How to Clear a Slow Draining Sink

To clear a slow drain that you suspect is clogged with gunk (recognize that this method might not work as well if your problem is a hair-clogged drain), here's what you should do:

1. Set a full tea kettle on the stove to boil.
2. Dry your sink out with a rag.
3. Now, measure a 1/2 cup baking soda and dump it down your drain. In most sinks, the sink stopper will be in the way. Screw the stopper off or use a Q-tip to push the majority of the baking soda down the drain. Don't worry if you can't get it all down, the next step will do the rest of the work for you.
4. After the baking soda, measure a 1/2 cup white vinegar and dump that down the drain. Admire the fizzing for a minute or two.
5. Now, the full tea kettle should be boiling. Carefully pour the whole kettle full of boiling water down the drain.
6. Turn your faucet on and see if your sink is now draining at a normal speed.
7. I always like to complete this cleaning with a plunger. With hot water running, plung the sink. Plug up the over flow hole if there is one.

If it's a tough clog, pour some boiling water down first, then add the baking soda/salt paste and let it sit overnight. (Of course you'll want to wait until the water drains to pour in the paste so it doesn't dissolve.) In the morning pour down the vinegar and once it stops fizzing follow it up with another pot of boiling water. This should take care of it! If not, try washing soda before you move on to more caustic solutions. Washing Soda is stronger than baking soda, is great at cutting through grease and you can find it in your laundry aisle at the grocery store.

Other suggestions from Internet posters:

1. A plunger works pretty well sometimes, too. Plug up the over flow hole with your fingers at the same time as plunging the drain.
   
   
2. If you don't want to use harsh chemicals and have a pretty severe clog I'd recommend a drain auger or "snake". You can buy them or rent them from most any hardware rental place for cheap. Just crank it down the drain hole, crank it back out and ta-da! Gross soap scum and hair balls galore. Best of all no chemicals. Good old mechanical extraction and elbow grease works great! Or wrench the P-trap thing off (above a bucket), then twist the snake coil in as far as it will go.
   
   
3. Most drains are pretty easy to take apart and just clean the scum and hair out of the mechanism. Use plumbers tape on the joints.
   
   
4. Use lye and hot water. It's better than Draino, (yes it's caustic) however, it's cheap and you only use a little. Lye and Draino are basically the same thing -- they're very strong sodium hydroxide solutions.
   
   
5. A two liter bottle of good old Coca-Cola does the trick. pour it all at once... The poster discovered that Coke trick completely by accident while cleaning up from a party one day. "It works disturbingly well. In fact, I now consider Coke to be more of a drain clearer than a beverage!"