The $9 Amazon Find That Saves Me More than $100 Each Year in the Kitchen
If you’ve ever paid a plumber to come snake your kitchen sink drain, you know it can cost a pretty penny. And you’ve most likely already spent time and money trying to clear it with drain cleaner or an at-home snake tool to no avail. The best defense I’ve found against a clogged drain? Regular maintenance in the form of this $9 find.
I’m talking about drain deodorizing sticks. They’re designed to clean and deodorize drain lines with slow-dissolving enzymes, which eat away and dissolve all the gross stuff that goes down your drain (like fat and grease!) and gunks up the pipes. Because they’re slow dissolving, they work all month long, keeping the drain moving along and those weird smells at bay.
There are a few companies that make these drain deodorizing sticks, but I’ve always used this brand. It’s worth nothing that I’ve read reviews where people have complained that the sticks end up clogging their drains even further — but I’m not sure those are fair reviews, as these sticks should be used more as a preventative measure than a reactive one.
Our pipes are old and cranky, and we inherited a non-working garbage disposal in our kitchen, so things can get pretty smelly pretty quickly — especially in the warmer months. In the past we’ve poured boiling water or vinegar down the drain if we notice a smell. This gets rid of the smell then and there, but we’d have to do it again and again, and would eventually have to use our favorite (sorta pricey) eco-friendly drain clog remover because the vinegar just couldn’t dissolve whatever organic matter had made it’s way into the pipes. Or when things got really bad, call in a plumber.
Since discovering these sticks, we’ve devised a plan of action to keep things moving along swiftly (and odorlessly): We just drop one down each drain at the beginning of the month and we haven’t had any issues!
We have two drains in our kitchen (double sinks for the win!) and at just $9 for 24, that brings our monthly drain maintenance total to a whopping 75 cents! That’s way cheaper than a single plumber visit. And still even cheaper than buying drain cleaner.
Have you used these before? Share your thoughts in the comments below.