Sometimes, you don’t realise you have a problem until it’s too late. A clogged drain is exactly that; whether it’s in your kitchen or your bathroom, most people don’t know they have a drainage problem until water begins to rise instead of fall in their sink.
Other signs of a clogged sink include a foul smell, gurgling sounds and slow draining. This can be due to a number of substances getting stuck or built up over time, such as food scraps, cooking oil, toiletries, hair and more. Fortunately, a cleaning enthusiast, named Carolina McCauley, took to Instagram to share her natural method to unclog any drains by using just three kitchen items.
Captioning her video, Carolina wrote: “This home tip helps to unclog slow or blocked drains without using harsh chemicals.” To begin, the creator poured one cup of baking soda directly into her drain.
She then added two cups of vinegar to the drain on top of the baking soda. Carolina then placed a microfibre cloth on top of the solution and let it sit for ten minutes.
To finish, she rinsed her sink with hot water. To get rid of any unpleasant odours, the creator then poured one cup of lemon juice in the drain.
After testing out this cleaning hack, one person said: “I didn’t know if this was going to work, but it did a good job of unclogging my sink.” Another agreed and said: “I’ve been using this for years, works great!”
Some criticised this method, with one saying: “Don’t do this on a marble sink. The vinegar will damage it.” A fourth added: ” You gotta choose one or the other, the frizzing foam is the two chemicals cancelling each other out.”
However, experts at Precise Plumbing backed this method and said: “You can use some natural cleaners to create a fizzing effect that breaks drain blockages apart. Try pouring hot water down the drain, then follow it with one cup of bicarbonate of soda and a cup of vinegar.
“Leave it for ten minutes, then chase it with more hot water. A combination of the hot water and the natural cleaner mixture can break blockages up.”
The plumbing expert also suggests that simply using boiling water can do the trick for smaller jobs. Boiling water can break down blocked drains “caused by grease, conditioner, and some other kinds of toiletries.
“This is because these substances have a low melting point, and the extreme heat helps to break them up. Boil a kettle with water and pour it down the drain to shift the blockage.”