How to properly maintain and clean residential drain-lines.
Ever get frustrated every time you wash your dishes or brush your teeth and the sink keeps filling up and drains slowly? There is a reason why this happens, in fact, there could be multiple reasons. Today, we are going to address one particular reason for slow draining drains. GREASE and GRIME.
Throughout the years, grease and grime stick and harden to the walls of the drain pipes creating “build-up.” This build-up reduces the actual circumference size of your drain line. Which means that the volume of water that usually flows down the drain line has now become minimized resulting in the slow draining process.
A lot of homeowners think: this is an easy fix. They can drive to the nearest hardware store and purchase a $10 bottle of Dran-o and the problem is fixed for a few months. Dra-NO is the worst thing a homeowner can put down a drain (if your home drain plumbing system is made of a metal pipe system). Why? You ask. Dran-o is a chemical reacting agent that has ACID in it to break down and disintegrate the grease and grime. Over time, the acid and the metal pipe create a chemical reaction that overtime will eat a whole through the drain line. So now the quick $10 fix, just turned into a $30,000 nightmare. If you have cast iron, galvanized or other metal drain systems, please be very cautious as to what you use to clean your drain lines.
Grease and Grime Build Up – Kitchen Drain
How should I properly maintain and clean my drain lines?
The best thing that you can do to make sure that your drain lines continue to flow properly is to be careful what you put down the drain. For instance, grease, soup and vegetable peels should be thrown away in the trash. In the bathroom, make sure hair, wipes and other feminine products do not go down the drain. You can also fill up your sinks with hot water and dump down the drain line as often as once a month. This helps to loosen any grease and help it continue to make its way down the line.
Have a licensed plumbing contractor come out and Hydro-jet the main drain line once per year. This will clean out all the grease and grime and flush the system. Drain lines are like a human’s stomach and body; they can only hold so much at one time. And if we put greasy foods in our bodies our arteries become clogged and they have to be cleaned out. Doctors tell us (briefly) if we just eliminate greasy foods, our arteries won’t become clogged. Same goes for the drain system, if we limit the amount of grease and food that goes down the drain and put only hot water and soap then it is less likely to have clogged drains from grease and grime build up and a plus is that the life expectancy of our drain lines will be greater too.
That’s a Wrap!
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