DIYbanter - View Single Post

wrote:
John‰]
wrote:
Do any of the liquid/crystal drain cleaners live up to their
advertising hype for periodic drain maintenance?

I live in a 1962 house with a sometimes cranky kitchen sink drain.
It's more of an annoyance than a real problem. I remember "Once in
every week; Draino in every drain".

Are any of them worth the money or is it just propoganda?

As others have mentioned, I prefer to remove the trap and try to snake
out the clog, but I had a very slow bathroom sink a few years ago that
I couldn't clear by snake or plunger, so finally I decided to try
"liquid Plumber foaming pipe snake," basically a fancy-marketed drain
cleaner.

It said it might take two applications, so I poured it in in the A.M.
took the family out for the day, returned in the evening, drain was
still slow. Second application cleared it pretty well until about 8-9
months later.

Again two applications of the foaming pipe snake and the drain ran
clear. That was about four-five years ago.

If you can't or won't try snaking or plunger, you really have nothing
to lose as long as you follow directions.

As an aside, I have always been pretty leery of chemical drain openers,
just because I remember my mom pouring a big can of Red Devil Lye down
the kitchen sink when I was a kid. It opened the pipe right up --
literally -- it burnt a hole in the side of the pipe under the sink....

If the thing is really clogged and doesn't drain at all, and you pour
the nasty drain cleaner in and it doesn't open up, now you got a
clogged pipe full of nasty stuff to play with.