Say goodbye to annoying clogs with simple baking soda and vinegar
Whether you’ve exhausted your options by pressing away at your garbage disposal or you’ve tried other declogging hacks, clogs are perhaps the most frustrating part of using a sink. Fortunately, you may have the recipe for success hiding away in your kitchen cabinets. Let’s tackle the problem once and for all by learning how to unclog a sink with baking soda and vinegar.
If your drain is clogged but drains slowly, make sure the sink is empty before you start. However, if you have standing water in your sink, you can use a small plunger to help drain the water before you try the baking soda method. Keep reading to find out how to unclog a sink with baking soda and vinegar.
Boil a pot of water and let it cool down a little. Next, pour a squirt or two of dish soap down the drain. For the best results, use a degreaser dish soap. Then, pour the pot of hot water into the drain.
Note that pouring boiling water into your PVC pipes can cause damage. Ensure the water is 140 degrees Fahrenheit or cooler to keep your PVC pipes in good shape.
Get 1 cup of baking soda and put it in the drain. You may need to use a funnel if the drain is small. After the baking soda, pour 1 cup of distilled white vinegar into the drain. Immediately after, close the drain with a drain stopper. The baking soda and vinegar will chemically react to help break down your clog. Wait about 10 minutes or so before moving on to the next step.
Get another pot of boiling water, and let it cool down so it’s hot, not scalding. Then, pour it down the drain.
If your garbage disposal is clogged, you'll also want to know how to unclog a garbage disposal. While you're pouring the hot water down the drain, flip the switch on for the garbage disposal to encourage any gunk or debris to wiggle its way free.
Try using salt if your sink is still clogged after steps one through three. This option is similar to using baking soda and vinegar, except this time pour 1 cup of baking soda and then 1/2 cup of salt into the drain. Let it sit overnight. In the morning, flush the drain with 2 cups of scalding hot water.
Baking soda and vinegar are an effective way to get rid of clogs, but this powerful duo isn’t always recommended. Let’s look at the advantages and disadvantages of using baking soda and vinegar to unclog sinks.
There are several pros to choosing a baking soda and vinegar drain cleaner when your sink won’t drain. Here are the biggest benefits.
Environmentally friendly: Baking soda and vinegar don't contain harsh abrasives that can pose threats to the environment. These ingredients are naturally derived rather than synthetically derived and non-toxic.
Gentle on drains: Since these two ingredients have a gentler composition than synthetic drain cleaners, they’re also less likely to harm your drain.
Affordable: Vinegar and baking soda are much less expensive than standard drain cleaners. You could spend less than $5 on vinegar and baking soda and still have leftovers for cooking, cleaning, or future clogs. Meanwhile, drain cleaners can cost anywhere from $10 to $25.
Ingredient availability: Going to the store to get drain cleaner can be a minor—albeit inconvenient—outing. If you already have baking soda and vinegar at home, this can save you a trip.
Baking soda and vinegar can work in a pinch when you’ve run out of other solutions or want a safe alternative to more powerful drain cleaners. At the same time, these ingredients come with several cons worth keeping in mind.
Might not work: Though vinegar and baking soda can break through small clogs, this cleaning solution is probably no match for serious clogs. You’ll need a more powerful drain-cleaning solution in this case.
Ingredients can damage some pipes: Baking soda and vinegar have chemical properties that can ultimately damage your pipes. Vinegar is highly acidic, which can break down the composition of copper and brass pipes in particular. When baking soda and vinegar combine, they produce carbon dioxide. The buildup of this gas can put enough pressure on old, weak pipes to cause them to crack.
Messy: You might have cleared the clog, but the aftermath of having to get rid of baking soda can be just as frustrating as a pesky clog. Add vinegar, and you have a foamy science experiment akin to a volcanic eruption.
A clogged sink can happen for many reasons. Knowing the source of your sink woes can help prevent you from having to clean your sink again in a short time. Check out the following causes of kitchen sink clogs:
Hair blocked the sink from draining
Soap and toothpaste debris started to build up
You poured fat or oil down the drain (you should never pour oils down drains)
Food scraps accumulated
Your sink doesn’t have a stopper for food particles, and you don’t have a garbage disposal
Mineral deposits from hard water created scum
Get a professional drain cleaning at least once a year and supplement that with weekly and monthly DIY maintenance. You can hire a drain cleaner near you to get the job done.
Pros use tools like high-pressure water jets to thoroughly clean soap and grease buildup from your drains. By keeping your drains clean, you can avoid costly repairs due to unexpected leaks and damage to your piping.
To help keep your drains in good shape between professional cleanings, flush them with hot water every week to break down buildup. Use a hair removal tool to clean out your bathroom and shower drains every month. Additionally, clean your drains with 1 cup of baking soda and white vinegar every month (as described above) as a preventative measure.
Now that you know what’s causing your sink drain to clog, it’s time to enact some preventive measures to ensure it doesn’t happen again. Here are some tips on how to clean a sink drain and keep it flowing:
Avoid pouring grease, oil, or fat down the drain. These greasy substances will build up in your pipes and create a massive clog that can be hard to remove. Instead, pour all cooking oils into a container and toss them in the trash once it’s full. Use paper towels to blot away excess grease after draining it off pans, plates, and bowls.
Don’t let food get into the drain. Food particles can quickly turn into clogs. Toss scraps into the trash—or better yet, a compost bin—to keep food out of the sink. You can also put a mesh drain strainer in your sink to catch any sneaky food particles you missed.
Know what can and can’t go into a garbage disposal. Garbage disposals aren’t dumpsters and what you put in them can make or break your kitchen sink’s drainage. Avoid putting eggshells, starches, fibers, meat, and coffee grounds down your garbage disposal.
Finish up with a good wash down. After using a sink, crank on the hot water to clear out remaining food particles, soap, toothpaste, and debris so clogs never have a chance to form.
Practice routine maintenance. Pouring very hot water down your sink once or twice a week can also do wonders for preventing clogs.
While you can clear most clogs on your own, some clogs may be too dense. If you’ve tried everything you can and haven’t found a solution, call a local sink repair pro who can diagnose the issue and propose solutions.
A pro can take steps to remove clogs that could cause flooding and other structural damage to your home. They have the tools to remove a sink drain if need be and handle other common plumbing problems and solutions as they arise.
When you put baking soda and vinegar down the drain, they chemically react and help break down clogs. It’s not going to work for every type of clog, however. For example, it’s not the best way to get rid of grease buildup. For grease, you should try boiling water and white vinegar instead.
Once you’ve poured the baking soda and vinegar into a drain, you should wait about 10 minutes for the mixture to break down the clog. If you try the baking soda and vinegar method and it doesn't work, you can do it again or try the baking soda and salt trick.
Depending on the amount of hair you’ve got in the drain, the baking soda and vinegar method can help break it down. If that doesn’t work, you can try using a drain snake. If you don’t have a snake handy, you can straighten out a wire hanger and use pliers to fish out the clog.
