I often see you guys say not to use the liquid drain cleaners.

I was wondering why? What will happen if these are used?

Does it depend on the piping material? Does it depend if the product is acid based vs lye (alkaline) based?

If these caused so much damage I would think we would hear horror stories of houses requiring repipes from them... plus all the lawsuits...

What’s the real story here?

1. If the pipe is full of water, the liquid will be diluted before it reaches the stoppage, if it even does reach it.
2.If it does reach the stoppage and starts to dissolve it, as soon as ANY flow starts, the drain cleaner will flow away and stop working, leaving a drain with a small opening which will quickly close up again
3. Even though the cleaners are "weakened" so they are not too dangerous to use, it is still possible to be injured by them.

Very Dangerous...Don't work that Good...God forbid you get some on a customer or they breath in a little of the air in the room your working,it can burn the lungs.Seems to eat thru the Pipes before the stopage.Not something you'll find a real Plumber using.

ALmost ALL the cleaners are too weak to "eat through the pipes" or anything else.

This ain't weak.used too need a Plumbers License to buy in Mass.



[www.oatey.com]

I seldom wore glove when working on drains and have NEVER been "burned" by anything they put in the drains. I could tell when there was a drain cleaner in the water because it was "slippery".

Nohub - wow that ain’t no liquid plumbr!!! I need to find some of that!

Hj - that slippery feeling means it’s an alkaline chemical, not an acid like the one nohub linked.

Thanks for this info. I think pvc should be immune to all of them.