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How to Avoid Hairball Clogs in Your Bathroom Drains

They say that long hair is a woman's crowning glory, but it is much less royal living in a home with one or more women with long hair. By the time you reach 12 years of age, your hair bundles peak, which coincides with the regularity of blocked drains in your home, particularly if you have several teens in the home. While it is common to lose 100 hair shafts per day, you could lose a lot more when you're under stress, sick or if you have a full head of hair.

While normal hair loss is nothing to worry about, the fact that it causes drain clogs can be super annoying. Hairballs can clog drains, causing slow draining, bad odors, flooding and leaks. So how do you prevent hairballs from causing major blockages and backups?

While it is often easy to unclog drains using a plunger or drain auger, it is best to avoid it. Thankfully, there are several things you can do to prevent hairballs from clogging your drains.

Here are 4 ways to keep hairballs from clogging your drains:

1. Clean Out Your Drains

You may not notice an obvious clog, but being proactive can help prevent damage. Over time, hair, soap and other residues can build up in your drains, causing major blockages. You can clean your drains by filling the basin to the top and then pulling out the plug to allow the water to rush through the drains, clearing crud from within your pipes. Every few months, do a bicarbonate of soda and vinegar rinse, followed by boiling water.

2. Cover Up the Drain Holes

Invest in drain screens. They are cheap, yet effective at keeping hair, pieces of soap and other items out of your drains. However, you must regularly empty the contents into the trash to ensure that the shower drains fast.

3. Clean Your Popup Stoppers

If your housemates wash their hair in the bath or basin, which use popup stoppers, be sure to clean the stoppers regularly. While the stoppers are handy and aesthetically pleasing, they tend to be a major cause of clogs if not cleaned regularly. Hair, soap and other residues collect underneath the popup stoppers, resulting in clogs. Pull the stoppers out of the drain regularly, clean them off, and throw any gunk in the trash.

4. Keep Everything But Water Out

The only things that should ever go down your bath, shower or basin drains, should be light toothpaste and soap residues. It is inevitable that hair, skin cells and skin oils will also enter the drains - that's unavoidable. Everything else should never enter the drains: not lotions, creams, liquids, coffee grounds, or other food items, pieces of string or anything else. Chemicals or chemical drain cleaning solutions can cause clogs or even corrosion within the pipes, resulting in leaks and potential property damage.

If your drains are clogged with hair, you can use one of the following methods to unclog it:

  • a plunger
  • a wet and dry vacuum cleaner
  • a drain auger

If none of the above methods work, please get in touch with Anta Plumbing and we'll get it sorted out in no time.

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Written by Anta

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