Is Your Kitchen Sink Clogged in Traverse City? Clear It In 3 Easy Steps!

Whether you use a dishwasher or not, keeping food and grease from going down your kitchen sink is nearly impossible. From pieces of expandable foods like pasta to the oil leftover from cooking, if you ever got the chance to look down your drains, you might scream in terror at the gooey, amorphous blob of drain debris you found sitting in the pipe.

If you’ve never had professional drain cleaning before, more likely than not, the pipe connecting the kitchen sink drain to your home’s main drainage line is full of rotting food scraps. As you can imagine, as the blob builds, it creates a smaller passageway for the water in your sink to pass through, eventually stopping the flow altogether and leaving you with a nasty clog.

When you find your kitchen sink is clogged, what do you do? Wait for it to drain? Use a plunger? Pour in chemical drain cleaners. There is a right and wrong way to deal with a clog in your kitchen sink, and some solutions are much more effective than others.

Coming up, our Traverse City plumbers from Mr. Rooter Plumbing will tell you exactly how to resolve your kitchen sink clog the right way, so you can get back on with your normal routines.

Your Kitchen Sink is Clogged: What To Do Next

After doing the dishes, you notice there's no or slow drainage down your kitchen drain. Maybe a few bubbles gurgle to the surface, but there’s no real movement with the water level. After fishing your hand down to feel the top of the drain and discovering it clear, you realize it: your kitchen sink is clogged up. How do you resolve it?

Following these three easy steps will ensure that your clog is dealt with quickly and correctly.

We recommend trying a plunger first to resolve your clogged kitchen sink because a few inches of water are required to plunge a sink effectively. While it’s common for a household to own just one plunger for the toilet, we recommend using a different one for your sink. If you have already removed the dirty water from your sink, you will need to add in enough to cover the head of your plunger.

Position the cup of the plunger over your sink’s drain opening and create a tight seal. Push down and up the way you would when unclogging a toilet. The pressure generated should be enough to clear your clog, and you will begin to see more bubbles arise, and the water level in your sink goes down. Not seeing enough drainage? Move on to the next step.

2. Use a wet/dry vacuum

Most Traverse City homes have a wet/dry vacuum on hand since living so near the water often calls for one. You can use this special type of vacuum to remove the water from your sink in preparation for other methods, but it may also create enough pressure to effectively remove your clog.

To try this, put the hose at the start of your drain and create a seal around it, making sure there are no gaps between the hose and the drain. If you have a double sink, block the other drain with a rubber stopper. Turn on the vacuum as high as it can go. The clog should pop right out.

3. Pour in boiling water

We will always recommend this natural solution over chemical drain cleaners. Why? Because chemical drain cleaners aren’t exactly safe–and they can actually harm your drain lines. Plus, they don’t always effectively get rid of clogs. Another reason why your kitchen sink is clogged up may be because of hardened grease. Thus, boiling water may be enough to resolve it. Instead of putting your safety at risk, try this natural DIY solution to effectively dissolve the ball of grease clogged in your drain.

To start, boil 1/2 a gallon of water and remove any standing water from your sink. You need your sink to be completely clear for this step so as to not dilute the hot water with cold, standing water. Once the water has boiled, pour it down the drain taking care not to splash it or burn your skin. The water should begin to drain almost immediately, but if it doesn’t, repeat the process.

Important Note: This process is safest if you have metal pipes, such as copper. We understand that the majority of homes may have plastic-based drain pipes, such as PVC or PEX. In that case, we highly recommend caution, as boiling water could lead to melting. Therefore, just use hot water instead and see if it clears the blockage.

Maintenance Tips To Avoid a Clogged Kitchen Sink

After your kitchen sink clogged, when you saw the water in the basin go down, you breathed a sigh of relief. But that doesn’t mean you should go forward carelessly, creating more clogged drains!

Follow these preventative maintenance tips to ensure you prevent the plumbing issue from happening again:

• Never put cooking grease, fats, or oils down your drains
• Always use a drain cover to reduce the chance of food waste and foreign objects escaping down your drains
• Install a grease trap or get an existing trap repaired or replaced
• Don’t overload your garbage disposal
• Mix baking soda with a cup of vinegar and freeze into ice cubes - drop one down your sink every so often to help dissolve grime
• Avoid harsh chemical liquid drain cleaners

Your Kitchen Sink is Clogged: When to Call a Pro?

Web searches like “unclog kitchen sink” and “kitchen sink clogged” can lead you down a rabbit hole. DIY solutions have their place, but they don’t always work. If you have tried all of the above solutions to no avail, you may want to consider calling a professional plumber for drain cleaning services. There may be a larger issue as to why your kitchen sink is clogged in Traverse City, and calling in an expert means your drain lines will be thoroughly inspected, cleaned, and repaired if needed. It also means that if you require help with a toilet clog, bathroom drain, or shower drain, we can perform all necessary drain services in one go.

Mr. Rooter Plumbing of Traverse City is the fast-responding local plumbing company you can trust when you encounter a kitchen sink clog. Our experienced plumbers have the tools and skills to resolve your clog in a matter of minutes and the expertise to know when a larger plumbing repair is needed.

Equipped with cutting-edge technology that lets us see inside your drain line, our drain cleaning and repair services make sure that your pipes are in excellent condition. Give our customer service team a call today to learn more about our professional service, licensed plumbers, and how we can help resolve your pesky clog. There is a reason why we’re known as Traverse City’s best plumbing company; check out our customer reviews to learn more.