How to Keep Your Drains Clog Free

Dealing with a clogged drain, whether it’s in your bathtub or in the kitchen sink, can be a huge hassle. Clogged drains are typically not as easy to clean out as you might think. Pouring a chemical drain cleaner down your drains is not a wise decision either as not only can this negatively affect the environment, it could cause damage to your pipes as well.

If you experience a seriously clogged drain, you’ll need to call a plumber. Because of this, it’s better to just take precautions to ensure that your drains don’t get clogged. The following are several important tips for keeping your drains clog-free:

• Clean bathroom sink stoppers – Once a week, remove the stopper in your bathroom sinks. Clean the stopper off and remove any debris left behind in the drain before replacing the stopper.
• Clear debris from shower or bathtub drain – Once a week, remove the drain cover from your shower or bathtub drain. Use something like a bent wire (or a snake if you have one) to clear any debris, such as hair or pieces of soap, that has accumulated near the top of the drain.
• Clean the garbage disposal – If food and other debris builds up within the garbage disposal, it can cause a massive clog. Once a month, use a disposer brush to clean out your garbage disposal. You can also grind up a combination of ice and salt to help remove the grease and slime off the sides of the garbage disposal. This helps prevent the grease and slime from building up and clogging the drain over time.
• Be careful about what you put down your garbage disposal – There are a number of items that you should not put down there. This includes coffee grounds, grease, oils, egg shells and bones. You should also avoid putting pasta, rice or bread remains down the garbage disposal as these items expand with water, which means they can block your drain after they go down it.
• Don’t use your toilet as a trash can – One of the biggest causes of clogged toilet drains is from its use as a make-shift garbage can. Things like paper towels, tissues, band-aids, dental floss, wipes and more should not be flushed down the toilet. Only toilet paper is meant to go down the toilet.
• Turn the hot water on – Every once in a while, turn the hot water all the way on and let it run through all the drains in your home. Hot water will help melt some of the grease, soap scum and other debris that have gathered on the drain walls in your sinks and bathroom or shower drains.
  
  

Be sure to use these tips in order to keep your drains from getting clogged up. Dealing with drain clogs can be a real big hassle – especially if they occur at a particularly inopportune time. If you do experience a serious drain clog, be sure to schedule an appointment with a professional plumber right away.