This whole “trust Tumblr blindly” thing is eventually going to kill someone, as I became pointedly aware of on one occasion I was making fun of how poorly a particular bleach-based drain declogger was working on my sink and got a chorus of really dangerously misinformed people telling me to pour vinegar in after it because all cute little cool kid diy home care blogs they’re following talk about vinegar like it it’s the big secret the cleaning companies don’t want you to know.
And I cringed knowing that someday, some Well Actually expert who read a blog article once is going to give that advice to someone who unfortunately didn’t take high school chemistry and isn’t aware that MIXING VINEGAR AND BLEACH MAKES CHLORINE GAS.
holy fucking jesus tits reblog to save a life
OMG
Dear Tumblr,
Please always check what things can become prior to mixing them. I love you and please stay safe. And never trust ANYONE blindly.
Also, for my money, the best drain-clearing methods are physical (rather than chemical). The culprit is almost always hair, with some nifty science experiments starting to build a family in it.
1) Get a zip-it or similar for a couple of bucks and yank that clog out
or
2) get a sink plunger and shove it on through.
Bleach works in that it dissolves hair (and most other organic matter) but it takes a pretty long time to do so. Lye (like traditional drain cleaners) does the same, but also has a nifty little bonus: oil + water + lye = soap! So you can really kinda saponify oils that are gunking up your drain. The downside is that lye is extremely caustic and some plumbing can’t handle it. Oh, and, if you’re using lye for any reason you want some pretty serious safety gear.
If you are dealing with some run-of-the-mill maintenance of your drains, then it’s a fine thing to use vinegar there. And if you want some fun, put baking soda down the drain first, then add vinegar! It’s the science fair all over again, but you don’t have to make a poster for it.
Also, other things can combine with bleach to create dangerous gases, most famously ammonia. So, you know, pick with only bleach OR ammonia when you’re cleaning.
AND ALSO you can find ammonia in cat pee, so please don’t use bleach to clean your litter box!
Fibromyangela 