6 Ways to Avoid Plumbing Clogs for the Rest of Your Life

Clogs can start out as a minor inconvenience, but it doesn’t take long for them to lead to bigger issues, like plumbing leaks and wastewater backup. Instead of continuously dealing with clogs, you can prevent them from ever occurring by changing just a few household habits.

Below, we’ve compiled the top six ways to avoid clogs and enjoy cleaner drains in your home.

1. Only Use Your Garbage Disposal for Food Remnants

The list of what should NOT go down your garbage disposal is pretty extensive. This is because your garbage disposal is not actually meant to be a garbage can. It’s designed to grind up food remnants that end up down the drain while you wash dishes.

Make sure to keep the following items out of your garbage disposal to avoid mechanical or drainage issues. You can toss them directly into the trash or even add some of them in your compost bin.

  • Potatoes and other starchy vegetables

  • Celery and other stringy or fibrous vegetables

  • Rice and pasta

  • Hard items, like fruit pits, seeds, and bones

  • Onion skins

  • Coffee grounds

  • Eggshells

2. Keep Grease, Oil, and Fat Out of Your Drains

The grease, oil, and lard that people use for cooking congeals and coats the lining of plumbing pipes. The more it accumulates, the more likely you are to have a clog. Play it safe by pouring or scooping leftover grease into a container to discard later and then wiping your pan with a paper towel before washing it in your sink.

3. Flush Your Sink With Hot Water

Despite your best efforts to keep grease out of your drains, some will inevitably end up there while you wash your dishes. You can help loosen it up and move it along through your plumbing system by running steaming-hot water down your kitchen sink drain. Once you’re done with the dishes, flush the drain with hot water for about 20 seconds.

4. Use Drain Guards

One of the simplest ways to prevent clogs is by using drain guards in your kitchen and in each of your bathrooms. Aside from food, hair is another top clog-causer, so for bathrooms, you’ll want to buy a drain guard that’s specifically designed to catch hair that you lose while showering and grooming (like the TubShroom).

5. Don’t Flush Any Trash But Toilet Paper

Paper towels, personal wipes, feminine hygiene products, diapers, floss, kitty litter–when it comes to toilet clogs, our plumbers have seen it all. While the mouth of your toilet might seem rather big and able to accommodate trash the way a wastebasket would, in reality, its drain is not that wide, and neither are the drain pipes running through your home to the sewer line.

This begs the question, then why doesn’t toilet paper clog toilets all the time? Manufacturers design toilet paper so that it will break down into tiny pieces when soaked in water. Conversely, products like paper towels, wipes, and facial tissues are designed to hold their shape when soaked, and that’s why they’re more likely to clog your plumbing system.

6. Get Your Drains Cleaned

If you start noticing that water is taking a long time to go down your drains or that your plumbing is making gurgling or gargling noises, this is a sign that a clog is forming. Before it becomes a full-blown blockage, contact an experienced plumber to locate the source of the issue and help you determine whether cabling or hydro-jetting would be a better solution. Hydro-jetting is a form of drain cleaning that uses powerful streams of water to blast away years of hardened grease, sediment, and invasive tree roots in your pipes, making their interior as good as new.

At JSP Home Services, our expert drain cleaning professionals prioritize customer satisfaction and use only high-quality plumbing material and equipment while performing all drain services. Give us a call today at (845) 209-1700 or contact us online.

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