Five Items To Avoid Putting Down Your Drain

Paying attention to what you’re putting down your kitchen and bathroom sinks or flushing down the toilet is essential to keeping your drains in good condition. After all, drains are only designed to deal with liquids, and becoming careless about what you put into them could lead to a blockage. Here are five items you should certainly avoid putting down your drain to avoid causing damage: - Grease and oil Once you’ve finished cooking, it can seem tempting to simply pour leftover fat or grease down the sink and rinse it away with some washing up liquid. However, as these substances are so sticky, they can collect residue and debris inside your pipes and form clumps of fat that just won’t budge. Over time, these will begin to block your pipes until liquid can no longer pass, resulting in a blockage. -Food debris Whether you’re rinsing out a food carton to be recycled or are washing your plates after your evening meal, you may notice small bits of food running off into your sink. If they’re small enough, these will slip through your plug hole and through your pipes. However, over time, eggshells, grains of rice and other food debris can collect within your drainage system, bound by grease and oil. To avoid this, make sure you’re thorough when scraping food off your plates and bowls before putting them in the sink, and remove any items of food you notice collecting around your plug. - Wet wipes and paper towels As toilet paper is designed to dissolve and disintegrate quickly, it can usually pass through pipes and drains without much problem. However, other types of tissue and wipes, including baby and facial wipes, aren’t designed with the same qualities and are likely to cause blockages when flushed down the toilet. While they’re likely to pass through your pipes without much issue, they can become stuck in sewers and cause problems that are difficult to rectify. - Medication If you’ve found a bottle of cough syrup in your cupboard that went out of date a couple of years ago, you may be tempted to pour its contents down the drain before disposing of the bottle. However, medication, whether in liquid or solid form, should never be flushed into waterways. They contain chemicals which can contaminate water sources - even those you rely on for drinking water. With this in mind, make sure you never flush any pills or pour any medicine down the sink. - Hair As hair is natural matter, its appearance on this list may surprise you. However, as you’ll notice when sweeping your floors or washing your clothes, hair can become matted and clumped easily. These clumps can collect debris as they move through your pipes and, over time, can lead to blocked drains. To avoid this, make sure you bin clumps of hair instead of flushing them down the toilet, and make sure you remove any hair found wrapped around your shower’s plughole as soon as you’ve spotted it. If you’ve noticed that your drains are blocked, it’s time to call the professionals. At Drainage Consultants Ltd, based in Stockport, we offer a wide variety of domestic and commercial drainage solutions, including drain cleaning, CCTV drain surveys, drain mapping and much more. So, whether you need an emergency drain clearance or a pre-purchase drain survey, look no further for experts you can rely on. Get in touch with us at Drainage Consultants Ltd for a free, no-obligation quote today.

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