Kitchen Sink Clogged? Here’s What to Do

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Safely unblock pipes full of food, grease, and gunk in no time

Co-authored by Raymond Chiu and Cheyenne Main

Last Updated: July 24, 2024 Fact Checked

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• Plunger
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• Boiling Water
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• Garbage Disposal
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• Baking Soda & Vinegar
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• Wet/Dry Vacuum
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• Auger
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• Clearing the Pipes Underneath
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• Drain Cleaner
|
• When to Call a Pro
|
• Preventing Clogs
|
• Video
|
• Expert Q&A
|
• Tips

|Show more |Show less

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If your kitchen sink is slow to drain or if it’s completely stopped draining, you probably have a clog somewhere in the pipes. Don’t worry! We’ve got all the best methods to get it working correctly again. Whatever method you try, make sure to wear rubber gloves to protect yourself as you work. We interviewed a plumber and a home improvement specialist to find the best ways to unclog a kitchen sink at home, and a house cleaning professional for tips on keeping it unclogged in the future. Keep reading for more!

Best Ways to Unclog a Kitchen Sink

1. Plunge the sink with a regular bell plunger.
2. Boil a pot of water and pour it down the drain.
3. Turn on the garbage disposal.
4. Pour baking soda and vinegar into the clogged drain.
5. Vacuum out the clog with a wet vac.
6. Disconnect the P-trap under the sink and clear it out.

Steps

Section 1 of 10:

Plunging the Kitchen Sink

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1. 1
   Fill the sink with a few inches of warm or hot water. If there isn’t standing water in your sink already, turn on the hot water tap and let it run for a few minutes. If there’s too much water in the sink, scoop the excess out with a bucket and dispose of it in another sink, pour it outside, or flush it down a toilet.

   • This is the best method to use if your sink isn’t draining at all.
   • If there’s an overflow drain on the side of your sink, cover it with a wet towel to prevent air from escaping, which can decrease the plunger’s suction power.
2. 2
   Place the rubber bell over the sink drain and press down. Submerge the plunger’s bell in the water and make sure it completely covers the drain. If you have a double sink, stuff a damp washcloth into the unclogged drain to ensure that the plunger's pressure is focused on the clog. Push on the handle gently to release the air from the bell.

   • Create a tighter seal around the plunger by applying a small amount of petroleum jelly to the rim.
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3. 3
   Thrust the handle up and down to apply pressure down the drain. Plunge with quick and deliberate thrusts, keeping the bell pressed against the drain. The air from the bell will push into the pipes, dislodging the clog. Continue for 20 seconds, then pull the plunger off the drain opening and see if the water starts to drain.

   • If the clog isn’t clear, plunge once more for 20 seconds. If the clog still doesn’t budge, try a different method in this list.
   • Professional plumber David Balkan says “you never want to put in a chemical drain cleaner and then use a plunger because that will splatter and commercial chemical drain cleaners can burn” your skin.
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Section 2 of 10:

Using Boiling Water

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1. Boil a pot of water and carefully pour it down the clogged drain. If the water in your sink is draining slowly, wait until it’s empty or until there’s only about 0.5 in (1.3 cm) of water sitting at the bottom. Bring a kettle or pot of water to a boil, then pour it down the drain. The heat can help break up the grease and break up the clog.

   • Repeat 2 to 3 times, letting the pipes rest for about a minute between batches. If the clog still doesn’t clear, keep reading for another way to get rid of it.
   • If the standing water in your sink isn’t draining at all, adding more water will not unclog it. If that’s the case, try another method.

Section 3 of 10:

Using the Garbage Disposal

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1. Run the garbage disposal to see if that dislodges the clog. If your kitchen sink has a garbage disposal, home improvement specialist Allen Lee says to “go ahead and run some water and turn that garbage disposal on because sometimes food particles and stuff gets caught in the garbage disposal itself.”

   • If the garbage disposal isn’t working (and you’ve confirmed that it’s plugged in), press the reset button on the side or bottom part of the disposer under your sink.
   • If your garbage disposal still doesn’t work, you may need to call a professional or replace it.
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Section 4 of 10:

Using Baking Soda and Vinegar

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1. 1
   Pour 1 part baking soda and 2 parts vinegar down the drain. Measure and pour 1 cup (272 g) of baking soda down the clogged drain. Slowly add about 2  c (470 mL) of white distilled vinegar. Allow the mixture to dissolve the clog for about 15 minutes.

   • The mixture will bubble and fizz—this means the two ingredients are reacting, which can help break up the grease and dirt in your drain.
   • If there’s no standing water in your sink, cover the drain and let the mixture sit for about 5 minutes instead.
2. 2
   Chase the baking soda and vinegar with boiling water. Boil a pot of water on the stove or heat up a kettle with water. Pour it down the drain to melt away the grease and wash the clog through the drain.

   • Repeat these steps 2 to 3 times, or until the clog is gone. If the clog is still there after that, try another method.
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Section 5 of 10:

Vacuuming Out the Kitchen Sink Clog

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1. Put a vacuum hose on the drain and turn the vacuum on the highest setting. Place the hose against the drain. Secure the edges with painter’s tape or poke the hose through the end of a plastic bag so the air is less likely to leak through. Turn on the vacuum. The pressure of the suction can dislodge the clog, sending it into the vacuum.

   • If there’s an overflow drain on the sidewall of your sink, block it with a damp cloth or cover it with a piece of duct tape or painter’s tape.
   • If the clog is on one side of a double-sided sink, seal up the unclogged side with a rubber drain stopper first.
   • Unscrew the P-trap underneath the sink and attach the hose to the pipe coming out of the wall if you suspect your clog is in the wall pipes.

Section 6 of 10:

Using an Auger to Dislodge the Clog

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1. 1
   Insert the auger into the drain and twist the hand crank. An auger, or plumber’s snake, has a long coiled metal cable with a hook or sharp piece at the tip, which grabs onto the clog. Insert the tip into the drain that doesn’t have a garbage disposal inside it. Twist the hand crank to release the wire cable deeper into the pipes.

   • If your auger doesn’t have a hand crank, simply feed the wire deeper and deeper into the pipe until you feel a blockage.
   • Home improvement specialist Allen Lee says the garbage disposal can get “in the way of running a snake down that drain.” If you have a second drain in your sink, run the auger down that instead.
   • If your sink only has one drain hole with a garbage disposal attached to it, try another method instead.
2. 2
   Feed in the auger until you feel resistance, then rotate it. When you feel something blocking the path of the auger, preventing you from feeding it deeper into the pipes, carefully rotate the auger, pushing gently. When there’s no longer resistance, or the auger gets tangled in the clog, reel it back up through the pipes.

   • Try not to push or pound the auger deeper into the clog—this can potentially damage your connectors or pipes.
   • If the sink doesn’t unclog, continue to the next method.
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Section 7 of 10:

Unclogging the P-Trap and Wall Pipe

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1. 1
   Place a bucket under the P-trap under your kitchen sink. Balkan says one of the easiest ways to unclog a drain with standing water on top of it is to unscrew the P-shaped trap under the sink. “The trap can be taken off with typical household tools and just dumped out and reattached in a matter of minutes,” he says. Place a bucket under the pipes to catch any water that drains out.

   • The P-trap looks like a large curve or dip in the pipes below the sink, and it’s often found not far from where the pipe connects to the wall.
   • Place towels underneath the bucket to catch any extra water that may come out of the pipes.
   • Since the pipes under your sink aren’t connected to the water that comes inside your house, there’s no need to shut off the water to your sink.
2. 2
   Unscrew the PVC slip nuts on either side of the P-trap. By hand, slowly unscrew the PVC nuts, or connectors, on either side of the P-trap. Depending on the layout of your pipes, you may have to loosen 2 or 3 connections to fully separate the P-trap from your sink.

   • As you unscrew the connections, inspect the rubber rings inside them for damage. If any of the rings are broken or worn, replace them.
   • Wear rubber gloves for this process to protect your hands from anything that may come out of the pipes.
   • If you can't unscrew the pipes by hand, use a pipe wrench to loosen the connections.
3. 3
   Empty the P-trap and check the other pipes for blockages. Pour anything from the P-trap into the bucket. Look inside the P-trap to make sure nothing else is clogging it. If there’s something inside, take a stick, a screwdriver, or a chopstick and try to push the object out of the P-trap and into the bucket.

   • If you find the clog in the trap, reattach the trap. Turn on the hot water and see if the sink drains.
   • If the sink is still clogged, follow the next steps to use the cable auger.
4. 4
   Unscrew the slip nut from the wall pipe and insert a metal auger. Locate the PVC slip nut where the pipe connects to the wall. Place the bucket under the area and unscrew the nut. Empty anything from the pipes into the bucket, then push the pointed tip of the auger into the wall pipe.

   • If you feel a bend in the pipe and you have a large handle on your auger, rotate the handle clockwise until you don’t feel resistance anymore.
5. 5
   Push the auger until you feel resistance, then turn it clockwise. Once you have located the clog, turn the auger clockwise to catch the pointed tip on it. If you have an auger that attaches to a drill, press and hold the trigger on the auger to tighten it. Turn on the drill so it turns clockwise. Once you feel the end of the auger catch on the clog, pull it straight out.

   • If the auger meets resistance again as you pull it out, continue pulling and cranking the handle clockwise until the cable catches on the clog.
   • Your auger might pull out some gunk from the pipes, but usually, it pushes the clog through.
6. 6
   Reattach the pipes, turn on the water, and check for leaks. Reattach all your pipes and slip nuts exactly the way you took them off. Make sure the slip nuts are only finger-tight. Turn the water on and let it run for 2 to 3 minutes. Check all your slip nuts to make sure nothing is leaking.

   • If the slip nuts do leak, turn off the water and retighten them.
   • As you tighten the slip nuts, make sure the washers sit with the concave, or narrow, side pointing down into the pipe.
   • If your sink is still clogged after this, you may have to call a professional.
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Section 8 of 10:

Using a Drain Opening Product

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1. Use a chemical drain cleaner as a last resort. Fast-acting chemical drain cleaners can make quick work of clogs, but can also be hazardous to your skin, eyes, and lungs. When using these products, open a window, run a fan, and wear gloves and safety glasses. Follow the instructions on your product carefully.

   • Try to avoid pouring drain cleaners down the garbage disposal side of your sink. The chemicals can corrode and damage its metal components.
   • Enzymatic drain cleaners are a gentler and more environmentally friendly alternative. For the best results, look for a product that targets grease or food.

Section 9 of 10:

Calling a Professional Plumber or Drain Cleaner

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1. Contact a plumber or drain professional if no other methods work. A plumber can safely clear away any localized clogs with a special motorized drain snake or a pressurized hydro-jet. Sometimes, a sink clog can also be a symptom of a larger issue, like a stoppage in a building drain or public pipe.

   • The average cost of hiring a plumber to snake a drain is around $250, but for complex clogs, the cost can be anywhere from $360 to $800.
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Section 10 of 10:

Preventing Kitchen Sink Clogs

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1. 1
   Try to avoid putting grease, oil, or other sticky items down the drain. Instead of pouring grease from cooking down your sink, house cleaning professional Raymon Chiu says to pour it into “sealable containers and throw [it] in the appropriate garbage.” He also recommends putting “leftover scraps in the garbage before placing [your dishes] in the sink.”

   • Other items to avoid include starchy foods (like pasta, rice, and potatoes), fibrous veggies (like celery, corn husks, artichokes, or asparagus), eggshells, shellfish, and coffee grounds.
   • Consider putting coffee grounds and other food items in a compost pile.
   • Chiu also recommends using “a drain strainer to capture any small food particles.”
   • Try not to grind any more than 1 cup (or about two handfuls) of food waste in the disposal at a time.
2. 2
   Pour boiling water down the drain once a week to melt the grease. Chiu says another way to keep your kitchen sink from clogging up again is to “Regularly pour boiling hot water down the drain to melt away the grease that may be stuck in the pipes.” Boil a pot or kettle of water and pour it down your kitchen drains once a week.

   • Alternatively, run hot water from the tap each time you use the sink to help clear the drain.
3. 3
   Grind ice cubes, salt, and lemon in the disposal to clean it. About once a month, pour about 1 cup (.59 g) of ice down the garbage disposal side of your sink. Add 1 cup (300 g) of coarse salt on top of that, then turn on the cold water and run the disposal. Stuff a couple of lemon slices or a lemon peel down the drain, then turn on the water and run the disposal again.

   • The ice and salt scrub the sides of your disposal, while the lemon adds a fresh, clean scent.
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Join the Discussion...

Easiest way to fix a clogged sink?

19

WikiGopherCaster108

My roommate did something to clog up the kitchen sink, and we just can’t get it to drain like normal. I tried running hot water and running the... Read More

David Balkan
Professional Plumber & CEO of Balkan Sewer & Water Main

Have you tried plunging it? The good old typical plunger works well. Typically, sinks clog because something is sitting in the trap, which is the... Read More

WikiGiraffeHugger577

I had some luck with clearing up my clogged sink by using a plumbing snake! If you've got physical debris clogging up your drain, using a plumbin... Read More

See all 3 Replies and

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Expert Q&A

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• Question

  I ran the garbage disposal, but it's still clogged. What should I do?

  

  Allen Lee
  Home Improvement Specialist

  Allen Lee is a Home Improvement Specialist and the Owner of Honest Lee Handyman Services, a licensed and insured handyman business servicing Sacramento, California, and surrounding areas. Working with homeowners and businesses to get their small repairs done in a timely and efficient manner, Honest Lee Handyman Services provides gutter and dryer vent cleaning along with fixture, fence, drywall, and toilet repairs.

  

  Allen Lee

  Home Improvement Specialist

  Expert Answer

  I suggest you run a snake down the drain to see if that picks anything up. If that doesn't work, you may need to take the trap apart to get to the source of the issue.

  Thanks! We're glad this was helpful.
  Thank you for your feedback.
  If wikiHow has helped you, please consider a small contribution to support us in helping more readers like you. We’re committed to providing the world with free how-to resources, and even $1 helps us in our mission. Support wikiHow

  Yes No

  Not Helpful 1 Helpful 4
• Question

  What if you use Liquid Plumber and it still does not fix the clog?

  

  Mark Spelman
  Construction Professional

  Mark Spelman is a General Contractor based in Austin, Texas. With over 30 years of construction experience, Mark specializes in constructing interiors, project management, and project estimation. He has been a construction professional since 1987.

  

  Mark Spelman

  Construction Professional

  Expert Answer

  Most clogging will take place at the p-trap. Remove the P-trap located under the sink and check that it is clear. Then, you can also run a snake into the pipe in the wall along with some more Liquid Plumber or Draino.

  Thanks! We're glad this was helpful.
  Thank you for your feedback.
  If wikiHow has helped you, please consider a small contribution to support us in helping more readers like you. We’re committed to providing the world with free how-to resources, and even $1 helps us in our mission. Support wikiHow

  Yes No

  Not Helpful 8 Helpful 38
• Question

  What is a cable auger?

  

  Mark Spelman
  Construction Professional

  Mark Spelman is a General Contractor based in Austin, Texas. With over 30 years of construction experience, Mark specializes in constructing interiors, project management, and project estimation. He has been a construction professional since 1987.

  

  Mark Spelman

  Construction Professional

  Expert Answer

  This is a tool that uses a flexible cable to unclog drains. There are manual and powered type augers.

  Thanks! We're glad this was helpful.
  Thank you for your feedback.
  If wikiHow has helped you, please consider a small contribution to support us in helping more readers like you. We’re committed to providing the world with free how-to resources, and even $1 helps us in our mission. Support wikiHow

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  Not Helpful 10 Helpful 34

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Tips

• Wear gloves and safety glasses when trying to unclog your pipes.
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• If you’re not confident unclogging a drain, it’s best to call a professional who can make sure everything is cleared safely.
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