How To Keep Your Drains Unclogged

It’s easy to prevent clogged drains becoming an issue. You must be careful and proactive about what you put into them. Some of the worst things to put down drains are cooking grease, coffee grounds and hair. Avoid introducing any of these items into your drains at all cost – otherwise it can be significant cost to you down the line. Here are a few ways you can avoid disposing these things down a drain.

Why Grease Shouldn’t Go Down The Drain?

Grease, particularly cooking grease, sticks to the insides of drainpipes. Overtime the grease can build up and block the entire pipe. If you have a home garbage disposal, this doesn’t keep grease out of the drain system either – these disposal systems only shred solid material into smaller pieces. They don’t prevent grease from going down the drain.

This leads to the question of what to do with cooking grease? The best way to dispose of cooking grease is by saving it in an old coffee can or old container and disposing it normally in the trash.

Avoid Putting Coffee Grounds Down The Drain Too

Laypeople are often confident that coffee grounds down the drain don’t present a problem. However, it can cause a nightmare for your drain systems. Coffee grounds, along with grease, are two of the prominent causes for blockages and clogged drains. The build-up caused by coffee grounds along the drainpipe walls is detrimental to drains working as they should.

One of the best ways to dispose of coffee grounds is in the garbage, rather than down the sink. Or they work well as an addition to your mulch pile.

Keeping Hair Out Of Your Drain

Hair is the perfect method of clogging your drain. As soon as it becomes stuck, it is naturally transformed into a hydro-dynamic shape. This means that the water flowing through the pipes will not easily dislodge it. Hair naturally provides a number of other surfaces on which oil deposits can become stuck and add to your clogged problem.

To stop hair or soap scum going down your drain you can use either a screen or a drain-grate to cover the drain’s opening, and minimise any issues. Most filters and most screens can be simply laid in place on top of your drain.

Having Professionals Regularly Clean Your Drains Is Worth It

It is difficult to keep a constant eye on what goes down your drains, particularly in the case of having small children. Despite best efforts, there are plenty of things that can still go wrong. We recommend organising for a CCTV inspection twice per year to perform detailed checks of your drain system and its health. Having a CCTV inspection twice per year means that any issues are pre-empted and you will have an accurate, and time relevant, understanding of your drain system health.

If your blocked drains are becoming an issue, you can call Drain Ninjas to help unclog your drains. We are available 24/7 in the Auckland region. Contact us to discuss your needs, or if you have an urgent drainage issue, and one of our Ninja’s will be able to assist you.