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Your drains are there for your convenience, but it’s easy to forget that not everything can be thrown away in them. To keep it simple, only human waste and toilet paper belong in your toilet, and only small amounts of food waste belong in your garbage disposal. But to break it down further, we’ve made a list of the top five items you should keep out of your drains.
Grease
After you’ve finished cooking that package of bacon, it might be pretty tempting to dump all of the leftover grease down the sink drain rather than letting it cool before you can throw it away. While this might seem like the easiest option at the moment, it can end up causing many more problems for you down the line, which can be both costly and time-consuming.
Even grease in its liquid form will eventually solidify, and when this happens, it will be deep in your pipes where it can easily combine with other contaminants to form a clog.
Fibrous Foods
While your garbage disposal can handle scraps, certain types of food should never go down your drains including:
Onion skins
Eggshells
Pumpkin
Celery
Corn husks
The fibers and strings that these foods produce can be very damaging to your plumbing.
“Flushable” Wipes
There are a lot of items that companies claim are “flushable,” but none are so believed as the flushable wipes. These are also called baby wipes or wet wipes, and while they might seem harmless, they can wreak havoc on your plumbing.
They don’t break down the same way as toilet paper which makes them able to cause clogs, but they become even more dangerous when they mix with other forms of debris in your toilet, leading to massive clogs.
Floss, Q-Tips, Cotton
Floss is small in diameter and flexible, so how could it cause clogs? Well, the floss itself isn’t likely to clog a toilet on its own, but when it gets caught up with other debris, such as wet wipes, you will have a problem on your hands.
Chemicals
When inevitably there is a clog in your plumbing, you might be tempted to reach for the chemical drain cleaner to quickly draino away your problems. But did you know that chemical drain cleaner is actually an incredibly corrosive liquid? One that can eventually even wear through your pipes.
It works by chemically generating heat so that whatever is blocking the pipe either melts or loosens enough that it can continue its journey through the pipes. This chemical reaction, if done often enough, will eventually cause melting or destruction of your pipes, depending on the material your pipes are made of.
Instead of destroying your pipes, call the experts at Atlas Plumbing. We provide a wide variety of drain cleaning services so we can help you no matter what is causing the issue. Give us a call or visit our website for more information on keeping your drains clean!