Cleaning a kitchen sink's overflow drain

*miaomiao*

Dear lovely MSErs,

Please help! We have disgusting gunk coming out of our kitchen sink's overflow drain (the area where the water runs out if you leave the tap running to long to prevent the water from flowing on to the floor).

Anyone have any OS ideas on how to clean this and to remove the orange/black gunk that sits at the top of it?? It's far too small to get any brushes down (even little ones) and the thought of the stuff coming into contact with the clean dishwater makes me think it's disgusting!

Thank you!

Florence22

Squirt plenty of bleach in to it and if you can fit an old toothbrush in there give it a good scrubbing.

I tend to chuck some bleach or vinegar and bicarb down the overflow when I'm doing the plughole and pipes.

troll35

I squirt bleach in, leave it 1/2 hour and then use a cotton bud to wipe around the inside and dislodge any gunk. Followed by using an empty washing up liquid bottle to squeeze (nearly) boiling hot water down to flush it out.

*miaomiao*

Thank you! I'll give these a go next time when I'm cleaning the sink with bleach. I think that the problem is exacerbated by the fact that the people who lived here ate a lot of oily food, so a lot of grease seems to be in the pipes and overflow. This should help, especially the empty dishwashing liquid bottle filled with nearly boiling hot water.

wonderwallet

I have just dismantled and cleaned out my sink overflow (yuk!!) and now want to block it off so it doesn't get in the same state again. I use a washing-up bowl and never have the plug in the sink so I don't think I need to have an overflow pipe. There are 4 thin slats in the side of the sink leading to the pipe and I have temporarily put some cloth tape over them but it keeps coming off - is there a really good duct tape that anyone can recommend that won't damage the stainless steel sink if I remove it? Thanks!

hotcookie101

wonderwallet wrote: »

I have just dismantled and cleaned out my sink overflow (yuk!!) and now want to block it off so it doesn't get in the same state again. I use a washing-up bowl and never have the plug in the sink so I don't think I need to have an overflow pipe. There are 4 thin slats in the side of the sink leading to the pipe and I have temporarily put some cloth tape over them but it keeps coming off - is there a really good duct tape that anyone can recommend that won't damage the stainless steel sink if I remove it? Thanks!

If you never use the plug, and always use the bowl then the sink overflow won't get in the state again surely? I would be loathe to try and block it, what if someone else does use the plug and forgets, and then the sink overflows?

wonderwallet

I think it got so gunky because of people washing their hands with liquid soap in the space at the side of the bowl which is right next to the overflow and rinsing dishes off before going into the bowl. This sink isn't that old and when I was looking for one I noticed that many of them didn't come with overflows - in hindsight I should have picked one of those!!