If your last shower involved water pooling around your feet—or worse, gray or black sludge coming out of the drain—your beauty and cleaning products may be to blame. Read on to learn which products to skip, which products are safe substitutes, and how to handle any clogs that do occur before resorting to calling your plumber.
Oily Products
Bath bomb and body scrub additives like essential oils, cocoa butter, cornstarch, flower petals, and glitter, can build up in your pipes and cause nasty clogs. Oils solidify as they cool, while cornstarch hardens in the curves or elbows of pipes as it dries. These deposits will continue to accumulate soap, hair, and other substances until they are removed. Stick to shower and bath products that include water-soluble ingredients, such as sugar or salt-based body scrubs.
Toothpaste
The next time you sleep through your alarm, you may be tempted to brush your teeth in the shower to give yourself a few more precious minutes. However, toothpaste hardens in your pipes over time and can cause a blockage in your drain. You can fix this issue with several DIY methods. Try pouring near-boiling water into the shower to soften the hardened toothpaste. Alternatively, try combining vinegar and baking soda and allowing it to sit for half an hour or so.
Harsh Chemical Cleaners
You’ve probably noticed the wide selection of drain cleaning products featuring harsh chemicals. While many of these are labeled as safe for your plumbing, this is rarely the case. Abrasive, chemical-heavy drain cleaners can result in permanent damage to your plumbing system if used too often. Worse, these can harm a plumber who may be working on your pipes in the future. Enzymatic drain cleaners are the safest choice for cleaning drain pipes because they use bacterial enzymes that consume the clog’s organic parts to remove it.
Have These Products Done Too Much Damage Already? Call Us Now
Using the wrong products is just one of several common mistakes that can wreak havoc on your plumbing system. If you are experiencing signs of plumbing problems, including clogged shower drains you can’t fix on your own, contact Premier Plumbing & Mechanical right away. We are dedicated to quality workmanship, affordable rates, prompt response times, and will treat your home as we would our own.
