Plunger Reviews - Sinks and Toilets

Unclogging Drains 101 breaks it down, comparing available plungers for you.

Get the plunger most suited for your task!

 

Plunger Reviews at UncloggingDrains101.com

The Strain of a Clogged Drain

Don't Let a Clogged Drain Put a Strain on the Holidays

 A clogged drain can be a major pain when getting ready for the holidays and entertaining guests. Have a plunger handy next to every toilet in the house in the event of unexpected clogs. Another little tool, called a snake, can be man's other best friend when the drain clogs and can be had for about $15 at a local hardware store. About 25-ft. of snake is all that is needed for most plumbing jobs.

 

Tubs and bathroom sinks typically clog because hair and soap builds up in the drains. In both cases, remove the stopper in the sink and tub, and use the snake to loosen grime and hair.

A clogged kitchen sink is typically caused by a jammed garbage disposal. Most disposals come with an Allen wrench, the funny looking metal pipe that looks a bit like the letter Z. Under the sink at the bottom of the disposal, there is a small opening for the Allen wrench. Place one end of the wrench inside the opening and turn the wrench clockwise and counter clockwise until the wrench spins freely. If the disposal is clear and the sink is still clogged, try removing the trap in the sink drain and use the snake to loosen any clog.

The snake can be used to unplug clogs in laundry tubs as well. In fact, a snake can take care of most clogs, so if it doesn't work, call a plumber. The same can be said for floor drains. You could rent a sewer machine, however, if the end of the snake catches on something in the pipes, it will stop turning and can be seriously dangerous to remove.

By Nancy Wilkes

Plunger Use Hints and Tips

Using Plungers for Success

Pick up hints & tips for proper plunging technique

Forming Airtight Seals

Plungers work in both directions. They move water back and forth inside the pipes, breaking up the blocking material into smaller bits until the clog can no longer hold itself together.
To do this, an airtight seal must be formed where the plunger meets the plumbing. Any leaks will mean at best an ineffective & noisy plunging and at worst a squirt of sewage back towards the user.
Maintaining this seal while the plunger is worked up and down, for as many as a dozen strokes or for as long as thirty seconds, is the most important consideration, and is why there are so many differently shaped plungers on the market. Hopefully you have the right plunger for your drain. If you don’t maybe you can still make it work.

• Some bell and bellows-plungers are reversible, and suited for both sink and toilets
• Surround drains in floors and wide basins with a twisted wet towel when using a ball-plunger
• A small amount of petroleum jelly around the lip of the plunger or around the drain can help seal tiny but troublesome cracks
• Hold stiff rubber or plastic plungers under running hot water to free them up for easier plunging

Blocking Overflow Drains

Airtight seals cannot be formed if there are other outlets for air or water in the pipes surrounding the clog. Bathroom sinks and bathtubs will have one or more overflow drains, for example. These are drains, often hidden inside a lip of the sink or behind a metal plate with the stopper lever on a tub, which catch any overflow from the sink or tub. They connect directly to the same drain as the bottom of the sink or tub, so if you try to force water through the drain, it can come back up and out the overflow. The most common method for blocking these overflows so you can use a plunger is to stuff a wet rag or washcloth into them, so they are tightly blocked. Use a large enough cloth that it will not be in danger of falling or being sucked into the drain. You may find you need to hold these cloths in place, perhaps with a third hand.

Using Sink and Toilet Plungers

Learn to Successfully Use Plungers On Each Type of Household Drain

The red rubber suction cup plunger is still as popular as ever, because when used correctly, even this old design can work wonders. But for even better chances of success, match your plunger purchase to the drain it will be clearing. The old standby with its wide flat face can be difficult to work with on curved drains such as those in toilets and lavatory basins.
Fortunately, the enormous variety of plunger shapes available means there is one for every type of drain in the home.

Plungers will be split into two broad categories. There are plungers designed for use with toilets, and plungers intended for use with sink and floor drains.

Toilet plungers will not have the traditional wide open-faced plungers shape, but instead are shaped to fit the tubular curving shape of a toilet drain. Toilet plungers will have a flange of extra material extending from the bellows which can be inserted snugly into toilet drains.
Plungers intended for use on floor drains and basins with flat bottoms will not have this extra flange of plastic or rubber as part of the plunger shape. These plungers will have wider, open suction cup shapes, in order to enclose the drain opening.
The second major design consideration when purchasing a plunger is the material it is made of. Rubber and softer plastic belled plungers can be easier to use, because the more pliable material will flex in both directions as required when plunging.
Other plungers are made of stiffer plastics. These plungers are frequently one-piece designs. Because they are all one piece of plastic, these designs can be easier to clean than handled plungers. The drawback to stiff plastic plungers is they are much more difficult to use, both in plunging and keeping up an airtight seal.
The final significant difference among the plungers available today is the shape of the plunger compression container. The champagne glass shaped sink plunger is the most familiar, but also very common are what are called ball-plungers. Less common, but seen in more and more of the modern plunger designs, is the spring-plunger, with a bellows shaped chamber.
Ball-plungers will have a ball or spherical shaped compression chamber. Spheres are used because they enclose the greatest volume with the least amount of material, meaning efficient transfer of the plunging action into water movement and clog busting. Ball plungers are typically easy to work, and very effective.
Bellows plungers are the more modern design. Both sink and toilet plungers are available with large bellows chambers, in an assortment of shapes. Spring plungers can be very effective, bring more pressure to bear on the drain per square inch than a standard design. The large bellows chamber can be cumbersome, however, and not always easy to effectively use.
Plungers are tools for unclogging drains blocked with soft, decomposable or degradable material. Do not attempt to plunge a solid object or dense obstruction through your plumbing-you may end up making things worse and footing an expensive repair bill.
Plungers are recommended for clogs such as those that build up over time in slower or infrequently used drains, and for clogs that are created by over-zealous, but proper use of things like the toilet or shower. Clogs from hair, grease, oil, sewage, toilet tissue, and similar stuff can be handled with a plunger.
Do not use a plunger to force things like children's toys, dentures, cosmetics containers, toiletries, and so on through the plumbing. When an object or obstruction that won't break down-for example cloth or paper towels-is the cause of the stopped drain, then other tools and procedures will be used. Consider calling a plumber or professional drain service in this situation.
With so many plungers to choose from, how can you pick just one?
You shouldn't! The fact is that most homes will benefit from owning two plungers; one for use in the toilet and one for use in sinks. Because the design and function of these drains are so different, the types of plungers required for clearing them will be different as well.

By Andam Persand

Andam believes high-quality information will be very valuable in the near future, and creates, edits, updates, and annotates her articles with that in mind. Andam also writes about drain services and cleaning and clearing drains for http://UncloggingDrains101.com as well as writing for her personal blog and other information sites on the internet.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Andam_Persand

Equipment for Cleaning and Clearing Clogged Drains

Plunger

Learn about the tools used by the pros and homeowners alike for solving clogged drains quickly.

Drain cleaning has stayed as up to date in terms of new tools on the market.

There are more tools for unclogging drains than just the plumber's helper plunger. Don't forget the workhorse drain snake, and the more modern tools such as pressure washer attachments and remote video inspection systems.
Once again we can count on uncloggingdrains101.com to clear things up for us! With in-depth articles they what services and tools are available for clearing clogged drains, and how to use them.

From their introduction:

Your modern drain servicing professional has a remarkably high-tech selection of tools at their disposal. Examples include remote operated video cameras for inspection of plumbing, and precision-machined high-pressure sprayers used in jet-washing of sewers.

But a homeowner can handle most household clogs on their own if they have just one or two inexpensive tools. A plunger and / or a handheld drain auger appropriate for the troublesome drain(s) makes up its cost in the first saved service call to a pro. But with such a wide variety of plungers and drain snakes available, consumers must be informed about their proper use to make the right purchase decisions.

Plungers 101

Hints for effective use of plungers

Learn how plungers work and how to use them

A website called clogged.info has published several of my articles, including Plungers 101, a short introductory level article on plunger basics.

From the text:

A slow swishing back and forth is much, much more effective than a quick jab. Maintaining your tight seal between the plunger & plumbing, work the plunger both up and down, as far as the plunger and drain shapes allow. Expect to have to work the plunger up and down many times, for several seconds per attempt. You may need to check, add more water, and plunge multiple times to completely clear the clog.

Unclogging Toilets Without a Plunger

Clogged toilets can happen to anyone, 

even to people who don’t own a plunger!

Luckily we have the writers at uncloggingdrains101.com to help us out! Learn the three quick steps to clearing a clogged toilet without a plunger.

Learn to unclog a toilet in these three simple steps:

1. Soften Up the Clog with Chemicals
2. Give the Clog Time to Decompose
3. Wash Away the Clog with Hot Water

photo

Learn to Discern the Proper Plunger

Tips & Tricks for Success Using Plungers

Not all plungers are the same!

As with any home improvement or maintenance, you want the right tool for the job to get things done properly.

I found some great information about the different kinds of plungers over at uncloggingdrains101.com.

Just a bit of what they had to say:

Most plungers are designed to work with a certain type of drain. The standard issue plunger, with a suction cup shaped rubber bell on the end of a stick, is designed for plunging flat drains, like you might find in showers, floors, and utility sinks. That design is a poor choice for plunging clogged toilets or bathroom sinks though—the shapes of these drains and their basins require a differently shaped plunger.

Making Plungers Work For You

How to use a plunger

Hints and Tips that apply to all plunger shapes and sizes

Clearing a clogged drain using a plunger can be easy, when you know how

Plungers come in all kinds of shapes, sizes, and intended use scenarios. You won't always have the ideal plunger for the task, but you may still have success using a plunger to clear clogs with some help from UncloggingDrains101.com.

…an airtight seal must be formed where the plunger meets the plumbing. Any leaks will mean at best an ineffective & noisy plunging and at worst a squirt of sewage back towards the user.

Clogged Toilet Solutions

Tips and Tricks for Clogged Toilets

Check out all the handy tips about unclogging toilets at Unclogging Drains 101!

UncloggingDrains101.com is quickly becoming one of the best resources for its topic on the internet. No site compares to Unclogging Drains 101's multiple in depth articles on how to unclog toilets. Here's a quick tip from one article:

the typical clogged toilet resulting from over abundance of bathroom tissue and related materials can frequently be tackled without need of plunger, toilet snake, or plumber. This is because this sort of blockage can be busted up into smaller parts, enough so that it can eventually be flushed away.