Clear a clogged drain with SCIENCE!!!

Hey guys, howzit?
If you are, or know someone who is, a person with excessive facial hair, this one's for you.
So I trimmed my beard recently, and, like an idiot, neglected to clear the larger masses of hair before rinsing out the sink over which I do my trimming.
I thought, naively, that the hair would simply be flushed down as so many of its predecessors had been.
I was wrong. What I ended up with was a sink that wouldn't drain as a result of my foolishness.
Apparently, I have such remarkably strong and healthy hair, that the attempts of tweezers and even Dran-O were insufficient to reopen the clogged waterway.
Then I happened upon an idea, fresh from the third grade science fair.
Vinegar and Baking soda.

(PS: these photos were taken after the fact, so imagine if you will, a snarling mass of hair and myself in shimmering armor standing ready to do battle with it.)
(PPS: or just imagine a clogged sink and a slightly de-bearded guy...)

Step 1: GET!

• Vinegar.
• Baking Soda. SODA. Not POWDER. SODA.
• Spoon!
• A clogged sink. Mine was clogged with my own beard trimmings, but I leave you to your own devices for that one.

Comments

[wickedsmilee]

Alka Seltzer tablets work too.

[allovera pérez]

OMG! I did it and it worked perfectly. My sink runs smoothly now and the process also cleaned a stain that was driving me crazy!
5 stars!

[maslo]

(removed by author or community request)

[cfuse]

I can appreciate that your comment is given in jest to a large part, but literacy isn't necessarily entwined with the ability to understand humour (or for that matter, the ability to follow direction and the skill of understanding the implications prior to doing so). So in the spirit of that, here follows the obligatory public service announcement:

Sodium hydroxide (or potassium hydroxide for that matter) will do just fine with cold water, with the added bonus that it won't fire out of the drain into your face, simultaneously giving you severe burns and blinding you.

An exothermic reaction is exactly what you don't want - quite aside from making miniature volcanoes of death, it will also produce enough heat to start fires (and whilst your drainpipe might not be flammable, odds on it passes by something that is at some point - so you can start a fire somewhere away from the sink but still close enough to kill you).

Wear eye protection and have vinegar on hand when you do anything with strongly alkaline substances - they are the polar opposites of strong acids, so treat them as carefully.

[zs]

even if the vinegar and baking soda is an exothermic reaction the gasious by product it CO2 which extinguishes fire

[cfuse]

Vinegar and baking soda is not what we are talking about here. It's sodium or potassium hydroxide - otherwise known as lye. Vinegar is acetic acid, baking soda is sodium bicarbonate, both of which are so innocuous that you can eat them.

As for CO2 extinguishing fires, it does so by displacing the oxygen required for combustion to occur - should the CO2 dissipate (allowing oxygen to return) whilst combustion temperatures remain, then the fire will happily spark right up. So, even if you managed to contain CO2 within the pipe long enough for the temperature to drop below ignition, there is still the matter of flammable material outside the pipe (which is the chief fire hazard in the first place).

[Goodhart]

The old Drano, the crystal kind (with little pieces of aluminum in it), was the most effective in opening drains if you could get the stuff TO the clog, BUT it had an added bonus effect of dissolving your pipes (pre-plastic) slowly. The sink pictured above looks exactly like the one in my apt. except we have a bucket under the pipes to catch what should go down the drains (the trap is nearly dissolved).
And yes, a really bad clog could send those lovely NaOH crystals back into one's face if one is not careful to go away until it is done working :-) The pipe get VERY hot, but even so, doesn't harm the plastic ones (at least, not the ones I have seen it used on).

[maslo]

I don't know where you are from, but here in Czech Republic such "public service announcement" is neither obligatory nor necessary - people are responsible themselves for what they are doing and if they do something bad to themselves it's simply their fault because of lack of common sense.

Anyway, exothermic reaction *is* what you want - if not, you would 1) have to wait pretty long time 2) there would not be commercially available preparations on the very same basis with instructions exactly the same as I wrote here.

I don't say in any way that one doesn't need to be careful while handling strong alkaline substances or acids. No one says you should have your eye 1 foot over the drain while pouring the water :)

It's probably just the matter of different mentality...

[bettbee]

Not to mention if you're making a public service announcement you should phrase it such that the less scientifically savvy public will understand it, not just fellow geek boys and chem students :-)

[cfuse]

I never liked warnings or contraindications that didn't come with attendant reasons.

I suppose my biggest problem is that I write for someone like myself - if I'd written "do this and you could kill or injury yourself, or damage your own or someone else's property" I'd still be left with the question of "why?" as a reader.

I've never been the kind of person who responds to don't do x, but I do tend to listen to don't do x because ...

[cfuse]

I'd rather labour the point than see some rube mix boiling water and sodium hydroxide as you instruct and getting their face blown off. If I'm thought an idiot for that, then I find that to be an acceptable price to pay.

As regarding an exothermic reaction, my understanding is that the heat is irrelevant in this case - it is the caustic nature of the chemical that is doing the heavy lifting. Otherwise you could just pour boiling water down the drain and get the same result - which would be both cheaper and safer.

[fultron89]

...and promptly burn a hole through the center of the earth XD Good suggestions - I'm not a scientist, but I like to tinker, so I may look into it.

[icebird]

Interesting idea. Will this clear a drain if the clog isn't merely "loose debris"? Another good way to get more violence out of this reaction is to microwave your vinegar (in a micro-wave safe container) to near-boiling. I've used this method to descale faucet aerators before.

[Spartan 117]

Awh yeah, or some conc H2SO4 lol Aaron

[bettbee]

Heh - didn't see this till now so here's a poetic reply; Johnny was a chemist's son But Johnny is no more What Johnny thought was H2O Was H2SO4

[lasersage]

You shouldn't microwave liquids (viscous ones like soup aren't a problem). I know you can without any problems but here is the risk: Bubbles form in boiling water around impurities in the liquid or imperfections in the surface of the container. As the water gets hotter the bubbles slowly begin to get larger and rise. This process takes time, as the water is heated along a gentle thermal gradient. A microwave is capable of heating water faster than bubble formation occurring. This can result in water in an impossible state, heated beyond 100C and still a liquid. Any shock to the system, throw in a grain of rice/acoustic shock the container, can cause the water to "leap" from the container and virtually explode in all directions. 100C+ water flying about your kitchen? Not cool. Thin (non viscous) liquids should be heated in a pan on a hob. I know you said near-boiling, but my point is that it is very hard to judge that in a microwave. Be safe kids

[lamerc]

The traditional solution to this problem (which can also occur if you're boiling liquid on the stove in a pan/pot/kettle with a glass or otherwise almost perfectly smooth surface) is a "boiling stone" -- a piece of irregular rock (or some more sanitary, scientific alternative for food--for this, I suspect any small irregular pebble would work fine -- the more porous the better). Putting this in before boiling ensures that there are nucleation sites to encourage the constant formation of bubbles as it heats, so you don't have kind of nasty massive critical single-bubble overload lasersage is describing.

[lasersage]

Interesting. Good point about glass on the hob, I hadn't considered that. I like the boiling stone idea, I've never come across it before.

[bettbee]

We have 'em in the lab, they're called boiling chips. They're in the manual in every fricking lab gut professor always says not to bother with them (we do all boiling of things in the hood.)

[PKM]

I use a few grains of salt or sugar (depending on the food item- salt in my tea? No thanks). If the traditional exploding-microwaved-coffee is caused by adding powdered sugar, head off the problem and put a little in before heating it. I wonder if putting the vinegar down the drain and quickly putting the plug in would be a good idea? It might pressurise and blow the blockage down the drain, or it might shoot out of the overflow and get all over you.

[icebird]

Haha.. I have personal experience very similar to what you've just postulated. Plumbers will sometimes do something called "ballooning" the line when a drain snake won't clear things out. Basically what they do is hook a special hose up to your drain line that creates a seal and pressurizes the line between the drain and the clog, forcing it through. Well in my case, the clog was in there pretty good I guess and ended up blowing out into my bathroom (from the kitchen) up through the sink and bathtub. They didn't notice until we heard water dripping through the floor into the basement. The guy swore that had never happened before, but I never want to clean up such a stinky mess like that again. So, in most normal homes, a little pressure caused by a chemical reaction probably won't hurt anything, but you'd be safer plugging other drains around the house too.

[icebird]

Thanks for including the safety tip/disclaimer I should have.

[aphesia]

hells yes! but have you tried the NaOH and H2O method? really burns through....everything.

[bettbee]

Yeah but instead of robbing the school chem lab cupboard you could just buy drain cleaner which is basically NaOH anyway. (Pun intended, couldn't resist, sorry.)

[aaronscottaugustinhotmail.com]

you obviously didnt read the instructable its VINNEGAR and BAKING POWDER! (lol i know its soda)

[bettbee]

Aaron of the long name, are you responding to me? I was responding to aphesia who suggested NaOH and H2O. Which drain cleaner is already made of. My comment implies your comment, LOL

[aaronscottaugustinhotmail.com]

huh im sorry you lost me man

[aaronscottaugustinhotmail.com]

i didnt it and nothing happened you said baking powder and vinnegar right? (lol just messing)

[Dino1981]

Great idea, I have a clog now that I need to try this on.

[panstar1]

I've had this happen to my parents sink, they tried everything they could think of drano hot water ,ect. But the blockage was not in the trap (they have a rubber trap you can feel if it is clogged) ,but I fixed it by taking the upper part Ie unscrewing the top flange ,then the tee part this sink had a pull up rod type drain you pull up to close the drain and fill the sink. Well anyway I took those parts apart & the parts had a thick slimy sluge which was blocking the drain, all I did was clean them out & no more problems ! As for the shower that has a cross peace of metal in it I had to pull hair & other gross things out with forcepts very gross but it worked & no need for chemicals !!

[AznPanda]

LoL!!!!! thasts funny ;D

[jridley]

Easiest way to clear a sink drain is to get a bucket and take the trap off, clean it and put it back. 3 minutes tops, works better and longer lasting fix. Still, thanks for a funny instructable.

[Derin]

the drains here have removable bottom pieces the bottom piece holds debris(hopefully)

[static]

Such traps are available here in the States, but for some reason they don't seem to be commonly installed. Job security for the plumbers perhaps? No need to make it too easy for the home owner to clear a trap. ;)

[littlechef37]

Traps NEED to have a trap installed ! If you don't hazardous Gases can come up the drain and ..... Bad things happen (eg; YOU CAN GET REALLY SICK)....

[jridley]

Please read more carefully. Nobody's talking about not installing traps. static was talking about a specific type of trap that makes it easy to remove clogs, versus ones where it's hard and you might have to call a plumber.

[jridley]

At our house all the under-sink waste plumbing is PVC with the trap held on by a compression fitting. You can take it off without tools in 30 seconds. Of course, it's so slippery that it almost never has anything stuck in it, but it does let you get access to the mass of crud hanging from hairs draped over the plug lever, which is where the stoppage almost always is in PVC systems, since the PVC almost never harbors a plug unless the size is reduced along the way, which is unlikely. If the plumbing is chromed brass (the usual alternative to PVC) add an extra 5 minutes to go to the tool box and get a wrench, and put it back again later.

[Plasmana]

Cool instructable!

[shantinath1000]

You want to watch out for the use of some of the very corrosive combinations or the ones that produce a lot of heat- The corrosive combinations could damage the pipes and the ones that produce a lot of heat can also damage the pipes (PVC).

[The Lightning Stalker]

     If you don't have vinegar and baking soda, some coke and mentos would probably work pretty well.