Plunger, Snake or Drain Cleaner: Which Clears Your Clog?

A slow drain almost never needs a plumber or a bottle of chemicals. It needs the right tool in the right order. Each step below takes a few minutes, and each one gets closer to the clog. Stop as soon as the water runs freely.

At a glance

• Skill level: Beginner.
• Tools: a flat cup plunger (sinks and tubs), a bucket, rags, channel-lock pliers, a hand drain snake (auger), rubber gloves and eye protection.
• When to stop: several drains back up at once, or water comes up in a tub or floor drain when you run the washer or flush. That’s the main line, and it’s a job for a plumber with a powered auger or a camera.

Step 1: clear the stopper and strainer

In bathroom sinks, tubs and showers, the clog is usually a mat of hair and soap just under the stopper. Pull the stopper out (most lift out or unscrew; some need the pivot nut behind the drain loosened) and clean it. A plastic barbed drain stick pulls out what’s just below. In kitchen sinks, check the basket strainer and, if you have one, the disposal.

Step 2: plunge it properly

A plunger works by pushing a column of water, so it needs water and a seal.

• Use a flat cup plunger on sinks and tubs. The flanged kind is for toilets.
• Block the other openings. Stuff a wet rag in the sink’s overflow hole, or hold the second basin’s drain shut on a double kitchen sink. Otherwise the pressure escapes there instead of moving the clog.
• Leave enough water to cover the cup, then pump firmly and straight several times and pull up sharply. Repeat a few rounds before you move on.

If the sink has a garbage disposal, read our disposal guide first. A jammed disposal looks like a clogged drain.

Step 3: clean the P-trap

The U-shaped trap under the sink catches grease, coffee grounds and anything dropped down the drain. Put a bucket under it, loosen the two slip nuts by hand or with pliers, and empty it. Check the trap arm going into the wall too. Put it back hand-tight plus a little, then run water and check for drips. If the nuts or washers are cracked, replace the trap. See Fix a leak under the sink.

Step 4: snake past the trap

With the trap off, feed a hand snake into the pipe in the wall. When it stops, turn the handle to bore into or hook the clog, then pull it back and clean it. Wear gloves. What comes out isn’t pleasant. For a tub, snake through the overflow opening rather than the drain, so the cable doesn’t have to turn the trap’s tight bend.

Why drain cleaners come last

Caustic and acid drain openers work by dissolving organic matter, and they do the same to skin and eyes. The US National Library of Medicine lists their poisonous ingredients as hydrochloric acid, lye (sodium hydroxide), potassium hydroxide and sulfuric acid, and warns of burns that can destroy skin and the tissue beneath it.

The biggest danger is mixing. SAFE Work Manitoba reported serious incidents, including a death, caused by mixing drain cleaning products. Acids and bases react explosively and can release hydrogen sulphide and chlorine gas. Health Canada’s advice for any household chemical is to never mix products, follow the label exactly and wear the protective equipment it lists.

If you choose to use one anyway:

• Use one product only, never one after another, and never with bleach or another cleaner.
• Never use one in a sink with a garbage disposal. InSinkErator’s manual lists caustic drain cleaners among the things not to put in a disposer.
• Don’t plunge or snake a drain with chemical in it. Splashing is how people get burned. If it didn’t work, tell anyone who opens the drain, including a plumber, exactly what you poured in.
• Wear goggles and long rubber gloves, and keep the room ventilated.

If drain cleaner gets on skin or in the eyes, flush with lots of water for at least 15 minutes and get medical help. In the US, call Poison Help at 1-800-222-1222. In Canada, call your provincial poison centre. Call 911 for an emergency.

Keep it from coming back

• Fit a hair catcher on bathroom drains and empty it often.
• Scrape grease and food scraps into the garbage, not the kitchen sink.
• Keep running cold water while the disposal grinds and for several seconds after, as InSinkErator’s manual says, to flush the drain line.

Watch it done

Unclog a drain collects step-by-step videos for sinks, tubs and showers, and Sink won’t drain sorts them by symptom. For a toilet, see Unclog a toilet. More plumbing jobs are under Plumbing.

Sources

1. MedlinePlus Medical Encyclopedia, US National Library of Medicine. Drainpipe cleaners (poisonous ingredients and first aid) Source
2. SAFE Work Manitoba (Workers Compensation Board of Manitoba), November 2023. Hazard alert: safe use of drain cleaning products Source
3. Health Canada. Chemical safety for do-it-yourself (DIY) projects and renovations Source
4. InSinkErator. Complete garbage disposal installation, care and use manual Source