Hello,

First time poster - formerly just a lurker that has found helpful advice on these forums.

My double kitchen sink started filling up with water last night. It eventually drained, but very slowly. We poured about a 1/3 of a bottle of leftover Drano Gel in it before we went to bed, hoping that would help. Wrong. In the morning, we ran the water and both sinks filled up and it drained even slower than before. I went to the store and bought Liquid Plumber 'Urgent Clear' (which we had great success with in our bathroom sink last month), and poured that down the drain. The directions stated that it should work in 7 minutes, but it didn't drain AT ALL until about an hour and a half later, at which time it slowly eventually drained.

I did also buy a bottle of Drano Dual-Force Foamer at the store (with the mindset that usually if one doesn't work, another will), so I may try that in the second sink.

One friend recommended buying Drano 'Crystals', another recommended pouring a cup of Dawn Dish Soap, followed by boiling water. Thought I would check here to see if anyone has any suggestions?

I'm really trying to avoid a plumber. Also trying to avoid a snake, as last time we used one of those, it immediately became stuck in the pipe.

Thank you!

 

Welcome to the forums.

First, my concern would be all the chemicals you've poured down the drain so far as my thought would be to remove the trap and see what you find in it but right now I'd be worried I'd suffer a chemical burn in the process so I'd try to move some water through there first. Then, put a bucket under the trap when you remove it, it will have water in it.

 

Rubber gloves would be a good idea as well when removing the trap. That should help keep the chemicals off your hands.

 

I would use playtex sleeved gloves and eye protection. Remove the trap and clean it. 90% of kitchen sink clogs are in the trap. If it's not the trap, gete a snake to clear the drain. I'm not sure why a snake would get stuck in a drain line unless the snake was kinked.

All those chemicals can add up to a nasty concoction especially for an unsuspecting plumber opening the trap. Just based on all the posts I've read here from homeowners I would guess that chemical drain openers have a very low success rate.

 

I usually find boiling hot water, a good quart of it at least, usually does as good of job as any of those chemical plumbers do. I noticed that one of the brands, drano I think, supplies a plastic snake with their liquid product. In my opinion, they should just supply the snake and keep their liquid product.

 

You would need to get a good plunger then fill both sinks with water. Then plunge away. Use eye and hand protection and long sleeve shirt.

Ideally you would want to tape the vent for the sink on the roof, but that can be a safety issue. This allows max suction when plunging.

 

Yes, the ultimate plumbers tool ... the plunger. Since kitchen clogs can have a lot of grease in the traps from pots being cleaned, etc., it wouldn't hurt to use all hot water in the sink, let it heat up any clog (5 minutes would be great if it doesn't drain out) that might be there and then hit it hard with the plunger