I still see crystal drain openers at Home Depot. There are also products that go the other way, chemically, i.e. sulfuric acid.
I have had more than one plumber/handyman tell me that caustic drain openers are known in the trade as "the plumbers friend" because they eventually eat through the pipe, especially at the trap.

In this parts of the world, one can buy [URL="https://www.homepro.co.th/product/213692"]this thing[/URL] (or equivalent, there are many types), which is just a mixture of caustic soda (NaOH) granules or powder and aluminum scrap (small pieces of aluminum burr, less than a millimeter in length). They do not react when dry, but as soon as you put them in water, a lot of sh.. action happens. Bubbling and gurgling and smoking hydrogen. The NaOH reacts violently with aluminum, when you put them in the sink, you actually could use a match to light the hydrogen that comes out from the hole (BOOM! no, I didn't try :missingteeth:, but my hands were very itchy to try it, hehe, as I could smell the hydrogen coming out from the hole). I used it few times with very good results. OTOH, plastic pipes everywhere... No idea how many holes would this dig into some iron pipes... (but this is a rented house, anyhow :razz: Just kidding, you know we really like the house and take care of it!).

[QUOTE=LaurV;468792]In this parts of the world, one can buy [URL="https://www.homepro.co.th/product/213692"]this thing[/URL] (or equivalent, there are many types), which is just a mixture of caustic soda (NaOH) granules or powder and aluminum scrap (small pieces of aluminum burr, less than a millimeter in length). They do not react when dry, but as soon as you put them in water, a lot of sh.. action happens. Bubbling and gurgling and smoking hydrogen. The NaOH reacts violently with aluminum, when you put them in the sink, you actually could use a match to light the hydrogen that comes out from the hole (BOOM! no, I didn't try :missingteeth:, but my hands were very itchy to try it, hehe, as I could smell the hydrogen coming out from the hole). I used it few times with very good results. OTOH, plastic pipes everywhere... No idea how many holes would this dig into some iron pipes... (but this is a rented house, anyhow :razz: Just kidding, you know we really like the house and take care of it!).[/QUOTE]
Sounds a lot like crystal Drano. I don't know what you smelled coming out of the hole, but hydrogen is odorless. Still, if it or anything else flammable had gone BOOM, you might have had caustic sludge spraying all over the room.

There is another kind of drain opener, occasionally advertised on TV, that I find appalling. It uses high pressure to (try to) [i]force[/i] the clog through. I have two problems with this approach. One, if the clog won't be pushed, there's a good chance that whatever is in the drain [i]behind[/i] the clog will come geysering out. Two, there is also a chance the drain pipe will either fail, or leak at every joint. Drain pipes are not usually build to hold water under pressure.

Yet another sort of drain opener (recommended once by a Roto Rooter guy who also said the caustic ones promote corrosion of metal pipes) is "organic drain opener," a bacteria and enzyme powder. I bought some at a Home Depot, but when it ran low and I went to buy more, they no longer carried it.

I suspect the odor from fizzing Drano might be aerosolized aluminum compounds, and maybe some metal, too.

[QUOTE=kladner;468844]I suspect the odor from fizzing Drano might be aerosolized aluminum compounds, and maybe some metal, too.[/QUOTE]Not to mention whatever gradu was in the water in the clogged drain and the clog itself, being heated to the boiling point
:yucky:

[url=http://www.cracked.com/blog/thomas-tank-engine-horrible-racist-classist-monster/]Why The Most F-ed Up Show On TV (Is Thomas The Tank Engine)[/url] | Cracked.com

[QUOTE=ewmayer;469060][URL="http://www.cracked.com/blog/thomas-tank-engine-horrible-racist-classist-monster/"]Why The Most F-ed Up Show On TV (Is Thomas The Tank Engine)[/URL] | Cracked.com[/QUOTE]
I had no real clue about this literary world's horribleness. I thought it was all sickly sweet cuteness, at least judging by the book covers in the kiddie play room in the place I work.

[QUOTE=ewmayer;469060][URL="http://www.cracked.com/blog/thomas-tank-engine-horrible-racist-classist-monster/"]Why The Most F-ed Up Show On TV (Is Thomas The Tank Engine)[/URL] | Cracked.com[/QUOTE]
A serious critic would look at the original books that Rev. Awdry wrote half a century ago, not the current spin-off commercial activities.

[QUOTE=Dr Sardonicus;468815]I don't know what you smelled coming out of the hole, but hydrogen is odorless.[/QUOTE]
I know they say so, but every child who played with zinc granules and acid or who attempted water electrolysis in his early teens can tell you differently. Pure hydrogen may be odorless, but try to play with some chemicals as mentioned, and you will find that you can tell by smell if hydrogen is produced, and in which amount. No joke.

[QUOTE=Dr Sardonicus;468847]Not to mention whatever gradu was in the water in the clogged drain and the clog itself, being heated to the boiling point
:yucky:[/QUOTE]
Haha, well... :redface:

[QUOTE=LaurV;469116]I know they say so, but every child who played with zinc granules and acid or who attempted water electrolysis in his early teens can tell you differently. Pure hydrogen may be odorless, but try to play with some chemicals as mentioned, and you will find that you can tell by smell if hydrogen is produced, and in which amount. No joke[/QUOTE]And if you listen carefully, you can hear the hydrogen singing "You'll never walk alone." Well, perhaps not. But whatever reaction may be producing the hydrogen, will almost certainly be producing other things as well, and some of these other things will not be odorless. And their concentrations will be proportionate to that of the hydrogen, so will serve as an olfactory indicator of the amount of hydrogen produced.

I remember well the last day of chem lab one semester, some joker threw some zinc into a Pyrex beaker of 10 molar hydrochloric acid. Never mind the smell. The reaction became so violent we became concerned the hydrogen might explode, so decided we wanted something solid between us and the beaker...

In Santa Croce with no Baedeker
 

[QUOTE]A Spanish tourist in Italy has been killed by a falling stone fragment in one of Florence's main churches.
[/QUOTE]It is the Santa Croce, where we saw the tombs of both Galileo and Michaelangelo.

[URL]http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-41685760[/URL]