To clean drains, plumbers recommend using hot water flushes, enzyme cleaners, physical strainers and plungers, drain snakes and when needed professional hydro-jetting.
For severe or recurring drain blockages deep inside your sewer line, plumbers rely on high pressure water or commercial grade mechanical drain snakes to scour drain pipes and sewer pipes safely.
Plumbers also recommend using drain snakes like a small manual or motorized drain snake or hair removal tool to pull out hair and debris that is trapped near the opening or inside the P trap.
And plungers are also great for sinks and tubs to break up shallow blockages using air pressure.
Most plumbers also agree that you should not use baking soda and vinegar to unclog a drain as it really does not work and could actually make the clog worse in some cases.
The reason why you should never use baking soda and vinegar to unclog a drain is because the baking soda and vinegars chemical reaction actually neutralizes both ingredients into mostly water and carbon dioxide, which lacks the needed power to dissolve real blockages in drains.
Baking soda is a base and vinegar is an acid, so mixing them together creates a dramatic fizz, although the reaction turns them into water, carbon dioxide gas and a mild salt called sodium acetate.
Using baking soda and vinegar to clear or unclog a drain is not any more useful for even cleaning than just mixing it with plain water.
Neither the baking soda or vinegar act as a surfactant or detergent either and they can't break down or lift oils, fats and soap scum off of drain pipe walls.
The fizzing reaction between the baking soda and vinegar also creates pressure only inside a tight, sealed space.
But in an open drain, the bubbles from the baking soda and vinegar reacting, just escape upward out of the drain opening, instead of forcing a heavy clog downward.
Also unreacted baking soda or leftover sodium acetate can also settle and harden inside the drain pipes and turn into a rock like sludge, which worsens the original blockage.
The best alternatives to clearing a drain are to use a plunger, drain snake or clean the trap if possible.
A plunger creates physical push and pull suction to dislodge or pull hair and debris back up.
A drain snake or auger is a flexible cable that physically hooks onto and pulls out deep clogs from a drain pipe.
And if possible and if the clog is in the trap, removing and manually emptying the trap under the sink for example, which is a curved U pipe directly clears the clog or blockage without use of chemicals.