Unclogging Your Kitchen Sink Using a Metal Hanger

If you have a friend or a next door neighbor who is a plumber, consider yourself blessed. Being able to receive advice or assistance from a plumber you can trust is nearly as important (or perhaps more so) than getting sound financial advice.

If you're stuck doing your own plumbing, as I generally am, I feel for you. There are few things that elicit less joy than dealing with plumbing that is not operating properly. One such joyless endeavors is the unclogging of the kitchen sink.

Before I get into the actual process of removing a clog, let me first make a plea for prevention of this problem. Garbage disposals are not magic! They are not meant to disintegrate entire potatoes, steak bones, chicken legs, or oyster shells. Just because you can fit an item of leftover food down the drain doesn't mean that it isn't going to clog.

Now, once you have determined that you have a clog (which is most often evidenced by standing water in the sink) and your disposal is not working, the first thing to do is get the disposal working again. To do this, you will need a special L-shaped wrench (an Allen wrench). Some disposals differ, but the most common size Allen wrench to fit disposals is ¼ inch.

Once you have your Allen wrench, you will need to get underneath your garbage disposal and find a hole located at the bottom of the unit. Fit one end of the wrench into the hole and begin turning it back and forth. If your problem is clogged food, this manual churning of the garbage disposal will eventually loosen it.

Once the wrench turns freely in the hole, go ahead and remove it and look for a small button located on the bottom of the disposal unit. This is a reset button. Go ahead and press it and try the disposal. If the unit runs and sucks away the water from your sink, you are finished.

However, if your disposal runs but water keeps bubbling back up into the sink, you are far from finished. This is an indication that the clog is further along in your pipes. You will now have to disconnect one of the pipes that your disposal feeds into.

If you have a u-shaped pipe that is held in place by metal bands, you should first try loosening the bands with a wrench and removing the pipe. Make sure to have a bucket of water under the pipe as you do this, since whatever water is still in the sink will drain out. Once you have removed the pipe, clean it out and run water through it before reattaching it.

If you do not have a u-shaped pipe or the u-shaped pipe is not clogged when you remove it, you're getting into some seriously sucky territory. If you are like me and have a simple PVC pipe connecting to your garbage disposal, you will have to remove it from the unit. Generally, they are attached by a couple of screws that are holding down a metal plate and rubber washer.

First, get your bucket under the pipe and begin to unscrew the screws. Any remaining sink water will begin to pour out. Once this water has done draining, finish removing the screws and pull the pipe away from the garbage disposal. Be careful not to lose the washer, as it can easily fall into your bucket.

Now take a metal hanger and unwind it until it is one long wire. If you have a pipe snake, you can use this instead. Assuming you're cheap like me and don't have one, slide one end of the wire into the pipe as far as it will go. If you have a u-shaped pipe and it was not clogged, insert the wire into the pipes on either side of it. Now remove it slowly, turning it as you bring it out. It should catch on whatever is clogging the pipe and bring it out. Keep reinserting and removing the wire in the same manner until you are no longer bringing out any debris.

Once you are fairly certain the clog has been removed, reattach the washer, metal plate, and screws. Try running your sink. If the water doesn't begin filling up again, you're finished. Be sure to look under the sink as the water is flowing to make sure that the metal plate and washer are tight. If they are loose, there may be a leak. If this happens, turn off the water and check to make sure the washer is in properly.

If you had to remove debris from a clogged pipe, you will quickly realize why plumbers get paid as well as they do. Debris sitting in a pipe decomposing gets grade-A nasty real fast. Do this job one time and you'll cringe the next time you see somebody attempting to force that half-eaten fish down the drain.