When it comes to a clogged drain, a solid defense is the best offense. One of the best ways to clean your drains and prevent clogs is an easy to use drain cleaner, but many of them can damage your pipes.
How do you protect yourself from a gnarly clog while also protecting your plumbing from harsh chemicals, such as sulfuric acid or sodium hydroxide, found in most conventional drain cleaners?
You can try an enzymatic drain cleaner. So what is a natural enzyme drain cleaner anyway? Will a natural cleanser actually work for your blockage?
In this PlumbingNav guide, we will cover:
How do natural enzyme drain cleaners work?
What are the best natural enzyme drain cleaners?
What are the different types of natural enzyme drain cleaners?
This drain opener handles a wide range of drain maintenance needs, making it useful as a household staple. You can safely use it with both PVC pipes and metal pipes on all of the drains in your home.
The cleanser works quickly, dissolving hair into a liquid in just 25 minutes! It handles more than biological material, though, also breaking down paper, grease, and oil, too. After you pour it down the drain, it sticks to the walls and keeps working.
If you decided to buy the product but don’t like it? No worries! Green Gobbler offers a 30-day money-back guarantee.
A natural enzyme drain cleaner consists of a conglomeration of organic enzymes specifically designed to fight drain clogs.
The main appeal of enzyme drain cleaners is that they are completely natural and don’t contain hazardous chemicals typically used in chemical drain openers. These chemicals can damage your home’s pipes and even cause skin irritation or, on rare occasions, death if accidentally ingested.
In fact, many homeowners and landlords prohibit the use of chemical drain cleaners in the interest of preserving the building’s plumbing system.
To use enzyme drain cleaners, pour the cleaner down the drain according to the instructions and follow up with boiling water as instructed. You’ll let it sit for a while when trying to resolve difficult blockages, like unclogging a bathtub drain full of hair.
When enzymes come into contact with organic materials, such as hair, food, mold, and algae, it naturally dissolves through the material when activated by the heat of the hot water. The enzymes feed off of the materials they come into contact with and expel good bacteria in its place.
If you have a clog you can’t remove with an enzyme cleaner, you may want to try some other non-chemical options before reaching for harsh chemicals. We like this one.
Simple ways to unclog your drain in a safe way include:
Once you unclog the drain, an enzyme cleaner can prevent the clog from recurring (as well as the plumbing bills).
What Are The Different Types Of Natural Enzyme Drain Cleaners?
Nontoxic Drain Cleaner
Nontoxic drain cleaners eliminate poisons or toxins that make a person sick when consumed, meaning they can be used around food or potable water. Most restaurants and commercial kitchens require nontoxic products to ensure the safety of all staff and guests.
While most enzyme chemical cleaners are nontoxic, do not assume you can use an enzyme cleaner on a kitchen drain or garbage disposal until you read the instructions.
Organic Drain Cleaner
Organic drain cleaners use 100% natural products found in nature. They don’t contain any genetically modified organisms found in a large number of drain cleaners on the market.
Most organic drain cleaners are nontoxic, but the terms are not necessarily mutually exclusive.
Cruelty-Free Drain Cleaner
Believe it or not, some companies still test products on animals and other living things before giving them to customers as a safety precaution. Unfortunately, many animals end up suffering unnecessarily since they have other methods for checking quality control.
What Do You Look For In The Best Natural Enzyme Drain Cleaners?
Desired Use
Not all drain cleaners, even safe enzyme drain cleaners, work on all drains. It’s a good idea to ensure that the drain cleaner you choose specifically works for the drain or appliance you want to treat. Some drain cleaners won’t work properly with septic tanks or garbage disposals.
It’s important to note that enzymatic drain cleaners may not be appropriate for clogs that don’t derive from natural materials. It won’t help if the clog developed as a result of a piece of jewelry or a toy stuck in the drain.
Storage Container
Some drain cleaners will lose potency if they aren’t stored properly. Look for a product that comes with a convenient airtight lid if possible. Also, be sure to read the instructions on the container to learn more about proper storage, such as temperature and humidity.
Best Natural Enzyme Drain Cleaners Reviewed
Now let’s explore our favorite units so you can decide on the perfect choice for your situation.
This drain opener handles a wide range of drain maintenance needs, making it useful as a household staple. You can safely use it with both PVC pipes and metal pipes on all of the drains in your home.
The cleanser works quickly, dissolving hair into a liquid in just 25 minutes! It handles more than biological material, though, also breaking down paper, grease, and oil, too. After you pour it down the drain, it sticks to the walls and keeps working.
If you decided to buy the product but don’t like it? No worries! Green Gobbler offers a 30-day money-back guarantee.
This drain cleaner by Earthworm doesn’t release a harsh smell, and it helps reduce any odor currently emitting from your drain. This makes it the best answer when you have odor problems to consider.
It can be used on all drains, including your washing machine, garbage disposal, and air conditioner drain.
When you want to be sure that you remove the clog from your drain, go with the Bio-Clean Drain Cleaner that claims “nothing gets drains or septic tanks cleaner.
This 2 lb. container can offer about 100 drain treatments, meaning you have plenty of cleaner to perform regular maintenance on your troublesome drain to prevent the problem from happening again, or you can use it to tackle large-scale commercial drain maintenance tasks.
Keep everyone in your household safe and your pipes intact with this organic and nontoxic enzyme cleaner backed by probiotics. You won’t need to worry about irritating your eyes or burning your skin.
You can also trust this American-made product will remove any smells coming from your drains. Best used for maintenance to break up clogs before they develop.
When you need to maintain large scale products, you need Bio-Ross drain and septic tank cleaner that use 900 billion organisms to digest and liquify organic waste in your grease trap, garbage disposal, septic tank, or pond.
This is the only product on the list that will also work on roots. Unlike other products, you need to use warm water instead of boiling water.
If you have a blocked drain, you can fight the stubborn clog with a commercial drain cleaner, but a natural drain cleaner will avoid damage to your plumbing. See our review of the best natural drain cleaners to learn the best one for your clog.
FAQs For Natural Enzyme Drain Cleaners
Do enzymes really clean pipes?
Enzymes eat through drain clogs made from organic materials before they turn into a full clog, making them perfect for simple and effective pipe maintenance.
Do enzyme cleaners unclog drains?
Enzyme cleaners can unclog mild and moderate drains caused by organic materials, but they may not tackle especially difficult clogs or clogs created by nonliving materials.
What enzymes break down hair?
Most enzymes break down organic waste, such as hair
