simon@scottishplumber.com, Author at Scottish Plumber

Don’t Put it Down Your Drain: Coffee grounds

A few stray coffee grounds here and there down the drain won’t cause much of a hassle, but a large amount of coffee grounds dumped down a drain at once can cause a clog. Coffee grounds tend to attract grease, allowing small amounts of oils and grease to build up much more easily.

Instead of pouring coffee grounds down the drain, there are a number of other uses for this daily “garbage.” If you have a compost pile, mix used coffee grounds in with the compost to release nutrients into the soil and make the soil more acidic- which helps plants get nutrients from the soil easier. You can also spread coffee grounds mixed with orange peels around gardens to repel cats or other pets that use your garden as a litterbox: the exotic scent discourages them from hanging around the area.

Some say that ants are also repelled by the smell of coffee grounds, so using these as an ant repellent might prove to be an effective alternative to poison traps and sprays. A small bowl of coffee grounds in a refrigerator can also act as a deodorizer for the fridge.

Are mineral deposits in your water heater costing you money?

insidetank The water in your home contains naturally occurring small amounts of sediment and minerals, which can lead to limescale or other stains in your bathtub, sink or on chrome fixtures- which you may have noticed and had to clean before. But these same minerals can build up in pipes and in the places you can’t see.

Your water heater is no exception. With so much water being pushed through the tank, heated, and delivered to the faucets in your home, your water heater will soon develop sediment and mineral deposits in the tank. The heating elements in the tank now have to work harder to heat the water and keep it hot- which uses more energy and costs you more money. Some estimate that mineral deposits in a water heater can tack on even hundreds of dollars a year in energy costs.

There’s a simple solution that you can do yourself: you can clean out the deposits without having to call a plumber. Every water heater is different- check the manual for your particular water heater and look up the instructions on how to flush the tank or clean it out. Most instructions involve turning off the unit, ten attaching a garden hose to part of the tank to flush it out, and another hose to drain the tank into a sink or drain.

Is my toilet clogged, or just lazy?

Everyone has met a toilet like this before… you flush, and the water seems to just slowly swirl around for a while, and you wait and wait anxiously for what seems like days (though it’s only a few seconds) to see if it will actually flush or (oh no!) overflow. The best way to describe this toilet is “lazy,” because it seems lethargic and slow in its flushing and like something isn’t quite right in the flushing process. It might even take a few flushes to get whatever’s in the bowl to leave the toilet.

The first thing to determine is if there is a clog in the toilet or if it’s a mechanical issue in the tank. To rule out a clog in the line, take a full bucket of water and pour it into the toilet rapidly. If there is no clog in the line, the sudden addition of excess water should drain quickly and keep the water level in the bowl consistent. If this causes the toilet to overflow, your line may be clogged. Plunge the toilet or call The Scottish Plumber to clear the drain.

If you poured a bucket of water down the toilet and it drained quickly, then there is probably not a clog in the pipe. Sometimes water can slowly swirl around the bowl if some of the ports are clogged. The ports are the small holes around the inside of the toilet bowl that feed the water from the tank into the bowl. Over time, lime, calcium, and other mineral deposits may build up and clog the holes. Try poking through them with a small screwdriver to clean them out and see if this helps.

Sometimes a toilet cleaning tab you place in the tank can shrink down and get stuck in a port. If you have placed one of these in your tank recently, check to see if a small piece of it got suck in a port.

MacLemon Mini Scones

These scones are a bite-sized lemon flavor scone: biscuity and not too sweet.

Ingredients:
4 cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons baking powder
¼ cup granulated sugar
¼ teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons grated lemon peel
½ cup butter (1 stick)
2 eggs, beaten
2/3 cup milk or buttermilk

Directions:
Preheat your oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease and flour a baking sheet. Sift flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt into a large bowl. Cut in the butter with a pastry blender/dough blender, until the mixture looks like coarse meal. Blend in the beaten eggs, lemon, and the milk or buttermilk to form a soft but not sticky dough. It might be easier if you use your hands instead of a spoon.

If the dough does not come together enough, add more milk/buttermilk until it does. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Gently roll or pat the dough into about ½ inch thickness, lightly flouring to keep from sticking. Cut out rounds using a 2-inch floured biscuit cutter. If you don’t have a biscuit cutter, use any kitchen utensil (such as a small cup or glass) that measures 2 inches across. Set the rounds ½ inch apart on the baking sheets.

You can brush them with milk or buttermilk and sprinkle with raw sugar if you’d like. Bake until the scones are golden brown: 12 to 15 minutes.

Don’t Put it Down Your Drain: Paint

If you’ve just finished painting a room in your home and have some leftover paint you don’t want to keep, or you just found a stash of half-full paint cans in your basement and want to dispose of them…DON’T pour them down the drain- any drain in your home.

Paint is highly flammable and dangerous to add to your plumbing system where its fumes can release into all parts of the house, or the paint can even ignite. Paint will coat the insides of your pipes, shrinking them down and causing materials to build up and clog your drains.

Do not throw the paint cans away or pour them into a city or storm drain either- they can easily leak or leech into the water supply or contaminate the ground. Check with your local city municipality for a safe place to dispose of paint- there are plenty of facilities that accept all types of household chemicals and paints for safe disposal or even recycling. Some hardware stores or paint stores may also have this information.

For cleaning up after painting, follow the directions on the side of the paint can. Usually, for water-based or latex paints, it’s safe to scrape as much excess paint as possible into some newspapers. Let the paint dry on the newspapers before throwing them into the garbage. Then you can wash the roller and brush with warm soapy water. With enough water running to dilute it, the paint can be washed down a drain safely.

However, oil-based or alkyd paints aren’t soluble with water and require paint thinner to clean the utensils. Follow the directions on the side of the cans for these types of paints. (Usually they instruct to soak or rinse the brushes and rollers with paint thinner into another can, seal it, then take it to a hazardous waste depot.) Also- marine or auto body paint may contain lead- so always check the labels of paints and follow their disposal directions carefully.

Also, if you have excess paint you want to dispose of but it’s still fresh enough to use, try finding someone who could use it, before disposing of it. Check with your neighbors, local businesses, colleagues at work, a church or youth group, or any place in your community where you can donate it and it can still be used to paint something!

Unclog your dishwasher

Like any clog, a clogged dishwasher starts with some troubleshooting. There are a few different reasons why a dishwasher can clog, and some of them are simple enough for you to unclog yourself. One of the most common causes of a clogged dishwasher is simply some debris in or on the drain. Let’s start there.

Look for the drain on the bottom of the inside of the dishwasher. Remove the racks if you need to get to it, and make sure the dishwasher has been off for a while and the heating elements are off and have completely cooled so you do not burn yourself. Check to see if there is any debris (such as food from dirty plates placed in the dishwasher) on the drain blocking its flow and remove it. The dishwasher may also have a plastic or metal strainer (which is usually in two parts)- check this for debris, and remove it and clean it off if this is the source of the problem.

If debris is completely visible in these two places, try removing the drain port cover and thread a slim rod or straightened coat hanger a few inches into the drain, to see if you can remove some built-up grease, food, or other debris.

If the clog has not been found, try checking the draining hose itself. Remove the bottom panel of the dishwasher to find the drain hose. If it is folded, has a kink in it or you can see trapped debris in it, do your best to straighten the hose out and untangle it. If it’s too tangled or has a large clog, you can easily and inexpensively replace this hose.

Remember to rinse food off your dishes before placing them in a dishwasher to keep it from turning into debris that can clog the drain.

MacCinnamon Honey Scones

This particular scone is a flaky scone, crispy around the edges, with a more biscuit-like texture and flavor. With cinnamon sprinkled on top and a slight honey flavor, it’s a Highland favorite.

Ingredients:
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
½ cup cold butter
1 egg, separated into the white and the yoke
3 tablespoons honey
1/3 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon water
Cinnamon sugar for sprinkling (or make it by mixing 2 tablespoons granulated sugar with ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon)

Directions:
Preheat your oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. In a large bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Using a pastry blender/ dough blender, cut in the cold butter until the mixture resembles coarse meal.

In a small bowl, beat the egg yolk with the honey and buttermilk until blended. Add this to the flour mixture, blending lightly just until the mixture clings together.

With floured hands, lightly shape the dough into a flattened ball. Roll it out on a floured surface into a circle about ½ inch thick. Using a floured knife, cut into 8 to 12 wedges. Place on a greased or non-stick baking sheet, or a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.

In a small bowl, lightly beat the egg white with the water. Brush the scones lightly with the egg white, then sprinkle with cinnamon sugar.

Bake until golden brown (about 10 to 12 minutes), then serve warm.