Unclog a Drain Naturally Without Bleach or Drano
ByI’ve mentioned before that our house has a lot of character. (I have to say it that way just in case my house is listening and so that it won’t get its feelings hurt.)
Our house is over a hundred years old, and while we love our house and feel completely blessed to live in such a nice, large house…it does have some crazy weird issues. (Sounds like the lady of the house too, doesn’t it? Crazy weird issues indeed.)
One of the biggest issues in our house involves the plumbing. You don’t want to know the details, but let’s just say… No. Let’s not. You don’t want to know the details.
What I will tell you is that keeping our sinks and bathtubs draining nicely feels next to impossible. And as you know, we’d like to keep our house free from harmful chemicals like bleach and drano.
A good friend of ours was over recently and told us a nice tip for unclogging the bathtubs and sinks naturally using the ever wonderful baking soda and vinegar.
Here’s what you do:
- Take out your sink or bathtub stopper.
- Use an wet washrag to clean out around the drain hole.
- Pour 1/2 cup of baking soda down the drain.
- Pour 1 cup white distilled vinegar down the drain.
- Stop the volcano from bubbling up out of the drain by placing a wash rag over the drain hole. You want the action to take place down where stuff is clogged, not all over your bathtub or sink.
- After thirty minutes, pour a big pot of boiling water down the drain.
And there you go.
I love that we can work on our drain issues using natural ingredients…thus avoiding an asthma attack and whatever other icky things we’re avoiding when we skip using bleach and other harmful chemicals in our home. And, as a side benefit…this method saves a lot of money. Do you know how expensive drano is?!
What other great uses have you found for baking soda and vinegar?
I wonder if they would help with the… Oh wait. We weren’t going to talk about that.
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This post is linked to Spring Cleaning Challenge at Kitchen Stewardship and Kitchen Tip Tuesdays at Tammy’s Recipes.
What a great tip! Though our house is only about 20 years old, we’ve got some major plumbing issues as well. With as frequently as I need to unclog drains around here, I’m really glad that you’ve shared this natural method.
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When baking soda and vinegar don’t work (when there’s a tough clog), you can try a snake. But my go-to thing is a balloon-type device that goes on the end of the hose and is snaked down the pipe. When you turn on the water, the balloon fills to conform to the pipe, then water shoots out the tip and breaks up the clog. It has worked wonderfully on 2 clogs we had that nothing else could touch. I highly recommend having one on hand.
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kkathy Reply:
May 8th, 2011 at 4:17 pm
Where can I get a snake like that? I have a clog now and so far nothing has worked.
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Melinda M Reply:
May 8th, 2011 at 6:03 pm
I bought mine at a local hardware store. It should be with plumbing stuff.
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i store baking soda and vinegar under my sink as my go-to cleaning tool for a LOT of stuff… first two things that come to mind:
>> getting rid of calcium build up on faucet aerator: pour some vinegar in a glass, dilute some with water, pop the aerator off the faucet and let sit for a bit = calcium build up eliminated!
>> removing minor carpet stains: mix up a baking soda/vinegar paste, rub into carpet fibers with toothbrush, let dry, vacuum up = stain eliminated!
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I use a half and half vinegar/water solution for cleaning just about everythng. It is my ‘all purpose’ cleaner. I love baking soda for cleaning out my tubs and toilets!
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This totally works! I just did it to 2 of my drains. One was stopped up totally, the other was just a slow mover. They are great now!
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I’ve had great success with that combo plus the addition of 1/4-1/2 c salt (the cheapy white stuff! Not the expensive sea salt!) The sat acts as an abrasive that scrapes out some of the tougher gunk that’s stuck. Pour the salt in first, so that the chemical reaction between the vinegar and baking soda pushes it down along the sides.
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When I have a bad sink clog, I usually start out with a good plunger workout. Then, I like to follow it with the baking soda/vinegar combo to get the last of the gunk outta there.
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Do you think that it would work on a kitchen sink with maybe a disposal, I just wondered! Thanks for the awesome info!
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i do this all the time because my kids forget to run the garbage disposal and it clogs up our double kitchen sink – the trick with that is that you have to work at it for awhile sometimes – plug one side (usually the disposal side), on the other side pour in the baking soda/vinegar/boiling water, let it sit, then use a plunger and/or snake – but it works! i love that there is no harsh chemical smell and it’s super-cheap and easy!
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I just did this to my bathtub drain the other day. I’ve found it works better for me if the vinegar is hot. It really does work!
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…oh man, I had totally skipped the washcloth step to keep the action happening in the pipe… [cough] oops.
I use baking soda and vinegar to wash my hair. A good scrub with the baking soda and then a quick rinse with vinegar before washing it all out. It works pretty well and, while my wife shakes her head at me, I find the “science experiment on my head” to be fun [smile].
~Luke
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Wonderful ideas! I just found a great website with “green” cleaning products and recipes: http://www.greencleanchic.com. I have also blogged about it: http://www.jsknowlton.blogspot.com under Green cleaning.
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I love this combo! I’m a natural house cleaner so I don’t use chemicals and this works greast for ovens when you have the baked on gunk. Works like a charm and a whole lot safer that those canned fumes you buy at the store!
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I absolutely LOVE cleaning with the 1/2 vinegar & 1/2 water solution. I use it for just about everything!
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This is the first time I’ve ever heard anyone else list bleach as an asthma trigger – it totally sets me off too. I was once hospitalized for asthma and they ran out of space and put me in the diabetic section. Woke up gasping for air with all the monitors going off – why, because they were mopping the hall outside my room with what else? Bleach. I complained and was told that bleach doesn’t trigger asthma. Um, yeah – it does! Anyhoo.
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Danielle Reply:
March 23rd, 2010 at 10:50 am
Sets me off too… in LARGE quantities. I can still use it when washing my whites or whatever, but if I use too much… I’m in trouble! I’ve gone to the store before and have had to leave because they used too much cleaning stuff while cleaning up a spill.
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Melody Joy Reply:
March 29th, 2010 at 10:09 am
Oh yes, bleach is definitely an asthma trigger. I’ve recently encountered
some folks who were unaware of that, too; but it seems that when I was
younger it was common knowledge that even our doctor backed up.
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Love this tip! We’re slowly trying to rid our house of chemicals, although I doubt I will ever be able to get rid of my bleach. I know it’s very harmful and dangerous, we’re just too close of friends. :)
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I have used that method for years, and LOVE how it works. From the sounds of it, your wonderful old home would probably benefit from you using the method EVERY Wed. and Saturday, in every drain in the house, for the next two months. That would then work past any current problems and actually start working on accumulated build up in the drain pipes themselves.
Thankfully, neither baking soda nor white vinegar are all that expensive.
‘Amber’ asked about it working in garbage disposals. Yes, it will. Another very effective method of cleaning garbage disposals is to put (a LARGE scoop of)ice in it, then turn it on, run until the sound of breaking ice stops and turn the machine off, without ever having turned the water on. Then pour a large pot of boiling water down both sides of the sink (if it’s a double sink). Do this nightly until which time you stop having garbage disposal problems on a regular basis. Then you can switch to doing it once a week, and just flushing it with cold water from your tap. Another bonus is that this method somehow magicaly helps get rid of oders that garbage disposals often emit.
I stopped by to visit via your link last Tuesday in Tammy’s Recipes/Kitchen.
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Oh gosh, this tip was fantastic!! I actually use Vinegar to clean my house ( mixed with 50% water of course). I make my own laundry detergent too…I’m very opposed to buying the stuff w/ chemicals. If I do get soft scrub and stuff on sale for free it goes to the family across the street, or my in-laws, but never in my house! Great tip, thank you…I have been using that big stick from Home Depot with the claws to suck stuff up…but it does not always get everything!
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You should consider getting your pipes blown out. Basically, it’s compressed air or high-pressure water (depending on the plumber) that blows the clogs out. It is more long lasting that just unblocking the clog, because you end up with almost new, clean pipes. This is something we are considering for our 50 year old house. We have slow drains, though luckily not too many clogs. But last time our washing machine backed up, that’s what the plumber suggested. He snaked it, but said that we would probably have to keep snaking it to keep it clear, because there was so much build up. I didn’t even know they did that kind of thing, so I thought I would share the suggestion.
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I stopped by to let you know that I included this posting in my ‘hopefully useful tip’ today.
I also read Becca’s comment about having your pipes blown free and wanted to offer a word of caution. VERY often homes that are around a hundred yers old still have their original clay or cast iron pipes. And very often these pipes have accumulated hair line crackes in them over the years. Not big enough to leak per say, but there non the less. And while the combination of vinegar and baking soda working it’s way through them MIGHT affect these cracks, it seldom does. However, the pressure that air blowing puts through pipes is far more likely too!
just for what it’s worth.
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I’m thrilled to know this works well! I’d read the tip before but never been able to use it well. Super “no bleach” strategy!
I stumbled ya!
:) Katie
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Thanks for that tip. I will try and let you know.
thanks
Lilian
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Great tip…I can’t wait til I have a clogged drain (or can I?) to test this no-nonsense, safe tip!!! Thanks!
Fred
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