Imagine you’re washing the dishes and seeing food particles and cloudy water pooling instead of flowing down the drain. It’s a disgusting sight, especially if you have to constantly put your hand under the murky water looking for remaining dishes or feeling for the sink strainer. If you don’t want to make this an everyday occurrence (and you shouldn’t!), you may consider off-the-shelf products, but aren’t there harmful chemicals in drain cleaners?
At Quality Heating, Cooling, Plumbing & Electric, we warn residents to be wary of what they put down their drains – including harmful chemicals. The wrong mixture can leave you with more problems than solutions. Our plumbing services in Inola, OK, and surrounding areas explain more below about using the correct cleaning products and methods in water fixtures.
Why the Need for Drain Cleaners in Inola?
The town of Inola, Oklahoma, sits within Rogers County as part of the Tulsa Metropolitan Statistical Area. That means Inola shares many factors with the latter, including water quality.
While these areas have a water hardness rating of 140 parts per million (lower than the state average of 146), you may still consider it poor. The EPA advises those dealing with water hardness of more than 120 ppm to consider water softeners. Aside from staining clothes and dishes and reducing suds for less cleaning ability, hard water’s minerals easily cause plumbing clogs.
In your Inola supply and discharge lines, calcium and magnesium contribute to scale buildup. Harsh minerals also corrode the pipes, causing debris accumulation. Other causes of clogs include:
- Throwing non-flushable products into your toilet
- Having hair, soap scum, and dead skin cells enter your shower or bath drain
- Allowing oils, fats, grease, and other solidifying substances in your kitchen sink drain
The Right Chemical Cleaners for Your Inola Clog
Now that you know what’s in your water, what about the chemicals in drain cleaners? Clogs take on many forms and have countless origins, so it makes sense that you’d need to look at different cleaning solutions.
Acidic Cleaners for Mineral Clogs
If your Inola home doesn’t have a water softener and hard water causes constant mineral buildup, acidic cleaners are the way to go. Hydrochloric acid with sulfuric acid thoroughly breaks down hard water buildup, mineral deposits, and soap scum. While it’s one of the heftier cleaning solutions, you may need to use it multiple times to break down large clogs.
Caustic Cleaners for Grease
Caustic cleaners mirror acidic cleaners since they both break down drain material, but the type of drain material slightly varies. Caustic solutions comprise sodium hydroxide, potash, potassium hydroxide, or aluminum shards, chemicals with a higher pH that can break down grease. The hydroxide ions in this mix cause grease to convert into a soap-like, water-soluble substance via an alkaline chemical reaction.
Oxidizing Cleaners for Soft Drain Debris
The chemicals in drain cleaners also vary when you move onto oxidizing cleaners because, unlike the other two, this solution will be gentler on your Inola plumbing system. It comprises sodium hypochlorite, hydrogen peroxide, and nitrates that steal electrons from the molecules of organic clogs. It may produce heat or gas while breaking down simple clogs comprising soft foods and hair.
Why You Shouldn’t Mix the Mixes in the Drain
Sometimes, it’s difficult to tell what plagues your Inola plumbing system. If you can’t seem to figure it out, you won’t know which solution to use, and you may think your next step is trial and error. However, using the wrong solution or throwing them all into the drain could have dire consequences.
Once you pour a chemical mixture into the drain, it rests on the pipe walls. Pouring another into the drain afterward guarantees a new set of chemicals will sit on the first layer. Unfortunately, some chemicals should not mix since they have negative reactions when combined and create compounds or gases that are dangerous for your pipes or toxic for you.
For instance, mixing an oxidizing cleaner that comprises bleach with an acidic one releases chloramines into your Inola breathing air, causing respiratory illnesses. Some chemicals also cancel each other out, like alkaline baking soda and acidic vinegar, which doesn’t help your drain at all. Check the details with a plumbing professional instead.
Locally Owned and At Your Service!
Clogs are annoying, and testing solutions can be just as frustrating. Why not skip the dangers and costs of chemicals in drain cleaners and contact our five-star Quality Heating, Cooling, Plumbing & Electric team? With regular plumbing check benefits in Inola, OK, it’s an easy choice – call us!
