Natural Eco Drain Cleaner
We all get sluggish drains sometimes. My daughter has eczema and her bath and skin products slow our drains fairly frequently. The shop bought products, while effective, are horrendously for nature. They almost always carry "harmful to aquatic life with lasting effects" warnings among others. This one is completely guilt free from an eco perspective and it works really well!
This is everything you'll need. Some bicarbonate of soda, white vinegar, lemon juice and a full kettle of boiling water.
Firstly you need a cup of bicarbonate of soda. I can't find my measuring cups but it needn't be precise and this is a very large mug so I half filled this instead.
Pour the bicarbonate of soda down the plug hole you want to clean.
Next you need a cup of vinegar.
To the vinegar, add roughly the juice of half a lemon. I don't have fresh lemons at the moment so I just added a couple of generous squirts of bottled lemon juice. It works just the same.
Again I've used the big mug for this. This is the mixed vinegar and lemon juice.
Pour the vinegar mixture down the plughole and watch it fizz! This bit is super satisfying and is where the work really happens!
Now you need to wait for 5 minutes. Give the dizziness time to do its job. This method works because the bicarbonate of soda is alkaline and the vinegar and lemon juice mixture is acidic. The fizzing as they neutralise each other agitates any grime which has built up in your pipes, loosening it ready for the next step.
When the 5 minutes is up, pour the full kettle of boiling water down the plug hole. I find it quite satisfying to do this from quite high up to provide additional pressure down the pipes and help shift as much muck as possible (take care and obviously don't go too high- we don't want blisters from boiling water splashes!)
There you have it! A nice, clean, fast draining plug. This is one of my favourite jobs to do at home. Sad i know!
For more eco tips please visit @plastic_what_you_preach on Instagram :-)
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Pamela on Jun 22, 2020
I like how this works but Please be careful It will harm the finish on old tubs..
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Plastic What You Preach on Jun 28, 2020
Oh I didn't think about any harm...surely less than the super toxic drain unlocked products? Those have corrosion warning labels on them. This is just stuff we can eat haha. Xx
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