Customer Reviews

Enforcer DC16 18-Ounce Drain Care Build-Up Remover Powder

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I have been in apartment maintenance and renovation for years, I use this stuff on every single drain in every unit I work on. I swear to you that this stuff is amazing. This stuff will make the insides of even the most slimy gunked up pipes clean after a few treatments.

If you want happy tenants and fewer maintenance calls(which cost you plenty) then this inexpensive product should be a part of your regular maintenance routine.

For those of you who complained that this stuff doesn't cut through hair...it's true that hair is made out of amino acids but this does not make it a 'protein'. Hair is protected by keratin and the molecular linkages exclude water. So an enzymatic product can't penetrate the exterior hair coating, and if you're talking about hair coated with lots of commercial products it's that much harder. Lye based drain openers explode the outer keratin layer. I find this product very useful for maintenance and I typically chuck it down all the toilets and drains before going on vacation for 2 - 3 days or longer.

This product works for me but with some caveats. I used it to clear slow draining sinks but, after the three treatments, the drain would become even SLOWER to drain than before. What happened was that as the enzymes attacked the heavy buildup in the trap, the buildup would partially delaminate from the pipe walls and become larger in size as it got saturated with liquid. The water saturated and larger buildup would clog up the pipe even more. Normal draining at this stage would not rinse the partially delaminated gunk from the trap. I had to resort to using a plunger to clear the delaminated gunk. What the plunger pulled up looked like a lot of soft, water saturated seaweed. After using the plunger, the sink trap became very free flowing.

Using the plunger alone without the enzymes would not have done nearly as good a job. The enzymes helped to delaminate the buildup from the pipe wall. So, at least for me, the enzyme product and the plunger had to be used together to get the job done.

After using every other enzyme, name brand drain foam, soup, syrup, and whatever other junk I could find at the store to no avail, I turned to Enforcer. It worked!

We have small pipes and they were clogged as soon as we moved in. This was gunka junka. We poured many different things down the drain.

In three days, Enforcer cleared up the drains. Here is the most important thing:

Pour boiling hot water down the drain first.
Then mix the powder in a quart of warm water (same as you would yeast).
Pour down drain (no standing water)
Then wait at least 6 hours (we waited 12)
Pour another pot of boiling water down the drain
repeat until fully unclogged

We estimate it cleaned up decades of funk. Having bought two jars of it, we have plenty to spare so we will use it for maintenance.

Giving it 5 stars. This is a winner.

I will chime in here also. ZEP ZDC16 actually does work! We have a tub upstairs which has been giving me trouble for years. It never gets completely clogged but starts draining slower and slower. This is a plastic drain pipe going into a septic tank. I used to use gallons of boiling water both before and after pouring a gallon of liquid plumber down the drain. I'd heat the pipes up with hotwater first. Then pour a couple of gallons of boiling water down the drain followed by some warm Liguid Plumber. A few hours later I would rinse with a couple more gallons of boiling water. This worked most of the time.

This last time I used a treatment of the foaming Liquid Plumber. This is a bleach based product. I let this sit overnight. And it did work much better than my normal routine. But I also bought some of the ZEP ZDC16 at the home improvement store and decided to apply it for the next several days. The drain in the bathtub upstairs worked better every single day. It now works like new. I assume that the deposits that were causing the problem have been eaten by the bacteria/enzyme cleaner. I was skeptical about both the foam and the Zep, but they did the trick. We have had trouble for years and now I think I found the solution.

At last a drain cleaner that you can rely on to be 100% fuss-proof every time. Just follow directions, put "Drain Care" in the toilet bowl, a forget about your worries. We've been using it in our houshold for four years--that's four years worth of peace of mind.

THIS PRODUCT WORKS FIRST, EVERY TIME-WHETHER YOU ARE USING IT FOR TOILETS OR DRAINS. INSTRUCTIONS SAY USE THREE TIMES [ONCE EACH EVENING] BUT AT THIS TIME HAVE ONLY HAD TO USE IT THE FIRST NITE AND DRAIN IS CLEAR IN MORNING.

I had a shower drain that was so slow that by the end of the shower the water was past my ankles. Very annoying. The drains in the house are old cast iron. I followed the directions of one of the reviewers here by using boiling water in conjunction with allowing the stuff to lay in the drain more than 6 hours.

After 3 days, I was disappointed to find that the drain was still clogged. I waited about 5 days and then decided to put another treatment in the night before. The next evening, my wife decided to take a shower and again it was flooded. After she was out for 10 minutes, it was still draining. I was so annoyed that I took a plunger and went after it pretty violently. It worked. I was shocked.

I had used a drain king on this same drain and gave the drain king stellar reviews. It seems that there was too much gunk in this drain that the Drain King could not remove all that stuff. I'm happy to report that this stuff does actually work.

I also conducted a little experiment. I had a toilet that was leaking and I had to take the toilet out. In doing so, I had a great look at my old cast iron drain from the toilet. It was filled with gunk. I wanted to see if the enzyme stuff would do something to the drain. So i filled the enzyme cleaner in a plastic bottle with warm water and poured it all over that drain. Some of the cleaner puddled on the bottom of the curved drain and in ten minutes all the gunk was cleaned like a new drain. Very amazing to look at. This only happened on the puddled part. The parts that were poured onto looked dried and didn't have any change in appearance.

I still have to do somemore toilet repair so maybe the next time I plan to expose the drain, I'll take a video of the enzyme stuff doing its thing so you can see for yourself.

For three years I've been fighting a slow bath drain. I've tried everything: chemical cleaners, traditional plumbers snakes, good old-fashioned elbow grease with a plunger. I've tried those compressed air pipe cleaners, but those scare me, as the house is about 100 years old, and the pipes are minimally 40 years old. Always the same results: about a week later, a slow drain.

I tried this product in desperation, as a last-ditch, since it was the only type of pipe treatment I hadn't tried, short of ripping up the floors. When it arrived, the directions stated to use it for about three days at first, and then resort to a monthly maintenance schedule. I went overboard, and used it twice a day (once after my morning shower, and again when I returned home from work) for about a week and a half, until the whole container was empty. Based on other reviews, every third day or so I would use a plunger.

Three months later, the drain is still happily draining.

This stuff works.
This is way more cost-effective than the pre-mixed liquid enzyme cleaners on the market. Very pleased.
Kitchen sink will probably require 3 treatments, but the bathroom sink & tub are now flowing freely.
It smells "organic" (which it is); earthy; not objectionable. Leaves no odor during/after use, creates no scary chemical air pollution.
There really is a scoop in this container. But it's clear (nearly invisible) and it was burned deep under the powder. Had to probe the container with a skewer, then fish the scoop out with kitchen tongs.
For those who are asking: One scoop = 25 cc, which amounts to 1.69070114 US tablespoons (dry measure). This is similar to the volume of ground coffee needed per cup in an automatic drip coffee machine.