Can You Use Drano in a Kitchen Sink? Read This Before You Use It!

If you’re dealing with a clogged kitchen sink, it can be easy to go to the drain-cleaning aisle at the store and pick up a bottle of Drano. But Drano is an extremely harsh chemical, so is it something that you want to pour down your kitchen sink?

The truth is that while you can use Drano in your kitchen sink, we recommend trying every other option at your disposal first. But why is this the case and what other options should you try? We answer those questions and more for you here.

Can You Use Drano in a Kitchen Sink?

Yes, you can use Drano in a kitchen sink. But that doesn’t mean you should. It’s an incredibly harsh chemical, and if you use it too much, it can wear down various components.

Eventually, Drano can damage pipes, fittings, or the garbage disposal inside the sink. The process in which this happens involves caustic or acidic wear, and it’s because Drano produces heat as part of its clog-cleaning process.

One or two uses of Drano shouldn’t cause too many problems, but repeated use can end up creating a significant amount of damage.

So, while you can use Drano to clean a kitchen sink, we recommend it as a method of last resort.

The 3 Other Ways to Unclog a Kitchen Sink

Here are three methods that you should try to clean out your kitchen sink before reaching for a bottle of Drano.

1. Clearing the Garbage Disposal

If your sink has a garbage disposal, this is the first thing that you should try to unclog the sink. On the bottom of the garbage disposal under the sink, you should see a hexhead socket hole. Use a hex head to twist this.

This will manually spin the garbage disposal and help break up any of the gunk inside. It’s a quick and easy way that you can break up most clogs inside of a garbage disposal.

2. Plunging the Sink

There’s a reason that you can find so many memes and videos of someone plunging a clogged drain — it works! But before you run to the bathroom and grab a toilet plunger to try to unclog the sink, invest in a sink plunger instead.

Sink plungers will give you a much better seal around the smaller opening of a kitchen sink, giving you a better chance of unclogging the drain during the plunging process. Also, you won’t have to use a plunger that’s been in your bathroom toilet!

3. Snaking the Drain

If you call a professional to unclog your sink, chances are that they’ll disconnect the pipe from the P-trap, clean the trap, and snake out the rest of the pipe. This is the ideal way to unclog a kitchen pipe, but it takes a bit of work, and if you do it yourself, you might end up needing a larger snake for the pipe than you have.

Also, this is often a messy process, so gather plenty of towels before you start disconnecting pipes.

Final Thoughts

While a clogged kitchen sink can be frustrating, if you’re constantly reaching for a bottle of Drano to fix the problem, you might have more serious issues in the future.

It’s fine to keep a bottle of Drano on hand in case of an emergency, but we highly recommend trying every other option at your disposal first, so you don’t accidentally turn a small problem into a big one.

Featured Image Credit: onebit, Shutterstock