If you experience a clog in your sink, you’ll probably reach for a plunger to remove it. This is fine, since plungers aren’t damaging to your drains. However, a plunger isn’t a way to clean a drain. It may remove a clog, but it doesn’t get to the root of what caused the clog in the first place, namely the buildup along the interior of the drain pipe.
If you want to have your drains fully cleaned, or if you have clogging that a plunger won’t solve, you need to have professionals perform the job.
Why can’t I use a drain snake? Or a liquid drain cleaners?
Like plungers, drain snakes are tools that can temporarily eliminate a clog, usually by drilling through the center of it or breaking it up. But this still leaves the issues of all the debris that coats the inside of the drain pipe.
As for liquid “drain cleaners,” these are potentially extremely harmful for your drains and should never be used. The highly acidic chemicals in these concoctions will damage the inside of drains, and they also create toxic fumes that are harmful for your household and pets. On top of all this, they will still leave behind large clumps of material that will make it easy for clogging to restart.
Professionals have the tools for the job
Plumbers have access to special drain cleaning equipment and the training to correctly handle it. Two tools that plumbers use to clean drains are motorized drain augers (essentially very powerful drain snakes) and hydro-jetters (which scour the inside of pipes with blasts of high-pressure water). When you leave the drain cleaning to skilled plumbers, you’ll not only have clogs removed, but you’ll have comprehensive cleaning throughout the drainpipes… and that means fewer clogs and slow drains in the future.
Ken Neyer Plumbing, Inc. offers drain cleaning services in Cincinnati, OH and the surrounding areas.