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Over the years, I have been able to come to one overwhelming truth in sewer and drain cleaning. Those heavily advertised miracle drain cleaners simply do not work well enough to bother spending any money on.
They are dangerous with caustic acids and smelly fumes and often destroy the very piping they are supposed to help. The largest repair that I have ever made because of these drain clears happened about 15 years and cost the restaurant $27,000 in sewer repairs. In today’s prices that would probably be closer to $40,000. A restaurant regularly used one of them as “drain maintenance” and the often saturation actually destroyed the bottom of the sewer piping throughout the establishment.
Don’t let this happen to you.
First, you should be asking yourself why you need the drain cleaner in the first place? Drain stoppages are common, but they are not normal. You should never get a drain stoppage unless you have a problem. Drains and sewers are designed to be self-cleaning and maintenance free. Commercial drains do require maintenance in many situations as what goes down those drains can be ridiculous. Massive amounts of grease, oils, engine fluids and other objectionable items. I have even had to clear a line that someone decided it was a good idea to dump 100 pounds of contaminated rice into the sewer system.
Your garbage disposal can certainly handle just about anything you can get into it, but your drain cannot. A good rule of thumb is; if you can scrape it off, it does not belong in your drain. Put it in your garbage can, not your garbage disposal. Yes, I know the commercials, you will even see some of it here on this sight, expose the glorious nature of disposers and what good they are doing. My opinion is hogwash. Disposers are great, garbage cans are better, at least when it comes to paying your plumber.
What does not belong in your sewer system?
1. T-Shirts or other clothing. Yes, I have removed them from drains.
2. Feminine hygiene products.
3. Hair barrettes. (I had to dig up a bathroom because this once.) Make sure the strainer portion of the tub/shower drain is intact.
4. Rice. It keeps growing in size.
5. Eggshells. Yes, it will clean the disposer blades, but ice works better.
6. Stringy vegetables like celery.
Finally, drain chemicals. Below are the Material Safety Data Sheets for these chemicals. If you are comfortable with using these in your home, around your children and around your pets, you are a braver person that I.
These are abreviated versions. Full versions are avaialbe online.
DRACKETT PRODUCTS -- LIQUID DRANO PROFESSIONAL STRENGTH-RETAIL
MATERIAL SAFETY DATA SHEET
NSN: 685000N039523
Manufacturer's CAGE: 85234
Part No. Indicator: A
Part Number/Trade Name: LIQUID DRANO PROFESSIONAL STRENGTH-RETAIL
Ingredient: HYPOCHLOROUS ACID, SODIUM SALT; (SODIUM HYPOCHLORITE)
Ingredient: SODIUM HYDROXIDE
Extinguishing Media: If involved in fire, use water, dry alcohol Type-All
Special Fire Fighting Proc: WEAR NIOSH/MSHA approved SCBA and FULL PROTECTIVE EQUIPMENT (FP N). Avoid contact with CONTAMINATED water. Flush contaminated equipment.
Health hazard: Acute and chronic. Acute corrosive. May burn eyes, skin, mucous membranes and esophageal tissue. Sensation of irritation, stinging and tissue damage.
Respiratory Protection: Use NIOSH/MSHA approved respirator appropriate for exposure of concern (FP N).
Protective Gloves: Use IMPERVIOUS GLOVES (FP N).
Eye Protection: Use CHEMICAL GOGGLES. Other Protective Equipment: Eye wash and body flushing facilities should be available.
Work Hygienic Practices: Avoid contact W/EYES, Skin and c
lothing.
Signal Word: DANGER! Click on the picture of Liquid Plumr to see a pdf of the MSDS sheets.
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Consider...
Chemical drain cleaners are among the most dangerous household products--hardly a shocker, since these lye-based formulas are meant to dissolve plugs of grease, soap, hair, and ground-up food. Yet most don’t clear undersink clogs as well as old-fashioned mechanical methods, including the humble plunger.
Another surprise: Chemical products labeled “heavy duty” or “professional strength” often proved less effective than their regular-strength counterparts in clearing kitchen clogs made of grease and food, and bathroom clogs of soap, toothpaste, and hair. And two foaming chemicals, from Drano and Liquid-Plumr, tanked altogether in our tests.
Crystals, another type of chemical drain cleaner, attacked clogs with a fury. But if the crystals are exposed to aluminum, a common material in some older sink trim, they can generate a choking cloud of lye-laden gas. Plus, mixing these products with different chemical drain cleaners or with common household cleaners, especially those that contain ammonia, can cause the mixture to burst out of the drai. And if you accidentally pour too much of one product, Heavy Duty Crystal Drain Cleaners, down the drain, can turn into a solid, stonelike block that’s almost impossible to remove. Given these potential dangers, I don’t recommend using them.
Biological cleaners, such as Citra-Drain and Zep, use enzymes or bacteria to chew through clogs. Besides posing less of a health risk to humans, biologicals are less likely to harm septic systems because they don’t kill beneficial bacteria. But they’re wimpy when it comes to quickly removing clogs. However, they should be useful at keeping drains free of organic material once clogs have been cleared.
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