Respect the Drain

Drains take a lot of abuse. I never really think too much about sink drains or shower drains, until that day when that drain doesn't drain. Then, you realize all too clearly how very valuable a working drain is.

We've been battling the kitchen sink drain for quite a while now. We began with some simple baking soda and vinegar, followed by boiling water. After several repeats on this tried and true method, we moved on to Drano, to no visible benefit. Next, we found ourselves opening the cleanouts immediately under the sink and getting in there with an auger. There's one immediately under the sink, then one a little ways away in a kitchen cabinet. We thought we had solved the problem.

It came back. Jake went to the hardware store for help, where they recommended "the stuff the professionals use," which was apparently some kind of professional-strength Drano. After getting it home and carefully reading the very scary label, we noticed that it was "concentrated, virgin sulfuric acid." A bit of googling on that term will bring you some horrifying tales of the many things that can go wrong when you use such a product. Obviously, as a heavy-duty acid, it could really mess you up if you spilled it, but more than that, using it properly seems to also be fairly hazardous, since if you add sulfuric acid to water, the reaction creates a lot of heat -- so much heat that in fact, the water could boil. Since we're working in a water-based situation (the drain) it seemed like adding acid to the scenario was more danger than we wanted to take on, even if it might make for a fabulously horrifying blog post. We've decided to take the high-test drain cleaner back to the hardware store unopened. Even if we DID choose to use it, we'd be afraid to have a half-full bottle of the stuff just sitting around here anyway.

So we were back to mechanical means. Jake found another cleanout in the basement laundry room that appeared to connect to the sink. This one was a good bit messier, as it was on a vertical run of the pipe rather than a horizontal. He got in there with the auger (and a lot of paper towels) and got a lot of gunk out. After closing things up, and re-doing the upstairs cleanouts, we did a few rounds of bleach and boiling water. It's been about 24 hours now, and I think we can safely say that these pipes are CLEAN. Or at least, temporarily free from obstruction.

School starts tomorrow, so you can expect fewer posts. Or possibly more posts, as I try to avoid grading.

Oh, and we still haven't had the plumber here to replace the water heater. Oddly, it's been working a bit better for a few days now, but there's still a weird leak of rusty water, and in any case, it's going to be replaced.