Don’t Be Afraid Of Oil Clogged Kitchen Sewers. Two Tricks Can Easily Fix It In Ten Minutes.

That day the sewer was clogged and my neighbors came to the door, but I didn’t call to unblock it.

When I was cooking a few days ago, a basin of pot-washing water was poured out. The kitchen sink was unable to recover for a long time. There was an extremely thick layer of oil floating on the water surface, mixed with finely chopped vegetable leaves and residue. The water surface was almost invisible to the naked eye. The speed of arrival was slowly decreasing, like an old lady in her seventies or eighties pacing. A more embarrassing situation occurred. The neighbor's eldest sister downstairs knocked on the door and asked if there was a leak in the pipes in my house. She said that there was still faint water damage on the ceiling of her house.

When I passed by, I quickly found the small advertisement and called the master to come. The cost of the door-to-door service plus the unblocking of the pipes, let alone one of the red RMB with a large denomination, was gone. However, this time I did not panic. After all, I have been working in this industry for more than ten years, every day. They are all in direct contact with the pipes. The inherent and reliable methods I have accumulated here are much easier to use than those violent spring tools that rely on external energy. It only takes ten minutes. There is no need to disassemble the pipes and dirty hands. The sewers are immediately smooth and no longer clogged, making the sound of gurgling and smooth running water.

Guide to avoid potholes: Why pouring boiling water on it is a bad thing?

For many people, as soon as they smell the peculiar smell returning from the sewer, or notice that the drainage speed has become slow, their first reaction is to boil a pot of boiling water and pour it in forcefully, or to find a piece of wire and poke it randomly. And these two actions are exactly the substances that cause the pipe to become clogged.

The strange thing about boiling water is that when the hot water flows down, the grease on the pipe wall does melt instantly. It seems to be unblocked. However, the key is that the liquid grease flows deeper into the water, especially when passing through the S-shaped trap. Because the temperature deep in the pipe is low, the grease quickly solidifies again when it encounters cold. This melting and solidification actually "welds" the originally loose grease into a denser and thicker blocking layer. Therefore, sometimes you can notice that the blockage is even more difficult to clear the next day after the boiling water is poured in.

Risks caused by randomly poking iron wires: When it comes to using iron wires or barbed springs, for PVC pipes and cast iron pipes in old communities, if you are not careful, you will pierce the joints or scratch the inner wall, causing irreversible water leakage. If it really comes to that point, it will no longer be a problem that can be solved by simply dredging. Instead, the wall will have to be smashed down and the cabinets will be dismantled, and the maintenance cost will increase to more than ten times.

Core secret: the "emulsification and decomposition method" that every family has

When facing this grease blockage, I used a set of combination punches. This set of punches is the simplest and most gentle. Its core point lies in the chemical reaction that occurs with the help of surfactants and acidic solvents.

Tool selection and operation process:

First, take out half a bowl of ordinary laundry detergent from under the kitchen sink, and then take out about two tablespoons of white vinegar, and then pour the two together into other containers or directly into each other, and then stir and shake until it becomes extremely thick like a sticky paste. Laundry powder contains a large amount of anionic surfactants, which are extremely sharp tools that have special advantages in decomposing grease; white vinegar plays a role in softening the saponified substances and destroying the adhesion of the oil film.

2. Let it stand for penetration: Pour the prepared paste directly into the blocked drain, and do not flush it. Let it remain quietly in the pipe and let it sit for 5 to 10 minutes . During this time, the emulsification reaction continues, and large pieces of oil are being broken down into tiny particles that can be suspended in the water.

3. Rinse with warm water: After ten minutes, boil a pot of warm water. The temperature should be 40-50°C, which means it should feel warm to the touch but not scalding. Then slowly pour the pot of warm water into the sink. By this time, you will be able to notice that the water flow has become significantly smoother, and all the remaining oil stains have been taken away at once.

Pay attention to the details: If you are faced with old pipes that have been in existence for decades and have extremely thick accumulation of oil called "oil thick", you can perform the operation again, or extend the standing time to 15 minutes to give the chemical reaction enough time. Do not rush to use objects to poke it.

Advanced technique: physical adsorption of charcoal powder

If after the emulsification and decomposition is completed, you still feel that there is a vague odor in the pipeline, or you are worried about the remaining grease debris, then I will use another physical adsorption method.

Tool selection and operation process:

Find a few pieces of machine-made charcoal left after barbecue at home, or ordinary charcoal, and crush it into fine powder. If you can't find the above items, then the activated carbon sold in pharmacies is more effective. However, the cost is higher. Use warm water to adjust the charcoal powder to a consistency similar to that of black sesame paste.

2. Deep cleaning: Pour this so-called "black sesame paste" into the sewer, and then let it sit for 10 to 20 minutes . Charcoal has a large specific surface area and porous structure . It is a naturally occurring physical adsorbent that can effectively capture residual oil molecules on the inner wall of pipes and odor particles caused by corruption.

Point 3: Regarding final flushing, when the time reaches the specified time, just flush it away with the help of clean water. Not only are the pipes unblocked, but the odor is also eliminated from the source.

Combination application: double protection against stubborn blockages

If you encounter that "thorny problem" where you can't get the water to flow at all, you can combine two clever methods.

First, an emulsifier composed of washing powder and white vinegar is used to chemically decompose and "dissolve" large pieces of grease; then, charcoal powder is used for physical adsorption to adsorb the tiny impurities that have been peeled off but stuck in the elbow; finally, rinse with warm water. Warm water can not only take away the decomposed products, but also will not cause the grease to solidify again at the elbow like boiling water. With this combination , more than 95% of kitchen grease blockages can be solved.

Effect comparison: the difference between ten minutes and hundreds of yuan

In the past, being called a master would take half an hour even at the fastest speed, and someone at home would have to be left waiting inside, and the cost would easily be one or two hundred. This time I did it myself. The cost of materials was almost zero (all of them were already at home). It only took ten minutes. The results were obvious and the results were visible immediately. The eldest lady downstairs later asked me which master I had hired, and her craftsmanship was so outstanding. I said with a smile that the master was in the cabinet where the items are placed in your kitchen.

Prevention is better than cure: Tips for daily plumbing care

If you want to completely say goodbye to traffic jams and neighbor knocks on your door, you have to put in the effort on a regular basis.

The following is the rewritten content: 1. Do not rinse the oil pan directly with water after cooking. Instead, take two kitchen towels and wipe away the remaining oil at the bottom of the pot before cleaning. This action can prevent 80% of the grease from pouring into the pipe, which acts as source control (cold pot degreasing).

2. Physical interception (bottom of filter bag): The drain outlet of the sink must be equipped with a fine water filter bag , which can be purchased in a large pack for a few dollars. Leftovers are caught in it, rice grains are also caught in it, and tea leaves are also caught in it. If you throw them away once a day, they will never enter the pipe.

3. Regular maintenance (alkaline maintenance): Before going to bed every week, you can pour half a cup of baking soda into the sink, and then pour some warm water into it and let it slowly flow into the pipe. Baking soda is weakly alkaline and will continuously and gently break down the grease accumulated over time, thus exerting its daily maintenance effect.

For scale (acidic removal): If you live in an area with hard water, mineral deposits are prone to occur inside the pipes. You can use diluted white vinegar solution to flush them once a month to avoid calcification accumulation and thinning of the pipe diameter.

When we encounter a situation where the entire pipe is aged and broken, or tree roots invade, or there is structural damage such as settlement and fracture, the above tips will be ineffective. However, if you deal with daily grease blockage and odor problems, these housekeeping tips based on the wisdom of life can completely save you money that you shouldn’t spend, and at the same time gain a sense of accomplishment by doing it yourself.