Pure Lye 1 lb - Unique Sodium Hydroxide Beads | Drain Opener & Soap Making | Biodegradable, Eco-Friendly (30-500)

I have four bathroom vanities, one kitchen sink (open drian and garbage disposal sides) as well as a utility sink. In addition to multiple shower drains, a soaker tub drain and a jetted garden tub drain. It's easy to see that with all of these drains, something will eventually need your attention. Sink drains provide relatively easy access to the trap and with a modest amount of effort they can be cleaned out manually. If however the clogg goes far beyond the trap the repair gets a little more intense. Of course shower and tub drains typically don't have easy access to their drain plumbing. This is the answer for these scenarios. Not only will it open up the drains, it will do so quickly and as an added benefit it will help to keep things downstream from clogging in the first place. I have also found that it works well in laundry drains where soap scum and fabric softener buildup can become problematic. It can be used preventatively in utility drains such as HVAC A Coil condensate drains. Who wants to find their AC system shutting down because the condensate tray is backing up? Or worse yet, find out that the system didn't shut down but instead overflowed onto your carpet, hardwood or even worse, into your ceiling if the unit is upstairs or attic located. This stuff works well for opening clogged drains quickly and preventing clogs when used as a maintenance aid. I typically by this in either the large container or in two packs as I want to have it on hand when needed. I also restock quickly when low.

I was amazed how this product worked on my slow moving bathtub/shower drain! I had tried snaking it, plunging it, liquid drain cleaner...nothing helped until this. I watched the videos people posted and thought what the heck, I'll give it a try. Ran hot water for a minute, waited 10 minutes, poured 1/4 cup directly into the drain, added more hot water, saw 1 bubble (burp) waited, repeat ran hot water 1 minute, 10 minutes later added the beads, little more hot water...finally drain opened up completely. Will use as a monthly maintenance to keep functioning.

Cleared the drain when no other drain cleaner I tried would, including expensive professional drain clers. This saved me frk having to rent a plumber's snake!

I read through other Amazon reviews about this product, so decided to give it a try. I have to say, I'm totally impressed! I had a bathroom drain that was nearly completely clogged up, mostly with hair. Ordinarily, I'd have just pulled out the drain plug, dug the hair out with my hemostats, and been done with it. But this particular plug is unnecessarily difficult to get out, so I thought I'd try something else. My first attempt was with some sort of drain cleaner. Directions said to use half of the bottle, I think there was maybe 1/3 of the bottle left, so I used that. Poured it into the bathtub drain, left it overnight, took a shower the next day and saw no improvement whatsoever. It took 1 inch of water in the bathtub about 40 minutes to drain. Expecting the Lye to perform no better than my drain cleaner, poured it down the drain 4 times, rather than "just" following the directions. I reasoned that perhaps most of the solution would drain PAST the hair clog, and NOT dissolve the clog? So, on the first night, I estimated doing what the directions said, 1 cup of Lye dissolved into 1 to 1 1/2 cups of water. Poured it down the drain. Left it overnight. Next day, made up a small solution - maybe half of what the directions suggested, poured it slowly into the drain. Did that, again, that evening, and, again, the next day. Four days later, I took a shower in that particular shower, and it drained just fine, I couldn't believe it! So, now I'm wondering how much the lye actually worked after only ONE administration, rather than 4. But I'm glad and quite impressed that it really did work. In total, I used about 2/3 of the bottle, with plenty left over for other drains in the house. Of note: Lye is not the nicest stuff to use or have around in your house. I found out that when you mix it with water, it generates heat. I could easily feel the heat through the plastic bucket that I used to mix the solution. Lye will chemically burn your skin, to be careful. Don't let it touch your skin, and be especially careful not to get it into your eyes. Also, according to wikipedia, Lye can pull enough water out of the atmosphere to turn itself into a liquid solution (which generates heat) and can potentially ignite other flammable substances (paint? gasoline? paint thinner?) So I'll use ALL of the remaining Lye in my other household drains, and NOT store it in the house or in the hot garage. Knowing full well that the next time the drain even STARTS to drain SLOWLY, the solution is only one quick visit to Amazon and a couple of days away.

I didn't get the benefit of hearing a "whoosh" or anything so incredible when I used this on my bathroom sink drain, which is about a century old, which has been getting backfilled with stagnant water when I leave the sink on for more than 5 seconds. After first trying a drum auger I found with no luck, I decided lye might be the solution and used it as part of a trifecta of clog removal solutions. The clog was very obviously deep in my wall instead of being immediately accessible and I'm just a typical 30-year-old with no knowledge of plumbing really... For me, there was no explosion or craziness, but I did don a mask and a full-length coat just in case something crazy did happen (and you should as well if you buy this). After the first pass through with the lye, I didn't notice any change, so I decided to do it again, this time mixing it in a plastic container with the hot water in advance and then pouring it down the drain all together (Do not do this unless you have the gloves and the protective glasses!) and letting it sit for a few hours. When I poured hot water into the sink after letting the lye sit for about 6 hours, it immediately backfilled and I was really bummed out, but I decided to actually *boil* some hot water and pass that through the pipes. A lot of people say not to do this if your sink has a PVC pipe in it but I passed about 10 quarts total of boiling water and started seeing a bit of an improvement at that point. I finished everything up by allowing the sink to fill some and using a plunger on the drain. At this point, all sorts of disgusting black stuff was coming up... but the sink finally returned to a somewhat functional state. I'm sure this clog pre-dated me living in my house and unclogging it felt like a serious effort. In retrospect, I would have probably just paid for a plumber to come out because it ended up eating my entire Sunday. On the other hand, I would recommend the lye as a PREVENTATIVE maintenance tool for stubborn and clog-prone sinks. Personally, I think the plunger technique was the most effective, but this lye definitely jumpstarted the process. I'm guessing if you don't live in a super old house, this stuff will do the job much more easily... in which case, you should buy this instead of Drano because it's way cheaper, but you should also try not to be a Darwin Award winner and maintain a healthy fear of lye, because the stuff is really dangerous to play around with if you're not taking all the precautions.

This pure sodium hydroxide is exactly what I needed for making soap. The beads dissolve quickly and consistently. 99% purity ensures reliable results every time. The container is well-sealed and includes proper safety warnings. Works great for drain cleaning too when used properly. Much better quality than what you find in stores. Excellent product for soap making enthusiasts!

This stuff really works! I had a really bad clog in my kitchen sink and I'm on septic and since this is safe for septic tanks (except MA due to state law) I figured I'd give this a go before asking my SO to snake the drain since that's such a messy job. I ended up using the whole bottle to clear the drain. The clog was so bad that it literally took ~6-8 hours to drain the sink. The bottle comes with ~2 cups of beads. You use 1 cup per application so if you only have to use 1 cup to clear, you'll have enough left over for a future clog. See below for exact steps I took. The first cup, I followed the directions almost exactly: waited for the sink to be empty, poured 1 cup of beads down the drain, boiled ~3 cups of water and poured all of it down to dissolve the beads, heard a growling sound for a few secs, waited ~5 minutes then ran hot tap water to see if the drain was clear... it wasn't and didn't seem to make a difference at all. So I did a little research on the net and found that you should let the pipes empty as much as you can down to the clog or the lye can become too diluted by the time it reaches whatever is causing the clog. So with the second attempt, I didn't use the kitchen sink all evening and let the pipes fully empty overnight. Then first thing in the morning I poured the rest of the bottle down the drain, boiled water again but this time I only used ~1/2 cup to dissolve the beads. I poured just enough water until the beads were dissolved and the "growling" sound started. The sound went on for a bit longer than the first time I used it and it seemed to "fall" away from me as it went down the pipe. I then left it for ~2 hours. I then boiled ~3 cups of water and poured it down the drain. Again, I heard the growling sound and assumed it was still working on the clog so I left it for ~15 minutes. Again, I boiled ~3 cups of water, poured, growling sound, left alone for ~15 mins. I repeated this process (boil ~3 cups, pour, left alone ~15 mins) until the growling sound stopped (maybe 4 or 5 times). I then ran hot tap water and it looked like it worked but then both sinks filled slightly above the drain. I turned off the tap and about 20 secs later, the drains bubbled a bit then emptied as expected. I then ran hot tap water for ~3 mins and no more clog. The sink drains like a champ now! I will be ordering more of this stuff so I have some on hand for the next clog. Highly recommend.

I believe this product can be pretty decent, but I myself won't use it again, and part of the reason is actually my fault. I think I poured the powder into the drain thinking it would just mix with the backed up water, but the powder hardened inside the plastic pipes and completely clogged it. I ended up having to replace that section of the pipe because nothing I did would remove the rock that the lye formed into inside the pipe. Fortunately, it didn't harden deep into the pipes; otherwise, I would have had to hire a plumber to figure out what was going on. I then used a liquid version of lye (Instant Power Hair & Grease Drain Opener by Scotch) that I found at Home Depot for a very reasonable price, and that has worked well. I got a little bit of lye on my leg, and that part of my leg is now smooth and hairless, so I believe it when they say lye works well on hair. I don't know if it is effective against foods in general though. There are a few things that I would caution against when buying this product: 1. I think compared to the lye that is already in liquid form at Home Depot, the powder version has one more step required that makes it more dangerous. When you're mixing it with water, you need to completely dissolve it so that the powder doesn't harden into a rock inside the pipes as it did for me. And mixing it with water makes it more likely that some of it will splash on you. Lye is very caustic and can do real damage to your skin, hair, or eyes. 2. I'm not sure you're really getting that much bang for your buck with this product. For big clogs, you're only getting one or two uses out of the whole bottle. The only reason you'd get this powder version is because you can't find the liquid version at a nearby store. There is likely added cost to shipping dangerous chemicals, so you'll find the "Instant Power Hair & Grease Drain Opener" to be really expensive ordering it online. Lye seems to be very effective against hair and grease, so if you want to get lye for clogs, you're better off skipping the powder version and getting liquid instead.

Buen producto