DH has poured hot fat down the kitchen sink, and it's now blocked - how do we clear it?

[thereistheball]

I carefully siphoned off a bowl of fat from an oven full of sausages yesterday, which DH then poured down the sink. This morning both sinks are blocked with solid fat. What's the best way to clear it? Lots of boiling water? Thanks!

Boiling water and a good poke with a skewer or something similar

oh and neat washing up liquid

You need to get to the u-bend and start clearing from there. Hopefully it won't have gone much further. It's a horrid job so it sounds like he should do it (it will make him never do that again). If the u-bend doesn't clear it completely then you need some strong sink/drain cleaner. Hot water isn't enough....

preferably start by taking off the trap from under the sink and scraping the sludge off into the bin.

Boiling water will temporarily melt it so it resolidifies further down the drain where it may be even harder to get rid off.

Get some washing soda crystals after reassembling the cleaned trap, put them down the plughole and slowly pour your hot water over them so it is a solution of hot soda washing over the grease residues. You had better do it at least once a week for a month.

As you probably know, cooking fat should never be poured down a sink, it can be tipped into an empty tin to solidify, then put in the bin or scraped out for the birds. Cooking oil can be mopped up with kitchen roll.

I've just told DH about this problem.

He suggest poking all the bits of congealed fat out, heating them, then pouring it on the errant DH.
:o

"we" don't. He does. Silly sod!

Buy a new house

caustic soda? i bung it down drains to clear them

If caustic soda doesn't work then go to your nearest plumbing shop ( not wickes or homebase or such) as they can sell you super strong drain cleaner I think it was sulphuric acid I got that did the trick on our blocked drains. It is noxious though so be sure you really need it before going that route. I was forced to sit outside the front of the house for an hour ( it was my outside back drain) as despite having all doors and windows closed the most awful smell invaded the house ( tip put in all the plugs) and then when safe to venture into back garden it took another hour or so to clear the smell from the house.

take the s-bend apart.

scrape out as much as you can.
then flush it out with strong detergent - bleach or even mr muscle sink unblocker.

don't use just boiling water.

Caustic soda.

Sorry it took me a while to get back to this. Thanks for all your answers. DH managed to unblock it with some drain cleaner in the end. It smelled grim so I left him to it. Thanks again.