On Sunday, August 5, 2012 10:50:12 AM UTC-4, TomR wrote:
I am going to meet with a friend of mine in a couple of hours to see if I can help him with a clogged/slow drain issue. I haven't seen it yet, but so far, he seems to be saying that it is mostly a bathtub (and maybe a sink in the same bathroom) that has a slow drain problem. I think he said he tried to unclog it before but had some problems with it, and he wants to know if by looking at it if I could figure out how to correct the problem. Of course, we'll be doing the routine stuff -- using a plunger, a snake, one of those plastic hair-cleaning gadgets, maybe Liquid Plumber, etc. But, I was wondering if anyone has ever tried using acid -- probably not something too strong, but maybe diluted acid or whatever. I know about keeping acid off of porcelain, and I know about adding acid-to-water and not water-to-acid from chemistry classes and past experience. And, since it is someone else's house, I don't want to mess up their drain lines with too much or too strong of acid. Any thoughts or experiences on the acid idea and any specific suggestions would be appreciated. Again, I am going there in a couple of hours, but I'll check here beforehand just in case anyone gets to respond before then. Also, I may just pass on the whole acid idea unless someone here has any suggestions that we may want to try.

I agree wiht the poster about using a snake. I noticed some of the chemical drain cleaners now also come with a short plastic snake. I think that probably does more for the clog than the chemicals. On a system without age related or chronic problems clogs are almost always at or near the fixture drain. The pipes just get bigger as you move further away from the fixture..