On Jul 11, 11:09*am, Hell Toupee wrote:
On 7/9/2012 9:26 PM, WW wrote:





"Ray" wrote in message
...
A friend tells me that there is a cleaning solution available which stands
overnight in sink drains to clear away grease build-up.

He also said that he had learned through some "tip sheet" that carbonated
soft drinks accomplish the same thing and are cheaper when you get them on
sale.

Is this correct?

Ray... A quick and easy way. *Buy a Zip It at Home Depot or Ace Hardware
about $2. This is a plastic thing about 2 feet long with saw looking teeth.
Very flexible and will bend to go around the pea trap. Fast and drags out
hair and crud. Check it out on Google. This saves my taking the trap apart
and works in a couple minutes of my time. WW

I want to second, third, and fourth this recommendation. The Zip-its
are dirt cheap so they're disposable if you don't feel like cleaning
them after use. The backwards-facing teeth hold onto the crud and gunk
while you yank the Zip-it back up through the drain. Pull all the junk
off it, then run it through the drain one more time to make sure.
Problem solved in less than five minutes and for about two dollars. No
chemicals, no snake, no disassembling the plumbing. Whoever invented
these deserves a medal.

Before I'll agree with your "no disassembling the plumbing" claim,
I'll have to try it on my pedestal sink.

How long is the tool?

This issue might be the length of the tool vs. the location of the
recurring clog.

The pedestal sink has an extension before the trap, then after the
trap the drain continues into the wall and then makes a 90 degree turn
down the stud bay toward the floor.

The clog typically occurs at the connection for that 90 degree turn.
If the zip-it isn't long enough to reach that point, I'll still have
to disassemble the drain in order to access the clog that is just
inside the wall.

I love the look of the pedestal sink, but working on the drain/trap
assembly is a major pain since you can't easily get a wrench on
anything inside the pedestal.

Unfortunately, there's wainscoting with it's associated cap and base
moulding behind the sink, so opening the wall to see if I can
reconfigure the 90 in some manner as to prevent the clog isn't
feasible unless I plan to redo the wall.