I had seen this drain clearing product advertised at some point that consists of an aerosol can with a conical seal on it, which essentially used to push out the clog with compressed gas. I thought that was a neat idea, but I figured I could do better with my air gun!
So when my bathroom sink drain was going slow again, rather than jab a coat hanger into it or dump some of the dreadful drano into it, I decided to try using my home made airgun to clear it.
For the first try, I only pumped it up very lightly - maybe 20 PSI. I took the plug out
of the sink, plugged up the overflow, ran water for a little bit, and then put the barrel
in the drain hole and held a wet rag around it to force the air down the drain.
The first experiment didn't work - nothing much happened. For the second experiment, I pumped it up to about 60 PSI, and repeated the same procedure.
This time was successful, although I ended up with a little bit backsplatter on the celing. But the drain was totally cleared out.
Of course, the airgun shape itself is not ideal for clearing a drain, but I might build a contraption more suitable for purposes like this at some point. Certainly, compressed air worked quite well at unclogging the drain, and it doesn't involve crazy chemicals.
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Some years later, different house, same problem. But now we have YouTube! So this time, I took a video of the operation! |
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