Roebic HD-CRY-DO-6 2-Pound Heavy Duty Crystal Drain Opener

I have a tendency to cut my hair over my bathroom sink. And I was starting to act sluggish, and I thought, possibly because of all the hair that I've been flushing down the sink, so I bought this and just do it every so often to keep the pipes clean and it works great.

Bathroom drain a problem, this WORKS well

I had a stubborn clogged drain. Ordinary liquid drain cleaners did nothing to clear it; neither did a 50 foot plumbing snake. So I bought this Roebic concentrated sodium hydroxide. I planned to drop a few teaspoons down the drain. Wearing no protective gear. Oops. I accidentally spilled a LOT MORE (quarter cup?) on the measuring spoon. And the drain. And the water in it. WHOOSH. YOWWWW -- as the geyser hit the back of my ungloved left hand. The world turned white. Worst pain I've ever felt, worse than getting hit by a car, worse than watching the 2016 election. The sodium hydroxide was boiling the fat under the skin. Fun fact 1: the "heat of solution" of sodium hydroxide is about 1000 calories per gram of NaOH. 600 calories turns a gram of water into steam, Right Now Only. Fun fact 2: A quarter cup of NaOH is more than 100 grams. Fun fact 3: Soap can be made with sodium hydroxide plus animal fat. I grabbed some lemon juice from the fridge, and poured that on my hand - over a different sink. Weak acid neutralises alkali - fizz instead of boiling. Followed by a few hours alternately drying and soaking my hand in a weak solution of salt and lemon juice. Followed by a couple of weeks of salve, absorbent medical pads, and Coban tape. An oversized cloth glove is better for holding pads in place over a hand than Coban. Two months later, the hand is painless, the loose skin is healed and not too ugly, and I could type the letters on the left side of this keyboard. And the drain stopped up again. Episode 2: I used the drain line cleanout port in the basement. I dressed "full moon suit" - a surplus cleanroom suit with an actual helmet and air hose! - and wore heavy gloves, and tall boots with the pants cuffs OVER the top of the boots. Newspaper covering all surfaces nearby. I /carefully/ and /slowly/ measured out spoonfuls of the recommended amount of Roebic into a small bowl (with a flat bottom so it wouldn't tip), then /slowly/ spooned that into the cleanout port. No eruption, very anticlimactic ... thank goodness. Now the drain runs fine, and we treat it often with weaker (and safer) drain cleaners. Roebic is the 900 pound gorilla of drain cleaners. You should treat it like the variety of gorilla with a flamethower and hand grenades. If you are very careful, Roebic will do an excellent job of clearing clogs that are resistant to everything else. Treat the whole bottle of concentrated firepower like belt of hand grenades in a bad war movie. My one bottle will probably last for life, and certainly will last until the plague ends, when it is safe to bring in a crew to dig up and replace the drain line. I hope the Roebic product is available for a long time, and that they have very good liability lawyers, and that all you other customers are more careful and responsible than I was. Skip episode one, start with episode two.

This stuff is amazing We've been fighting the drain issues with our house ever since we bought it last year. The previous owners did absolutely nothing to rectify the situation aside from simply not using one of the bathrooms. So we've dug up the lines, in a slab foundation it's real fun, we've snaked them out repeatedly, tried to flush, used so many chemicals, and finally we thought we was at a good spot but nope a month later the shower was backing up again, ugh. Our grandson recommend using these crystals and I thought well it's only a few bucks so okay. My gosh it's the best thing we've done so far. I've used them about 4 times now and my drains have never ran so freely. I'm totally amazed at this product and can't stop telling anyone who will listen how great it is. After years of sediment build up from well water with no filtering or softener system the pipes were screaming for help. These crystals answered that call and told the plumber to hold his beer.

Satisfied

Waste of money and time. I usually use lye but figured I’d give this a chance. I poured half the bottle per the instructions and let it sit, flushed water down the sink later and it still was clogged. I went and got some lye and that fixed my problem right away. Surprisingly, the bottle doesn’t have a seal or anything so I don’t know if it was compromised but I know I won’t get my $15 back.

Always works better than liquid. Have bought on several occasions

This product did work in my tub drain that was blocked but all of the anxiety trying to use it is not worth it. It oddly does clump together so I’m afraid of having my pipes clog with it. Better off being safe than sorry and getting a liquid drain opener. Now I don’t know how to get rid of the rest of the bottle since it’s so dangerous. I’m guessing the dump will have a hazmat section.