How to keep a sink drain clear?

[jetadore]

Having finally bit the bullet and spent best part of an hour tackling my slow draining kitchen sink (which involved disconnecting the pipe work, dismantling the waste and scooping out all the stinking black gunk), I am wondering is there a way of preventing this build up in the first place? At the moment it gradually gets worse and worse until I can’t take the slowness/smell and take it apart and clean it, which roughly happens every 6-12 months. Having read around, the black sludge is some sort of bacterial growth which lives off the food scraps that go down the sink. I’ve tried bicarbonate/vinegar/boiling water and drain unblocker they don't seem to help. I did notice that the sink waste has a stupid design and with lots of little crevices for bits to get stuck which no doubt contributes. Any tips?

I have to do either the vinegar and bicarb or mr muscle about once a fortnight to keep ours smelling clean

Every 3 months or so, use a bottle of Mr Muscle drain unblocker... leave for an hou

Oops.. leave for an hour or so, then rinse with hot water.

Same as above but we use One Shot drain unblocker. Nasty stuff but works a treat.

Never drain anything fatty down the sink. Liquids only. Fat is not a liquid as it solidifies when it gets cold.

Thanks for the suggestions, the problem is most of the blockage/slime growth seems to happen just under the plug hole, the u bend is clear, so pouring stuff down just bypasses it and goes to the ubend which isn’t the issue.

Do you also use a drain guard?

It’s like this, that’s a big part of the problem really, the slots are quite big and let stuff through but you can’t fit anything with a finer mesh over it.

Ah yes I see the problem 🙈

Haha, pretty much every sink has this type of plug these days! I would be very interested to know the logic behind this design, seems worse than the ‘old’ style plug holes.

I use the Oxo drain guard on top of the regular one (like yours). The holes are smaller. It works a treat.

Maybe you can fit a bottle brush down inside the drain and just dislodge the stuff every day or two so it can get washed down?

@TOclock Thanks! Yes that looks like just the job, been searching for something like that must have been googling wrong!

@BertieBotts Thanks that might work but there’s so many nooks and crannies it’s quite hard to clean. Plus I want to know why it’s 2022 and this is still even a problem? life’s too short to be bottle brushing my sink every 2 days!

Every time I brew up, I add a bit of extra water to the kettle and pour the excess boiling water down the sink.
Rarely have any blockages.

Half a cup of bleach down the sink every night. I've never had a blocked sink.

Thanks think I’ll get the strainer for now and see how that goes. Would rather not have to be chucking bleach/hot water/drain cleaner down the sink on the regular.

The strainer will just catch bits of food, not the gunk that's mixed with your washing up water.

Caustic soda approx once a month keeps mine clear. Then the occasional kettle full of boiling water.

Soda crystals. Leave them for half an hour then pour boiling water. My bathroom sink was terrible and I used all sorts of chemical stuff but it never stopped it for long. I used soda crystals about 6 months ago and still clear.