Have you seen the ads for Drain-FX, a product for unclogging pipes stuffed with things that really, really shouldn’t be in the plumbing of your house? You might wonder whether it’s all TV hype, or an infomercial product that does what it promises. Our colleagues down the hall at Consumer Reports did, too, and they crammed their drains with a variety of substances to find the answer for all of us.

The answer is that it does work. The concept of the Drain-FX is that it takes water from your faucet and shoots it down the drain through a tube: sort of like a combination of a Water Pik and a pipe snake. Consumer Reports testers devised clogs out of kitchen and bathroom debris, and even stuffed one drain with nothing but human hair.

The good news is that the product cleared obstructions made from lard and rice and from soap, toothpaste, and hair easily. However, the 100% hair clog proved too tough for the product: it allowed some water to flow through the middle, but wasn’t able to dislodge the wad of hair.

Can the Drain-FX unclog your pipes? [Consumer Reports]

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