Inside the DIY Misfire That Led to Drain Detailer (and What It Reveals About the Hidden Gunk In Your Sink)

Just about every homeowner finds themselves dealing with sink clogs sooner or later. And while there are several potential solutions available on the market, they often aren’t enough to get rid of the clog for good.

This was what David Hazar, inventor and CEO of Drain Detailer, experienced for himself. After dealing with recurring sink clogs and finding himself needing to clean his drains more and more often, he decided to take matters into his own hands and come up with his own solution.

While some initial attempts to solve the problem did not work out as expected, Hazar was able to learn from these experiences and create his own product.

Recognizing a Problem

For Hazar, the idea to develop his own drain cleaning product came from the trouble he had trying to clean his own sink drains. “Initially, for sink clogs, I tried to use the same barbed drain tools that I typically use for pulling hair out of shower drains. These tools work really well for showers, but I found that they were really hard to use with sinks,” Hazar recalls.

“Of course, the biggest problem was that they just didn’t seem to do a good job getting rid of sink clogs. Over time, it seemed like I was having to clean my drain pipes more frequently, so one day, I took off my sink’s drain cover and P-trap and shined a flashlight into the pipe. That’s when I saw the thick buildup along the sides that was causing the clogs to come back over and over.”

Seeing what was actually causing his clogs led to the realization that the barbed drain cleaners he had been using couldn’t address the lingering buildup that reduced the pipe’s interior circumference. After searching online and finding that many other people were experiencing the same problem, but that no one had a truly effective solution, Hazar decided to come up with his own cleaning tool.

Early DIY Miscues

Hazar developed the initial idea for the Drain Detailer — a tool that would scrape buildup off the sides of the pipe and push everything out the bottom of the removed P-trap — early on. But fine-tuning it took some work.

“For my first prototype, I twisted thick gauge wire together to make a circular head at the end of the cleaner. This seemed like a good start, but it was hard to size it correctly. The bigger problem was that the way the wire twisted left these gaps that would miss parts of the pipe interior, so I was still stuck with these big areas with gross residue,” he explains.

For his second attempt, Hazar found a solution that seemed like it would work even better — but this was where the real DIY mishap occurred: “With my second version, I started with a PVC pipe that would fit inside the drain. I attached it to a flat metal piece to push it into the drain, then cut away one side of the pipe to fit around the ball rod since my sink has a pop-up drain. I added a furniture leg pad at the bottom with a slit as well in order to trap the buildup as the PVC pipe was pushed through the drainpipe. This worked great at scraping the insides of the drain, but when I got to the bottom, my PVC pipe got stuck. It was almost impossible to pull it back out!”

Fortunately, Hazar was eventually able to remove his drain cleaning tool from the pipe without getting a plumber, but this experience provided a valuable lesson. He had a way to clean drains, but he also needed to make sure the cleaning tool itself wouldn’t get stuck.

Developing a Viable Product

Learning from these early attempts led Hazar to prototype a few more variations of his clog removal tool, with an emphasis on making the tool easy to remove. “I realized that making the bottom part detachable would help keep my own DIY mishap from happening to others,” he explains.

“Once I had that figured out, I went to a local company, where we refined and improved my prototype design and 3D printed several options until we settled on the spiral silicone brush and flexible rod design we use today.”

Like Hazar’s original prototype, the Drain Detailer cleaning tool works by removing the drain cover and P-trap, and then pushing the brush into the pipe to scrape away all debris and buildup. By pushing the gunk out of the pipe and into a bucket or bowl beneath the pipe, users can have confidence that they have effectively removed the source of their sink clog.

Hazar’s experience shows how even with setbacks along the way, a little bit of persistence and the willingness to keep refining an idea can lead to something worthwhile.