No matter how many cool appliances fill your kitchen- dishwasher, garbage disposal, trash compactor, one problem remains for cooks: how to keep the sink from clogging. Here’s a safe, green DIY guide to keep kitchen drains clean.
Keep drains cleans by watching what you pour down the drain: Grease and cooking oil will quickly clog the drain, especially when grease and cold water go down the drain. Scrape dirty plates into the trash or compost. Don’t allow food to go down the drain. It will collect in the elbow of sink plumbing and clog. Sinks clogged at the elbow pipe must be dismantled and manually cleaned. This is a big job. Avoid using the sink for anything but cooking and food preparation. Keep hair and fur out of the drain. Avoid using sink for craft or home remodeling clean up. Never pour Plaster of Paris down the drain. It will harden and clog the drain.
Keep drains from clogging by using sink traps and sink screens: This sounds obvious, but I reiterate for several reasons. It’s difficult to find the old kind of sink trap that work so much better than newer ones. We affectionately call them ‘spin and grin’. These sink traps screw down into the drain, rather than depress and form a suction. The suction variety of sink trap work moderately well, but the ‘spin and grin’ are far superior. If you can find this type at your local hardware store, snap them up. You can also purchase sink screens and filters that are better than nothing. Be sure to empty sink traps regularly.
Keep drains free of grease clogs by running hot water for a few minutes to melt any accumulated grease. This simple procedure has kept us from calling a plumber many times.
Keep drains from clogging by bleaching and/ or sanitizing sinks and sink traps: Soak your sinks and sinks traps in baking soda and vinegar of good old bleach once every few weeks. This cleans trapped filth and goo and keeps drains running clear.
Keep drains: A vinegar-baking soda flush a week keeps the plumber away. Or an ounce of vinegar is worth hours of dunging the drain. Pour a half cup of baking soda into the drain. Slowly trickle vinegar into the baking soda to activate the baking soda. The foaming action cleanses and sanitizes sinks and drains.
Avoid using Drain-O or other commercial drain cleaners to clean clogged kitchen pipes: Drain-O is horribly toxic. It can splash back into your face and cause harm. Rumor has it, on good authority, that some plumbers will not touch a kitchen drain if it’s recently been treated with chemical drain cleaners.
For more home improvement tips, visit me at Lady Greenwise and Diy N How 24U.
