Drain Pipe Corrosion

Question

We recently had a plumber do some work on slow draining toilets.  He power rodded the lines and added muriatic acid. We now have a hole in the copper drain line just below an elbow.

• Is it OK to use muriatic acid to clean copper lines?
• Did the power rodding cause the hole?
• Wouldn't power rodding cause holes at elbows and not at straight sections of pipe?

Answer

Muriatic acid cannot do much damage if it is only there for a moment or two. However, if it says there overnight you can expect some thinning of the pipe wall.   What probably has happened to your copper happened to my kitchen drain a few years ago. It is called microbial corrosion, a combination of organics degrading into a very aggressive environment for copper.

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