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Drain traps aren't really traps at all, but angled
pipes, usually running under sinks and toilets, whose
main function is to hold a bit of water all the time.
The water that stays in the trap acts as a barrier and
prevents sewer gas from entering your home by coming up
the drain. Traps also have another useful function: they
catch small objects that fall down the drain, winding up
at the bottom of the angled pipe, becoming "trapped"
rather than moving immediately outside the house with
the waste water. Drain traps are wonderful things,
because thousands of people every year knock their rings
or earrings into the drain while washing their hands,
and without the drain trap, all that lovely jewelry
would wind up in the sewer. When you lose a piece of
jewelry down the drain, get a pair of pliers and a pail
or a small trash can. Place the pail under the trap and
remove the nuts from around the trap, allowing the
contents to spill into the pail. Your ring may very well
be in the water from the drain trap: if not, use a large
pipe cleaner or bottle brush to clean out the inside of
the trap, in case the item got caught in soap scum or
other drain stuff. You'll probably find your jewelry
right away, and you won't have to spend money on a
plumber. When you're done, make sure to tighten the nuts
around the trap, and check for any leaking. If you
cleaned a lot of junk out of the trap, strain it with
the strainer from the kitchen sink and throw the bigger
bits or slimy stuff into the trash to avoid creating a
clog.
Sink drains are usually full of nasty, slimy bits of
soap, hair, grease or food. The detritus of our daily
washing leaves the drains full of all sorts of
interesting junk, which causes things like slow-draining
sinks or bad smells. Sometimes, quantities of really hot
water are enough to clear out a drain, but the smell
remains because there's still odor causing bacteria on
the inside walls of the pipe. Put a cup of baking soda
down the drain and follow it up with some more hot
water.
If the drain is really bad, you may need a more
drastic intervention. Place a bucket under the trap,
remove the trap and let any water from the sink fall
into the bucket. Plug the bottom of the drain with a
plug from the hardware store. Pour oxygen bleach and hot
water into the sink and let it sit for a few hours to
work, then remove the plug and let the liquid pour into
the bucket. Clean the trap itself with a brush and more
oxygen bleach, and run the brush into the pipe that
joins the wall to clean it as well as you can.
Reassemble the trap, and your sink is now cleaned of
bacteria that may have been breeding on the walls of the
pipes. To keep your drains from getting nasty again, buy
a microbial drain cleaner like Drainbo and pour it into
the sink drain once a week. The bacteria in Drainbo love
to eat the odor-causing bacteria, and will replace them
in the drain. Drainbo's bacteria keep drains fresh and
clean, preventing build up on the sides of the pipes as
well.
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