven’t been talking about the most popular homemade method - Baking soda and Vinegar.

As I said, I have been researching for the best ways to fight this problem and I have found that using baking soda and vinegar combined does not give the best results.

baking soda

Baking soda and vinegar perform a chemical reaction in other words (make bubbles) in your sink but you don’t have a disagreement with your sink but with the fat, oil and grease that are deep in the pipes. So try these two methods and let us know how it turned out.

Once you have tried this and probably unclogged your drain you can share this life hack with your friends and relax because your problem is gone for some time.

However, if you want to keep your problems away for the longer periods of time, you will need to use the method every often and keep it continuously unclogged.

Homemade and store bought drain cleaner

In this section we are going to explain in common tongue why homemade drain cleaner always is better than the ones you buy in the store.

  • Firstly, it is cheaper. Case closed. Just kidding, this is one of the important factors, not the only one.
  • All of the drain cleaners found in the stores are chemical ones. No matter is it alkaline or acid drain cleaner, they are the most dangerous household products that are available to the common people. They may cause light but sometimes severe injuries to your body if not used properly. On the other side ingredients used in homemade drain cleaners are much less harmful.
  • Store bought drain cleaners can cause corrosion or other serious damage to your sewer lines
  • Homemade drain cleaners are friends to the environment

Also, sometimes is easier to deal with the problems when you don’t have to go to the market for the solution. We all search for something that we can find in our household in order to deal with the technical problems.

If we can solve it with the products that can be found in our household, that would be the best and easiest solution. Hope you found these lines helpful.

Preventing clogging from happening

We have introduced you to the problem and how to fix it. You and everyone you know are most likely to have had this issue before, now or in the future.

The reason behind is that you don’t pay attention to everyday routine you go through and the things that end up in the bathroom or kitchen sink, which is normal because you can’t focus on all of it. 

I mean if my brain had an ability to watch over all those stuff, I wouldn’t burden myself with clogging, right?

Now, we are going to give you a bit of knowledge and tip how to prevent it from happening, because it is much easier to fight with an inconvenience before it actually happens. Prevention is the key!

Let us conquer the issue with dividing the types of sinks and the bad boys that definitely shouldn’t go down the pipe.

how to unclog a tub drain naturally

Use homemade drain cleaner to unclog bathroom shower and sink 

Biggest enemies for the bathroom sink is the combination of skin flakes, tooth paste, hair and dirt mixing with awful soup scum and creating terrific problem for your sink that can’t defend itself, same story goes for the shower too.

To troubleshoot this issue you can:

  • Frequent cleaning of the drain stopper.
  • Using the ‘’old school’’ method à almighty drain plunger
  • Removing drain elbow joint and cleaning it
  • Using of the hair strainer drain – cover so the hair doesn’t have a chance in escaping to the pipes (this should be your first line of defence)

Clogged toilets using homemade drain cleaner

The toilets in many cases can be a bigger problem. In my personal experience and in the stories of some of my friends you come to a situation:

You have something in your hands, some object, food, tissue or some chocolate wrap and you want to dispose of it but the trash can is far away in the kitchen so you drop it into the toilet, flush it and think that you will never see it again. You are right, but you will maybe see consequences of disposing it.

That is some specific situation, what about all of those hair, dirt and what not that doesn’t dissolve in the water.

empty-toilet-bowl

But the best method by far is: not throwing things that do not dissolve in water in the toilet. Have you ever wondered why all the public toilets often have that “don’t flush the toilet paper”?

However, if you are didn’t follow this guidance, then you will need to use dish detergent and boiled water. If this doesn’t work, and you are lacking baking soda, then try with the second solution- salt, borax, and vinegar.

It can probably deal with your problems, and if it doesn’t than you can use more extreme methods, like a drain snake, or a phone… to call a professional.

Unclog kitchen sink drain clogs using homemade drain cleaner

We are down to the last place where you can have an annoying clogging issue, the kitchen sink. Here you don’t have hair but the culprits of the kitchen sink or no less easier to deal with.

When you are in the kitchen preparing a meal for your loved one and yourself and are hoping for a romantic and promising evening it doesn’t fall to your mind that you might have a large problem in a month or too.

If homemade drain cleaner can do miracles somewhere, then kitchen sink drains are a perfect place. The drains are narrowed and the reason of clog is in 90% of situations the food. Since the food is organic, it’s easier for homemade drain cleaner to deal with it.

drain-snake

Use the dish detergent and couple liters of boiling water. If it doesn’t succeed the first time, be persistent. Within several tries, I’m sure that you will deal with your problems. If not- try salt, borax, and vinegar method.

Cooking grease or oil and food particles can be a very bad combination for your sink.

You can trick them by following the advice we give you. Run hot water down the sink for a few seconds to get a softer clog, while running hot water put a bit of dish detergent followed by more hot water and wait a couple of minutes. Then you can use a plunger followed by more hot water and that is that.

Final Word: Homemade Drain Cleaner

Dealing with clogs is highly annoying thing that will waste a lot of time. At least, you can save the time that you would invest in going to the store and buying some drain cleaners (and money).

Hopefully, this article helped you realize how easy is to make your own homemade drain cleaner. It actually works, it’s not the myth. Of course, it depends from the type of clog, but in 90% it should work.

Well, if your case belongs to those 10%, then… just call a professional.

Homemade-Drain-Cleaner