3 Solutions to Avoid When You Have a Clogged Drain

A clogged drain is enough to ruin your day. A blocked sink or toilet may prohibit you from conducting your day as usual. While at-home solutions may appear optimal when compared to the cost and wait time of hiring a plumber, you could further worsen the situation with certain solutions.

1. Use Drain Cleaner

One reason this ranks at the top of the list is because of the severity and possibility of long-term consequences from the abrasiveness of a drain cleaner to your health and plumbing.

A drain cleaner uses chemicals that break down the grease, hair, and other obstructions that hinder your drain from functioning properly. Generally, they consist of ingredients like lye and sodium chloride.

Cause an Eruption

The lye in the solution interacts to dissolve the blockage in your drain. However, the chemicals in the cleaner may cause pressure to accumulate inside of your pipes. When enough pressure builds up, an eruption from your drain may occur, possibly harming you and anyone else near the drain at the time.

Damage Your Pipes

The components of a drain cleaner are erosive. While they dissolve debris in your lines, they can remain inside of your pipes and slowly eat away at the metal. You may not notice the damage immediately, but especially with repeated use, the damage can lead to you requiring serious plumbing repair. Affected pipes may leak or completely collapse.

You may think you save money with an at-home solution to the problem, but if you damage the pipes with the cleaner, you may spend more to repair the damage than you would if you hired a professional to unclog the drain.

Cause Skin and Internal Damage

As noted by Medline Plus, a division of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), drain cleaners are hazardous to your health if you inhale them or they come in contact with your skin. As a result of drain cleaner exposure, you may experience abdominal pain or difficulty breathing. When inhaled, the solution can burn your throat and mouth.

Medline Plus also notes the possibility of severe burns to your skin from drain cleaners. In some instances, the damage is severe enough to require skin removal surgery.

Harm the Environment

More and more companies see the drawbacks of invasive household products on the environment. Some are safe solutions to unclog your drain, but products remain on the market that contain lye and other harmful chemicals that enter into the water supply.

Harm Pets and Children

The only way to ensure a product doesn't harm your pets or young children is to completely restrict all members of your household from accessing the area, which is inconvenient and not always possible. Skin exposure, accidental ingestion, or inhalation of the drain cleaner will cause skin burns, internal burns, breathing difficulty, and vomiting. A child or pet may have blood in their emesis or stool as a result of ingesting the cleaner.

2. Keep Using the Drain

If you have a slow drain, you don't want to keep using it. The clog will grow in size and completely clog the drain. Not to mention, you may end up with quite a mess if you continue flushing your toilet even though it has a clog.

3. Use an Item to Unclog the Drain

A snake or auger may unclog your drain successfully, especially if you understand how to use them properly.

However, you should never make your own equipment to unclog your drain or try to push other objects through the line. You risk these homemade utensils breaking or contributing to the clog once they get stuck in the clog.

A clogged drain isn't always an issue you can handle on your own with do-it-yourself resolutions. Often, an at-home repair can cost you in the end financially and can even harm the health and well-being of the individuals and pets in your home.

Contact Daytona Plumbing , serving Volusia and Flagler Counties, if you have a clogged drain or another plumbing-related issue. We offer 24-hour emergency service.