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Warranties
Salmon Plumbing offers a 6 and half year warranty as per the Queensland Building & Construction Commission (QBCC).
Updated 2024 by John Salmon. When winter rolls around, bring on the hot chips and gravy. Bring on all the carb-rich comfort foods like roasts, soups and casseroles. Anything to keep your belly full and hands warm while embracing all the comforts winter draws us to. Unfortunately, these foods can also cause blocked drains. A kitchen sink blockage caused by congealed fat needs to be dealt with urgently as it will likely trap additional debris and get out of hand fast. It’s not just winter, kitchen sink blockages can happen at any time, but the grossest one? Let’s talk Fatbergs.
Common kitchen sink blockage
Oils and fats rinsed down the kitchen sink drain are notorious for causing kitchen sink blockages. It can happen all year round but in winter, as your pipes are cold, the fats congeal and form solid clumps, or as Queensland Urban Utilities likes to call them Fatbergs. These solid masses of fat will block your drains and grab passing debris to create all kinds of problems, in your kitchen sink, your pipes and eventually in sewers.
How to avoid kitchen sink blockages caused by fatbergs
It’s sacrilege to leave gravy on a plate, but some people are just heathens. If you’ve got oil, fats, or gravy to dispose of, don’t wash them down the sink. Here’s a few good habits to avoid a fatberg kitchen sink blockage:
Allow the fats to cool and solidify then scrape them into the bin.
When rinsing roasting trays or plates with oil slicks or excess sauces and gravy, immediately turn the hot water tap on to ‘flush’ away the oils from the trap.
For extra measure, boil the kettle and pour boiling hot water down the kitchen sink to ensure the breakdown of the fats and oils.
A small squirt of dishwashing liquid down the drain and a full bowl of water drained down the sink will disperse the oils in the pipes, which will prevent blockage.
Oil is just the tip of the Fatberg
Not going to lie, I like saying fatberg. For are we not all fatbergs in winter to some extent? Grease is just one cause of a blocked kitchen sink. And it can just be the start of a much bigger problem. Once a fatberg forms, it can catch other “stuff” causing a bigger problem, fast. What else could be causing a kitchen sink blockage?
Soap Scum. A build up of dried soap scum, usually from hand soap can cause kitchen sink blockages. Run hot water down your sink regularly to avoid material drying in the pipes.
Food Scraps and Coffee Grounds. Yes, we’ve all been guilty of flushing a few coffee grounds down the sink. It’s hard to make good choices before you’ve had coffee. Fit a “waste trap” in the sink’s drain to catch all those bits and pieces that can cause blockages.
Dishwasher and Garbage Disposal Problems. If your dishwasher is draining food matter into the kitchen sink drain, or you’re overlading your garbage disposal, you could be inadvertently causing blockages. Regularly clean your dishwasher, make sure the food trap is in place. Keep your garbage disposal system well maintained and avoid overloading it as it will let larger particles into the drain pipe.
Children. Look, it seems a bit mean to say but the number of times we’ve been called out to a kitchen sink blockage caused by…. nerf bullets, Barbie doll parts, those little balls that swell up in water (WHY) – first step in a sudden and unexpected kitchen sink blockage is to ask the little darlings if they’ve been up to no good!
Flash flooding or backed up pipes. Sometimes a blockage isn’t a blockage. When your drainage system is overwhelmed from another source, it may appear that your kitchen sink has a blockage when actually there’s just nowhere for the water to go. If you notice a bad smell, gurgling or slow drainage in your kitchen sink, that comes on suddenly, during a weather incident – you may need an emergency plumber.
DIY tricks on clearing your blocked sink
There are a few DIY tricks that can break
up a blocked kitchen sink.
Sprinkle bi-carb soda and pour hot vinegar (microwave for 1 minute) down the drain.
Use a household plunger to loosen the blockage
Undo the sink trap and pour the water into the sink with the plugin. Ensure the trap is free of food blockages.
Pour a household drain cleaner down the sink. These are readily available from your local hardware or grocery store. Do try the natural remedies before going down the chemical aisle.
If none of these remedies removes the blockage, it’s time to call your local Brisbane plumber. A drain cleaning machine or an electric eel may need to be used to blast away the kitchen sink blockage. Salmon Plumbing is experienced in types of blockages. Contact the team to get your kitchen sink unblocked today.
