Best Drain Cleaners of 2020 for Clogged Sinks, Toilets, & Tubs

With 88% of 5-star Walmart reviews, this top performer is a consumer favorite. Safe for pipes and septic tanks, Drano Max Gel Liquid Clog Remover is a thick gel that flows through standing water to the source of clogging and gets to work, dissolves hair and melts soap scum, grease and other gunky hooves. For full clogs or slow-flowing drains, the gel works in 15 to 30 minutes. In the event of persistent clogging, this solution can be used a second time.

Liquid Plumr’s Thick gel passes through obstructions that slow down sink, tub, and shower sinks. Hundreds of critics are full of praise for how it works. It is safe for pipes and drains, including septic tanks. Wait until all the water has drained from the sink or tub, then slowly pour the bottle of Liquid Plumr down the drain. It takes at least 15 minutes to operate. For poorly clogged drains, you can leave Liquid Plumr in the drain overnight to work, then rinse thoroughly with warm water in the morning.

Bio-Clean Uses a special combination of bacteria and natural enzymes to digest organic waste such as hair, grease, soap scum, paper, food particles, etc. Being an enzymatic cleaner, it works slower than traditional chemical cleaners and works better overnight on slow flow drains and as a maintenance product once a month. It will not eliminate a complete blockage and several uses are sometimes necessary to completely eliminate partially clogged drains. Many critics have also used Bio-Clean as a preventative maintenance product and swear by its effectiveness. Due to its composition, Bio-Clean is safe to use in the toilet.

Safe for maintaining septic tanks as well, the Thrift drain cleaner claims to work in just 60 seconds on slow flow drains. Hot water is needed to heat the pipes, dissolve and activate the crystals, before rinsing the drain thoroughly after 60 seconds. Reviewers are impressed with how quickly it works. It can be left to work overnight on grease traps. Because it is a powerful chemical cleaner, Thrift drain cleaner should not be used in trash cans or toilets.

No measurement, no mess, Green Gobbler’s simple pacs can make cleaning a slow flow drain super easy. Each pack contains three packets of pre-measured ready-to-use powder – just add water and wait 15-30 minutes before rinsing (or wait overnight for stubborn blockages). Although the pacs themselves are odorless, some hooves can be smelly when they dissolve – but once the drain is completely flushed, the odor will dissipate. Over 1,000 Amazon reviewers gave Green Gobbler a 5-star rating, saying they liked the way it worked.

Safe for septic tanks, the XionLab Safer Drain Opener works on hair or grease plugs (but is not ideal for food particles). A balance between acidic / caustic cleaners and mild enzymatic cleaners, the gel will sink in standing water and clear light obstructions in about 2 hours (harder hooves will take longer). One reviewer said it “worked like a charm.”

A toilet auger may well work where a piston has failed. Using a regular drain snake on a clogged toilet can damage the porcelain, but the Ridgid has a protective vinyl guard to help protect against scratches and cracks. Ergonomic handles make it easy to rotate the cable with the bulb head down the drain past the toilet to break and remove any obstructions there.

Ideal for kitchens and bathrooms, the Vastar flexible drainage snake penetrates deep into the drainage pipes and flexes at the P-trap, where most blockages occur, and is an inexpensive option for mechanically removing obstructions. Beards catch hair and other messy hooves, allowing you to remove or dislodge them – many reviewers, while loving this product and how well it works, reminded us how bad some of these clogs smell, so beware. Vastar Drain Snake can be cleaned or disposed of after use.

Winner of our awards for the best cleaning products in 2020, the revolutionary design of the TubShroom allows it to sit inside the tub drain, carefully picking up the hair around it while the water drains. To clean it, simply pull the TubShroom out of the drain and wipe it dry. It adapts to standard drains and uses no chemicals. Although it is not technically a drain cleaner, it’s a great way to help prevent hair blockages, and it worked so well in our GH Cleaning Lab tests that we just had to include it here.