Cleaning Bathtubs: Should You Use a Drain Claw or Baking Soda?

There’s never not a time to start early with your spring cleaning. As a homeowner, one of the most challenging tasks in maintaining a home is keeping it clean and organized.

It’s one thing to deal with dust on your floor, and another altogether when it comes to dealing with your plumbing.

The hardest part of keeping a home clean is in dealing with the bathroom. It’s no wonder that one of the hardest places to clean is the exact same place you use to keep yourself clean.

A bathroom’s sink and shower drain force you to reach into the narrow crevices of pipes and tubes, which are almost always the hardest to get to and the most complicated to clean.

Drain claw or baking soda?

Clogs in drains are always an issue when it comes to cleaning out sinks, shower drains, and bathtubs due to the accumulation of hair, soap, and grime. This makes dealing with plumbing is one of the more frustrating pains when it comes to cleaning the house. It’s not something that you can just break apart and clean without putting in some elbow grease to get the work done.

In finding the right cleaning solution, pitting the ever-versatile drain claw against the time-tested baking soda agent can be a complicated battle to gauge.

Should I use a drain claw?

The use of a drain claw is a much simpler method compared to using baking soda. The auger works as an extended hook to grab objects blocking the water flow of the pipe.

Your drain claw is flexible enough to bend through the drain trap by feeling any obstructions to your drain’s water flow. The extension is then used to pull out blockages such as hair, grime, and soap scum along the way.

Should I use baking soda?

The use of baking soda is a common way of deep-cleaning your bathtub. Applying a bucketful of boiling water down the drain beforehand will prep it for the baking soda mixture that you’ll send down next. A quarter cup of baking soda followed by a cup of strong vinegar ought to do the trick for cleaning your drains.

You’ll see some evidence of the chemical reaction through the sound of bubbling, which signifies the chemical reaction of the vinegar and baking soda agent in the pipes. By then, all the gunk in the pipe should slip down the drain. To thoroughly wash the pipes off, pour down a second batch of boiling water to make sure that any remaining residue flows down the drain together with the leftover baking soda and vinegar.

Which is the better option?

Drain claws are the best tools to use if you’re dealing with fairly recent clogging, while the baking soda cleaning solution works best when dealing with a buildup of grime that’s hardened or stuck to your pipes. The best course of action is to make use of both—a drain claw to remove any solid objects blocking the drain, and baking soda to flush down any remaining sticky residue that dust and dirt might cling on to.

If your clogging persists, then it might be more than just a clogged drain that you have to deal with. You might need to perform an inspection of your entire system. It’s best to contact plumbing services if neither drain claw nor baking coda seems to do the trick.

If you’re looking for a professional touch to help you with your quarterly cleaning, our experienced team of plumbers will be more than happy to give you a hand. Contact us today to get the best professional plumbing services in San Diego.