Prevent clogging of the kitchen sink
The drain in your kitchen sink gurgles suspiciously? Be prepared for problems because sooner or later it could become clogged. In the future, you can prevent this by taking a few simple precautions.
Kitchen sinks in particular can get clogged relatively easily, because small amounts of solids end up in the drainpipe every day. Americans have a good laugh at this, as most standard kitchen sinks have a grinder in the Drain that shreds the organic waste. For example, potato peelings do not need to be picked up and maneuvered into the bin, but are pushed down the drain, where the grinder breaks them up into a pulp. The pulp can then easily be washed away. In this country, you would do well to take care of your kitchen drain to prevent it from clogging.
Strategies against clogging the sink
- It makes sense that you flush as few solids as possible through the drain, but this cannot always be completely prevented. In that case, you should rinse again generously with water that is as hot as possible.
- Pour fatty liquids, such as dressings or sauces, into the sink, then add a splash of washing-up liquid. This loosens the fat so that it cannot easily clog the siphon.
- Regularly pour a large amount of boiling water down the sink. If this doesn't happen regularly anyway - with potato water or the like - you should pour in a generous load of boiling water from the kettle every now and then. This cleans the siphon of "Schmodder" and also kills bacteria that are only too happy to settle around the sink.
- Curse and blessing at the same time is a special sieve that you place over the drain. However, this becomes clogged very often, so that you will have to clean it almost daily. It makes sense that you don't flush the accumulated solids down the sink, but dispose of them in the residual or organic waste. The use of such a sieve makes it pretty clear how much would normally end up in the siphon and lead to clogging of the same.
Clogged pipes in the household are not only annoying, they also have to ...
If it does happen - remove the siphon and flush it out
If all caution has failed, you may have to remove the drain pipe under the sink. It's not overly complicated though, just pretty gross.
- Place a bucket under the sink and prepare a rag. Most of the time the blockage is in the curved section of the pipe. This is fixed on both sides with large union nuts. Loosen this and pull the curved pipe downwards. There's probably a gush of dirty water behind, so take cover.
- Then clean the pipe section. Pour the water that has accumulated in it into the bucket and remove the blockage by pushing the loosened piece of pipe in the bath flush and pour solids down the toilet.
- Before you reassemble the drain, open the tap on the sink very slightly and check whether the water can drain freely through the upper section of the pipe into the bucket. If this is not the case, loosen the built-in sieve in the drain and poke vertically through the pipe from above. If there is still something hanging there, it plops in the bucket and your problem is usually solved.
- Then put the pipe section back on and screw the union nuts tight. Make sure that any sealing rings are correctly seated. To be on the safe side, leave the bucket under the sink for a few more days until you are sure that everything is really tight.
