Your kitchen sink takes more stress than any other drain in your home. We tend to use our kitchen sink as a trash can. Over time, your kitchen sink can become clogged, causing it to drain slowly or not at all.
This article covers the five most common causes of a clogged kitchen sink. In this blog, you will learn how to unclog your kitchen sink. To find out why it’s clogged, read on!
5 Reasons Why You Have a Clogged Kitchen Sink
Kitchen sinks are constantly clogged. I mean why shouldn’t they? We’re constantly throwing things down the kitchen sink drain — whether intentionally or by accident — that shouldn’t go. But there are other reasons too. Let’s look at the top 5.
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Corrosion
If you live in an older house with metal pipes, your pipes are definitely affected by corrosion. Corrosion does two things that increase your chances of a clogged kitchen sink.
When pipes rust, they become rough on the inside, just like velcro. Over time, junk gets stuck in your pipes, then junk gets stuck to other junk, and so on. It is a doom-loop!.
Did you also know that your pipes are shrinking? But it’s probably not what you’re imagining. As the pipes rust, the thickness of their walls increases. In fact, rust is much less dense than cast iron.
The thicker the walls of a whistle, the smaller (or narrower) the interior space. This increases the chance of constipation.
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Grease
Cooking fat is the oily liquid you find on your pots, pans, and baking sheets after cooking meat. It also forms when cooking with butter and vegetable oils. Flushing with grease will solidify the grease in your pipes. As the fat increases in thickness, so does the likelihood of a clogged kitchen sink.
Fat is usually a liquid when we’re working (or cooking) with it. However, when it mixes with water and cools, it turns from an oily liquid into a hard, sticky solid that gets stuck in your kitchen sink drain.
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Foods That Expand
The longer you soak rice, pasta, beans, lentils, Brussels sprouts, or potatoes, the larger they will grow. Most of these foods can grow to many times their original size.
Here’s what we usually see: A homeowner scrapes and washes some leftover food in the kitchen sink just before bed. The next morning, the food expands so much that the kitchen sink is completely clogged.
High-fiber foods like rice or broccoli, or foods that expand in water like pasta, should never be flushed down the drain. This also applies if you have a trash can.
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Heavy Objects
You should never wash heavy items in your sink. Common heavy objects include bones, egg shells, coffee grounds, and sand. Those heavy objects in your kitchen drain will mix with the grease in your pipes and cause a clump. Due to the weight of the floes, some will get stuck in the horizontal sections of your pipes.
Although it’s hard to believe, the weight of some objects — even eggshells — creates obstacles in the horizontal sections of your pipe that slope just half an inch per foot. A 48 foot hose only drops 1 foot.
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Hasn’t Been Used In a While
We see this all the time: A homeowner goes on vacation and when he comes back his kitchen sink is clogged.
Of course, this is confusing for many. How could that happen? Well the answer is simple. Water used to be able to pass through all the sludge that had built up in your drains. But once the pipes dry out from inactivity, the sludge, grease, and deposits become rock hard. This causes your kitchen sink to become completely clogged.
Call Wisler Plumbing And Air
If you have a clogged kitchen sink, feel free to contact us here or call us at Wisler Plumbing And Air (540) 402-9785.
Wisler Plumbing’s team of certified plumbers and technicians respond immediately to any emergency plumbing issue, drain cleaning or water damage. We also take care of the excavation of underground water pipes and main sewers. Our immediate response team is available day and night all year round, including public holidays.
