What do I use to unclog sink?

[Richard]

Situation: Sink has been working 100% fine & dandy when all the sudden, it simply stopped up cold.

It's a double bowl sink.

Put half a bottle of Drain-O down (1/4 bottle down each sink half)

Didn't work

Got out the plunger and worked on it for a few minutes.... decided to 'show the wife' and got my 12' snake. I was convince that we simply had some buildup in the P-trap.

Didn't work.

Used the snake and of course, puffed out my chest as I reassembled everything underneath. (had to take all the pipes off so snake could go down P-trap. The basket in the sink presented too small of a hole and the snake won't go through it.

Pulled snake out.....filled with water and.......didn't work.

(there WAS some small draining so it's not blocked 100%)


Went to store, bought some double bagged 'industrial strength' unblocker and.....it failed.

Went back to store, bought (same brand) stronger 'industrial strength' unblocker ....it also failed.

At same trip to store, bought a new 25' snake and used it..... got most of it down.

put back together.....didn't work (but for the same trickle drain......and I mean trickle)

Borrowed an electronic Brass-craft snake. Truth be told, this snake was too thick (stiff) to get past the two 90 degree turns I have so it was worthless.

Since I have a trickle, I'm looking to use a chemical.

I'm on a septic if that matters.

What can I use? We live 15 miles out of town so it's a pain to have to go back.

I have now re-assembled the drain so any liquid chemical should have at least a partial opening for 20+ feet.

I need maybe 2-gallons up front to fill my drain pipes enough to get past the P-trap (probably need up to a gallon to fill to P-trap)

 

[charlz]

Going 20' in with a snake and not clearing the drain doesn't sound like a 'clogged sink' issue... sounds like you may have some other problem. Does everything else drain ok? When was the last time the septic tank was pumped?

 

[JSanders10]

Last month, for the time in our 16 yo hold, our double kitchen sink clogged and nothing was draining down, not even a trickle.
I got some of that industrial drain-o offbrand stuff... poured it in, used the plunger and nothing. No draining.

Didn't have a snake.

Poured more drain unblocker in, this time two bottles and let is sit, went and took a nap.

Came back and plunged a bit more, about 15 mins, and bam she broke loose.

If you EVER let grease (bacon grease, etc.,) down the drain, make sure you have some HOT water poured in there as well.

 

[Richard]

Everything else drains fine. This pipe joins the main trunk line ....how to say.... on the floor of the upstairs so nine feet elevation off the ground. Added onto house so the old septic tank was destroyed and we put a new one in (2008/9)

This kitchen drain is its own pipe until it T's into the trunk line before exiting the house.

I don't have enough snake to get all the way to the merging of the two lines.

The electric snake would easily be long enough if it were not a thicker and more stiff wire. I even removed the tip to see if the raw wire itself could negotiate the two turns I have.

I'm not an expert.... but I couldn't even get it past the first 90 degree.

 

[DFB]

Do you have a blocked drain vent maybe?

 

[Richard]

Took a double boiling pot, maybe 18" tall, filled it TWICE with water and got it to a boil on the stove. Added it down the drain.....nothing but a steaming puddle in the sink that my wife said I need to stay away from (fumes). I laughed because her 'fumes' was actually steam.

 

[Richard]

This happened literally at the snap of a finger. Ran dishes, all drained fine. Had water in sink(s), all drained fine.

Suddenly it was as though someone put a cork in it.

One of my guesses is that there might be some sludge buildup in there (15 year old house) and maybe some of the sludge gave way and got impacted downstream a bit.

 

[Richard]

I can't swear that some nasty's have never gotten down there. While plunging, I pulled up what looked to be a small pebble.... some sandy sludge settled in sink when the water drained out. (we get sediment that gets past the filter and over years, I'm guessing it collects in the trap)

Even pulled up a couple shards of glass out of it! I guess a glass broke in sink and a shard went down.

 

[JSanders10]

Good deal.

Now, go pour some more steaming hot water through there to clear out more remaining sludge/grease.

 

[Richard]

Whenever I (knowingly) have grease around the sink, I always try to mix it up a bit with some dish soap to help break down the grease to some degree.

I never-ever knowingly or intentionally let raw grease go down the drain.

Wife is paranoid about things like that too (I worked on scaring her about things down the sink and toilet when we first built!)

No kids to worry about.

What's amazing is there was no slowing down of the drain. Just BAM, nothing. No glug glug glug.... just bam.

I was told to put some liquid lye down there and I was also told to put some .... not muratic acid.... what's it called......

ahh... I don't remember. Nasty stuff though.

sulphuric acid?