With more of us working from home these days, our kitchen sink drains are getting more use. At-home meal preparation inevitably leads to more dirty pots, pans and dishes in the sink. Meal preparation also leads to more use of the garbage disposal, more food scraps and cooking grease going down the drain. All of these things lead to more drain clogs too.

Recently, Roto-Rooter Plumbing & Water Cleanup was asked to weigh-in on the best things you can do for your kitchen’s drain. We provided useful advice on the subject for this article on the Kitchn website, which has some terrific information for those of us who spend valuable time in the kitchen.

Here are a few of the tips from the article:

1. Skip liquid drain cleaners whenever possible. First try a sink plunger or drain snake. Most liquid drain cleaners are caustic and can damage some types of drainpipes. The poisonous liquid is also dangerous for the plumber who has to come work on the clog after you’ve filled the pipe with lye-based drain cleaner.
2. Never pour grease or oil down the drain. These substances go into the drain as liquid but congeal when they cool off in the pipes, gradually cutting off drainage.
3. Perform regular maintenance with an enzyme product. These are the opposite of a harsh chemical drain cleaner. Enzyme-based drain maintenance products work best when used monthly after a professional drain cleaning. They use good bacteria to feed on grease and food waste to prevent them from building up on the pipe walls. Roto-Rooter Pipe Shield is very effective and can be purchased from a Roto-Rooter plumber or from our website in select markets.

For the remaining tips, read the entire article here.

Roto-Rooter provides a great deal of useful plumbing information through media outlets like Kitchn and on Roto-Rooter’s social media channels like YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest.