Best Natural Homemade Drain Opener

Hate the toxic, chemical drain cleaners? These simple and natural homemade drain opener methods will unclog and clean a drain the healthy, safe way!

Non Toxic Drain Cleaner

As promised in my Natural Fruit Fly Repellent post, I’m back sharing my homemade drain opener recipes. We’ve moved into a new house and we’ve got our own sewer system so our concern for its proper functioning is higher than the norm. We now religiously check the system (pipes, drains and all) to make sure everything works properly.

Part of the routine is cleaning the drains regularly, using a natural drain unclogger. And if you are a freak like me you will want to do that every single week! It may not be a necessary step on a brand new system but I swear to you, I have no choice, the voices tell me to! Especially when a funny smell comes out of your drains, or so it seems to the mentioned voices.

Drain cleaners are made with some of the most toxic chemicals and may have a serious impact on your health and the environment, on a long term. They can be harmful to your health if swallowed, inhaled, or come in contact with your skin. Also some cleaners only work in certain types of pipes and drains and are effective only on certain clogs.

Plus commercial drain cleaners corrode pipes, are bad for septic systems and are toxic to ground water. This poses a great problem for us as we also have our own water supply. It is filtered but chemicals are harder to remove completely than organic materials.

So the only decent solution is a homemade drain opener. It’s easy to make, it uses stuff you most likely already have on hand, it takes minutes to clean the drain and keeps the environment and yourself healthy. In fact I’ve got not one but 3 methods I use, the best drain unblocker ideas!

Homemade Drain Opener Ideas

Vinegar baking soda sewer and drain cleaning

• Make a cone out of paper or carton.
• Cut a whole at the bottom
• Place the cone at the drain opening
• Pour 1 cup of baking soda down the drain through the cone, making sure baking soda doesn’t get caught, clogging the drain at the opening
• Remove the cone
• Quickly pour 1 cup of vinegar and cover the drain immediately as the mixture will bubble and tend to come out the drain. You need it to work inside the drain not out.
• Leave to work for 30 minutes. The resultant chemical reaction will break down fatty acids into harmless soap and glycerin that can be washed down the drain.
• Meanwhile heat a few gallons of water but don’t bring to a boil
• After 30 minutes pour down the drain and leave to cool without pouring cold water for 30 minutes

Do not use this method after trying a commercial drain opener as the vinegar can react with the drain opener to create dangerous fumes.

Lemon juice natural drain unclogger for light cleaning

• Squeeze the juice of 20 lemons
• Heat but not to a boil
• Pour down the drain and leave for at least 30 minutes
• Heat water and pour down the drain after 30 minutes

Non toxic drain cleaner with salt for strong cleaning

• Mix 2 cups coarse (kosher) salt with 1 gallon water
• Heat but don’t bring to a boil
• Pour down the drain and leave to work for 30 minutes
• You may follow with the lemon juice drain cleaner if there are dirty traces left.

Caution: Plastic pipes can melt if excess boiling water is used. 

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