OT: Drain Cleaners

[ARPRINCE]

I have always had problems in my drainage system. I call a drain buster every year ever since we bought the house 2001!!! The problem is always accumulation of cooking oil that formed a hardened thick white substance around the main pipes. We don't throw away old cooking oil in our drainage because of this but it seems that my neighbor (who rents) does but that's another whole story.

Anyway, I used to pour those commercially available drain de-cloggers but I stopped since someone told me that they are not good for maintenance of drain pipes especially if the house was not built brand new. He told me to use those natural drain cleaners, the enzyme type.

So I got this type of a cleaner and have been using it for 4 months as a maintenance as per instructions at the back. Anyway, I wanted to test if this was working at all so I did my experiment just to find out.

I started out using 2 teaspons of the enzyme product, mized with a little warm water and pourde it on a container filled with old cooking oil.

[ARPRINCE]

After 8 hours (See white stuff breaking down the oil)

[ARPRINCE]

After one day.

[ARPRINCE]

After 4 days.

[ARPRINCE]

Well the product does break down the oil. However, i don't have my drain lying idle for 4 days. Also, I only used 2 teaspoons instead of a cup. So it does seem to work but what you need is time for the enzymes to do their job.

I usually pour the product midnight so it has at least 6 hours to do their "maintenance thinggy" on my drainage. I bet this would work wonders if you have a septic tank (mine goes directly to the city drain).

HTH

[flannj]

What product did you use?

[ARPRINCE]

I use this one for my drainage maintenance.

A Natural Alternative to Dangerous Chemical Based Drain Openers

Build-up remover & drain maintainer

• Non-Caustic

• Non-Acid

• Phosphate-Free

• Biodegradable

• Non-Toxic

• Cruelty Free

• Eliminates Odors

Earth Enzymes is the safe, natural way to open and maintain your drains. Earth Enzymes is specially formulated to safely digest food particles, grease, fats, and human wastes without generating heat or malodors.

Earth Enzymes is safe to use in garbage disposals, kitchen drains, toilets, bath and shower drains, and laundry drains. Earth Enzymes can safely be used in septic tanks and cesspools.

• Not tested on animals.

• No animal ingredients.

[Daddy Dee]

ARPrince,

Thanks for the review. Looks like a winner for non caustic cleaning. I suppose the way to do it would be last thing before going to bed or going to work, then it has some time to work undisturbed.

If one wants caustic, I'd recommend Liquid Fire, which is some concentrated hydrochloric acid. I've used it with good results. It is somewhat dangerous to handle, I suppose, and only available in some hardware stores.

[Ray Garrison]

RE the performance - keep in mind that your cup has a solid plug of sludge with a small amount of surface area for the enzymes to work on, exposed on the top and bottom of the plug. In a real world application, you'd have a coating of sludge around the circumference of a pipe, with the enzymes eating away at a much larger surface area to volume ratio. I'm neither a plumber nor anyone who has any experience with this, but from a purely mathematical perspective it seems like they'd work a lot better "in the field" than they were able to do in your experiement.

[wstrickland1]

damn I'm hungry all of a sudden

[garymd]

Anyway, I used to pour those commercially available drain de-cloggers but I stopped since someone told me that they are not good for maintenance of drain pipes especially if the house was not built brand new.

I'm not sure I understand what this means. I thought all houses were brand new when first built.

Do you mean it shouldn't be used on old pipes?

[sunburnwilly]

damn I'm hungry all of a sudden

Hey Billy ,

A turkey sandwich will fix you up just fine !

[ARPRINCE]

Anyway, I used to pour those commercially available drain de-cloggers but I stopped since someone told me that they are not good for maintenance of drain pipes especially if the house was not built brand new.

I'm not sure I understand what this means. I thought all houses were brand new when first built.

Do you mean it shouldn't be used on old pipes?

My house is not brand new when I bought it. It was built in the 70s. In anyway, you're right, I was referring more to houses built today using PVC pipes instead of those metal pipes so I might have been a little vague there. But with the hight intelligence of the people who visits the forum, I know they can put 2 on 2 together. []

[SteelerFan]

I 'll have to try this stuff. I have a toilet that's always getting blocked and I've tried the Drano slow drain with poor results. Is this product only available on the net or could it be found somewhere like Home Depot?

[ARPRINCE]

This particular product I believe is available only online. I have not seen Lowes or Home Depot carry the item. Maybe another brand?

[SteelerFan]

Thanks, I'll check it out.[]