A plumber in Tulsa told me to quit buying drain cleaner and just use a $3 zip tool
I was ready to drop $40 on the heavy duty stuff after my bathroom sink clogged again last month. The plumber who came out for a different job laughed and said the chemicals mostly just eat the pipe and never get the hair ball anyway. He pulled one out in about 30 seconds with a plastic strip he got for $3 at the hardware store. I tried it myself the next week and felt kind of dumb for all the bottles I'd bought over the years. Anybody got a trick for the kitchen drain that isn't just dumping more liquid down it?
Feels like this happens with everything, right? We get sold the expensive fix and nobody tells you the cheap one exists. Same deal with those dryer vent lint brush kits when a vacuum hose works fine, or the $20 bottle of grill cleaner when a wire brush does the job. Somewhere along the way "buy this product" replaced "use this simple thing you already have." The plumber was probably just being honest because he wasn't trying to sell you the chemicals. Guys who work with their hands for a living usually skip the fancy stuff.