The reason why plumbers put salt down the toilet is to kill tree roots that infiltrate sewer lines as well as to break down minor clogs that are caused by grease or waste and to also deodorize the drain by neutralizing bacteria.
Rock salt when flushed down the toilet into the main sewer line, will dehydrate and kill tree roots, which have penetrated the sewer lines, which prevents major backups.
Salt also has a natural abrasive texture that acts as a mild scrub to help dislodge grease or fat buildup, especially when it's mixed with hot water, vinegar or citric acid.
Salt also absorbs moisture and inhibits growth of bacteria, which also helps to get rid of foul smelling bacteria.
Although you have to be careful when flushing salt down the toilet as too much salt or frequent flushing of salt down the toilet can also be corrosive to older metal pipes such as cast iron and if you have a septic system, the excess salt flushed down the toilet can kill the beneficial bacteria that is required to break down the waste.
Vinegar is often also poured down sink drains and other drains because the vinegar poured down the sink and other drains acts as a natural odor eliminator as well as breaks down mineral deposits and loosens mild organic buildup in the sink drain.
Although vinegar is also often touted as a miracle clog remover, the actual capabilities of vinegar when poured down the drain are also widely misunderstood.
Distilled white vinegar contains around 5 percent acetic acid, which acts as a mild and non toxic cleaner.
When the white distilled vinegar is allowed to sit in a drain for a couple of hours, it effectively targets specific minor issues which include cleaning garbage disposables, neutralizing odors and dissolving hard water buildup.
Vinegar refreshes your garbage disposable mechanics and also cuts through surface grease film.
Vinegar also kills odor causing bacteria in the drain and breaks down smelly organic sludge that gets trapped in your sink's P-trap.
And the acid in vinegar breaks down alkaline scale, calcium and limescale deposits that narrow the drain pipes and slows down the water from draining out.
Many tutorials also recommend that you pour down baking soda into the sink drain, then follow that by vinegar to get rid of clogs, using the resulting fizz.
Although the reaction between the baking soda and vinegar are mainly ineffective at clearing clogs.
The baking soda, which is a base and the vinegar, which is an acid quickly cancel each other out, which essentially creates salty water and carbon dioxide gas.
The bubbling reaction between the baking soda and vinegar only creates cleaning pressure in a tightly sealed container, but in an open sink drain, the gas just simply escapes harmlessly out of the top.
And neither baking soda or vinegar can dissolve hair or even emulsify heavy kitchen grease, which are the 2 main causes behind severe sink drain blockages and clogs.
And unreacted baking soda can also settle in the drain pipe and then compact into a hard, rock like chunk, which makes an existing blockage much worse than it was in the first place.
If you do want to use vinegar to clean the drains and control odors in the sink drains or other drains, it's best to avoid the baking soda and just use the vinegar.
When using vinegar in the drain, combine a 1:1 ratio of white vinegar and warm water.
Then pour 1 to 2 cups of the mixture straight down the drain and allow it to sit for 30 minutes to a couple of hours without running any water and then flush out the line completely with hot tap water.