In May 2021 we tested seven popular shower drain unblockers including Mr Muscle, Ecozone and Buster, as well as a home remedy of bicarbonate soda, salt and vinegar, to see which method dealt with hairballs the quickest.
The products below are primarily for bathrooms, so if your sink and drain is clogged with food rather than hair, take a look at our results of the best kitchen drain unblockers.
As with any bleach-based products, make sure you always wear gloves, old clothes and follow the instructions carefully.
Pricing and availability last checked 7 March 2022.
The best shower drain unblockers from our test
Best Buy/Great Value: Buster Bathroom Plughole Unblocker
Cheapest price: £2.29 available at ASDA, Tesco, also available at Homebase, Morrisons, Ocado, Sainsbury's, Waitrose.
Size: 300ml
Suitable for a septic tank: Yes
Pros: Clears the pipes, worked in 15 minutes, easy-to-read instructions
Cons: Single-use plastic bottle
Our verdict: A fast and effective product which cleared the pipes of hair.
Buster Bathroom Plughole Unblocker proved itself a worthy Best Buy with its fast-acting cleaning power.
The two large hairballs we'd made from a combination of different types of tangled hair were shrunk down and able to pass through the U-bend without further issue during our tests.
Best Buy/Great Value: Mr Muscle Power Gel Drain Unblocker
Cheapest price: £2.75 available at Ocado, Waitrose, also available at Amazon, Asda, Ocado, Tesco, Sainsbury's, Wilko.
Size: 500ml, also comes in 1 litre
Suitable for a septic tank: Yes
Pros: Clears the pipes, works on hair within 20 minutes
Cons: With the smaller size it is single-use per bottle
Our verdict: This was a very effective product and really affected the hair, turning it into a horrible black sludge.
Due to the tough nature of a hairball clog, we allowed this product 20 minutes during our tests and found it seemed to work even faster than that.
We did this as the product states to leave it for longer for tougher clogs.
It's also a Best Buy in our kitchen drain unblocker tests, so we feel this is a very useful product to have in the cleaning cupboard.
How the rest of the bathroom drain unblockers we tested fare
Here's our verdict on the other kitchen drain unblockers we tested, listed alphabetically.
Bathroom Blocks Away Plughole Unblocker
Only available at Lakeland: £5.99.
Size: 250ml
Suitable for a septic tank: Yes
Pros: Two uses per bottle
Cons: Required a plunger to get rid of the hairball, creates a very overpowering scent, takes at least six hours
Our verdict: We still needed a plunger to dislodge the hairball after waiting for the unblocker to work overnight.
It also creates a very pungent and lingering smell of burnt hair.
Between the wait time, the stench and how it needed extra help on both occasions in our tests, we weren't impressed with this unblocker.
Ecozone Plughole Hair Unblocker
Cheapest price: £4.79 available at Ecozone Direct, also available at Amazon.
Size: 250 ml
Suitable for a septic tank: Yes
Pros: Two uses per bottle, simple and easy-to-read instructions
Cons: Required a plunger to get rid of the hairball, creates a strong and unpleasant scent, takes 12 hours
Our verdict: Slow but effective and somewhat pungent.
This unblocker needed 12 hours to work and during that time the area around the sink had an unpleasant burnt hair smell.
After the 12 hours had passed the hairball was removed with the aid of a plunger, on both occasions.
Flexisnake
Only available at Amazon: £14.01, similar products available from a variety of retailers.
Length: 45.72 cm
Suitable for a septic tank: Yes
Pros: Reusable, quick and easy to use
Cons: Hard to clean, a bit messy
Our verdict: This reusable tool is a chemical-free option that's ideal for eco-conscious households wanting to avoid chemicals.
Those with more crude tastes may find a simple joy in extricating hair clogs from the plughole with this type of unblocker tool.
For others, this process may be somewhat gross. Either way, this tool is easy to use and effective.
HG Hair Unblocker
Cheapest price: £5.70 available at Amazon, also available from Robert Dyas, Tesco.
Size: 450ml
Suitable for a septic tank: No
Pros: Clears the pipes, instructions are clear and easy to follow
Cons: Single-use bottle, the product is two plastic bottles in a cardboard box
Our verdict: A large box filled with an effective package.
This larger product comes in a lot of packaging. HG Hair Unblocker is made up of two bottles which you pour into your drain one at a time.
It takes around an hour for the unblocker to work and on both occasions the hairballs flushed through our U-bends.
Soda Crystals
Cheapest price: 80p available at Ocado, also available at Morrisons.
Size: 1kg
Suitable for a septic tank: Yes
Pros: Offers lots of cleaning options
Cons: Required a plunger, seemed to make no difference to the hairball, this product requires more preparation than the others
Our verdict: Soda Crystals have many uses, but removing hair from a shower's plughole doesn't seem to be one of them.
The Soda Crystals seemed to do nothing to the hairballs on either occasion in our tests. We were left having to unclog the sink with a plunger.
Does bicarbonate soda, salt and vinegar work?
On the internet you might see advice claiming that bicarbonate soda, salt and vinegar can help to unclog blocked pipes.
We wanted to see if it's true so we tried it out.
This concoction made from equal parts bicarbonate soda (125g), salt (125g) and vinegar (125ml) failed both attempts to remove the hairball.
We were forced to use a plunger to force the clogs out.
How to stop hair getting stuck down the drain
Prevention is the best cure. Our tips below will help to stop a hairball clogging your drains in the first place:
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What are the chemical hazard symbols and what do they mean?
Many drain unblockers contain chemicals that are hazardous to us and the environment.
Below you can see the symbols found on some products, what they mean and the safety advice for handling them.
| Chemical hazard symbols and what they mean | |
| Explosive (symbol: exploding bomb) | |
| A substance that under defined test conditions when dry or under the effect of flame or heat may explode. | |
| Flammable (symbol: flame) | |
| Flammable if exposed to ignition sources, sparks or heat. Some substances with this symbol may give off flammable gases in contact with water. | |
| Oxidising (symbol: flame over circle) | |
| May cause explosion, fire or damage to living tissue resulting in chemical burns. Reacts with other substances to produce a highly exothermic reaction. | |
| Corrosive (symbol: corrosion) |
How we tested shower drain unblockers
To find out which of our selected drain unblockers was the best, we put the whole selection through the following test.
The setup
We had a freestanding catering sink and used one 44mm U-bend per test, which was stuffed with a hairball we made from equal parts straight, wavy and curly human hair mixed with shampoo.
500ml of boiling water was poured into the plughole before the tests began to ensure each clog was firmly lodged in place.
The products were then applied following their instructions and left for the minimum required time for tough clogs.
Afterwards, the U-bends were flushed through with eight litres of hot tap water.
If necessary a plunger was used at this point. We have noted above when a plunger was needed.
The test
The pipes were examined with a tube camera before and after the products were applied to see how well the unblocker had worked.
Then we timed how long it took for eight litres of cold tap water to pass through the U-bend and pipes.
We compared these timings to a test using an unused U-bend. The quicker the water passed through the better the unblocker had worked.
Each unblocker was tested twice.
How we choose these kitchen drain unblockers
We selected one drain unblocker per brand, looking for products available in national retailers.
We purchased all the products we tested.