Unclog A Kitchen Sink
VIDEO TRANSCRIPT
Maybe your kitchen sink is blocked & backed up and it’s driving you nuts.
So today I’m going to show you how to do that in five minutes or less and have an awesome tool that you should be aware of, especially if you’re a new homeowner and you’ve never done this before. Oh, and like a lot of my videos, you got to watch it till the end because guess what, we’ve got an awesome surprise for you and I don’t you to miss out on that. So let’s get to it. Here’s the dual kitchen sink right here. We’ve got a left side and a right side; they’re both clogged. So both sides are clogged. What does that mean? Well, you have to take a look underneath the sink to find out.
Well, as you can see here we’ve got our two drains underneath the sink- the left side and the right side- then you have your p-trap. And most likely, the clog is right here in the p-trap. And there are only two nuts holding the p-trap in place. So here’s nut number one and nut number two. What you want to do is to unscrew these counterclockwise and what that will do is lower the p-trap.
Now when you do that, all the water that is up in the sinks is going to drain down. So you need a five-gallon bucket or a two-gallon bucket- however much water is up there- because you don’t want to mess underneath the sink here, so that’s what we’re going to do. We’re going to slowly turn this nut because chances are water may come out of it, I don’t really know. We’re going to turn this nut here as well. So there, as you can see, water is coming out. Now here’s the deal, because water isn’t rushing out, that means that the clog is probably right here. So we’re going to take apart this pipe. As you can see, water is slowly dripping out.
Guys, you want to take your time because a lot of water is going to come rushing out of these pipes. So let this drip. Look at this, there’s a clog right here. This is our culprit. I don’t even know what that is. It looks like a marshmallow or something. It’s probably grease, right? There you go. Probably should have got the five-gallon bucket. It’s a good idea to put some towels or some rags underneath the p-trap so that when you open up the drain, the water- if any of it misses the bucket- will go down in those towels or rags.
What do you do if the clog isn’t in the p-trap? Where is the clog? I mean, if all the water is draining but it gets to the wall and it’s stopping there; that means that your clog is on the wall. How do you reach that? Well, you need to get a hand auger and the one brand that I totally recommend for you is the rigid.
Anything rigid brand is awesome because they warranty their products, they work and a lot of plumbers ten to us them- tend to use the rigid products. So I like the rigid power spin, so this is it right here. And it basically is an auger- a hand auger- that you spin. So when you spin it when you hold the trigger here, so what you’ll do is you’ll hold the trigger, you’ll pull in and when you spin it by hand, this little tip comes out.
And on the end of this is a very sharp piece of metal and that will catch any kind of clog that is on the wall. So whether it’s hair, grease, grime; whatever the clog is, this will catch it. So you can press the trigger, like so; spin the drum, and it will go down into your drain. Once you hit the clog, you can spin it without pressing the trigger and that will additionally try to clear out the clog.
So when you’re done, you think you’ve got most of the clog. If it’s likely hair or some sort of grease buildup, press the trigger again and turn the drum counterclockwise. That will pull this out of the drain along with the clog. Now, if you want to, you can attach a drill to the end of this. Simply press the tabs in and pull this off and it reveals a little stud that comes out of it- that’s what I call it anyway- and then you can attach this to your drill and you can power the drill along with this hand auger down into the drain. But oftentimes, you may not need to do that, you don’t need that much power. Think about it, you only really need to get the clog on the end of the auger itself to pull it out of the drain. But it’s a really nice option to have.
So let me show you quickly how you would use this in the wall pipe that’s going into your wall and down into your basement or into the main sewage stack. It’s really easy to use. You don’t even necessarily have to take the gooseneck out of the wall. You can if you want but you don’t have to. So what we’re going to do is press down on the trigger, so press down on the trigger and feed this into the wall plate and spin the drum clockwise. Once you hit the drum, you can simply turn this counterclockwise and pull, we’re out. So again, what you can do, you can use a drill to actually power this. Slide the auger onto the drill and tighten it down.
You want to feed the auger up into the pipe just like we did by hand, press down on this and turn it so that it’s spinning to the right. See how much more we get out by using the drill? It’s a lot more efficient. So you want to reverse your drill and reverse the auger until it comes out. There you go. So we’re going to tighten down all these pipes by hand, we’re going to put it back together. Just hand tighten them, they don’t need to be super, ultra-tight or anything. I did want to show you one thing, guys. These washers- these concave washers- there’s a certain way that they go down into the p-trap to create a watertight seal.
The concave side goes down into the pipe. So make sure it looks that way. Not like this because it will not create a seal; you’ll know right away. So the first thing that you do is put the slip nut up onto the pipe and then slide your washer onto the pipe as well. You want the drain to go down into the p-trap as much as possible, so slide that p-trap up. Then you want this section to be nice and flush right here. If it’s not, it will definitely leak. So again, hand tighten, make sure that that washer is down in the p-trap. Hand tighten the nut again- that’s why this tab is on here to help you hand tighten it.
And wipe everything off, make it look nice and clean. The last step is to test and make sure you don’t have any drips or leaks underneath the sink and the way that you do that is run the water on both sides of your sink for probably about a minute or two on both sides. I’m hoping there are no leaks. If you do have a leak, it’s probably one of those washers that’s misaligned. So you have to fix- I should shut off the water. You have to fix that washer and the slip nut. So that’s probably the culprit for any leak that’s underneath the kitchen sink. And I almost forgot.
One additional tip is this: make sure there isn’t any kind of dirt or buildup of hair that’s on the washer or slip nut because that will prevent a watertight seal. So, it’s a good idea to clean those slip nuts and washers. Well, that’s it. That’s how you unclog your kitchen sink in five minutes flat and I do think pairing the rigid power spin with a drill or a power tool is an awesome combination. It will make this job go by super quickly. Again, here are the tips: tackle the clog first at the p-trap. If that isn’t helping out with the problem, then you want to go and try to clear out the clog in the drain that’s on your wall using the rigid power spin and a drill.
Alright. So, here’s the surprise. I’m going to be given away one of these power spins back on over at Home Repair Tutor. So go to homerepairtutor.com. Just click on one of the links here and it will take you to Home Repair Tutor where you can randomly enter the giveaway. Alright. So, that’s it for today. Thanks, guys for joining me in this video. Hope that it helped you out. And while you’re over at homerepairtutor.com, sign up for the email newsletter because we talk about giveaways, I give you advice and all sorts of great stuff every single week. You don’t want to miss out on it, especially if you’re a new homeowner. Have a great day and I’ll talk to you soon.
