If your drains are starting to smell or they take ages to drain water, you might be dealing with a blocked drain.
It makes sense that drains occasionally need unclogging – everyday we pour all sort of things down the sink including food scraps, oils, and grease.
But it’s easier than you may think to fix your blocked drain, reports the Express. The cleaning experts at Bright and Beautiful say the best way to tackle the problem is not the traditional methods of a chemical cleaner, baking soda, or vinegar.
Instead, they recommend soda crystals, which they say work “quickest”.
They say: “There’s no need to call a plumber for most ordinary or non-severe blockages.
“Try pouring boiling water down the sink, once it has drained away, fill a mug with soda crystals and pour it down the plughole.”
While white vinegar and baking soda are cleaning mainstays, the chemical reaction they produce is not strong enough to erode grease that may be clogging drains.
The combination is weak because vinegar is an acid while baking soda is a weak alkaline substance – together, they mainly produce a fizzy salty water solution that does little to combat blockages.
On the other hand, soda crystals are a strong alkaline chemical which can break down acidic grease and fat, allowing them to dissolve in water.
Soda crystals also dissolve organic materials – making them useful for combatting hair and soap scum in bathroom sinks.
To use soda crystals in your kitchen or bathroom, just boil a small amount of water and pour it down the drain. Wait for the water to drain, then fill a mug with soda crystals. Pour them down the drain and wait for five to 10 minutes.
Boil more water and pour it slowly down the drain. This will rinse away the soda crystals and the broken-down grease and fat.
If you want to be thorough, you can fill another full kettle of hot water down the sink to ensure the blockage is entirely washed away.
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