Maintain Your Drain: An Ounce of Prevention

When it comes to plumbing, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. This is especially true for cleaning your drains. Drains throughout your home are in constant daily use, and it is easy to disregard them until they stop functioning properly. There is nothing worse than finding an inch of dirty water in the bottom of your sink or tub and having to call out your expert plumber to fix a thoroughly clogged pipe. Let’s look at some of the ways you can avoid a costly repair with some regular preventive maintenance.

Keep Food and Hair Out

Don’t let hair, coffee grounds, or food particles escape down your drain. Purchase a small screen or mesh strainer to fit your sink and bathtub drains. A drain screen will prevent hair, food, and other potentially clogging particles from collecting in the drain and restricting water flow. Coffee grounds can be especially harmful, as they will collect in the drain and expand. Sometimes the entire pipe must be removed to get rid of all the grounds. Better to dispose of them separately in your garbage can.

No Oil or Grease

Avoid pouring your cooking grease or other oils down the drain; this includes bacon grease and styling agents that use coconut oil! The oil or grease will harden and coat your pipes in a sticky goo that will collect anything that goes through the pipes, creating blockages that are nearly impossible to eliminate without help from a professional plumber. To properly dispose of grease and oil products, allow them to cool in a separate container, and throw them in the garbage.

Hot Water is Your Friend

After using your kitchen and bathroom sinks and your bathtub, be sure to run hot water to clear anything remaining in the pipes. To keep your drains flowing smoothly, pour a kettle of boiling water down your drains weekly to clear out any residual oil or debris that may cling to the pipes during regular use.

Maintain Your Garbage Disposal

Keep your garbage disposal free of food particles by using plenty of water when using it to break down food in your drain. In order to keep your disposal good working order, try freezing vinegar in ice cubes and running them through the disposal. The frozen vinegar cubes will solidify any oils or grease that may collect, allowing the ice to scrape the blades of your disposal clean. Vinegar will also double as a cleanser, leaving your disposal clean and disinfected.

Call an Expert Plumber

Is it a little too late? Need to clean out a clogged drain before starting on your new drain maintenance routine? Contact our expert plumbers for assistance. We will clear your drains, pipes, and have your plumbing back to normal in no time!