If neither cleaning the trap nor plunging clears a plumbing clog, your final weapon is a bleed auger (also known every bit a serpent). This tool, a coiled steel wire ordinarily well-nigh 1/4-inch thick with a handle on ane end, works the reverse fashion that a plunger does: You push the ophidian into the clog and crank it to drive the snake further into the obstacle.

While parts of the clog pause upwards and flush through the bleed, the snake helps you proceeds access to the clog so that y'all can pull it out. Some snakes can fit equally an attachment on an electric drill, giving it more power to force it through the clog. Snakes are peculiarly handy because they're long enough to accomplish clogs that are deep within a drainpipe.

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How to prevent drain clogs

Your best defence confronting clogs is to avoid them in the kickoff place. The following are some common-sense practices to apply:

  • Utilise a sink strainer: A clogged kitchen sink is ordinarily the outcome of garbage or foreign objects entering the bleed. Employ a sink strainer to prevent garbage and small-scale items from entering the drainpipe.

  • Accept care of your garbage disposal: When using a garbage disposal, run cold water at full volume while the machine is chopping up the garbage; leave the water running for a full infinitesimal after you shut off the disposer. This precaution flushes the garbage completely out of the small-diameter sink drainpipe and into the larger chief drainpipe, where it's less probable to cause a clog.

  • Don't dump materials downwardly your drain: Do-information technology-yourselfers often flush building materials down the bleed. The virtually mutual offender is plaster or wallboard compound, which seems innocent plenty going down simply can harden in the drainpipes and clog them. To prevent these clogs, never dispose of leftover edifice materials in sink drains.

Steps for using a drain auger

You can rent a manually operated or an electrical drain auger for a few bucks at a rental heart. The equipment is like shooting fish in a barrel to use, but ask the dealer for operating instructions. The basic process is as follows:

  1. Push the end of the snake into the drain opening and plow the handle on the drum that contains the coiled-up serpent.

    The auger begins its journey downwards the bleed.

  2. Go on pushing more of the snake into the bleed until you feel resistance.

    You may have to apply force per unit area when cranking the handle to go it to bend around the tight curve in the trap nether the sink. Later on turning the curve, the snake usually slides through hands until you hit the clog.

  3. Rotate the snake confronting the blockage until you lot experience it feed freely into the pipage.

    The rotating activity enables the tip of the snake to adhere to the clog and spin it away or chop it up. If the clog is a solid object, the auger head entangles the object. If you don't feel the auger breaking through and twisting getting easier, pull the auger out of the drain — you'll probable pull the clog out with it.

  4. Run water full strength for a few minutes to be sure that the drain is unclogged.

    Sometimes, the clog flushes down the bleed; at other times, the clog comes out attached to the snake.

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