{"id":660,"date":"2020-06-29T11:00:47","date_gmt":"2020-06-29T15:00:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.snellair.com\/blog\/?p=660"},"modified":"2020-06-23T08:04:09","modified_gmt":"2020-06-23T12:04:09","slug":"clogged-drain-dont-use-chemical-cleaners-and-heres-why","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.snellair.com\/blog\/drain-and-sewer-service\/clogged-drain-dont-use-chemical-cleaners-and-heres-why\/","title":{"rendered":"Clogged Drain? Don\u2019t Use Chemical Cleaners and Here\u2019s Why"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-435\" src=\"https:\/\/www.snellair.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/iStock-614856644_685x600-300x263.jpg\" alt=\"drain-cleaning-illustration\" width=\"300\" height=\"263\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.snellair.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/iStock-614856644_685x600-300x263.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.snellair.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/iStock-614856644_685x600.jpg 685w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/>The clogged drain\u2014wow, what a nuisance. What a pain. And no matter how well you care for your plumbing, or how much you watch what goes down your drains, one day you\u2019ll have to face clogs. So what can you do when you\u2019ve got one?<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s the handy ol\u2019 plunger. Either the sink or the toilet plunger can often take care of extremely basic clogs. You might try a hand-cranked drain snake, which can sometimes be effective with hair clogs in shower and bathroom sink drains. Or you can use a chemical drain cleaner \u2026<\/p>\n<p>No, wait! Don\u2019t use chemical drain cleaners! If the plunger or the simple drain snake doesn\u2019t solve the problem, the next step is to call a <a href=\"\/service-areas\/lawrenceville-ga\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Lawrenceville, GA, plumber<\/a> to use professional tools to open up the drain. No plumber recommends using store-bought chemical drain cleaners for drains\u2014and for some excellent reasons:<!--more--><\/p>\n<h3>They are not effective<\/h3>\n<p>The acidic chemicals in these \u201cdrain cleaners\u201d you can buy from grocery store shelves eat away at obstructions in drainpipes to allow enough space for water to flow through again. But this is about all these chemicals achieve: a narrow pathway through the clog. They don\u2019t deal with the rest of the clog and leave most of the detritus on the drainpipe walls. You\u2019ll probably have the clog come back in a short time.<\/p>\n<h3>They can damage the drainpipes<\/h3>\n<p>Do you really want to pour a half-bottle of <em>acid<\/em> (mostly lye) down a metal or plastic drainpipe? The acid isn\u2019t discriminating\u2014it will attack the clog and then go for the pipe material next. It\u2019s also difficult to wash the chemicals out of the drain. The residue tends to stay behind in the drain, usually down in the curved p-trap, where it will continue to do more damage.<\/p>\n<h3>They can cause harmful chemical reactions<\/h3>\n<p>The mixture of soap scum in drains and the chemicals in drain cleaners triggers a chemical reaction that creates corrosion. Because the chemicals won\u2019t wash away easily, this will turn into a long-term problem.<\/p>\n<h3>They are highly toxic<\/h3>\n<p>Chemical drain cleaners are among the most dangerously toxic household items. Just a small spill on your skin can cause severe burning. The fumes are harmful to lungs and eyes, and it\u2019s not limited to people\u2014it also affects pets. If there isn\u2019t a good reason to have these chemicals around, they shouldn\u2019t be around.<\/p>\n<h3>They are harmful to the environment<\/h3>\n<p>The empty plastic bottles of chemical drain cleaners that go into landfills aren\u2019t really empty. They have plenty of chemical residue inside them, and it will seep down into the groundwater.<\/p>\n<p>The manufacturers of these \u201cdrain cleaners\u201d spend millions of dollars every year trying to convince people they\u2019re products are the quick answers to clogged drains. But they aren\u2019t. You have tools you can use at home that can help, and if those don\u2019t work, calling professional plumbers ensures the problem is solved effectively and without danger, damaged pipes, or poison in the landfills.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong><a href=\"\/contact\/schedule-service\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Call on Snellville Heating, Air and Plumbing<\/a> to handle your drain woes. Your Comfort Is Our Business.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Don\u2019t use chemical drain cleaners! If the plunger or the simple drain snake doesn\u2019t solve the problem, the next step is to call a plumber.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[46,104],"class_list":["post-660","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-drain-and-sewer-service","tag-drain-cleaning","tag-lawrenceville"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.snellair.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/660","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.snellair.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.snellair.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.snellair.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.snellair.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=660"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.snellair.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/660\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":663,"href":"https:\/\/www.snellair.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/660\/revisions\/663"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.snellair.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=660"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.snellair.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=660"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.snellair.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=660"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}