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Got a kitchen sink that just won’t drain? Before spending money on a plumber, try these simple ways to tackle a common clog. 🚰
In this video, we show you a **fast and inexpensive method for unclogging a kitchen sink drain** using basic tools and household techniques. You’ll learn how to deal with common grease, food, and debris buildup and get your sink flowing properly again.
We’ll also cover mistakes to avoid so you don’t accidentally make the blockage worse or damage your plumbing.
If the clog is persistent, keeps returning, or involves multiple drains, it may be time to call a professional plumber.
#CleaningHacks #KitchenHacks #CloggedDrain #HomeMaintenance #PlumbingTips #CleaningTips
Got a kitchen sink that just won’t drain? Before spending money on a plumber, try these simple ways to tackle a common clog. 🚰
In this video, we show you a **fast and inexpensive method for unclogging a kitchen sink drain** using basic tools and household techniques. You’ll learn how to deal with common grease, food, and debris buildup and get your sink flowing properly again.
We’ll also cover mistakes to avoid so you don’t accidentally make the blockage worse or damage your plumbing.
If the clog is persistent, keeps returning, or involves multiple drains, it may be time to call a professional plumber.
#CleaningHacks #KitchenHacks #CloggedDrain #HomeMaintenance #PlumbingTips #CleaningTips
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00There is a small dismay every cook knows.
00:02You are in the middle of the washing up, hands deep in the dishwater,
00:06and you notice the water is not going down.
00:10It sits there in the sink, gray and greasy, creeping up instead of draining away,
00:16and your heart sinks with the opposite of it, for you know the drain has clogged,
00:21and you think of the plumber's bill or the harsh burning bottle of drain cleaner,
00:26and the whole evening seems spoiled.
00:30Well, put that dread away, for I am going to show you how to clear a clogged kitchen drain
00:35with two of the plainest things in your house, hot water and salt,
00:40no plumber and no harsh chemical at all,
00:43and how to know the few times it wants a little more.
00:46Let me show you.
00:48Here is the thing to understand first,
00:50for it tells you exactly what you are fighting and how to beat it.
00:54A kitchen drain clogs, near always, for one plain reason, grease.
01:00When you rinse the fat and the grease from your pans and your plates down the drain,
01:05it goes down warm and liquid and seems harmless,
01:08but down in the cool of the pipe, it cools and hardens and congeals,
01:14coating the inside of the pipe and building up,
01:16and it catches the bits of food and peel that go down after and holds them fast,
01:22and layer by layer, it narrows the pipe until the water can no longer get past,
01:27and there is your clog.
01:29So the enemy is congealed grease, and once you know that, the cure is plain as day.
01:36You melt it.
01:37Grease that hardened when it cooled will soften and flow again when you heat it,
01:42and that is the whole secret of clearing a greasy drain,
01:45to warm that fat back to liquid and flush it on through.
01:50Hot water melts it, and the salt helps scour it along.
01:54Now, let me give you the way of it, step by step.
01:58Quick word before we go further.
02:00My name is Esther Yoder, and the old household ways handed down to me,
02:04the kind I am sharing today, and a great many more besides,
02:08are far more than I could ever fit into one video.
02:11I have gathered the whole of them into a book, and you will find it at EliasYoder.com.
02:17If today's tips serve you, that is where the rest of what my mother and grandmother taught me lives,
02:23all in the one place.
02:25Now, to the drain.
02:27My grandmother never once, that I saw, called a man in to unstop a drain,
02:32nor kept a bottle of that harsh burning drain cleaner in the house,
02:35for she said, and rightly, that anything strong enough to eat through a clog in your pipe
02:40is strong enough to eat through your skin and your lungs,
02:43and she wanted no such thing under her sink where the children could reach it.
02:48She had her hot water and her salt and her own two hands,
02:52and with those she kept every drain in the house running,
02:55and never a bill nor a burn for it.
02:58So here is her way, the plain and gentle and cheap one,
03:02and it clears the most of clogs.
03:04Now, before the salt and the water,
03:06a first plain step if your sink is standing full of water.
03:10Bail out what you can.
03:11Dip out the standing water with a cup or a jug,
03:14down to as little as you can get it,
03:16so that your hot water and salt go down onto the clog itself,
03:20and are not all spent diluting a sink full of cold, grey water first.
03:25Get the sink as empty as you can,
03:27and now you are ready to work on the clog direct.
03:29The first way, the salt and hot water, goes like this.
03:33You take a good half cup of plain salt,
03:36and you pour it straight down the drain into the mouth of it,
03:39and let it settle down in.
03:40The salt is your gentle scour.
03:43Its rough grittiness helps scrape and move the softened grease along the pipe
03:47once the hot water loosens it.
03:50Then, you put a good big pot of water onto heat,
03:53a couple of quarts, two liters or so, a proper potful.
03:57And here is a small care I always give.
04:00So heat it.
04:01You want the water good and hot,
04:04but take it off the heat,
04:06just as it comes to the boil and the first bubbles rise,
04:09and use it hot rather than at a hard, violent, rolling boil.
04:15For on some older pipe,
04:16and on the plastic pipe many kitchens have now,
04:20a hard, rolling boil poured straight down can be a bit harsh,
04:24and hot water does the melting just as well without the worry.
04:29So hot, just off the boil, and carefully.
04:59Now you pour that hot water down the drain,
05:03you pour the water into the water.
05:04You pour the water into the water, and the salt scours it,
05:06and the whole greasy plug that was stopping your pipe softens and loosens and washes on down and away.
05:14You will often feel or hear the water begin to run free again as it clears.
05:19And once all your potful has gone down,
05:22run some more hot water from the tap a good while after,
05:26to flush the last of the loosened grease well on through and clear of the pipe.
05:32The hot melts it, the salt scours it, the flush carries it away.
05:37Now, the second whey is much the same,
05:39but uses dish soap in the place of the salt, or along with it,
05:44and it is a fine choice,
05:45for soap is a grease cutter by its very nature,
05:48and goes at the melted fat directly.
05:51You heat your potful of water the same way, just off the boil,
05:56and into it you stir a few good spoonfuls of plain dish soap, mixing it through.
06:01Then you pour that hot, soapy water down the drain slowly,
06:05just as before.
06:07And now the hot water melts the grease,
06:10and the soap dissolves and breaks it up as it melts,
06:13a double action on the fat,
06:15and it washes the clog on through and leaves the pipe clean.
06:19This soapy whey is especially good for a heavy grease clog,
06:23for the soap goes right at the fat.
06:25And you can use both together if you like,
06:28the salt down first for its scour,
06:31and then the hot soapy water after.
06:33And between them, they clear a greasy drain wonderfully.
06:37Now here is the honest word I always owe you,
06:40so you know the true reach of this,
06:43and use the right tool for your trouble.
06:45This hot water whey, salt or soap,
06:49is made for a grease clog,
06:50and a grease clog is the most of them.
06:53So for a slow or a stopped drain,
06:56it is the first thing to try,
06:57and it clears most.
06:59But not every clog is grease.
07:02Sometimes the pipe is stopped not with soft grease,
07:05but with a solid wad of food,
07:07a plug of peelings or scraps,
07:09or a bone or the like,
07:11caught where the pipe curves,
07:13and hot water will melt no such thing,
07:15for it is not grease and will not melt.
07:18So if you pour your hot water and it does not clear,
07:22do not just keep pouring pot after pot in vain.
07:24The trouble is a solid blockage,
07:27and it wants a different tool.
07:29For a solid blockage,
07:31you have a few honest choices,
07:33gentlest first.
07:34The first is the plunger.
07:36The plain rubber plunger,
07:38worked firmly up and down over the drain,
07:41with a bit of water in the sink to seal it,
07:43which pushes and pulls at the blockage,
07:46and often breaks it loose and moves it on through.
07:49The second, if the plunger will not shift it,
07:51is the drain snake,
07:53one of those long, flexible coils
07:56you feed down into the pipe
07:57to reach the blockage and hook it
08:00or break it up and pull it out,
08:02which I have shown you for the toilet
08:04and which works for the sink the same.
08:06And the third, for a blockage down in the curve of the pipe
08:10right under the sink,
08:11is to open the trap.
08:13That curved bit of pipe under your sink,
08:15the U-bend,
08:16is where things lodge,
08:18and it comes apart.
08:19You set a bucket under it to catch the water,
08:22unscrew the two nuts that hold that curved section,
08:25take it down,
08:26and clear out by hand whatever is plugging it,
08:29then screw it back.
08:30That U-bend was made to come apart for just this reason,
08:34and clearing it by hand
08:36is often the surest cure of all
08:38for a stubborn food clog.
08:41So, hot water for the grease,
08:43and the plunger, or the snake,
08:45or the opened trap for a solid blockage.
08:48Match the tool to the trouble.
08:51And the honest last word,
08:54the same I always give.
08:56If you have tried the hot water and the plunger
08:59and cleared the trap,
09:00and the drain is still truly and badly stopped,
09:04then that is the time to call someone who knows the work.
09:08For a blockage deep down the main pipes,
09:11beyond the trap,
09:12is past what a home remedy reaches,
09:15and there is no shame in it.
09:17Know the difference between the clog you can clear,
09:20which is most of them,
09:21and the deep one that wants a professional,
09:24which is rare,
09:25and you will handle your drains wisely,
09:28and only call for help
09:29the once in a great while
09:31it is truly needed.
09:33And a plain rule of safety as ever.
09:37Whatever you do,
09:39never pour bleach down the drain
09:41along with vinegar or after it,
09:43nor mix the harsh cleaners,
09:46for such things together can make a poison gas.
09:49And this is the very reason
09:51I lean on the plain hot water
09:54and salt and soap in the first place.
09:56For the harsh store drain cleaners,
09:59the ones that eat through a clog,
10:02are hard and dangerous stuff,
10:04burning to the skin and the eyes and the breath,
10:07and no good thing to keep under a sink
10:09where a child might reach,
10:11and you simply do not need them.
10:14Hot water and salt and soap
10:16clear the most of clogs
10:18with never a burn nor a fume,
10:20so keep to those and be safe.
10:23Now think a moment
10:25about why we came to reach
10:27for a harsh burning bottle
10:28or a costly plumber
10:30the moment a sink backs up,
10:32when a pot of hot water
10:34and a handful of salt
10:35would clear it for nothing.
10:37It is worse than a plot,
10:39for no one had to arrange it.
10:42There is a great fortune
10:44in selling harsh drain cleaners
10:46and in the plumber's call,
10:47and none at all
10:49in teaching you
10:50that grease melts with heat
10:51and washes away with salt
10:53and soap for pennies.
10:55So the old plain knowing
10:57that a clogged drain
10:59is mostly just grease,
11:00and grease is mostly just melted
11:03and flushed,
11:04which every grandmother had by heart,
11:06just stopped being handed down,
11:09because no one profits
11:10by your clearing your own drain
11:12with what is already in your kitchen.
11:14My grandmother never bought
11:16a drain cleaner
11:17nor called a man
11:19for a clog in her life,
11:20and somewhere between
11:21her day and ours,
11:23we were taught
11:24that a backed-up sink
11:25means a bottle or a bill.
11:28The mending of it
11:29is a pot of hot water
11:30and a handful of salt.
11:32You bail out the standing water.
11:34You pour in your salt,
11:35and then your hot water,
11:37slow and careful,
11:38or your hot, soapy water,
11:40and you melt and scour
11:42and flush the greasy clog away.
11:44And if it is a solid blockage instead,
11:47you reach for the plunger,
11:48or the snake,
11:49or you open the trap
11:51and clear it by hand.
11:52And only for the rare, deep, bad one
11:55do you call for help.
11:57And you clear your own drain
11:58for the cost of almost nothing,
12:00with never a harsh fume
12:02nor a burn nor a bill.
12:05That is how it comes home.
12:07One pot of hot water,
12:08one clear drain at a time.
12:11The keeping of your own house
12:12back in your own hands.
12:14So here is what I would ask of you.
12:16Next time your sink backs up,
12:18or even now if it runs slow,
12:21try the hot water and salt
12:22the way I showed you
12:23before you reach for anything harsher.
12:26And then come back
12:27and tell me in the comments
12:28whether it cleared for you
12:29and how,
12:30for I do love to hear
12:32of a plumber's bill
12:33saved by a pot of hot water.
12:35And tell me too,
12:36while you are there,
12:37your county
12:38and the age of your house.
12:40For the old houses
12:41have the old pipes that clog
12:43and want this care the most.
12:45And I learn from every one of you
12:47how the plumbing goes
12:48where you live.
12:49And if your own mother
12:50or grandmother
12:51had a way of clearing a drain
12:53I have not named here,
12:54tell me that most of all.
12:56For that is how this goes.
12:58We share what we were given.
13:00I read every comment,
13:02and I learn from you
13:03the way the old women
13:04learned from one another
13:06across the fence line.
13:07One kitchen
13:08and one season at a time.
13:10Next time I will show you
13:11how to keep that drain
13:12from ever clogging again
13:14in the first place.
13:15The plain regular care
13:17and the good habits
13:18that mean the grease
13:19never builds up
13:20to stop your pipe at all.
13:21For the best clog of all
13:23is the one you never let happen.
13:25There is a right
13:26and an old way
13:27to keep a home's plumbing
13:28that runs on a little foresight
13:30and a few cheap things
13:31rather than a bottle
13:33or a bill.
13:34But this time
13:35you start with clearing
13:36the clog you have.
13:37You bail out the water,
13:39you pour in your salt
13:40and your hot water
13:41slow and careful
13:42or your hot soapy water
13:44and you melt and flush
13:46that greasy plug away
13:47and you reach for the plunger
13:49or the trap
13:50if it is a solid blockage instead.
13:53And you will understand
13:54as my grandmother did
13:55at her own sink
13:56that a clogged drain
13:57is no great mystery
13:58nor cause to call a man
14:00but mostly just cooled grease
14:02waiting to be warmed
14:03and washed away
14:04and that a pot of hot water
14:06and a handful of salt
14:07will do for pennies
14:08and in safety
14:09what the harsh burning bottle promises.
14:12The household kept
14:13the plain old way
14:14is the one that remembers
14:15how the old women
14:16cleared every drain
14:17and kept every pipe running
14:19with hot water,
14:20salt and their own two hands
14:22and that is a thing
14:23we are only just starting
14:25to remember.
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