If you’ve got a blocked sink and bag of soda crystals in the house you’re probably tempted to stick them down the old pipe to clear out the mess. But, should you actually do this?
Yes, you can put soda crystals down the sink.
Read on to find out how to use soda crystals properly and to get some extra tips on keeping your plugholes clog-free.
How to Put Soda Crystals Down the Sink
So, soda crystals can be put down the plug, but you should use them responsibly. For, example, you do not need to pour a whole bag of soda crystals down a sink – this would be silly!
It’s super easy to obtain these crystals if you don’t already have them in your cleaning cupboard, they’re available in most supermarkets and can be found online – BigGreenSmile sells Dri-Pak Soda Crystals as well as lots of other more “green” cleaning supplies.
Read on to find out two methods for using soda crystals in a sink.
Method 1
What you need:
- Kettle
- Boiling water
- Soda crystals
- Mug
Steps:
- Pop the kettle on to boil some water.
- Pour about a litre of the boiling water down the sink.
- When the water has almost gone grab your pack of soda crystals.
- Put a mugful of soda crystals in the sink.
- Drop another mugful of boiling water into the sink.
- Wait about 5 minutes.
- Boil a full kettle again and pour this down the sink when it has boiled.
- Repeat this method as many times as needed to resolve your blockage.
If you don’t get the desired result after this method you could try adding in some citric acid when you put the soda crystals down the sink. Basically, the acid (citric) and alkali (soda crystals) will react together and should dislodge whatever is stopping the water from going down the pipe.
Method 2
What you need:
- Kettle
- Boiling water
- Soda crystals
- Mug
- Bucket
Steps:
- Pour a kettle’s worth of boiling hot water into a bucket.
- Put a mugful of soda crystals into the bucket of boiling water.
- Stir the mixture around carefully.
- Pour this mixture down the sink.
- Repeat if need be.
Check out this video on YouTube demonstrating how to easily use soda crystals for regular plughole maintenance:
Alternative Ways to Unblock a Sink
You could also try putting bicarbonate of soda down the sink instead of soda crystals. However, this may not be strong enough to remove your blockage.
Bicarbonate of soda isn’t the same thing as soda crystals, but you could use it in place of soda crystals on a monthly basis to clear out and maintain your sink’s drainage!
Additionally, you could try buying an off-the-shelf product from a supermarket to help you clear out your blocked sink. Here are some products you might like to look into:
- Mr Muscle Drain Unblocker – See on Amazon.co.uk
- HG Liquid Drain Unblocker – See on Amazon.co.uk
- Ecozone Enzymatic Drain Sticks – See on Amazon.co.uk
Of course, if none of these things works it may be the pipes need removing to be cleaned out manually. You should always call for professional help if you’re not comfortable detaching and reattaching pipework, as you don’t need a flood to add to the list of sink problems to solve.
Preventing Sink Blockages
Prevention is often the best medicine when it comes to caring for sinks. By eliminating the things that cause the problems in the first place, your sinks should stay blockage free!
Use a mesh plughole cover like these on Amazon to trap any debris that may end up in your sink.
You need to keep an eye on what’s going down your sink in the first place, so that you won’t have any issues to deal with.
Here are some tips for preventing sink blockages:
- Try not to pour grease or tip large pieces of food into your sink, these will cause you problems and they might be hard to remove!
- Use your food bin, if you have one, to dispose of waste food.
- Moreover, try and remove any hair from the sink too. It’s a little disgusting job but one that can save you a few pennies in the end!
- Further to this, run boiling hot water down all your sinks on a weekly basis – that’ll help you to spot problems and to resolve them quickly.
- Run soda crystals on a monthly basis through your sinks to maintain them – gets rid of grease and other debris.
Conclusion
You can put soda crystals down the sink, but you should use them carefully. However, you should also consider how you can prevent blockages from occurring in your sinks.
Bethan has a passion for exploring, reading, cooking and gardening! When she’s not creating culinary delights for her family, she’s concocting potions to keep her house clean!
