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A couple of odd ideas about what clears clogged drains

Ahh, the age-old quest for the holy grail of plumbing. What is the best way to clear a clogged drain? Even though we know how to clear just about anything from a drain, including cement and rocks, we also know a lot about what doesn't unblock a drain because we get called in once all the crazy drain-clearing ideas the internet can throw up have been tried. And there are some seriously strange ideas out there. Here are a couple of oddballs.

What clears clogged drains?


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Coke or Pepsi to clear a drain

There are a few theories for this one. The first is that the corrosive nature of the drink or its phosphoric acid content will cause it to eat away at the nasties in your drain just by pouring it down the plug hole and waiting for the magic fizz to do its work.

The second idea is that the power of the fizzy drink being expelled at force down the drain will blast any gunk to the depths of the sewage system where it belongs. The suggestion is to seal off the drain around the bottle top, possibly with the rubber part of a plunger, and then squeeze a plastic bottle of room-temperature Coke or Pepsi into the drain with as much sudden pressure as you can muster to clear the blockage.

Our advice on this one would be to leave the soft drink in the fridge, use the whole plunger to unblock the drain, and then celebrate your common sense and hard work with a refreshing cold beverage.

DIY compressed air

Unblocking a drain with compressed air can definitely work if done right, however, it can also go very wrong if too much pressure is used. A sudden blast of air at high pressure can cause older pipes or plumbing fixtures to break, potentially making the drainage problem much, much worse. We don't recommend DIY compressed air unblocking.

After a brief search of the web, we found one especially creative gentleman who used an air gun to shoot down the drain supposedly clearing it of a blockage. We definitely don't suggest this one.

What's your go-to drain-clearing technique? We'd love to hear about any other quirky ways to unblock a drain that you may have uncovered.

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