Zip-It Clean

Zip-It was mentioned in the Family Handyman. Apparently Mary needed to unclog some drains for a party she was hosting. How thoughtful!

If you’ve ever pulled a 2-lb., rodent-like glob of hair (mixed with an odorous combination of toothpaste, nail clippings and nameless slime) from your drain, you’ve experience the same gaggy feeling I had a couple of Saturdays ago. How is it possible for four people to shed and rinse down the drain enough hair to completely clog the bathroom sink every couple of months?

As part of the preparations for hosting a couple dozen people for a formal holiday dinner, I called upon Dorothy, a wonderfully energetic and clever woman who can whip a house into tip-top shape in no time. As is often the case, our bathroom sinks were draining slowly, even though my husband had poured some chemical goo down them several days before. Dorothy noticed the slow drains, went right out to her car and came back with a simple, thin piece of white plastic with teeny (and a little bit sharp) barbs. In no time she had the sinks unclogged and was proudly showing me a wad of paper towels and the gag-inducing clumps of hair.

I asked her about the tool (which she says she’s used on those sinks before), and she explained that all you do is stick the strip of plastic down the clogged drain, twist a little bit and pull it out. If you do a full twist, you’re more likely to snag the clog, but it will get very tangled on the barbs and you’ll probably want to just throw the whole thing out instead of cleaning it off and reusing it. Dorothy says she has good luck with a partial twist and then she’s able to easily clean the “rat” off and reuse the tool.

The Cobra Zip-It Drain Cleaning Tool is available at home centers and hardware stores and many online sources. A single tool costs about $5 and a handy 12-pack about $30. You can also buy it through our affiliation with Amazon.com: Cobra Products 400 Zip-It Drain Cleaning Tool

In a lovely little article in the March 2011 issue of Reader’s Digest Zip-It is touted as one way to solve 5 sticky Situations:

Get rid of clogged drains. The Family Handyman recommends a “cheap, fast, chemical-free” unclogger called Zip-it (available at Walmart, Walgreens, Ace, and Lowe’s), a jagged plastic wand with “teeth” you insert to bring up hair and goop. Another Family Handyman tip, from a reader: To unclog a shower drain, remove the drain plate, insert the hose of a shop vacuum, and tighten the seal, using a rag if necessary. Turn it on and suck the gunk away.

For the other 4 sticky situations you will just have to read the whole article for yourself HERE.

This is a very quick video – a whopping 17 seconds. The Zip-It is already in the drain, so the video is pretty much just pulling the clog out. In the background you can hear a child’s reaction.

It’s good to know that future generations will live in a world where it is easy to clean a drain. Good stuff at :08.