In reading a post from plumbhelp earlier I wanted to expound on the liquid drain cleaner issue a little
1. Most liquid drain cleaners active ingredient is sulfuric acid at varying stregnths of dilution
2.When a drain is clogged completely and no water will drain liquid drain cleaners can be of no benefit
3. if household brand liquid drain cleaners
(I will not mention brands) are allowed to sit in clogged lines and not pass through they can do dammage to pipes and they can also cogeal and harden which makes the job harder on the plumber. It can literally look like black plastic when removed from a line that it is allowed to harden in .
4. the only way to effectively clean a clogged line would be with a cable from a sewer or sink machine,a sewer jetter machine,
(or in some cases a blow bag which is also often discouraged)
5.their are some drain cleaners that plumbers use from time to time to remove clogs in special situations it is a highly concentrated sulfuric acid and the upmost care must be used when using it for the sake of saftey and because if used incorrectly can cause great dammage to fixtures and piping(HOME OWNERS SHOULD NOT USE THESE ONLY PROFESSIONALS WHO UNDERSTAND EXACTLY HOW AND WHEN IT SHOULD BE USED)
HAVE A HAPPY NEW YEAR AND DONT POUR YOUR MONEY DOWN THE DRAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

thanks for the support. like i always try and tell homeowners, if u think the liquid stuff will work, i have a bridge in brooklyn i'll sell u cheap. using these drain cleaners is not the way to go.

Great Advice ! Need I say more?

VERY GOOD POST, I TELL MY CUSTOMERS IF YOU CAN'T OPEN YOUR DRAIN WITH A PLUNGER STOP AND CALL US.

Another amen.

Drain cleaners do not separate clogs from your pipes, they separate money from your wallet.

If you do use one of them . TELL YOUR PLUMBER when you call him/her. It will remain in the pipe and can burn the plumber. At least if they know its there they can be extra careful.

Well, if you don't mind me saying, I think you are all a little bit biased because you all sound like professional plumbers who always see the "bad" cases where the liquid drain cleaner didn't work. Consider the fact that in the cases where it did work, you were never called!

I can tell you that I've used liquid drain cleaners many times on my shower drains when they are partially clogged with hair, and these products work like a charm. Now if the drain is TOTALLY clogged, I can accept your advice, but if just partially clogged, especially with hair, these products do work.

There it is..."used many times" on your drains.I have asked too many customers if the drain-o- ever worked for them and time and time again....NO!!!

Here is my experience. I lived in the same place from 1993 to 1999. Once during that period, (can't remember exactly, probably 1995) I used drain cleaner to fix the shower drain once. The problem never returned. In 1999, I moved into an older house, and about twice I used drain cleaner to fix the shower drain in three years. In 2001, I moved to a newer house, and in the summer of 2001 my shower was draining slow so I used drain cleaner, and it is still working fine in January 2003. I'm guessing I spent less than $25 during these 10 years. To me, that seems like money well spent.

what about the product that you mix with tepid H20 to activate cultures or bacteria? Do they not work as well ?

well i must say also nmoulton, u are the exception. consider yourself lucky. we are mearly making the suggestion on not using the drain cleaners, because in MOST cases, they cause alot of problems. its not some big plan to get more money from the homeowners. plumbing is regulated in very strict ways because contamination from waste and bad water can kill u. and u can honestly say that u have used these products, and have NEVER had any issue with them??? if so, good luck. it may only be a matter of time before that luck runs out. best wishes.

I have seen two opinions from old posts about the gunk removers

1 all that stuff is in the pipes already.
2 it is a good idea.

so beats me.
i have notices this on many posts on other subjects. such as anode rods, t-p valves test or don not test, draining water heaters.

i think alot of what is on the site is opinion with out alot of facts to back up statements.



Post Edited (01-06-03 08:49)

OK Joe, you are absolutely right!

JOE wrote:

> i think alot of what is on the site is opinion with out alot of
> facts to back up statements.

All of our opinions o this site are just that...Opinions. But they are all based on our personal "Hands On" experiance. (NOT HGTV or "I have tools too" mentality)

Any time a person who comes here wants to disregard our input based on hundreds of years of combined experiances from all over the country (and sometimes world) they are of course welcomed to do so.

Personally as a master plumber for 17 years I have learned much from this site and truly value the input (and yes opinions) of my peers here.

Not one of us is as smart as all of us.

I see a lot of opinions too. You can see the same thing on many professional forums, like car mechanics, even engineering forums. A lot of what we do is try to balance the best possible solution with the least cost and hassle to the customer. There are a lot of variables to consider when you do this and what you do on one job may not work on another with the exact same situation. This could be due to many factors such as the age of the system, the chemical difference of the water supply, differences in maintenance, etc., etc. So it's good to get many opinions based on experience and see which one might apply best in that particular situation, and ask questions about the plumbers experience and level of education in our industry.