DRAIN PIPE OPENERS

DRAIN PIPE OPENERS
04/04/10



Clogged drains are always a very unpleasant situation for any homeowner. Not being able to use your sinks or drains or showers makes life very difficult. And, when the drains are finally reopened, life is good.

What causes clogged drains? There are many culprits-hair, soap scum, grease, food, tree roots or even clothing, toys or other man-made objects.

There are several ways to treat clogged drains. The two main choices are to call a plumber or handle the problem yourself. Black Swan's opinion is to handle the problem yourself.

There are three types of products to use to keep your drain lines running freely-acid type drain openers, caustic type drain openers and bacteria/enzyme type drain openers. Will discuss each type of product below.

1. Sulfuric acid is probably the strongest type of drain pipe opener on the market. When sulfuric acid is poured down a drain and mixes with water, a tremendous amount of heat is generated. This heat will dissolve many blockages and allow your drain to run smoothly. Sulfuric acid drain pipe openers are probably the most effective and most popular type of drain pipe opener.

However, there are problems with sulfuric acid drain pipe openers. First, they are very dangerous. Sulfuric acid is an acid. Acids can cause severe damage to skin, eyes and damage anything that it comes into contact with. Be very careful when using this product and follow the directions on the package. Second, you do not want to mix sulfuric acid with any other chemicals.
Mixing sulfuric acid with any other chemical can cause a violent reaction or explosion. This, of course, is not a good thing.

Black Swan offers two different sulfuric acid drain pipe openers. The first product is "Zap". It comes in three sizes-quarts, 1/2 gallons and gallons. The second product is "One-Shot". This is a sulfuric acid that is packaged in a pint size only. This product has another ingredient packaged in the bottle that serves a few different purposes. The first purpose is that this other ingredient serves as an odor blanket. When you use regular sulfuric acid,when the acid is working you get a rotten egg smell. This is rather unpleasant. The other ingredient sits on top of the sulfuric acid and forms an odor blanket and you do not get this smell. Another purpose of this extra ingredient is that it also is a drain pipe opener. There are some ingredients that sulfuric acid will not dissolve. This other ingredient will dissolve some of those ingredients. One other nice feature of the "One-Shot" is that you usually use the whole bottle at one time. This means that you do not have a partial bottle of sulfuric acid in the house waiting to be spilled or handled by children.

2. The next type of drain pipe opener is caustic drain pipe openers. Caustic products are on the opposite end of the pH scale from acids. These can also be very effective drain pipe openers. Generally these type of products are not as strong as sulfuric acid. And, many of these caustic drain pipe openers are diluted with water which might possibly make them very weak and less effective in opening up clogged drains. Caustic drain pipe openers also work on the concept of generating heat and dissloving any blockages.

Black Swan sells four different caustic drain pipe openers. We offer "Liquid Drain Pipe Opener" which is a liquid drain pipe opener and is about 15% active ingredients and 85% water. Then we have "Heavy Duty Liquid Drain Pipe Opener" which is a liquid and is about 45% active ingredients and 55% water. Then we offer two different powdered caustic drain pipe openers.
The first is "Power Crystals" which contains a few different ingredients including some aluminum chips to make the chemical reaction hotter and last longer. Then we have another powdered product by the name of "Power Flakes". This is 100% caustic soda which is an excellent drain pipe opener.

3. The third type of drain opener is probably the safest and certainly the most environmentally friendly. This is the bacteria/enzyme type of product. Bacteria products cling to the sides of the pipe and digest the soap scum and grease on the pipe walls. These bacteria liquify the blockages and then they flow away naturally. This type of products works very slowly and very safely. This is a great product to use for preventative maintenance and is not really recommended when quick action is needed.

Black Swan offers three different products in this category-"Liquid Build-Up Remover","Heavy Duty Liquid Build-Up Remover" and "Powdered Build-Up Remover".


Remember, it is always better to use the above products for preventative maintenance. Also, never use these products together. You never want to mix a caustic drain pipe opener with a sulfuric acid drain pipe opener. And, if you have toys or clothing blocking your drain line, that is a great time to call a plumber.

By the way, if the problem is tree roots growing in your drain line, then use Black Swan's "Root Destroyer". This is a great product and works extremely well. The main ingredient is copper sulfate.

Call Black Swan any time you have questions on drain pipe openers at 1-800-252-5796.