Sink unblocked sitting in sink won’t go down

[fluffydoglove]

The en suite sink has been very slow draining and sometimes water has been sitting in sink until following day..I’ve tried vinegar and baking soda twice a few days ago, drain snake nothing unblocked it.
So this evening about 7pm dh decided to put sink unblocker into sink but he had to remove stagnant water that had been sitting there first then he poured the unblocker into sink and its still sitting there it hasn’t moved.
I’m really stressed about toxic gas so I’ve come downstairs to try and sleep on settee not happening! dh is mad thinks I’m overreacting as I left the en suite light on for the vent and opened the bedroom window a bit.. I was scared fumes would get into our bedroom ..so I’m worried the chemical will still be sitting in sink in morning what do I do obviously we can’t get it out

Don't give up or panic, sometimes it takes repeated efforts to unblock. It may be that the blockage was dislodged with the first treatment and is now further along. I'd give it another bottle of unblocker.

We did this with our en suite basin, and it wasn’t a nice job but as PPs say, you need to unscrew the pipe underneath and manually clear / extract and clean the black gunk inside.

I have a brush from The Range i bought specifically for this job.

I remember doing this and tipping the dirty gunky water down the utility room sink, and then the washing machine is overflowing water into it now! Lol don't do what I did 🤣

We have a similar thing, it's very effective 👍

Thank you everyone..I’m not long home and I’m knackered..had a look at the sink and there’s still yellow/ brown water sitting there but a little less than this morning so a small amount has drained away but I still have water in the sink which has brought up the chemical unblocker too into the sink
The vent is on 24 hours now non stop but as there’s no window in the en suite I’ll have to leave the vent on so noisy though especially at bedtime 😟 I’m leaving my bedroom window open constantly too so there’s constant air flow .. if the chemical water is drained by morning I was thinking of pouring warm not hot water into the sink again? But then I’m thinking it’s just going to sit there again? I was hoping if warm water drained through I might attempt to unscrew the little bend pipe under the sink in a day or so I’m just worried about chemical sitting in the pipe so dangerous
Spoke to dh who didn’t care tbh and told me to pour another bottle of unblocker into the sink but that’s just going to sit there again too
There is no chemical or bleach smell in bathroom maybe because the vent is on all the time.. panicked last night reading about chloride gas being produced if an unblocker sat with vinegar which I had put in sink a few days before on two occasions..panicking was an understatement
what has my life become talking about bloody blocked sinks 😊🤣

How old are you? You’re acting a bit like a child. Drain unblocker is not “dangerous” the way you’re making out. No one is telling you to drink it. Jesus. Woman up.

Get a bucket, put on some rubber gloves and go under the sink. Slowly unscrew the pipe, the stuff will start pouring out into the bucket. Let it. Then take the ubend off, clean it and get your drain snake down the other pipe.

Why are you making such a meal out of this very very normal household event?

OP you sound unhinged. It really isn’t that dangerous. But if you are so scared of it call a plumber. You have had the same advice from almost everyone on this thread. What’s the point of asking if you are going to ignore the advice?

I find tipping a bucket of water from height can help due to the pressure of gravity but if the sink is still full it could just overflow. If it is nearly empty.it is worth a go.

If you have a push down plug, use a small spanner to remove the chrome bit that holds everything together than use a 'snake' blockage remover. It's a really easy job. When you done that flush it through with lots of boiling water.

Either take the u bend off, use more unblocker but follow the instructions this time, or use a drain snake then unblocker.

Yes, the drain unblocker will just sit there. That’s just what happens.

I find you need to use boiling water, warm water just doesn't move the blockage along. Often you will find soap suds,or actual bits of soap, bits of hair and toothpaste all stuck together. You need boiling water to melt the soap. Put on your marigolds and plunge the plug vigorously. It's quite satisfying if you hear a nice glug and then the sink is clear. And in future try baking soda, white vinegar and boiling water regularly.

There is little point putting warm water into the basin. It needs to be close enough to boiling to melt any fatty deposits.
Your washing machine will have a plastic hose and presumably you have a 90 degree option on that, so plastic can stand very hot temperatures. The pipes under my kitchen sink are plastic and I have no hesitation draining boiling water into that.
Boil a kettle and then add about 10% cold water, mix, and use that if you are concerned about actual boiling water.

I had a blockage in my kitchen sink, it was a pain in the ass but I managed to unscrew one of the the pipes under my sink, and had to free the plumb snake which had coiled its self around the pipes causing absalute chaos.

I will never use a plumb snake again, they can also damage pipes.

But I did manage to get ketchup on my right eyelid, under my glasses lense today so for me, anything is possible.

I ended up getting my locking wrench secured around the pipe which I could not release and with a bucket under neath the pipes I was then able to free the plumb snake, and after securing the pipe and the water just moved very fast down the sink.

I have very small hands and the locking wrench was essential.

It sounds like you are worried about combining different chemicals which is absolutely understandable (not 'unhinged'), you do need to be careful.

I had this problem a week ago, have you tried plunging the sink as well as digging up anything you can with a drain snake? You need to do it umpteen times, cover the overflow with the palm of your other hand or get someone else to help, you need to establish a good vacuum. This can push the blockage out of the ubend/trap and on down the pipe. (that worked with my kitchen sink last year). The unblocker will hopefully have loosened the mass, probably hair. In our case a hair elastic was stuck down there too trapping it all, it might be something like that.

A plumber once told me you could hold the hose of a vacuum cleaner over a blocked waste, it HAS to be a wet and dry model though.

Just call a plumber, don't use the sink and don't put anymore unblocker down.

Ensuite basin blocked - almost certainly hair mixed with soap gunk.

Drain unblocker will improve matters - but I don’t think they clear hair. Those long springs can help - but not always.

If the sink is full I find a wet vac useful to empty the sink - then relatively little is left when you remove the U bend/bottle trap.

its a bit of a gruesome task but cleaning out this should resolve matters properly.

Bonus - no fumes!

Everyone is suggesting it is blocked with gunk or hair, but if you live in a hard water area, you might find that your pipes are blocked with limescale. Having tried drain unblocker fluid, drain snake, plunger etc., we had to call in a plumber as we cannot access the u-bend due to the stupid design of the basin. The plumber had to replace the u-bend and showed me the old one. It was almost totally filled with limescale. The basin still drains slowly, but that is probably due to limescale further along the pipes than the u-bend and that is likely to be a very expensive plumbers visit, so we are putting up with a slow draining sink for now.

Why assume he has to do it? In my house I've always unblocked sinks, not frequently but a couple of times in 50 years. I also went and unblocked the toilet in sons student house, now that was unpleasant.

Be brave OP. Get under the sink with thick rubber gloves on and a bucket and undo the plastic bend pipe (turn left to loosen and right to tighten).

get rid of gunk in the u bend, poke about the pipe to check it’s cleared and screw plastic pipe back on.

i wouldn’t add any more unblocker down there since it’s not working. And definitely don’t add any other chemicals as they may react with the one already in the sink/pipes.

Here’s a video. https://www.youtube.com/shorts/VLGv6T-cm4

If you do it you’ll feel very proud of your new skills

Me, too, which is how I know about it 🙄 OP said her DH was taking care of it.

I've always been the one to get the rods out and rod the drains..I'm an expert!

Get something like this OP. I have this exact one. It’s brilliant at clearing hair and blockages www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B0B9N5DBTH?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_mob_b_asin_title

If it is causing this much stress call a plumber. Watch and see how to unblock for any future time.

@fluffydoglove was it sorted in the end? If not I was going to suggest looking at what type of plunger you have and if a traditional style one (like a stick with a done), maybe consider trying the newfangled concertina type (I think they’re called the Luigi ‘worlds best plunger’ or something like it).

We had super slow draining water for weeks and I tried everything, I was getting desperate because I really wanted to avoid a plumber call out fee. I even got under the bath pipes and spent money on a drain snake etc. As a last attempt I bought a concertina type plunger on Amazon thinking I’d send it back if it turned out to be shit. Covered the overflow with a wet towel, gave it three big pumps with the new plunger and it made a massive gurgling noise and all went down in seconds!! I was shocked, elated and a little annoyed!
Turned out our old plunger just wasn’t very effective anymore (we also got meek blackish water when we first tried it). But this new plunger was very very powerful.
I’m keeping it!

If you do call someone in, make sure they are aware that you have used drain unblocker product and that some of it may still be sitting in the pipework. He won’t want a face full of caustic either.

Hi no not sorted but not for the want of trying.. I had a go yesterday I undid the p trap ( u bend) think that’s what it’s called.. emptied out the lingering water/ chemical that was sitting there… there was hardly any gunk but cleaned it anyway then I could see black gunk in pipe I detached p trap from and pulled out as much as I could I also had a little drain snake so I used that too but had trouble getting round the bend .. blockage is obviously far back.. put everything back together and turned tap on and it just stayed in the sink 😩 had to scoop it out the sink

Dh got home this morning and while I was at work
he decided to put down a half bottle of sink unblocker a different brand than the other day and boiling water.. I got home this evening and we have a sink full of unblocker and water 😳 it’s not draining at all now
scooped out all the chemical water the room stinks like bleach so got the vent on constantly again ..a little bit of unblocker did seep down as there was a trickle from p trap and has left a yellow stain on shelf underneath
I was fuming with dh using two different brand unblockers in two days..mixing of chemicals
Ringing a plumber Monday morning