Venturing Beyond Laundry- Follow-up

Earlier this week I posted about a clogged drain. Instead of opting for Drano I decided to give a homemade remedy a try. Here's the recipe I used followed by a more in depth review of my process.

Recipe:
1/4 cup baking soda, 1/2 cup vinegar, a lot of hot water, funnel

Use the funnel to pour 1/4 cup baking soda into the drain. Follow with 1/2 cup vinegar. After 20 minutes (or when all of the fizzing has stopped) flush with hot water.

My thoughts:
On Thursday I got the recipe to unclog a drain from many sources.* The general idea is baking soda, followed by vinegar, followed by hot water. The baking soda and vinegar do a fizzing thing, kinda like those volcano's from elementary school. The fizzing breaks down the gunk buildup from soaps, shampoos, ets. The hot water washes it down the drain.

Most of the recipe's called for a 1:1 ratio. On Friday night I poured in 1/2 cup of baking soda into the drain and realized an issue. The baking soda filled the drain hole completely, so the vinegar fizz action happened in the tub. While this was cool to look at it didn't seem to be doing much. I went to the gym, came home, flushed the drain and went to bed. Saturday morning Gameboy reported that the drain was better but not perfect.

I decided to try again this time using a hacked funnel** and only 1/4 cup baking soda. Before pouring the baking soda in I noticed some hair at the bottom of the drain that wasn't there before and yanked it out. This ranks as one of the top 10 grossest feelings ever. I funneled in the baking soda, followed by 1/2 cup vinegar and let it do its thing for a few minutes. I flushed the drain with hot water then jumped in the shower. Honestly, I can't remember the last time the drain worked that well.

All in all this is something I will keep using. I had to use it twice, but the first time I didn't use it in the best way for my particular drain. Also, slow drains and clogs at other apartments have sometimes used more than one bottle of Drano. This method definitely saved some money and is better for the environment too.

*I never just go with the first one I find. I like to build a bit of consensus when wandering to the beaten path.

**We don't have a funnel so I cut the top off of a water bottle in the recycle bin. It was the perfect size for this little experiment.