Ideas from Ed: Clogbusting (Volume 9, Issue 5)

This month I’m taking a break from the “construction” type articles.  Instead, I’m going to highlight some of the items I spoke about at a recent workshop I led on “emergency plumbing”.  The focus of the workshop was on dealing with things like frozen pipes, leaks, and clogs, all of which make life miserable and can be costly!  Here are some of my favorite ways to unclog home plumbing pipes.

The real surprise for most of you may be that perhaps the best tool for removing clogs is one that most people will never think of – a shop vacuum! 

Most shop vacuums have wet-or-dry capability, and might need to be emptied or adjusted in order to function as a wet pickup.  If placed over the clogged drain, and “sealed” as best as possible using wet rags, the vacuum works great for pulling material up through the drain instead of pushing it the opposite direction as you would with many other tools.  If the fixture has an “overflow” like most sinks and tubs, those should also be sealed with rags so that the full force of the vacuum is applied right to the clogged piping.  Even a small vac can provide much more force than most plungers!

Speaking of force, remember your physics and mathematics lessons?  Pressure is equal to force divided by area.  Remember that while studying the picture of these two plungers, the most commonly-used tools for clog removal:

The one on the left has a bottom diameter of roughly four inches, or an area of about twelve square inches.  The one on the right has an extra “extension” that narrows the bell down to roughly two inches in diameter, enabling it to fit better into some fixtures like a toilet.  The area of the bottom is about three square inches.  A force divided by three is four times larger than the same force divided by twelve.  In other words, using the same amount of effort, the plunger on the right can supply four times the amount of clog-busting pressure than the plunger on the left!  You really should have one of each type of plunger on hand, but if the fitment is good, use the right-pictured one…

Please remember that any brands or companies shown in my pictures are not meant to be endorsements by me.  They just are what I happen to be using at the time.

This drill-driven “snake” is one of my favorite tools.  It rarely lets me down when used in a larger pipe like a sewer.  It should not be used in a sink or toilet as it will likely be too aggressive and scratch things like the porcelain bowl.

It works by manually feeding the spring coil out from the drum just a bit and locking it tight with a lever.  The drum can be turned manually, but when attached to a power drill it works incredibly easily.  After a few rotations, the lever is unlocked and a bit more coil pulled out.  The process is continued until the clog is cleared or you run out of coil.  My tool is equipped with 25’ of coil, which is plenty for most instances. 

Flat snakes have been around for years, and I keep a long one on hand should the need arise, but honestly I find it awkward and cumbersome.  There’s also nothing on the end (of mine, at least) so it might push through a clog without “grabbing onto” something.

I also have several of these rubber bladders:

When the proper size bladder is attached to a garden hose and inserted into the drain, it will swell up and seal off the opening.  Water then blasts out from the bottom of the bladder into the clogged pipe, and hopefully frees things up.  The downside to these is that unless you have a hose bib nearby, you may need a faucet adapter since most faucets are not equipped with the proper external threads to accept a hose’s female end.

For relatively routine unclogging, like hairs from a sink drain, it’s tough to beat a long and flexible barbed “skewer” like this.  It slips right down into the drain and grabs onto what it can, allowing you to extract things that were causing the clog:

Did you notice that I haven’t mentioned chemical drain cleaners?  If I must, I must, but my suggestion is to consider them only as a last resort.  They are typically very caustic, can damage your plumbing (despite advertising themselves as plumbing-safe), and if they don’t do the job, leave you with a clogged fixture full of nasty chemicals.  Here’s one type I had handy when giving the workshop:

Of course, the best thing is to prevent clogs in the first place!  By now, everyone should know to avoid putting cooking grease down a drain even if running cold or hot water along with it.  Save it, recycle it, pour it into jars/cans to discard, etc. instead.  There are a myriad of screens for shower stall drains, sink drains, etc. but one thing often forgotten is the outflow from a clothes washer.  Here is a typical lint-catcher that attaches to the washer discharge hose:

Finally, if you are a person who shall I say, “has healthy bowels” (!!!) or typically uses a lot of toilet paper, consider what the plumbers call “a courtesy flush”.  In other words, flush before using the TP and flush again afterward.  I know, twice the water, but your house plumbing may thank you!

I hope all your projects go well.  Thanks for reading, and happy restoring!

Ed

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