We’ve all been there–dealing with a clogged drain at home and you arrive at the plumbing section of your local pharmacy or grocery store, to see all the shiny bottles of chemicals that promise you a plumbing success. It’s a great marketing strategy, especially because most homeowners don’t actually know what’s in these bottles, only that it should “deal with” the materials clogging their drain. Unfortunately, this is only one part of a very complex situation that we’d like to fill you in on today.
There are side effects with drain chemicals that are designed to clear clogs, just like there would be with a new medicine you start taking. As your local plumber in Albuquerque, NM, we’d like to be the responsible one in telling you just what these side effects are, so you can be the one to make the smart decision. And yes, there are natural and effective solutions out there without so many side effects.
What Are Drain Cleaning Chemicals
Let’s start with the basics. Many chemicals are acidic while others are caustic (or basic). When a chemical is like this, it can cause a reaction when it interacts with other materials like paper, waste, water, or anything else. This chemical reaction is what we depend on for them to clean our drains. Unfortunately, it’s not a very reliable method of drain cleaning and it’s even worse when you think about how our plumbing systems are designed.
Plumbing pipes are robust and designed to take a lot of stress, pressure, and friction. What they aren’t designed to do is encounter harsh chemicals that are acidic or caustic. The chemical you just poured down the drain could also be ruining the lining of your pipes and your plumbing system as a whole!
Side Effects to Be Aware of
Let’s get into each reason why you might want to stay away from these chemicals.
- Lingering fumes. Have you ever had a pest control product that set off fumes throughout your home? They can be unbearable and lead to respiratory problems from inhaling them. Drain chemicals are the same. When you use them, they could give off fumes that linger in your bathroom or kitchen for hours or days.
- Chemical burns or rashes. Coming into contact with these chemicals can cause rashes or chemical burns to show up on your skin. Don’t even get us started about what they’ll do if you ingest them or get them in your eyes!
- Eating away at your plumbing system. Like we mentioned earlier, these chemicals can react negatively with the lining of your pipe, leading to leaks and more drain clogs in the future.
- Bad for the ecosystem. If there’s a leak on your property and these chemicals get out, they can be devastating to your garden, lawn, and other areas of your local ecosystem.
- They barely even work most times. The truth is that these chemicals don’t even work half of the time. They might sound like a nifty and cheap solution to a drain clog, but with such an abysmal success rate, we’d be doing you a favor by keeping you away from them.
Get in touch with us to invest in a natural, safe way to get rid of a clog–like hydro jetting!
Call First Rate Plumbing Heating and Cooling Inc to invest in tried and tested plumbing solutions. Quality work, exuberant service.