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00:00That little brown bottle of hydrogen peroxide in your medicine cabinet, the dollar one you
00:05thought was only for a scraped knee, is one of the best things you can keep for your drains
00:10and your pipes, for it does the quiet routine work that keeps a home's plumbing fresh and
00:16running that folk pay a plumber a small fortune for over the years.
00:20Most of what a plumber charges for the small, everyday troubles—the slow drain, the smelly
00:26disposal, the musty washer—is the kind of plain maintenance you can do yourself with
00:31that cheap bottle.
00:32So today I am going to show you how peroxide keeps your drains and pipes clean and sweet
00:37and flowing, and I will be honest with you, as I always am, about the two or three places
00:43folk misuse it and the plain safety it wants.
00:46Let me show you.
00:47Here is the thing to understand first, for it tells you exactly what peroxide is good for
00:52in a drain and what it is not.
00:54Hydrogen peroxide is near cousin to plain water, water with a bit of extra oxygen, and
01:01when it touches the slime and the germs and the mold in a drain, that extra oxygen breaks
01:06loose in a fizz and kills the bacteria and breaks down the slimy gunk, and then in minutes
01:12it is spent and gone, broken down to plain water and air, leaving nothing harsh behind in your
01:17pipes.
01:18So here is the key.
01:20Peroxide is a genuine disinfectant and slime breaker, and that is its whole gift in a drain,
01:25killing the slimy bacterial film, the biofilm, that coats the inside of pipes and causes
01:31the slow flow and the bad smell.
01:33But mark this well, for I will come back to it.
01:36Being a disinfectant and a mild bleach, peroxide kills germs and slime, but it does not dissolve
01:43mineral, the hard water scale and the rust.
01:45That is an acid's work, not peroxide's.
01:49Slime and germs, yes.
01:51Mineral scale, no.
01:52Hold that straight and you will use it rightly.
01:55Now let me give you the drain uses, one by one.
01:58Quick word before we go further.
01:59My name is Esther Yoder, and the old household ways handed down to me, the kind I am sharing
02:05today and a great many more besides, are 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
02:21me lives, all in the one place.
02:24Now to the drains.
02:25My grandmother had a saying that fits the keeping of pipes exactly, that a little tending
02:31often saves a great mending seldom.
02:33She meant that the small, regular care done faithfully heads off the big, costly trouble
02:38before it ever comes, so the wise woman tends a thing little and often rather than waiting
02:44for it to break and calling for expensive help.
02:46And your drains are the very picture of it, for the slow drain and the smelly pipe and
02:51the musty washer all come from slime and build up that a little regular peroxide keeps back,
02:57so that you never reach the clog and the stink and the repair bill.
03:01So here is her kind of little and often tending given to your drains.
03:04The first use is clearing and preventing a slow drain.
03:08When a sink drains slow, before it is a true clog, the cause is most often that biofilm,
03:14the slimy mix of soap scum and grease and hair and bacteria coating the inside of the
03:20pipe, narrowing it and slowing the flow.
03:23And peroxide goes right at that slime.
03:25So pour about a cup of the plain 3% peroxide down the slow drain and let it sit half
03:31an hour,
03:31water, and you will hear it fizzing as it kills the bacteria and breaks down that slimy buildup.
03:37And then flush it through with hot water a good half minute.
03:40Do this once a month as a habit and the slime never builds up to slow or clog your drain.
03:46And you keep your pipes clear without a harsh drain chemical, which I will note are genuinely
03:51dangerous caustic things that burn and eat at your pipe joints over time.
03:55The peroxide is gentle by compare and harms nothing.
03:58Little and often and the drain stays clear.
04:01The second use is sweetening a smelly garbage disposal or drain, for those of you with the
04:07disposals.
04:08That sour, rotten smell rising from the sink is not the machine itself.
04:13It is slimy bacteria coating the rubber splash guard and the housing and the chamber, and
04:18peroxide kills it.
04:20Pour about half a cup of peroxide down into the disposal and let it sit 10 minutes without
04:25running any water, and you will see it foam as it works through the slime, and then run
04:30the hot water and the disposal a half minute to rinse.
04:33The smell is gone, for the slime that caused it is killed, not just covered over, and it
04:39stays sweet far longer than the store disposal cleaners that only mask it a day or two.
04:44A clean smelling sink for pennies.
04:47The third use is the shower or tub drain slowed by hair, and here I keep the method, but tell
04:54you honestly its reach.
04:56When a shower drains slow, it is most often a mat of hair bound together with soap scum
05:02and slimy conditioner residue caught in the trap.
05:05For a drain that is starting to slow, you can use the fizzing pair.
05:09Pour a cup of baking soda down the drain, then a cup of peroxide right after, and the fizzing
05:16reaction helps break down the slimy film that binds the hair and loosen it.
05:20And after 15 minutes, you flush it hard with the hottest tap water a full minute.
05:26Now here is the honest word.
05:28This works well to break up a starting, slimy, hair-slow drain, and to keep one clear.
05:34But for a bad, solid, packed mat of hair truly jamming the trap, the fizz will not shift
05:41it, and that wants pulling out, with one of those cheap little barbed drain tools you
05:46push down and pull the hair mat out with, or the trap opened and cleared by hand, as I have
05:52shown you.
05:53So the peroxide and soda for the starting slowness and the prevention, and the hair-pulling tool,
05:59or the opened trap, for a solid mat.
06:02Right tool for how bad it is.
06:04The fourth use is a fine bit of true plumbing knowledge most folk never learn, killing the
06:11sewer smell from a floor drain or a rarely used sink.
06:15If you smell a foul sewer gas from a basement drain, a laundry drain, or a sink you scarcely
06:22ever use, here is very likely the cause, and it is a clever thing to understand.
06:28Every drain has a curved bit of pipe below it, the trap, that is meant to hold a little water
06:34sitting in the curve, and that sitting water is a seal, a plug, that blocks the sewer gas
06:40below from rising up into your house.
06:44But in a drain you rarely use, that water in the trap slowly evaporates away, and once
06:50it is gone, the seal is broken, and the sewer gas comes straight up, and there is your smell.
06:56And often there is old biofilm in the unused pipe, adding its own foulness.
07:01So the cure is two things at once.
07:05Pour a cup of peroxide down the drain to kill the slimy bacteria fouling the pipe, and then
07:11follow it with enough water to refill that trap, to put the water seal back in the curve.
07:17The peroxide sweetens the pipe, and the water reseals the trap, and the sewer smell is gone
07:23in minutes.
07:24And the lesson?
07:25Pour a little water down any drain you have not used in a couple of weeks, just to keep
07:30its trap sealed.
07:32That is real understanding of how a house works, worth the knowing.
07:36And the fifth use, the mold in your machines, for those of you with the front-loading washer
07:42and the dishwasher.
07:43That black, slimy, musty ring around the rubber door seal of a front-loading washer is mold,
07:49growing in the damp folds, and it taints every load with its musty smell.
07:55Peroxide kills it.
07:57Wet a clean rag with peroxide, half peroxide and half warm water, and wipe down that whole
08:03rubber seal, getting deep into the folds where the mold hides.
08:07And then run an empty hot cycle with a cup of peroxide poured in.
08:12The mold is killed and the musty smell with it, and done monthly, it stays back.
08:16And the dishwasher the same, if it smells musty.
08:20A couple of cups of peroxide in the bottom of the empty machine run a hot cycle, and it
08:26disinfects and freshens the seals and the works.
08:28But here is the honest note, tied to what I told you of the toilet and the shower glass.
08:34Peroxide kills the mold and the slime.
08:37But a chalky mineral film from hard water is scale.
08:40And scale wants vinegar to dissolve it, not peroxide.
08:44Peroxide for the mold and the musty, vinegar for the chalky mineral film.
08:50Now here is the honest correction I owe you, the important one.
08:54For there is a claim about peroxide and the toilet going round that is simply not so, and
09:00I have told you the truth of it before.
09:02You will hear that peroxide will dissolve and remove the brown or orange ring inside a toilet
09:07bowl, the rusty ring that no scrubbing shifts.
09:11It will not, and here is why.
09:13And it is the very thing I said down at the start.
09:16That brown ring is not slime nor germs which peroxide could handle.
09:21It is mineral, iron and manganese and hard water scale, stained and built up.
09:28And peroxide, being a disinfectant and not an acid, does not dissolve mineral.
09:33So do not look to peroxide to lift that ring, for you will be disappointed.
09:38What lifts a mineral ring is an acid, your plain vinegar, to dissolve it, soaked on the
09:44ring or the gentle grind of a wet pumice stone, kept wet so it does not scratch, both of which
09:51I have shown you.
09:53Peroxide will freshen and disinfect the bowl, and that is real and good.
09:57But for the mineral ring, reach for the vinegar or the pumice.
10:01I would rather tell you the true thing than let you soak your bowl in peroxide, waiting
10:07on a ring that will not budge.
10:09And one more honest caution.
10:11A place you must not use peroxide, for it could cost you dearly.
10:16Do not pour peroxide into a septic system.
10:19If your house runs on a septic tank, understand that the tank works by means of living bacteria
10:26that break down the waste.
10:28The whole thing depends on those good bacteria being alive and thriving.
10:33And peroxide is a disinfectant.
10:35It kills bacteria.
10:37So pouring peroxide into a septic system, regularly and in quantity, can harm and kill the very bacteria
10:45the tank needs to function, and foul up the whole works, which is a very costly trouble
10:50to mend.
10:51So for those on a septic tank, keep the peroxide to the surface jobs, the disposal and the machine
10:58seals wiped by hand, and do not go pouring it down into the system.
11:03That is an honest word that could save you a great expense.
11:06And now the plane's safety.
11:08For peroxide, gentle as it is, has its rules.
11:11Use only the ordinary 3% peroxide, the plain brown bottle kind.
11:17The strong 35% stuff burns skin and is dangerous, and is not for household use.
11:24Never mix peroxide with vinegar shut up together in the same closed bottle, for the two combined
11:30make a harsh corrosive acid.
11:33You may use one and then the other on the same drain and turn, rinsing between, but never
11:38store them mixed in one container.
11:40And never mix peroxide with bleach, for that is a dangerous reaction.
11:45Keep your peroxide in a cool dark place, for heat and light spoil it, and if it does not
11:51fizz when you pour it, it has gone flat and wants replacing.
11:55And for a true plumbing emergency, a burst pipe, a real sewer backup, bad pipe damage,
12:02call a licensed plumber.
12:04For these little tricks are for the small routine keeping, not for a real emergency.
12:09Keep those, and your peroxide serves your drains safely.
12:13Now think a moment about why we came to call and pay a plumber for the small routine troubles,
12:18the slow drain and the smelly disposal and the musty washer, when a cheap bottle of peroxide
12:24does that plain maintenance ourselves.
12:27It is worse than a plot, for no one had to arrange it.
12:30No plumber sat down and schemed to hide it.
12:33It is only that there is a steady living in the service calls for the small preventable troubles,
12:38and no living at all in teaching folk that a dollar bottle and a little regular tending
12:44keeps the drains clear.
12:45So the plain old knowing, that you tend your pipes little and often and spare yourself
12:51the mending, just quietly stopped being handed down, because no one profits by your keeping
12:57your own drains.
12:58My grandmother's rule was, a little tending often saves a great mending seldom.
13:03And somewhere between her day and ours, we were taught to neglect the pipes and then pay
13:09to fix them.
13:10The mending of it is a cheap bottle and a little regular care.
13:14You pour peroxide down a slow drain monthly to kill the slime and keep it flowing.
13:20You sweeten your disposal and your machine seals with it, killing the mold and the musty.
13:26You refill a dry trap with water and peroxide to kill a sewer smell.
13:31You use the peroxide and soda fizz for a starting hair slow drain and a hair tool for a solid
13:38mat.
13:39And you do not look to it to dissolve a mineral ring, which wants vinegar, nor pour it into a
13:45septic tank,
13:46which it would harm.
13:48And you keep only the 3% apart from bleach and vinegar.
13:52And your drains stay clear and sweet and flowing for pennies.
13:57That is how it comes home.
13:59One tended drain, one cheap bottle at a time.
14:03The keeping of your own house back in your own hands.
14:08So here is what I would ask of you.
14:10This week, take that dollar bottle of peroxide and give one slow or smelly drain the treatment I showed you.
14:19And start the monthly habit of it.
14:21And then come back and tell me in the comments how it cleared and freshened and how it holds.
14:27For I do love to hear of a plumber's bill headed off by a little tending.
14:33And tell me, too, while you are there, your county and the age of your house.
14:39For the old houses have the old pipes and the different water.
14:43And the troubles run so different.
14:45And I learn from every one of you how the plumbing goes where you live.
14:50And if your own mother or grandmother had a way of keeping the drains and pipes sweet that I have
14:57not named here,
14:58tell me that most of all.
15:00For that is how this goes.
15:02We share what we were given.
15:04I read every comment and I learn from you the way the old women learn from one another across the
15:11fence line.
15:12One house and one season at a time.
15:15Next time I will show you the plain old ways of keeping your whole plumbing running without a plumber's help.
15:22The little fixes and the regular tending that keep the water flowing and the drains clear and the pipes sound.
15:29For there is a great deal in a house's plumbing that wants only understanding and a little care rather than
15:36an expensive hand.
15:38There is a right and an old way to keep a home's pipes that runs on little and often tending
15:44rather than a service call and a fright.
15:47But this week you start with the drains.
15:50You pour your peroxide down the slow one to kill the slime.
15:54You sweeten your disposal and your machine seals.
15:58You refill a dry trap to kill the sewer smell.
16:01And you keep it to the jobs it truly does and off the mineral ring and out of the septic
16:07tank.
16:08And you will understand, as my grandmother did, that a little tending often saves a great mending seldom.
16:15That a cheap bottle of peroxide does the plain routine keeping of your drains that the plumber charges dear for.
16:23And that the small troubles that drain your purse over the years were only ever slime and buildup that a
16:30little regular care keeps back.
16:32The household kept the plain old way is the one that remembers how the old folk tended their pipes little
16:39and often and spared themselves the mending.
16:43And that is a thing we are only just starting to remember.
16:46As you can see here we are going to leave our house more often.
16:46We'll see you in the next section.
16:46For more information, visit www.fema.gov
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