major drain woes

March 24, 2007 5:06 PM

any ideas for a drain clog emergency?

so i'm having a few friends over in about 10 minutes. a couple of hours before they were due to get here, the kitchen sink backed up. we plunged, and it filled with black gunk, but nothing was moving. in a panic, we poured about 3/4 bottle of drano down there.

now, the sink is still stopped up, but with an acidy drano mix. the whole kitchen is filled with fumes that kind of sting the eyes a little. we're afraid to do anything else because we don't want to get the drano on us, but we're worried about the fumes and the mess and the drano eating through our pipes.

any ideas as to what we should do? apologies if i didn't do a thorough enough search -- i tried to look but i'm super pressed for time!

(also, no lectures on the evils of drano please. we feel horrible enough as it is!)

thanks so much -- if you can help, you're my hero.

posted by mandlebrotz to home & garden (4 comments total)

I think the bottle even says you can't do anything if the Drano just sits there. Too dangerous to plunge or anything. Open a window, use another sink (or go out) and call a plumber when you can.
posted by DU at 5:19 PM on March 24, 2007

First of all, Drano is highly basic, not acidic. It's principal active ingredient is sodium hydroxide, not any kind of acid, and it is not likely to "eat" your drain pipes, if they are any normal sewer line metal or plastic pipes. Drano can become hot enough, in contact with some drain contents, to melt PVC plastic, however, which is a very nasty result, to have happen.

A solution of Drano is tough to work with. Calling a plumber at this point may cost you extra, for the extra time and precautions he has to take, working around the stuff. What he's going to try to do, is git rid of as much of it that is still standing in water in your sink as possible, by bailing it down your toilets, and then diluting the rest, as much as possible. But better a professional does it, than you continue with further experiments. But if you are not, for some reason, going to call a plumber, then:

A) Protect your eyes.
B) Don't add anything further to the mix. Particularly, don't add acids such as vinegar, or other household chemicals, like ammonia.
C) If Drano is going to help, it will likely take many hours to do so. Perhaps up to 24 hours. You should wait that long, before disturbing the solution, to see if it will drain on its own.
D) If it does drain, run first cool, then warm water through the drain, if it will flow water. Many drains through which Drano solutions initially drain, will still be mostly obstructed. If water backs up immediately, wait another 12 to 24 hours to drain.

Once you've put 4 to 6 gallons of water through a slow running drain, you can try mechanical method of opening the drain, including a snake, or further plunging, or perhaps a power drain opener.

Best advice, by far, at this point, is to call a plumber.
posted by paulsc at 5:30 PM on March 24, 2007

Do not, under any circumstances, now try a different type of cleaner.
posted by WCityMike at 5:57 PM on March 24, 2007

update: the drain cleared on its own in about 24 hours. i had no idea the drano could take so long to work. thanks for the advice!
posted by mandlebrotz at 3:34 PM on March 26, 2007