White vinegar is an acid and it will dissolve (albeit slowly) whatever is clogging the pipe without damaging the pipe itself in most cases.
Baking soda doesn’t do shit except neutralize it; I guess you can “cut” the acidity if you mix a small portion of baking soda to the amount of vinegar you use.
You can also try dish soap or dishwasher rinse aid; those cut surface tension and can allow water to get through which can start moving stuff, but it’s useless if the pipe is filled already.
Your best bet is a drain snake.
They make versions that attach to a drill and auto-feed with a hand trigger, so you can just put it into the pipe and keep it turning (which is the important part). Basically a long metal coil, like a cable, that will drill through whatever fatberg+hair you have stopping things up. Unscrew your P-trap over a bucket to catch any backed up water; or more ideally take off an AAV (air admittance valve, the little hat thing under the sink if you have one) and go straight down until your clog is obliterated and the water drains
I’m a shit plumber though and the hand-cranked version took me hours to get into position. Had to call a real plumber and he got right in there with his big motorized one.
But yeah you’re correct, they both do the same thing; it just works better if you are spinning it while advancing it so that the bulb tip grabs onto the mess instead of just pushing it further down the pipe.
I was fighting potato peels though. Don’t put them in the garbage disposal. Lesson learned, I suppose. Also, fuck garbage disposals.
White vinegar is an acid and it will dissolve (albeit slowly) whatever is clogging the pipe without damaging the pipe itself in most cases. Baking soda doesn’t do shit except neutralize it; I guess you can “cut” the acidity if you mix a small portion of baking soda to the amount of vinegar you use.
You can also try dish soap or dishwasher rinse aid; those cut surface tension and can allow water to get through which can start moving stuff, but it’s useless if the pipe is filled already.
Your best bet is a drain snake. They make versions that attach to a drill and auto-feed with a hand trigger, so you can just put it into the pipe and keep it turning (which is the important part). Basically a long metal coil, like a cable, that will drill through whatever fatberg+hair you have stopping things up. Unscrew your P-trap over a bucket to catch any backed up water; or more ideally take off an AAV (air admittance valve, the little hat thing under the sink if you have one) and go straight down until your clog is obliterated and the water drains
You don’t even need the drill.
You can get a shitty hand snake from Amazon for 20 bucks and that will clear most things.
I’m a shit plumber though and the hand-cranked version took me hours to get into position. Had to call a real plumber and he got right in there with his big motorized one.
But yeah you’re correct, they both do the same thing; it just works better if you are spinning it while advancing it so that the bulb tip grabs onto the mess instead of just pushing it further down the pipe.
I was fighting potato peels though. Don’t put them in the garbage disposal. Lesson learned, I suppose. Also, fuck garbage disposals.
If you have a battery hand drill the snakes that attach to those are worth the extra $30-$40 bucks.
Yeah if you’re stuffing potato peels or coffee…
Usually I’m just dealing with some grease or hair and the hand one has always been enough.