Dont Use Vinegar and Baking Soda to Clean Clogged Drains

Today I’ll discuss my short investigation with vinegar and baking soda to see if it’s perfect in unblocking slow-moving drains as some YouTubers Claim. The two ingredients are readily available and will have a bubbling reaction.

Summary: It’s a thumbs down for the vinegar and baking soda in unclogging blocked drains and de-scaling pipes. A recent experiment proves that the bubbling (Sodium Acetate + Water) can’t de-clog your drain or remove the clogging gunk deep down the drain. So, I’ll stick to reliable drain cleaners. 

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Vinegar + Baking Soda = Sodium Acetate + Water

When you add vinegar to Baking soda, you’ll create a bubbling mix. However, the bubbling is just producing Sodium Acetate + Water, which will not do a reliable deep cleaning.

With the vinegar plus Baking soda, its mix will create just salt and water that will not help generate the drain clog – you might burn your resources.

So, what’s the best method: Instead of using the mix of the two greening ingredients, use the baking soda like your scouring agent in cleaning bathrooms or the sinks. On the other hand, use vinegar for neutralizing any odor or like a scum busting.

Avoid Vinegar plus Baking Soda

When used separately, vinegar and baking soda are excellent home cleaning agents. For example, vinegar acts to remove odor and disinfectant, while baking soda has great scrubbing power.

As noted above, even though e reaction will not get to the bottom of the drain clog, it can’t clear it. I know that most “DIY experts” recommend the mixture but leave it at just that.

The effervescence will be lovely, and the resulting bubbles will run down the drain pipes.

I know most of you may believe the bubbles (from the white vinegar plus baking soda) will break down the clogs (hair, oils, shampoo, and grease), but all this does not get to the clogging gunk deep in the drain.

Alternatives – Boiled water, Dish Soap, Salt, Drain Snake 

However, if you still don’t fancy using the recommended drain cleaners, you can use boiled water and mix it with some dish soap (it works in the drain with oil or grease buildup, such as kitchen sinks). Further, you can add salt to boiled water to also help in unclogging the drain.

I recently covered how to unclog a shower drain full of hair, just like it’s covered in this guide showing why these alternative methods are effective.

However, you’ll need to remove the hair, oil, and grease clog balls by snaking the drain for shower or bathtub clog.

Conclusion 

The vinegar/ baking soda technique will not solve the grease buildups in your showers or kitchen sinks.

Notably, melting away the oil and grease would require both a surfactant and heat, which would allow the oil to flow out with the water.