Snake or bottle
Drain Snake or Chemical Drain Cleaner: What Each One Does in Your Pipe
Two products sit side by side on the shelf for the same slow drain: a bottle and a stick. They work in opposite ways. One brings the clog up and out, the other has to break it down where it sits. Knowing which is which, and what each asks of you, makes the choice easier than any label does.
What is in the pipe
Start with the drain, not the product. In a bathroom, the clog is almost always hair: strands caught under a strainer or on a sink stopper, coated in soap and conditioner until they form a mat. In a kitchen, it is grease and food. Fat poured down warm cools on the pipe wall, and scraps stick to it until the opening narrows.
Those are two different problems. A mat of hair holds together, so it can be pulled out whole. A coating of grease along a pipe cannot be pulled out at all, and the better fix there is keeping it out of the drain in the first place.
What a drain snake does
A hand drain snake lifts the clog out of the pipe. The Drain Weasel is one: a reusable handle and a disposable 18-inch wand covered in micro-hooks. You feed the wand down, turn the handle so the hooks wind the hair around them, and pull it up. The used wand goes in the bin with the clog on it.
Nothing goes down the drain. What you handle is a plastic wand and, at the end, a bag. For a clog further along the pipe there are longer wands, of 20, 30 and 36 inches, and the longest of them can be turned with a drill.
What a chemical drain opener does
A chemical drain opener has to break the clog down in place. To do that, it has to be strong. MedlinePlus, the health encyclopedia of the U.S. National Library of Medicine, lists the poisonous ingredients of drain openers as hydrochloric acid, lye (sodium hydroxide), potassium hydroxide and sulfuric acid.
Poison Control, the National Capital Poison Center, describes drain cleaners as containing enzymes and other strong chemicals, and explains that swallowing one can burn the mouth, the throat and the stomach. That is the reason for every precaution in the next section. It is also why the bottle needs a closed cabinet, while a wand can sit in a drawer.
Using a chemical safely, if you choose one
If you reach for a bottle, the label comes first. Read it before you open the cap, because it says what the product is for and what it must not be used on. Then follow the steps Poison Control gives:
- Wear goggles and rubber gloves.
- Pour close to the drain, so nothing splashes.
- Keep the container tightly closed and out of children's sight and reach.
- After any exposure, call Poison Help at 1-800-222-1222, or 911 in an emergency.
Two more rules follow from the splashing warning. Never mix two drain products, and do not plunge or push a tool into a drain that still holds a chemical.
FlexiSnake sells a gel clog remover too, in a set with three heavier Pro wands. The same rules apply to it. The label on the 32-ounce bottle says how to use it and that it is not for toilets, and it belongs on a high shelf like any other drain chemical.
Homes on a septic tank
If your home is on a septic system, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has direct advice. Avoid chemical drain openers for a clogged drain, and use boiling water or a drain snake instead. Never pour cooking oil, grease or coffee grounds down the drain. Use the garbage disposal less, because everything it grinds goes to the tank, and the tank then needs pumping more often.
| Situation | What the EPA advises |
|---|---|
| A clogged drain | Boiling water or a drain snake, not a chemical opener |
| Cooking oil and grease | Never down the drain |
| Coffee grounds | Not down the drain |
| Garbage disposal | Use it less; the tank needs pumping more often |
For a septic home, that makes the snake the default for a hair clog, and the bin the place for fat and grounds.
Choosing for your drain
For hair in a bathroom sink, a shower or a tub, start with the wand. It is the most direct fix, and it leaves nothing in the pipe. If the standard wand comes back clean, a longer one is the next step before anything else.
For a kitchen sink, the answer is mostly prevention. A strainer like the Drain Weasel Slingshot stops scraps at the drain and turns inside out over the bin, and grease goes into the trash once it has cooled.
Whatever you use, two signs mean it is time for a licensed plumber: a clog that keeps coming back after it has been cleared, and water rising in another fixture when you run this one. Both point to a blockage beyond the reach of a bottle or a wand.
