Husband poured boiling water down bathroom sink, huge row!

[ThatLilacHedgehog]

I have a blocked bathroom sink upstairs, my husband tried pouring kettle boiling water down the sink, I told him not to, but when he poured it, smoke from the boiling water was coming out from where the pipes are no water appears to be leaking, just steam from the pipes.

has my husband caused problems? Am I being unreasonable in being angry with him?

could the boiling hot water have melted or caused a leak in the pipes?

I would unscrew the U bend and clean it out, that's where the blockage is likely to be. Just have a bowl underneath while you dismantle it. It's not difficult, just messy.

Fuck me, really?

Are you new around here (I'm joking I think)

Rigid PVC like those used in pipes have a melting point of at least 160C
Number of times boiling water is put down will not affect the melting point of a substance.
PVC is specifically used because it is highly resistant to heating a cooling.

They really are.

Now if you were running constant boiling water down there, for a considerable amount of time, then you might cause an issue. But occasionally dumping a kettle of boiling water down or every time you drain pasta... no. If an issue occurs, it is because there is a fault in the pipe work (abs plastic too thin, shitty batch, pvc already damaged, damaged joints) and it would have gone eventually regardless of what you put down.

And as others have said, the pipes from your bathroom sink are the same as the ones from your kitchen sink, they will withstand boiling water (otherwise you wouldn't be able to drain your boiled veg or pasta!)

She's also not entirely wrong, but many responses are.

https://callwisler.com/can-boiling-water-damage-my-kitchen-sink-pipes/

https://www.atlantisplumbing.com/articles/pour-boiling-water-down-sink/#:~:text=The%20general%20rule%20of%20thumb,leaks%20and%20eventually%20requiring%20replacement.

Again, it is unlikely that pouring boiling water down a sink with PVC pipes on a single occasion will cause any significant damage, but they are not designed to withstand that heat and, if done regularly, there is every chance that the pipes will become damaged.

I always put boiling water down if there is a block, usually after putting some unblocker gel down it too. It literally says in the instructions to use boiling water

Unless we are missing something I think you owe him an apology

Well. This is embarrassing 😂

Am I being unreasonable in being angry with him?

Yes. Sorry OP but this is insane. Fair enough if he poured it straight into the floor, but down the sink ffs come on!!!

Go and apologise to him if you haven’t already.

This place never fails to entertain me 😂

The bathroom pipes and your kitchen pipes are made out of the same stuff. You no doubt happily pour boiling water down your kitchen sink. He hasn't done any damage.

Do you really not know anything about how metal/pipes etc how can boiling water melt pipes???? on another note, we have a bathroom sink that always gets blocked, first thing i do is pour hot boiling water down in it. Its a temporary solution until i can get a tub of sink unblockeer. You should go and apologise to your husband. What a ridiculous thing to be angry about.

The steam is from pre-existing dampness (condensation) on the outside of the pipes.

Can yo take my pigeon for a swim at the same time please ( but mind your fish doesn't drowned)

I don't know why people keep recommending the baking soda and vinegar thing. All you are doing is combining and asset and a base. Even with the faintest grasp of chemistry people should know that all that produces is a salt and water - ph neutral. Sure, it is an exothermic reaction - it fizzes a bit - but there is no way that it has enough force to clear a blocked pipe. If you put hot water down after it, it is the hot water which is likely to clear it. I've seen some science teacher show this with a lump of butter standing in for a fat blockage in the drain.

Yes, boiling water from a kettle - which is much hotter than tap water - can damage plastic pipes because after all who has boiling water coming out of their taps. It does though tend to require repeated exposure.

I favour the plunger myself. Or in appropriate situations a knitting needle if the blockage is near the plughole. I am very cautious of caustic soda because if it is blocked and doesn't clear it, you then have a blocked drain that now has caustic soda swilling about in it. We had to get a specialist in to clear our blocked drain - it was unfortunately in the bit of pipe under our front lawn.

🤔

😂

your are a bit nuts here OP. but I will say one of the things I find sexiest about my dh is that he knows how to deal with pipes, blockages, all that stuff.

aww I’m just visualising the dramatic scene with poor OP seeing the steam and fuming at him haha

Definitely find him and apologise - it doesn’t have to be a big deal or something that needs to drag out. It sounds like it was a heat of the moment lapse in judgement perhaps, where you didn’t feel listened to and wasn’t sure what was going on, but ultimately the pipes should be able to withstand boiling water. For example my drain cleaner recommends flushing drains with hot water, I just fill the kettle and pour it in the sink/tub and nothing negative has happened. The only way I really foresee this being an issue is if there’s some shoddy pipework involved or other issues at play.

We use a sink unblocker and that actually recommends using boiling water to wash down the pipes after you've used the unblocker. I can't imagine it'd be recommended if it melted pipes.

@ThatLilacHedgehog Did you never do simple Physics at school? Steam is water in gaseous state, like ice is water in solid state.

It can't possibly be 'Smoke'.

Boiling water is fine down any of your household pipes.. it'll cool down pretty quickly anyway. A kettle's full definitely not going to do harm.

I think you should apologise to your husband. People make mistakes. I was once driving my husband's car and had an accident. I rang him up to tell him and the first thing he said was that the car didn't matter and what mattered was I was okay. (This was even before he found out that I'd been properly parked and somebody had hit me pulling out behind me.) I've always respected him for being forgiving about things - that's why I've been married for a long time. Getting new pipes or a plumber is a lot less bother than finding a new husband.

Actual steam is completely transparent. What we generally call 'steam' is condensed water droplets after water vapour in the air or real steam has cooled down and condensed back to water.

Maybe there was condensation on the pipes and the heating of the water going through the pipes turned it into steam.