Why Pour Salt Down the Drain? - Bathtub Paradise

You have heard your friends or neighbors talking about how they pour salt down the drain. And there you are, wondering why you should pour salt down the drain? Worry no more; I will answer all your questions and explain how salt works magic on your gutters.

Salt can be used in the kitchen and as a natural, non-toxic sink cleaner. Thanks to its abrasive and antiseptic properties, saltwater easily cleans pipes, removes accumulated grease and dirt, and absorbs and removes harmful odors and bacteria.

Before we dive intosaltand its miracles on a drain, let’s discuss the causes of clogging.

Bathrooms, kitchens, and even utility sinks can be clogged. A clogged sink can be an inconvenience and frustration. Severe clogs can create significant problems in your plumbing system while also costing you to fix.

Therefore, it is essential to understand how and why clogs form and learn preventative measures. With proper maintenance and some simple tips, you can help avoid significant clogs.

The leading causes of clogs include:

Hair clogs are primarily common in a bathtub, bathroom sinks and shower drains. Hair tends to be trapped in the sludge, thus accumulating with time.

Nothing is disgusting, like realizing the water level has crept up to your ankles halfway through your shower. To avoid this problem, one should use a sink guard to keep hair out of the drain.

Kitchen sink clogs are caused mainly by food. When you wash food off a plate, the particles are trapped in the pipe system under the sink.

Over time, the bits of food collect and form a clog that can be smelly. You’ll need to use a drain cleaner or plumbing snake to remove them.

To avoid these cases, you could install garbage disposal close to the kitchen sink. Doing this can dump the leftovers there before washing the plate in the sink.

Grease is a common clog-causing substance; it creates sticky sediment, traps food, and eventually forms a clog. Grease clog is the most challenging clog to remove since it keeps reforming.

To curb this recurrent problem, you should avoid putting oils, grease, and fat down your drain.

As a parent or someone with small children in the house, you probably know how small objects and toys get stuck in the drain. Food particles, hair, and even grease can become caught on these objects and form clogs that completely shut off the pipe.

One could install a sink guard to prevent such objects from passing through.

If clogging is a repeat problem with your pipes, you can carry out these steps intermittently to help better function. Salt works on drains in sinks, showers, and tubs; it breaks down grease and emulsifies fats to be flushed through the pipes more easily.

Salt does not work on its own; you need to flush it with boiling water or add other chemicals. Let’s take a look at how salt works on the drains:

To clean a drain using saltwater, start by combining salt with hot water and heat it on a stove. The preferred ratio is a quarter cup of salt per eight cups of water.

While using this method, it’s preferable to heat water to about 200 degrees Fahrenheit. The water should be heated and not boiled because it allows the salt to dissolve while protecting your plumbing system.

Boiling water can loosen the joints on PVC and cause leaks. Also, boiling water can crack porcelain sinks due to the temperature change.

Once the saltwater is hot, immediately pour it down the drain. Saltwater is sufficient for clearing a drain to prevent a clog but not powerful enough to remove an existing clog.

Mix half a cup of table salt and half a cup of baking soda, and pour down the drain. Let the mixture sit for about 30 minutes (or overnight if it’s a tough clog). After that pour boiling water directly on the drain (only do this if the pipes are not PVC)

Alternatively, you can combine half a cup of baking soda and half a cup of salt with two cups of water. Heat it in a pot on the stove until it’s almost boiling. Then, pour it down the drain. If the clog doesn’t quickly clear, leave the baking soda and salt in the gutter overnight, then flash it with hot water in the morning.

If the clog still hasn’t cleared, it’s probably time to choose a commercial option.

Pour half a cup of baking soda, a half-cup of salt, and two tablespoons of cream of tartar into a jar that seals. Close the pot, and shake to combine the ingredients. Once the ingredients are evenly mixed, pour half the jar’s contents down the drain, and save the other half for later.

Follow the solution with a pot of boiling water. You can pour in boiling water if you have stainless steel, cast iron, or copper sink. But if your sink has composite material, it could crack if you pour in boiling water, so use hot tap water instead.

Note:For stubborn clogs that won’t clear using the above solutions, you could use:

Baking soda reacts with vinegar to break down the fatty acids in grease clogs. Start by pouring about a cup of fresh baking soda directly into the drain. Use a funnel to get the baking soda past the garbage disposal splash guard if necessary. Be sure to also remove the stopper from a bathroom sink before adding the baking soda.

Then, pour half a cup of distilled white vinegar into the drain. When the vinegar mixes with the baking soda, gas bubbles will form. Use this gas to your advantage by inserting the drain stopper to increase pressure in the pipe. After about half an hour, remove the drain stopper and flush the drain with hot (not boiling) water.

Pro tip: You should not use vinegar to clear a clog if you’ve already tried to use a chemical drain removal product. Toxic gas can form when the vinegar reacts with the chemicals.

Pour half a cup of baking soda and half a cup of lemon juice down the drain. Plug the drain, and let it sit for one hour. Then pour hot water down the drain.

Pro tip: Consider this method if you’re working with a clogged kitchen sink and prefer the smell of lemon to vinegar.

In case you have tried all the above techniques to unclog a drain, and none is working, you could also try doing the following:

If you own a wet/dry vacuum, you could try to suck the clog up and out of the drain. Position the vacuum nozzle over your drain and create as tight a seal as possible. Then, turn your vacuum on and to the “wet” setting.

Place a bucket underneath your sink pipes to catch any water leak out. Then, unscrew your trap (the curved line) and clean it out. If the clog is on the web, you’re all set. If not, use a drain snake or a solid tubular object to push the clog down through the drain and out the open pipe.

If you’ve tried a few other methods and failed, you may need to invest in a drain snake. Push the drain snake down the drain and rotate the handle clockwise as you do. Once you feel resistance from the clog, continue to maneuver the snake clockwise and upward until you can feel it pull the clog up and out the drain.

While salt and other ingredients help reduce clogging, you should know what items to avoid putting down the drain. By doing this, you will have fewer cases of blockage and therefore reduce inconveniences and costs on plumbing services.

There are things you should not put in your drain. they include:

There are different types of clogs and locations of clogs. Keep in mind if there is a persistent blockage deep in your pipes, you will not fix it by pouring a homemade or store-bought solution down the drain. At that point, the most effective options are snaking the drain with a drain snake or employing a plumber to carry out the task for you.

If your drain has some gunk built up along the inner walls, and you want to eliminate the odor it’s producing, you can use the techniques mentioned earlier.