Clogged Kitchen Sink? How To Get The Drain Flowing Again

Has your kitchen sink stopped draining due to a clog? If so, you'll want to figure out how to get out whatever is stuck in the drain pipes. It could be leftover food that got washed down the drain, or grease that somebody forgot to dispose of properly. Thankfully, this is an easy repair you can attempt to do on your own.

Gathering Tools & Materials

Before you can get started, you'll need a few tools to unclog the sink. Most of them you should already have in your home.

  • Plunger

  • Large bowl

  • Metal wire clothes hanger

  • Coffee cup

  • Dish soap

Plunging The Drain

Start by using a plunger to clear out the clog. If the sink clog is near the top of the drain, it usually just needs a plunger to disrupt the clog and force it further down the drain. If it is successful, just be sure to clean your sink afterward using some dish soap to get rid of the germs that were in the water that collected in the sink.

Removing The Clog

A plunger may not be enough to do the job, so you will need to physically remove it using some household tools. Before you attempt to remove the clog, you must drain the dirty water that has collected in your kitchen sink. Use a coffee cup to scoop out the dirty water into a separate bowl and dump it outside. Don't dump it into another sink if there are food particles in the water that can cause a clog elsewhere in your home.

Once you have removed the water, you can get your metal clothes hanger ready. Straighten out the clothes hanger as much as you can, and then bend the end of it so that it created a hook. The hook needs to be fairly small so that is can fit within the drain.

You'll want to push the wire hanger through the pipe and try to penetrate the clog. Once it has broken through the clog, pull the hanger back up to take the clog up with it. Repeat this process a few times, since it can help break up a clog and get the water flowing again as well.

If you cannot reach the clog with a hanger, then the clog is much lower in the pipe than you can reach. Contact a local drain cleaning company like King Rooter that can come out and snake your drain for you.


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