The Tale of the Clogged Drain – Freestyle Friday

Once upon a bathroom cleaning day a fair maiden discovered that her husband’s sink was clogged. She plunged and she dug, she scraped and she pleaded, but nothing she did would resolve the clog. Off to the store she ran to buy some expensive chemical unclogger, but when she returned she had an idea! What if she were to run an experiment, to see if a homemade concoction would unclog the drain? Online she hopped and after a spell she came to one conclusion, white vinegar and baking soda.

How long did it take for you to figure out that I’m the fair maiden?

This is my husband’s sink after I poured 6 cups of plain old tap water into it. I got all fancy-like and drew a line around the water so you could see it. It took 12 minutes for the water to drain out of the sink…and yes I know the sink is dirty, why would I bother cleaning it before I unclogged it?

This is my husband’s sink after I poured 6 cups of boiling tap water mixed with 2 cups of white vinegar. I took the picture before I added the baking soda because honestly, I wasn’t thinking that far ahead. I added some food dye so you could see the liquid, in hindsight I realize that I probably should have picked another color of dye.

I set the timer for 5 minutes and didn’t get my hopes up.

Woah. The water drained, but did it clear the clog??

I poured another 6 cups of plain tap water into the sink, this time I skipped the yellow dye and added the only drop of red dye I could squeeze out of the bottle. The water didn’t immediately drain so I set a timer for 5 minutes, with only mildly elevated hopes.

After 5 minutes the water had drained, but that just wasn’t fast enough. I decided to try the chemical-laden commercial cleaner. I used store brand because that’s what I had. I would have loved to test different brands, but that’s expensive and I really hope that one treatment will do the trick.

According to the bottle bad clogs require half a bottle (1/5 bottle for smaller jobs, who actually measures out 1/5 of a bottle of skin-peeling acid??) and 15 minutes. I dumped in what I figure is half a bottle and set the timer for 15 minutes.

The results: the drain was clear. I poured in another 6 cups of tap water but couldn’t take a picture because the drain cleared so fast.

There you have it. Natural and homemade may be cheaper with less of a chance of stripping the skin off your hands but if you really want to clear the clog you’re going to have to go for something stronger.