17 Sep Kitchen Sink Backed Up? Try This Before You Call a Plumber!
Best Solano Plumber Tips | Always Affordable Plumbing Solano East Bay
If Your Kitchen Sink Won’t Drain, There Might Be an Easy Fix
For most of us, the kitchen sink is the utility plumbing appliance of our homes. You wash dishes in it. Wash hands. Pour pretty much everything and anything down the drain. If it isn’t liquid, you put it down the disposal…all kinds of table scraps, old food, leftovers, gravy, grease, oil… Point is, our kitchen sink takes a beating. This means that our kitchen sink plumbing takes a beating too! In fact, many main drain clogging issues start in the kitchen. If you find your kitchen sink backed up while trying to do the dishes, chances are you have a pretty good clog in your main drain somewhere. However, we don’t always have time to deal with a plumber service call. Our Best Solano Plumber tip today gives you a way to clear that drain without a plumber.
Why Is My Kitchen Sink Clogged?
As mentioned above, we tend to put our kitchen plumbing through a bit of abuse. Over time, this leads to a build up of congealed fats, oils, and grease, or FOG. FOG will begin to coat the inner lining of the drain pipes, narrowing the space for water to flow. This may cause a slow drain in your sink, which you might remember noticing if you think about it. If your drain is clogged, then likely what has happened is that some food particles you tried to run down your kitchen sink have gotten snagged up in the FOG lining your pipes. One piece of food snags another, and another, and so forth. Then BOOM! Kitchen sink won’t drain. The surprise here for most of our customers is that once you have a FOG issue in your pipes, it does not take very much food to cause a total clog. Even things like rice are easily caught up in FOG and can quickly create a gross, sticky wall that keeps water from flowing down the drain.
How Do I Quickly Unclog My Kitchen Sink?
OK once you have a clogged kitchen sink it is usually an indication of a more serious plumbing problem. So, while our Best Plumber Tip this week will help, it is NOT a fix. Most likely what you need is an affordable and honest plumber (*ahem) to come out and perform a drain cleaning service. This might be a roto rooter type drain cleaning to break apart any build up and blockages. To really clean your pipes and restore them to “like new”, however, you will want to have a hydro jetting drain cleaning service performed.
To save you the service call, here is one way to quickly clear your backed up sink.
- Locate the “clean out”
- Open the clean out and allow the backed up water to drain out
- Run your garden hose down into the clean out and turn on the water
- Flush your pipes from the clean out for a couple of minutes to try to move the clog along
- Put the cap back on
The clean out is typically located on the outside of your house, directly outside of where your kitchen sink is. It typically has a black square cap on it that is finger tight. However, some times you need a wrench to get them to turn. The clean out is installed there to give you easy access to flush out your kitchen drain. Essentially, to “clean it out”.
What Do I Do Now??
When you first open it, there will be a lot of water pressure behind it, and a lot of dirty water will come gushing out. Be sure to stand clear! You should notice your kitchen sink drains at this point. Yay! Once it drains, try to flush the line with your garden hose. Sometimes it just takes a little water pressure to dislodge a clog and move it along the line. The best way to do this would be with a simple hand held auger to clear the actual clog. You can run an auger right through the clean out, as far as it will go, give it some spins as you withdraw the auger, and get at least some of the problem actually broken up and cleared.
Another option you may have heard of is a drain clearing “bladder”. This rubber device connects to the end of your garden hose, goes
While affordable, this device might cause more trouble than it is worth…
down the drain, and then creates a super high pressure stream of water to clear out the clog. While these are affordable, and can be effective, they can also cause significant damage to your pipes. In general, we recommend that you leave the high pressure washing to the professionals. Stick with a handheld auger if you want to do a little handy work yourself. You can purchase an auger for about $20.
When Do I Call a Professional Plumber?
OK so at the very least, by opening your kitchen sink clean out, you no longer have a sink full of dirty water. If you are lucky, a little water flush from your hose into the clean out, along with an auger will have your sink draining properly again. This at least buys you some time before you need to call a plumber. We still recommend that you schedule a drain inspection or hydro jetting to make sure your pipes are clean and clear.
If your sink drained, and you replaced the clean out cap, you may find that your sink fills back up again if you start running your water. This indicates that you still have a clog down the line somewhere. If your auger was unable to clear it, then it is probably pretty far down the main drain, towards your street drain. Unfortunately, this means you need a plumber sooner than later. This is a simple one of our Best Solano Plumber Tips that are designed to help you keep your plumbing running right, and prevent having to call a plumber. If your kitchen sink keeps clogging up, or you can’t get it to clear, then don’t hesitate to call Always Affordable Plumbing Solano and Sacramento!
Service, quality, and affordability for our customers always comes first. Call today to schedule your appointment!
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Find out more about Always Affordable Plumbing (Lic. #1003782) by calling:
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Best Solano Plumber Tips | Always Affordable Plumbing Solano East Bay