Concerns with Eco-Friendly Drain Cleaners (and Solutions)

You need to maintain your drains, and your facility is trying to be more eco-friendly. Naturally, you start researching eco-friendly drain cleaners. In this process, the first feeling that pops up is probably concern. There are ads and articles and DIY tips galore, but which option is the right option? What do you need to look out for? How do you even know which product will work for your drains? This is new for you, and you can’t help but feel like you’re missing something—like you’re making a mistake even. You’re exploring your options as thoroughly as possible, but it’s hard not to feel overwhelmed by the details.

At State Chemical, we sell a variety of drain maintainers, including Ecolution Drain Line Maintainer, certified by UL Ecologo as an environmentally friendly option. We understand that finding the best choice for you can be a tedious process—after all, it’s not just about buying a product and being done with it; it’s about gathering the critical information needed to find the right fit.

To ease this process, we’re going to address solutions to these top concerns:

• Eco-friendly drain cleaners are more expensive
• Environmentally friendly drain cleaners require too much time to work
• Eco-friendly drain cleaners aren’t as effective as standard drain cleaners
• There is a limited selection of eco-friendly drain cleaners

Yes, new expenses are a scary prospect, but after you review our answers, you will be well-equipped to determine if eco-friendly drain cleaners are right for you.

Concern: Eco-Friendly Drain Cleaners are More Expensive

It is true that eco-friendly drain cleaners can range higher in price than other drain cleaners. Even standard drain cleaners are considered costly. Unfortunately, there isn’t a way to get around this. If environmental friendliness is your priority, you’ll need to leave room for these expenses in your budget. One truth, however, is that eco-friendly drain cleaners are still cheaper than reactive drain maintenance.

Solution: Compare to the Cost of Reactive Maintenance

When investing in drain cleaners, it is important to realize that you are choosing between two options: treating drain buildup before it clogs or treating it reactively after it clogs. If you let your drains fill with fats, oils, and greases (FOGs) and other organics, reactive maintenance will likely be more costly than the preventative maintenance that would have stopped clogs from happening altogether.

For the additional expense of eco-friendly drain cleaners as compared to standard ones, you just have to decide for yourself if it’s worth it. Minimizing your impact on the environment is important, but sometimes, it just isn’t feasible for your wallet, and that’s okay. Price is a concern that isn’t so easily resolved; to most efficiently treat your drains, pick the option that works best for your specific problem and your budget.

Concern: Environmentally Friendly Drain Cleaners Require Too Much Time to Work

Because eco-friendly drain cleaners work more slowly, it can be a problem if your issue is time sensitive. If you’re investing in a solution to your problems, you want this solution as quickly as possible. Waiting for results isn’t exactly ideal.

Solution: Use Aeration or a Biological Catalyst to Speed Up the Bacterial Process

Fortunately, there are solutions to this problem. At the same time as using an eco-friendly drain maintainer, you can also use aeration or a biological catalyst like Bio-Mate to speed up the bacterial process in lift stations.

Specifically made for bacterial products, biological catalysts increase the reproduction rate of bacteria, meaning there will be more bacteria to eat through the FOGs in your drain.

On the other hand, aeration increases the amount of oxygen in your lift station, making better living conditions for the bacteria and therefore increasing their reproduction rate.

These solutions can only be used in lift stations, but they are effective options in places where eco-friendly products may take effect the slowest.

Concern: Eco-Friendly Drain Cleaners Aren’t as Effective as Standard Drain Cleaners

It’s true: eco-friendly drain cleaners tend to be less effective than standard drain cleaners. Because of their ingredients, eco-friendly drain cleaners simply work more slowly, making them less desirable when you’re in the midst of a more severe problem.

Solution: Try to Control Your Level of FOG Drainage

However, this should only affect you if your drain is experiencing extreme FOG buildup. In the majority of standard drains, eco-friendly drain cleaners should work effectively. However, if your drains see an excessive amount of FOGs, this is not the case.

Eco-friendly drain cleaners are bacteria-based, meaning that when you use them, bacteria are released down the drain to eat FOG buildup, digesting it into water and air. If your drains have an excessive FOG presence, the bacteria simply cannot keep up—nor can they make a large dent in the buildup already present.

Meanwhile, a more heavy-duty drain cleaner, such as an emulsifier, could literally melt the clog down the drain. It is harder for FOGs to stand up against more intense chemicals, and if you have significant FOG buildup or drainage, your options are to either reduce the drainage or invest in a stronger product.

To control your level of FOG drainage, educate your staff on what can and cannot go down a drain, model proper disposal of FOGs, and provide easy access to grease disposal containers. If this still does not lessen the buildup, it’s best to use a standard drain cleaner.

Concern: There is a Limited Selection of Eco-Friendly Drain Cleaners

When searching for eco-friendly drain cleaners, you might hit a roadblock: there aren’t a whole lot of options. Standard drain cleaners come in many varieties, but with eco-friendly products, you’re looking at a smaller pool of availability—especially depending on your particular issue.

Solution: Use Them for Your Standard Drains

Eco-friendly drain cleaners tend to be best used in standard drains. Specialized products have different chemical makeups to attack different issues, so not as many specialized drain cleaners are completely eco-friendly.

The solution here is to simply use eco-friendly drain cleaners for standard drains. Namely, they will be effective for the buildup of FOGs and organics in floor drains, three-sink drain lines, grease traps, and lift stations.

Why? Well, since eco-friendly drain cleaners are bacteria-based, the bacteria need a food source in order to survive. This is how they successfully clean drains at all. For example, in a kitchen sink, the bacteria eat the buildup of congealed grease from cooking. The grease keeps them alive and repopulating, and in the process of consuming this grease, the bacteria digest the buildup in your sink, keeping your drains from clogging.

In contrast, in areas without this food source for the bacteria, eco-friendly drain cleaners just won’t work. Plus, more specialized products will likely just be more effective in specialized cases because they’re designed to be. If you’re looking into eco-friendly drain cleaners, but you just can’t find options effective enough for your specific problem, it’s better to find a specialized product for optimal results.

For the most effective results with more specialized issues, seek out drain cleaners suited to your particular drain type or concern. Eco-friendly drain cleaners can be the right fit for standard drains, but if you simply have the need for a heavier or more specialized product, go for the heavier or more specialized product. Being eco-friendly is important, but if it doesn’t work for your issue, it just doesn’t work.

Your Next Steps

You came here because you were concerned about buying eco-friendly drain cleaners and maintainers for your facility. Now, you understand the potential solutions to your concern and whether eco-friendly is right for you. From here, your next step is to consider which drain cleaning company you’d like to buy from.