Fat in my kitchen sink

[Primarygun]

My kitchen sink accumulated lots of fat and dirty water cannot be discharged.

I tried to put some drain cleaner but it failed to remove the oil.

It corrodes my kitchen sink instead of "eating" the oil. Eventually, I asked my parents' friend for help and the problem is solved.

I learn lipase from pancreatic juice can digest the lipid into fatty acids and glycerol which is soluble in water. Moreover, bile salts in bile emulsify lipid into small oil droplets and aids the removal of it./

Nevertheless, it is quite difficult for some normal civils to utilize them in this way.

Anyone knows some reagent which aids me to get rid of these oil?

[NeonBlack]

If you did something like accidentally pouring bacon grease down the drain, you can either get a plumber's "snake" or trying running hot water for half an hour.

[Primarygun]

It accumulates naturally for a long time.

[chemistry]

how 'bout just using some soap, or detergent?

[Primarygun]

how 'bout just using some soap, or detergent?

I don't think it helps as everyday washing dashes with detergent is my grandmother's routine service.

[Yggdrasil]

Well, bile salts are similar in structure and fuction to detergents. Sodium hydroxide (i.e. lye) helps break down fats into fatty acids and glycerol like a lipase and most drain cleaners contain sodium hydroxide. So, if those two things have failed, I don't know what I would try.

[Primarygun]

Where can I get lipase or bile?

lye also = ammonia+ bleach?

[Primarygun]

What happens if I pour some alcohol into it? more difficult?

[EL]

Anyone knows some reagent which aids me to get rid of these oil?

Plumbing usually goes further than obvious chemical knowledge.

One very important reason is that a chemical reaction cannot take place by wishing or remotely or at room temperature when it demands boiling for tens of minutes, etcetera.

Here is my advice:

Sew an adequate lump of cloth to a string with a ring, and let it slowly down the drain to where it clogs your drain completely. Keep the ring handy of course. put some solid NaOH and and add boiling water from a teapot type boiler. Wait for 30 minutes and shake the ring pulling out the cloth in many small jerks.

Let water run while washing the cloth then let the cloth plug your drain blocked end again.

This time add oil of orange peel (Oleum Aurantii Corticis), which contains limonene, citral, citronellal, methyl anthranilate; or add "Oven grease remover containing oil of orange peel" and it will do magic.

The secret is to keep it from being wasted down the drain by that blocking cloth, and give it enough time to dissolve whatever remains after caustic soda rinse.

Nothing bests that procedure except calling a professional plumber to do the job mechanically and thoroughly.

[coquina]

Using an old pan, get some industrial degreaser (the detergent kind, not the solvent kind) put some water in the pan, add the degreaser and bring to boil - stand there and watch it, or you will have soapsuds everywhere. Pour the boiling water down the drain, repeat until it is clear.

 

In the future, keep a metal can for grease in the fridge - pour any excess from cooking into it. It will harden into a solid lump - when the can is full and when you're ready to take out the trash, dump it into a grocery bag and discard.

[insane_alien]

just poke it with a big stick that always works

[Primarygun]

How about pouring organic solvent into the kitchen sink>?

[Thomas Kirby]

Please don't use boiling water and lye. It can cause a small explosion that will backfire up the tube and splatter whoever is there with the lye. This is not a good thing. You can often clear a sink drain by using a plunger. Dishwashing soap dissolves fats pretty well when the water is hot. It's a lot safer to mix with boiling water, too.

 

I think it is better, provided you can get any flow at all, to run a sink full of very hot, soapy water and let it drain through the clog, if the clog is just fat. If you can get the trap cleared just once, then you can do this a couple of times a week or more and keep it clear. Don't pour any fats or oils down the drain. Get an old jar and if you can't do anything else with it, just store it somewhere with the lid on. And if you do accidentally or on purpose put some down the drain, follow it with lots of hot soapy water to clear the trap. This isn't great, but it's better than being clogged. Then it's a good idea to use some diluted lye solution and some large volumes of hot water to clean the pipes below.

 

One more thing: Please do not put any kind of flammable substance down the drain. It is dangerous. It is not necessary. One thing that was mentioned in this thread, alcohol, is not very good for dissolving fats anyway. Really, lye works and is nonflammable, and it can be diluted for safety, but the only thing that should really be needed is dish soap.

[jdurg]

Lye does NOT equal ammonia solution and bleach. Don't EVER mix those chemicals. You'll wind up evolving very toxic and very nasty chloramine gases which can cause severe lung damage and even death. Lye is just the common name for the chemical sodium hydroxide. Kind of like how muriatic acid is the common name for hydrochloric acid and oil of vitriol is the common name for sulfuric acid.

 

Just don't ever mix chlorine bleach and ammonia when trying to clean something. Far too many people have died while making that mistake.

[YT2095]

basicly, if hot water or NaOH soln hasn`t worked, then I reccomend a "Brute force" tactic, it`ll involve a toilet brush a bucket and a pair of stilsons.

Using the Stilsons, take the `U` bend off WITH the bucket underneath it to catch any crap, Then use the brush in hot soapy water to clear it all out.

messy? YES... effective? MOST CERTAINLY!

[Newtonian]

Seems alot of advice is overblown.......look to your left on the window sill...should be a plastic bottle with a baby on it....called Fairy liquid.....you mix a eggcup amount with 6 parts hot water into the sink.....leave for around 20 minutes.....hey presto

[MulderMan]

http://www.mrmuscleonline.co.uk/index.html

 

Mr. Muscle!!

[Primarygun]

Is chloramine a component of drug?

[MulderMan]

not that i know of. its a toxic gas, that is sometimes used in low concentrations as a more stable (than chlorine) water purifier.

[budullewraagh]

my mother made my father clean with that mixture 50 years or so ago. he didnt die. he hated the smell.

 

i've heard that if proper parts are used, NCl3 can be produced along with NHCl2 and NHCl. all are unstable.

[jdurg]

Your father is a very fortuneate individual then. There is absolutely no argument about it; mixing chlorine bleach and aqueous ammonia results in the formation of very deadly chloramine gases. A quick search on google will probably bring up numerous examples of janitors or little old ladies who mixed the two things together in order to clean a bathroom and wound up getting seriously ill and/or passing away from the gas that is formed. Here in Connecticut there was a story about this a few years ago where a janitor at a school accidentally mixed large quantities of bleach and ammonia. I can't imagine the time he spent in the emergency room was a good one.

[Primarygun]

I could not fancy that is so deadly.

Since the reactions of either the reactants are usually toxic, I need to find some information about it before I handle those reactants

[Primarygun]

I add some information I got from the net here.

Bleach reacts with acid to give out greenish-yellow chlorine. Bleach also reacts with ammonia to form chloramine as you mentioned. It is a toxic gas which penetrate and injure the deep tissue of our lungs. They cannot be absorbed by the mucus lining on our respiratory tract (Can mucus lining on the tract absorb chlorine?) Then they turn back into HClO and NH3 and reacts with alveoli.

[YT2095]

don`t forget Hydrazine too, that also a byproduct of ammonia and chlorox.

[Thomas Kirby]

I'm wondering seriously if ammonia and bleach can be used to help clear a house of cockroaches. I don't know if the mix is flammable, though. Please don't read my name, I don't want anyone to know who wants to know or why! It can't be any worse than those bottles of fogger chemicals. As far as I know it doesn't leave a residue. It is considered safe to drink in dilution. So, unless it is more flammable than the stuff from bug bombs, what would the issues be? You have to clear the house of poisonous vapors anyway after bug bombing.

 

I looked it up. Chloramine is rated as slightly flammable and an irritant. Any inhaled irritant can kill anyone in large enough quantities. It doesn't have to be considered poisonous. You don't have to be an asthmatic to be killed by chloramine or by pepper spray, either. Still, it's scary to think that this stuff is used in our drinking water. We also know how nasty chlorine is, too, and it is used in our drinking water more often.