18 Things You Should Never Put Down Your Drain

July 8, 2025

Plumbing pipes are durable, but they’re not invincible. You can seriously damage them when you put the wrong items down the drains. Issues like cracks and clogs may occur, leading to needing repairs or complete replacements. If you avoid putting the following items down the drain, you can help protect your plumbing and save yourself a lot of time, stress, and money. 1. Grease, Fat, and Oil Grease, fat, and oil can cause multiple types of problems for your drains, including solidifying and leading to a clog. They can also line the walls of your pipes and attract unwanted critters. Unfortunately, many insects might continue their journey and enter your home through the drains, which is one of the many reasons it’s crucial to avoid tempting them. A better option is to have a designated container, such as a metal coffee can, where you can store the grease, fat, and oil after it cools. Keep a lid on it to avoid attracting bugs, and then, dispose of the entire can in the trash. 2. Plant Matter Many homeowners prepare bouquets over a kitchen sink to contain the material and prevent it from accidentally flying everywhere. Make sure a drain strainer...

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Why Is My Drain Smelling Like Rotten Eggs?

June 13, 2025

When your drain starts to smell like rotten eggs, you know there’s something wrong. You can quickly get rid of that rotten egg smell in many cases. There are tried and true ways to determine what’s causing the smell, and how to fix it, and how to keep it from returning. Rotten Egg Smell Causes and Potential Fixes Bacteria are typically what causes this horrible smell. Bacteria can produce hydrogen sulfide gas, which has that rotten egg smell that’s assaulting your nose. As unpleasant as it can be, this smell is an early warning signal that something is wrong. Taking care of it promptly can prevent bigger and more expensive problems down the road. First, make sure the drains are the source of the problem. Occasionally, the sulfurous smell could be coming instead from the water itself. If you notice that it’s your hot water that smells, your hot water heater may have a corroded anode rod that is causing a chemical reaction. A rarer case would be contaminated water. It’s common for well water to have a rotten egg smell because of bacteria or natural decay. However, if the smell comes from your drains, there are several causes and...

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Can You Really Use Baking Soda and Vinegar to Unclog a Drain?

April 2, 2025

A clogged drain is one of the most common plumbing issues you may experience in your San Antonio, TX home. When it happens, you’ll probably look for ways to solve the problem yourself. That will undoubtedly lead to discovering a common DIY solution to a clogged drain: using baking soda and vinegar. However, you may wonder whether such a simple trick can actually open up a clogged drain. Here’s how the unclogging process allegedly works, whether or not it does, and when to call a professional local plumber. How to Unclog a Drain With Baking Soda and Vinegar Although different sources have slightly differing approaches to the baking soda and vinegar trick, most share some basic similarities. Most often, the first suggested step in the process is to pour a pot of boiling water down your drain. Next, you pour one cup of baking soda down the drain. After a minute or two, prepare a two-cup mixture of half water and half vinegar. Then, pour the mixture down the drain and immediately cover it with a drain plug. Most proponents of this drain-clearing approach advise letting the solution work for at least 10 minutes. However, the longer you wait, the...

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How Do You Completely Clean a Drain?

November 19, 2024

At , we get a lot of questions from San Antonio, TX, homeowners about the correct process of cleaning their drains. Often, they have tried some DIY method that they heard about from a friend or online, only to have it not work completely or even exacerbate their problem. Sometimes, they have even caused damage to their pipes, taking the problem beyond a simple cleaning job to requiring a professional drain repair. We want to ensure you don’t make these same mistakes, so let’s explore everything you need to know to clean a drain thoroughly. Why You Might Need Drain Cleaning There are several reasons why San Antonio homeowners might opt to clean their drains. Slow Draining One of the most common reasons homeowners want to clean their drains is if they notice that their water drains slowly. In bathrooms, this can come from too much hair, soap scum, dead skin, or other debris working its way down your drain. In the kitchen, this can happen from things like food scraps or F.O.G. (fats, oil, and grease). Quite often, it might not simply be one of these things but an accumulated combination of many items over time. A slow drain...

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