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We are new to caravanning after 5 years of tenting and brought a 12 year old Bailey last year.

Now we had got a little lazy last year and had used the sink in the caravan for all of the washing up including greasy pans etc. When we took the caravan out last week we quickly realised that the drains were blocked with what I assume was the fact etc going down the pipes last year.

My question is, do I need to use a special drain unblocker or will a domestic one such as Mr Muscle etc be ok? I wasn't sure about the pipes and don't want to damage them using unsuitable chemicals

Quote: Originally posted by Jocko on 18/4/2011

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I used a plunger once and it blew one of the pipes loose and I ended up with very wet carpets. If you do use a plunger check under your sink that everything is secure.

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as did I, and lots of wet food, it blew off under the sink :(

I have also had success with a hosepipe up the outlet, I covered the sink, so if it did blow through it didnt make a mess of the van, put the hose on thew kitchen hot tap, and shoved hop water up it, seemed to work, melting the grease. and letting it flow out.

dont put any chemicalddown your sink, as the waste pipes are onlyvery thin plastic, very hot water is the best bet, with light plunging, if that doesnt work try trace the pipe and see if you can locate and squeze the blockage free, if not the pipes about £2.30 a metre depending on diamiter

mike  

At the end of each trip out, we fill the sink full of very hot soapy water with plenty of washing up liquid in it, and then just let it run through to flush everything out, it does a double job in washing out your waste collection container at the same time to keep it fresh.

Never had a problem doing it this way, although we always wipe any thick fat out of pans using kitchen roll before they get washed up.

Julia

Quote: Originally posted by romany girl on 23/4/2011

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although we always wipe any thick fat out of pans using kitchen roll before they get washed up.

Julia

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Thanks everyone for your replies.

Am happy to say that we seem to have cleared the blockage by using lots of hot water, some light plunging and then pushing a thin pipe up the end and removing lots of black stuff (not entirely sure what it was bit didn't look to closely in view of  Birder99's comments!).

Thanks again