Sink Drains Slowly? Here's What's Really Clogging It (and the Fix)
Kitchen vs. bathroom clogs
Kitchen sinks clog with grease and food that cools and hardens along the pipe walls. Bathroom sinks clog with hair and soap scum in the P-trap and pop-up assembly. Both get worse slowly, which is why people ignore them until the sink stops draining entirely.
What NOT to do
Skip the chemical drain cleaner. It rarely clears the real blockage, it damages older pipes, and it makes the job dangerous for whoever has to open the drain afterward. Boiling water down a PVC drain can also soften joints.
Safe DIY first steps
Remove and clean the pop-up stopper. Clean the P-trap (put a bucket underneath). Try a plunger with the overflow covered. If the sink still drains slowly, the clog is farther down the line.
Professional solutions
Our drain cleaning plumbers cable the line to clear the clog. For greasy kitchen lines, hydro jetting scours the pipe walls clean so it does not come back. If several drains are slow, we run a sewer camera inspection to find the main-line problem.