A Bit of Useful Information

I have been shaving for a long time now, but I always watch videos so as to improve my technique.  I really like to watch Kensurfs videos and although I don't always agree with him there are still things to be learned.   For instance I noticed a while back that he and I both use a bowl sitting on the vanity counter with warm water to rinse our razors between passes.   But, Kensurfs then did something that revolutionized my entire way of disposing of the water/whiskers.    He dumped it in the toilet and then explained the reasoning for this.      He said that he didn't put it down the sink because it would cause a clogged line.  I always wondered why I had to unclog my drain so often; when the water started to make a gurgling sound it was time to put a snake down that thing.  So I learned once again that you are never too old to learn something new, it's what separates us from the animals.    So, thanks again to Kensurfs for another valuable lesson......keep on shaving man.

So I do something else to deal with the same problem. I rinse the razor, cuttings and lather down the sink drain but once I’ve rinsed off the brush and bowl I close the drain and allow the sink to fill with warm/hot water while I rinse off my face. Once the sink is full I open the drain and let the full sink volume of water to clear the drain. Then I will fill a cup and rinse the soap film that coats the sink. So far so good. It’s always a good idea to run enough water to keep your drains clear. Soap, hair, toothpaste spit. All that stuff will plug your drains if you are miserly with water in your drains.

I keep a full basin of hot water with the lather bowl floating in it for the four passes.

At the end I pull the plug to let the water and everything drain. 
I wipe the sides of the basin with the leftover lather squeezed out of the brush and rinse with fresh running water.
Then I rinse out the razor, blade, and brush with running water.

I've never had it clog up.

For rinsing off my face (first residual soap, then again for alum) I kneel by the tub and use the hand-held shower attachment set to low pressure/high volume.

Another cautionary tale about drains. Well two cautionary tales. 

First my 94 year old dad lives in his 110 year old house. He doesn’t run the dishwasher but just rinses his few dishes with a little soap and water (btw his dishes smell bad and I won’t eat there) he might do a load of laundry once or twice a month. He doesn’t bath frequently or at all preferring something he calls a flannel bath. I think that’s basically cleaning yourself at the sink with a facecloth. Apparently it was good enough for people 150 years ago so it’s good enough for him. There’s a reason old people sometimes smell because I’m told resistance to bathing is common among old people. Don’t scold me, my brothers and I have tried to address this. Our choices are to have him declared incompetent and physically dragged out of his home or to leave it and make occasional gentle reminders. We’ve opted for the latter. In any case last year his sewer backed up into the basement. The drain guys showed up and the problem was inside the property line. Not enough flow in the drain. What a surprise!!  

Second tale, several years ago the office building I worked in installed pathetically low flow faucets in the bathrooms. It was a pain to rinse the soap off your hands and lots of people brushed their teeth after lunch and the trickle of water wasn’t very effective at clearing the sinks. Within a few weeks we started noticing little flies in the bathrooms. Drain flies that grow from drain worms that live in dirty drains with not enough water volume. It took some effort to kill those disgusting things.   

Bottom line is waste is cleared by water flow and gravity. Sometimes sanitary sewer lines incorporate pumps but not if it can be avoided. There are unintended consequences to the emphasis on water conservation

I’ve found that the same clogging happens in the shower drain when you use good, very dense soaps!  
Stirling and B&M bath soap bars can clog over time too!

Yup, proper drain maintenance is important. More tips. Try not let any brush bristles wash down the drain. If you have a serious shedder, retire it. Bristles can Matt and cause clogs and if you’re using synthetic brushes, drain opener won’t dissolve synthetic bristles. They’re basically plastic which is what the draino bottle is made out of. If you get a clog with synthetic bristles you’ll have to take the drain pipe apart to clean it out.

Fill the sink halfway with hot water to rinse razor.

Run hot water to splash on face in between passes.

When done dunk the brush and swish it in the water to get the soap out.

Let the sink drain while running hot water while cleaning out the brush.

Splash water to clean ring around sink.

Let hot water run for several minutes.

Never had a clog in my whopping 53 trips around the sun.

Fill the sink halfway with hot water to rinse razor.

Run hot water to splash on face in between passes.

When done dunk the brush and swish it in the water to get the soap out.

Let the sink drain while running hot water while cleaning out the brush.

Splash water to clean ring around sink.

Let hot water run for several minutes.

Never had a clog in my whopping 53 trips around the sun.

^^^What he said

I recently had to change out a drain line in the bathroom as it was just a thin chrome line and had been in use for about 10yrs and just thought it was time to change it out and was shocked by how clean the trap was with no build up whatsoever!! Probably the cleanest trap I've ever encountered...

When I do get clogging it's usually due to hair, especially in the tub drain.
I swear by one of these:



Looks like a large nylon zip-tie with barbs.

I just finished disassembling and clearing out the piping for a double vanity. My wife mentioned it wasn't draining that well. Turns out It wasn't effectively draining at all! My daughter is flying in tomorrow morning, and we needed that bathroom functional. Apparently a large amount of baking soda had been applied and "rinsed" down the drains on a regular basis. Enough of it was left in the run to the p trap (because it wasn't ever being properly cleared after lite rising down the drain and infrequent use) that it was catching other debris and future doses of baking soda until it built up into a lovely funky blockade. At least that is the working theory.