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Tuckers Air Conditioning, Heating & Plumbing Blog

Still Using Store Bought Drain Cleaners? Here’s Why You Shouldn’t

Drain-SnakingWhat do you do when you find that one of the drains in your home has clogged? Do you reach for the drain cleaner under your sink? Don’t! That’s actually the worst thing you can do for the health of your drains. It will solve the problem in the short term, but it will only magnify the problems that you’ll face later. Have a look below at why you shouldn’t be using store-bought drain cleaners, and why you should call for professional drain cleaning services instead.

Store Bought Drain Cleaners are Harmful

Have you ever noticed the sheer volume of warning labels plastered all over the bottle of the average store-bought drain cleaner? That’s because most of those products contain some incredibly nasty materials. The highly caustic solutions that comprise most of these drain cleaners are typically more than enough to eat through whatever it is that’s clogging your drain. The problem is that it doesn’t stop there.

Once the solution is done eating through the clog, it will often coat the inside of the drain pipe and begin to degrade it. Years of using these kinds of drain cleaners on the pipes will cause leaks to form more often, and will eventually force you to replace the pipe much earlier than you would have had to otherwise. Trust us when we say that the cost of having to replace pipes throughout your plumbing system is not worth the benefit of having your drain cleaner within easy reach.

Why Professional Drain Cleaning is Better

So, what is the solution? Professional drain cleaning. Plumbers know that the average store-bought drain cleaner does much more harm than good, which is why they don’t employ the same methods when cleaning drains themselves. Professional drain cleaning involves equipment that is safe for both you and your pipes.

For example, drain snaking is one of the oldest and most popular methods for cleaning out stubborn drain clogs. A long cord with an auger on the end of it is lowered into the pipe until it comes into contact with the clog. Then, the auger drills through the clog or latches onto it and pulls it out to free up the pipe. This is a quick, easy solution that won’t have any lasting negative effects.

Another popular method is hydro jetting, which fires a high-pressure stream of water down the pipe to blast away any clogs in the system. This is quite thorough, and will even prevent clogs from forming as easily in the future by scouring the pipe walls completely clean. If a drain snake can’t get rid of the clog in your pipes, then hydro jetting almost certainly will.

So, if you have a clog in your drain, don’t reach for that bottle under the sink. Contact your trusted plumber instead, and your pipes will be much better off for it.

Tuckers Air Conditioning, Heating & Plumbing offers comprehensive drain cleaning solutions throughout Gaithersburg, MD. If you need drain cleaning services of any kind, contact us today to schedule an appointment with one of our professional plumbers.  

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