Natural Homemade ‘drain-o’, or How To Unclog Without Harmful Chemicals

June 24th, 2009 - filed under: The Farm » Home

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If I were to write a love ballad, it would be all about baking soda. It might go something like, 

“White as snow/ and powdered fine/ clean anything/ to make you mine

I didn’t know/ we’d never start / ’cause vinegar/ has got your heart“

But seriously, this stuff is out of control. Baking soda and vinegar are the foundation of DIY cleaning. Don’t be fooled – it really is that simple.

And this recipe is easy enough, but I swear it works like a charm. You don’t need complex, carcinogenic compounds lurking around your cabinets! Baking soda, baby, and a liberal splash of vinegar.

 

img_0953That’s powdered gold, my friends, white gold from cleansing heaven.

 

Drain De-Clogger Recipe:

1/2 cup baking soda

1 cup vinegar

1 gallon boiling water

Carefully siphon all the baking soda down the drain. Pour in 1/2 of the vinegar, covering the hole so the fizz is forced down, not up (omit this for toilets, please!). Add the second half of the vinegar, following the same procedure. Allow to sit for 15 minutes or so, and then flush with an entire gallon of boiling water.

 

I have used this method in my shower and my toilet, and it has never failed me. For particularly troublesome stoppage, you may have to administer multiple applications. For instance, I recently had to go three rounds with my janky bathtub drain. It was a mighty battle, but my baking soda came through for me!

 

img_0970The magic is in the fizz.

 

Enjoy, and happy green cleaning!

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  • Likwid Cirkel

    Drain-o is made primarily of lye – pure sodium hydroxide. It’s very corrosive, yes, but I’d hardly consider it a toxic chemical. It dissipates and dilutes and really isn’t very bad. It might be news to most, that soap – ALL soap, is made by mixing sodium hydroxide with oil, so if you’re against Drain-O, you must be also against soap – ALL soap. Yes. ALL soap is made with starting with pure sodium hydroxide – the same stuff as drain-o. If you don’t believe me, look it up. Ask Lush and crafty people who make their own soap from scratch – not from soap flakes. It might be a bit nasty to store, especially if you have kids, because it is corrosive, but corrosive does NOT imply toxic or environmentally harmful. There are all kinds of “natural” compounds which are poisonous and corrosive. Toxicity has to do with persistence, not breaking down, and bio-accumulation, and none of this applies to the active ingredient of commercial drain uncloggers.

  • Maarten Gubbens

    This is very awesome and very creative mind involved it, thanks for the recipe…
    Cleaning
    systems

  • Jasmin

    i dont have any vinegar.. can i use lemon juice? or would that be a bad idea?

  • http://bonzaiaphrodite.com/ Sayward Rebhal

    Naw, it wouldn’t work the same way. Sorry. =(

  • Shannon

    AMAZING!!! I had to bail out all the water standing in my kitchen sink first
    (it smelled suspiciously like the Drano I poured down there last night). Considering the full bottle of Drano failed and an attempt with a plunger failed I didn’t have high hopes for this. However having all the ingredients on hand I thought I didnt have much to lose. THIS WORKED LIKE A CHARM ON THE FIRST SHOT!!!! …..my hands smell slightly of vinegar but i’ll deal with it. Btw in my experience mixing drano and the vinegar and baking soda my kitchen just smells like vinegar nothing toxic smelling. That was my experience anyways… Many thanks this was an excellent idea. Good luck to those reading this :-)

  • Pingback: Vegan Cleaning | Lindsay Is Vegan

  • http://www.squidoo.com/graceonline Kathryn Grace

    Powdered gold is right! I had a massive sink blockage and could not get a call-back from the landlord. Waited eight hours for the water to trickle out so I could do your treatment and half an hour later, voila! Drain clear. This method hasn’t worked so well for me in the past, but I did not think of stopping up the vinegar/baking soda so they could foam entirely in the drain. That just may be the secret key that unlocks the whole process. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

  • Nikki

    This worked wonders… I didn’t use as much as the recipe asked of but it still worked… I gave it a little nudge with a plunger also and now my bathtub is unclogged!!

  • elipoo

    will white vinegar work? thanks!

  • http://bonzaiaphrodite.com/ Sayward Rebhal

    yes!

  • Miss Puddin Tame

    GET a butter knife and use it. OR, get a pair of needle nose pliers to get it out. Why ask a stupid question.

  • http://twitter.com/ApocalypseGuide Apocalypse Guide

    I have never tried this but alka seltzer tablets followed by white vinegar does the trick amazingly! http://www.survivetheapocalypse.net/2013/04/23/unclog-a-drain-with-alka-seltzer/

  • Markypc3

    Another tidbit after pour the stuff down is that instead of clogging the drain its better to take a plunger to the drain while the baking soda does its magic. Better and faster results, especially when you feel like you did it and it didn’t work…

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=23215810 Emberlea McCulligh

    You really should learn to be nicer. Not everyone is experienced enough to think of everything or even creative enough. I was just thinking the same thing (how do I get the Baking soda down the drain with a stuck plug). And, there are no stupid questions.

  • http://www.facebook.com/hj.psycho Brandon Leighton

    If you want to get really technical, everything around us could be considered chemicals. Including air and water. Chemical: composed of chemical substances: composed of or involving the use of substances produced by the process of chemistry. Now, chemistry is chemical properties of something: the chemical composition, structure,
    and properties of a substance, or the chemical aspects of an activity. So be careful next time you buy a bottle of water, its nothing but a big bottle full of a chemical, and that chemical is shown to slowly kill 100% of everything that consumes it.

  • Tammi

    I found that you also have to plug up the over-flow drain too – I just used a wet washcloth and stuffed it into the hole as much as I could. Remember to take it out again before you put the boiling water down. I had to do it a few times to my bathroom sink before it cleared. Love this idea!

  • Dont Be Stupid

    There is one stupid here. The standing water is because of the clog. The stopper is one in the sink that is permanent, and can not be taken out, impeding putting a powdered baking soda down the drain. Miss Puddin Lame, lets not get stupid here.

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