She remembered the white granules under the sink: caustic soda, also known as sodium hydroxide. Her grandmother swore by it, but Marta had always been scared of the warning label:
The clog didn’t just get pushed down the pipe. It dissolved . The solid fat became liquid soap. The hair, weakened by the violent heat, crumbled into mush. how does caustic soda unblock drains
Desperate, she put on rubber gloves and safety goggles. “You’re not dissolving flesh today,” she whispered to the jar. “You’re dissolving fat.” She remembered the white granules under the sink:
Inside the dark pipe, a brutal transformation was taking place. The solid fat became liquid soap
Marta stared at the standing water in her kitchen sink. It had been an hour since she’d washed the greasy roasting pan, and the water still hadn’t drained. The faint, rotten-egg smell told her it wasn’t a simple clog—it was sludge.
The drain was silent. And clear.
But caustic soda is a base with a pH of 14. It is a master of . The hydroxide ions from the soda attacked the fat molecules like a pair of molecular scissors. They sliced the big, stubborn grease into two smaller, water-soluble parts: glycerol (a soap-soft liquid) and fatty acid salts (which are, literally, soap).