Cleaning kitchen sink drains without damaging them

[pasadena_commut]

A while back I replaced the garbage disposal (GD), and replaced all the old thin metal pipes under the sink with Oatey polypropylene pipes. All of it was from Home Depot, and most of the pipes were in a double kitchen sink kit. I also had to trim back a little the big metal drain pipe which was coming out of the wall and use a Fernco coupler to attach that to the Oatey trap. The old pipes were completely packed up with crud, and it took a lot of blasting with a conical hose nozzle to finally clear out the awful stuff in the wall drain pipe. I don't want to ever have to do that again.

This set up is still working, it drains quickly, but I can see dark slime starting to build up on the inside of the polypropylene pipes. Directly by looking through the grate holes on the side without the disposer, and indirectly by shining a flashlight through elsewhere. I want to keep these pipes as clean as possible, so that they don't jam up again. Draining multiple sinks of hot water (not all that hot, 120F) mixed with dish soup helped some, but really didn't do all that great a job. The flashlight shows a few places that were completely cleaned, but most of it was still slimed. In addition the underside of the rubber splash guard on the GD gets disgusting and those full sinks of soapy water didn't seem to make any difference at all there.

Note: little grease is going into the drains. Some is unavoidable, it sticks to the dishes, and that ends up on the GD side. Most oil/grease is poured into old milk cartons, taped up, and put out with the trash.

So, what can I pour into these sinks that will detach this crud from these pipes so that it can be flushed out? Preferably nothing very caustic. Or very hot (boiling water might crack that cast iron drain pipe or the sink itself on a very cold day, and Fernco's are only rated for 140F). Some sort of foaming baking soda mix would be good, especially if the foam could stick all the way around the pipe for a while, and get up under the splash guard, so that the base would have time to act on the slime.

 

[Geofd]

If your that conscious about whats going down the drain just remember
Table scraps only
No skins
No peels
No grease
No rice
No potato
No spaghetti
It's not a waterized trash barrel
Sounds like your being as careful as you can
No drain chemicals

 

[pasadena_commut]

None of that stuff, other than whatever small bits of food and oil/grease that are still stuck to a plate after it is scraped off into the trash and then makes it through the strainer. I'm thinking this is probably coming more from the little bit of oil/grease than the little bits of food, because the former will tend to stick to a hydrophobic surface like the plastic, while the small food bits will just wash right through.

 

[Geofd]

A snake is the best method to clear a drain but it sounds like you done your do diligence, it's never gonna be perfect as long as it's been cleaned and it sounds like your careful
About what goes on the drain you should be fine, you could once every few months snake if you felt the need

 

[pasadena_commut]

Not sure a snake is the right tool, at least not yet. There is a relatively thin layer of slimy crud on the sides of the pipes, nothing really for a snake to dislodge. It would probably just move some of the slime around.

I'm thinking that what might work is a mix of baking soda, vinegar, and a little dish soap. With more baking soda than is needed to neutralize all the vinegar. That should create a fine bubbled foam that will push the remaining baking soda and dish soap out to make contact with the entire surface of the pipe, and the foam should hold up for at least a minute or so. The tricky part is going to be getting this reaction to take place mostly in the pipe. If it is mixed in a cup it might not pour down the drain well as most of it will have immediately expanded. I suspect little of the foam will get through the grate and down into the pipe. Same problem getting it past the little holes in the GD. It is an endothermic reaction, so if the reactants are cooled the mix may still be liquid enough to pour, and it can proceed in the pipe. If those have been prewarmed (drain a tub of hot water through), it will kick the reaction rate back up and hopefully it will all expand in transit, before it is past the trap and gone. One other thought was to pour in the vinegar and let it get to the trap, then pour in the baking soda dish soap mix. When that gets to the trap the reaction would proceed and maybe the foam would come back up the pipe. No way to stir it though.

 

[GReynolds929]

We sell a product call bio clean it works well. It's enzymes that eat the sludge.

https://bio-clean.com/

 

[Geofd]

If you snake it once and clear it , sounds like you did and your careful with what you put down the drain sounds like you are you wouldn't need anything I don't know anything about enzymes.....

 

[pasadena_commut]

We sell a product call bio clean it works well. It's enzymes that eat the sludge.

https://bio-clean.com/

Does that work on vertical pipes when the water hasn't backed up? Seems like in that situation it would just pour through and wouldn't have a chance to stick.

I noticed the instructions say to "mix with water". Mix with distilled water might be safer. We cannot bake with the tap water from our house because when we put yeast packets in it the yeast dies. Or are inactivated some way, in any case, no baked products will rise when made that way. Too much chlorine we think. Our water can't be generally toxic since we have been drinking it for 29 years with no obvious ill effects. Anyway, we use distilled water when baking, and that works fine. Admittedly yeast are probably more finicky than bacteria.