tech.tarts

The other day at my condo HOA meeting my super savvy neighbor, Pam, introduced me to this gadget, and I was so amazed I thought it deserved mention under the TechTarts’ “Green Tech” section.

Here’s the dealio… have you ever had a clogged drain? Chances are good if you are female and use a shower at some point in your life you have experienced a clogged drain. For me, living in an older San Francisco building, at least once a year I notice the shower draining a little slowly and eventually clogging to a point where I need to march down to the store and buy a bottle of Draino to hope it does the trick. This challenges me since every time I use this super-toxic chemical stuff I feel guilty about poisoning the environment, corroding pipes, and not doing my part to be a greener home owner. So when Pam and I were chatting last week, she said she bought a $3 plastic gadget that is about a foot and a half long that you slide into your tub or sink drain, and when you pull it out  “voila,” it retrieves a tangle of hair and other unidentifiable things and completely unclogs your drain.

Honestly, I was a disbeliever. How could a three dollar piece of plastic unclog my drain and make me green? So I marched my tartilicious tushie down to Brownies Hardware, grabbed the plastic ‘Zip It’ off the shelf, gave the clerk my $3.00, and followed the instructions – slip it in, pull it out, toss the gunk in the garbage. I was amazed. This totally green, enviro-friendly, three dollar piece of plastic, not only works to unclog a drain, but gives you a sense of being a “part of the solution” as well.

Zip It – A low-tech way to unclog a drain

Now don’t get me wrong. This is gross. I recommend you wear rubber gloves and be prepared to reconsider that bottle of Draino…but if you are not squeamish and want to be a good Green Tart, this is the way to go…and in the long run it’s not only environmentally friendly, it’s much cheaper too.

Thanks Pam!

A few Zip It tips:

1. It may be tricky to find a good entry point in your drain – wiggle it around and don’t be afraid to give it a good shove to force it down  – you are dealing with a copper pipe that is a lot tougher than that flexy piece of plastic.

2.  You may have a panic attack when the Zip It is hard to extract from your drain. Don’t fret and find some leverage and get the thing out. In one of my drains I thought for sure I had a new permanent piece of plastic in my drain and envisioned visits from the local plumber. But after some wiggling, wriggling and finagling, I was able to pull it out and successfully extracted the gunk.

tt.t